The Splash of Wisdom

You are not just paid to work. You are paid to be uncomfortable – and to pursue projects that scare you. Take care of your relationships and the money will take care of itself. Lead you first. You can’t help others reach for their highest potential until you’re in the process of reaching for yours. To double your income, triple your rate of learning. While victims condemn change, leaders grow inspired by change. Small daily improvements over time create stunning results. Surround yourself with people courageous enough to speak truthfully about what’s best for your organization and the customers you serve. Don’t fall in love with your press releases. Every moment in front of a customer is a moment of truth (to either show you live by the values you profess – or you don’t). Copying what your competition is doing just leads to being second best. Become obsessed with the user experience such that every touchpoint of doing business with you leaves people speechless. No, breathless. If you’r...

By   Kukil Bora, SiliconIndia Tuesday, 01 February 2011, 05:39 IST Bangalore: How should a manager behave? When you ask this question to a team member, he'll probably first describe how his manager is and what the traits he lacks are. Then he will go on and create a character much flexible and easy going then his actual manager. The qualities that the team member expects in his manager may not be the ideal ones, but the fact that he wants some change in his manager's behavior indicates that there is something that the manager is holding on to, which he should avoid. Very often managers try to live by some seeming expectations of business and simply play out roles, which turns out to be harmful for the team performing for them. This is something which results from some traditional beliefs or myths of management. Let's discuss a few. 1. Managing is about controlling and telling people what to do From a typical manager's point of view, yes it is. But when it comes to manag...

FORTNIGHT comes from 'Fourteen Nights' (Two Weeks). POP MUSIC is 'Popular Music' shortened. MOPED is the short term for 'Motorized Pedaling'. BUS is the short term for 'Omnibus' that means everybody. DRAWING ROOM was actually a 'withdrawing room' where people withdrew after Dinner. Later the prefix 'with' was dropped. NEWS refers to information from Four directions- N, E, W, and S. AG-MARK, which some products bear, stems from 'Agricultural Marketing'. QUEUE comes from 'Queen's Quest'. Long back a long row of people as waiting to see the Queen. Someone made the comment Queen's Quest. JOURNAL is a diary that tells about 'Journey for a day' during each Day's business. TIPS come from 'To Insure Prompt Service'. In olden days to get Prompt service from servants in an inn, travelers used to drop coins in a Box on which was written 'To Insure Prompt Service'. This gave rise to the custom of Ti...

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes, But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes. One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese, Yet the plural of moose should never be meese. You  may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice, Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice. If the plural of man is always called men, Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen? If I speak of my foot and show you my feet, And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet? If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth? Then one may be that, and there would be those, Yet hat in the plural would never be hose, And the plural of cat is cats, not cose. We speak of a brother and also of brethren, But though we say mother, we never say methren. Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him, But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim! Let's face it - English is a crazy language.  There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; nei...

1. Talk To Your Customers:  A problem is nothing more than an opportunity to engage and wow the people who keep you in business. The gate agents and personnel could have quickly and regularly explained the situation and assured us all possible progress was being made. 2. Say You’re Sorry:  I’m a fanatic about leadership language. Words have such power. The captain talked a lot about “some more bad news”. Better to just give us the facts – and hold off on the emotion. But even more importantly, say “sorry” when you need to say sorry. Many of us missed our connections and were caused inconvenience because of this mechanical issue. Yet no one took responsibility. 3. Show Your Customers a Little Humanity:  While we waited, the agents could have handed out bottles of water. Or had some protocol that would make a challenging situation easier (or even fun). Maybe the Plan B could have been a boxed sandwich. Or some special chocolates. Or just walking around checking in with as m...

Mom liked to make dinner with extra care. And I remember one night in particular when she had made it after a long, hard day at work. That evening, mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed. All dad did was reach for his biscuit, smiled at mom and asked me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and ate every bite. When I got up from the table, I remember hearing mom apologize to dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: Honey, I love burned biscuits. Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides - a little burnt biscuit never hurt anyone!" You know, life is full of imperfect things.....an...

March 2, 2011  by Michael Elgin Once upon a time, in a city bathed with a suburban-like appearance, there were 3 particularly different types of people who all had one thing in common; they were all single due to the surfacing word of mouth. The first person, Jill, was said to be a little too intimidating and feared. Mark, he was said to be too successful (i.e. an over achiever) and the last one, Alex, he was said to be a little too emotional and sensitive. Women just seemed to see him more as a friend to confide to more than seeing him as a potential man on the date list. With that word of mouth passed thoroughly throughout the city, those three people remained to be the single ones at every social engagement. Jill, Alex and Mark cursed that this was happening to them. “Why Me?” they would say. This was their life. Each of them were currently in different areas of the city, Riverside. Mark was sitting at a newly opened restaurant, (“Manhattan” Located across from Ynez Road in Murr...

As you probably recall, the Dead Sea is really a Lake, not a sea . It’s so high in salt content that the human body can float easily. You can almost lie down and read a book! The salt in the Dead Sea is as high as 35% - almost 10 times the normal ocean water. And all that saltiness has meant that there is no life at all in the Dead Sea. No fish. No vegetation. No sea animals. Nothing lives in the Dead sea.  And hence the name: Dead Sea. While the Dead Sea has remained etched in my memory, I don't seem to recall learning about the Sea of Galilee in my school Geography lesson. So when I heard about the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea and the tale of the two seas - I was intrigued. Turns out that the Sea of Galilee is just north of the Dead Sea. Both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea receive their water from river Jordan. And yet, they are very, very different. Unlike the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee is pretty, resplendent with rich, colorful marine life. There are lots of plants....