Friday, February 20, 2009

My Global Blog!!



Just had a chance look at the Cluster Map widget I put long back on my blog. It kind of caught me off-guard with the compiled information about visitors to my blog and respective countries. Here is the list of all countries and respective hits:


I can understand India, US, UK, Australia, Singapore, Canada, UAE etc where I know few people. However, hits from countries that I haven’t even heard off, kind of surprise me. So much for the power of Internet and Globalization!!!

“Eat that Frog” – Book Review !!!

Just finished skimming an insightful e-book “Eat that Frog” on time management. Although I am pretty comfortable with my time management techniques and have been able to handle divergent priorities till now, I took a chance with this book to learn something new – In hope to prepare for upcoming eventuality of a time crunch year ahead.

There were not exactly new things or mantra’s that this book presented. However, the book simply reinforced things that were buried down, several stacks, in my personal conscience. As the saying goes “You can’t teach an adult something new, you can just help him realize what he already knows”. Overall, I left the book with a positive experience and here is a snapshot of few things I liked.

The author emphasized that his success mantra over the years have been that he continuously learned what other successful people in his role did and he applied the same. Interesting thought but I would like to add a twist – “Think that you can do absolutely anything in life and commit to anything you want to do. Once done, find a role model whom you can follow, learn his approach, and applying the same. There is so much in this world to learn. If you can’t find a role model that means you are doing something that has never been done yet. Pat yourself and celebrate first – to find such task. Later, continue to believe you are made to do it, create your own path, and let others follow”. Quite an interesting theory!!!

Other than the above thought, the author presented 21 ideas – most of them pretty obvious but important like hell - to better your time management. I picked up few on them:

1. Think on Paper - Make written goals. It helps in thinking clearly. Write 10 goals for yourself, now
2. Plan your day in advance and live the future.
3. Follow 20/80 rule and pick the important activities first.
4. Long Term thinking improves short term decisions. Think bigger picture always.
5. Take small but regular steps to huge targets. Discipline yourself to take one step at a time. Your job is to go as far as you can see. Once you reach there, you will see the next destination.
6. Only about 2% people can work without supervision. These people are called 'Leaders' – Put voluntary pressure rather than waiting for someone.
7. Do the most difficult task first and create large chunks of time for important work.

The book implores one to be action oriented and the author concluded that an average person who develops the habit of setting clear priorities and getting important tasks completed quickly will run circles around a genius who talks a lot and makes wonderful plans but who gets very little done.

Quite an interesting read that plunged me into action – at least for now!!!!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Signing off from America !!

An international post - I wrote this at Frankfurt, Germany Airport yet talked about US and India. So much for Globalization !!!

It’s been three years since I first landed in US – back in June 2006. Since then, I have made three round trips to India – earning the tag of frequent flyer among my friends. Today, it’s feels great to sign off from US on such a positive note. The toughest assignment I ever worked upon – Acquisition Project – was a great success. It gives me immense satisfaction and a huge confidence while going into my MBA that my leadership and management were well recognized and appreciated for this project. I personally feel I was simply lucky – to be in the right place at the right moment that led me to be chosen for this role. And more so lucky by having right people working on this project and some really good ideas that just struck my head during planning and execution of this project. The role I played has been extremely helpful to take a practical look at things rather than just theoretical perspective – what it means to energize your team, what people management is all about, how you pass information down and provide information up, how you keep stakeholders aligned, how you take responsibility, and when, if required, you play dirty. The last one, when you play dirty, has been my favorite. I myself can’t believe that in a short span of 4 months, I have got through all this. No wonder, I would rate this short and intense stint among my finest learning experiences. And, to leave while getting acknowledgments and appreciations from every stakeholders in the project, especially from some who initially doubted my capabilities and created scene to an extent that I too for few moments thought “I can’t do it” , makes the journey back lot more satisfying. My US visa has also expired and I am ending my term with TCS on 31st March. Everything seems to be a perfect logical end to a great journey and commencement of a new endeavor.

Before I eventually start discovering myself again at ISB, I have about 6-8 weeks to ramp up things in my current version of life. My stay at GGN is going to extremely hectic and fast paced. Partying with family, friends, and colleagues, and preparing for grueling 1 year are two compelling priorities. Countdown has already begun and I got to make maximum of each and every day left now. Looking forward to spend an engaging 2 months at GGN– Just, just if TCS were to give me a better itinerary I could have started few hours sooner !!!