Think +++++++ve

This is Awesome Father : "I want you to marry a girl of my choice"
Son : "I will choose my own bride!"
Father : "But the girl is Bill Gates's daughter."
Son : "Well, in that case...ok"

Next - Father approaches Bill Gates.
Father : "I have a husband for your daughter."
Bill Gates : "But my daughter is too young to marry!"
Father : "But this young man is a vice-president of the World Bank."
Bill Gates : "Ah, in that case...ok"

Finally Father goes to see the president of the World Bank.
Father : "I have a young man to be recommended as a vice-president."
President : "But I already have more vice- presidents than I need!"
Father : "But this young man is Bill Gates's son-in-law."
President : "Ah, in that case...ok"

This is how business is done!!
Moral: Even If you have nothing,You can get Anything. But your attitude should be positive

Think +++++++ve

Get a slipping project back on track

Plenty of things can derail a project plan--here are some practical techniques that can correct the direction of a project that’s losing ground.

Anyone who's worked on project teams knows that a variety of factors can move a project past its deadline.

It's not uncommon for some of the work to be harder than originally anticipated or to have turnover on the project that requires you to bring new people up to speed. Sometimes you discover that activities were simply underestimated.

Regardless of how it happens, many times you'll find that you're trending beyond your committed deadline date. If you discover that happening, your first obligation as the project manager is to try to determine the cause. If you look for remedies without knowing the cause, the situation will probably recur. Your second task is to try to make corrections that will get the project back on track.

At the beginning of a long project, you have many options to solve your problem. But toward the end, your choices dwindle.

Look at this list of techniques and see which ones can be applied to your situation. Note that this list is not prioritized. Some of the techniques may work in one instance, while others could be applied better in another situation.

#1: Work overtime
Everyone hates it, but one logical place to start is with overtime. If people work more hours, they can get more work done in the same amount of calendar time.

Overtime may be the best option if you're close to the end of the project and just need a final push to get everything done on schedule. If you're toward the end of the project, you also may be able to issue comp time after the project is completed.

But, if you're still early in the project, there are probably more effective strategies. This option may also have cost implications if you need to have contract resources work overtime.

#2: Reallocate resources
The project manager must first understand what activities are considered most vital to the project's success, or on the "critical path". After all, if the project is trending over deadline, by definition it is the critical path that's late.

Once you understand the critical path, see if resources can be moved from other activities to help resolve the issue. This will allow you to get the project back on track by delaying or stretching out some work. Be careful, though: Delaying some work may end up changing the critical path. Always make sure you double-check the critical path each time you change the schedule.

#3: Double-check all dependencies
Schedule dependencies represent activities that must be completed in a certain order. For example, if you're building a house, you cannot start putting up the frame until the foundation is poured and dried. If you're trending over your deadline, you should revalidate dependencies, since it's possible that the schedule is being lengthened by invalid dependencies between activities. Invalid dependencies may make it appear that activities must be performed sequentially, when they can really be done in parallel.

Sometimes the scheduling software accidentally adds a dependency. Sometimes the project manager adds the dependency but on later review decides it doesn't really exist. It might make sense to have the team members review the schedule to see if they find dependencies that the project manager thinks are valid, but that they know to be invalid. Check all dependencies to make sure you have all your facts correct before you move into more drastic measures to bring the project back on schedule.

#4: Check time-constrained activities
Time-constrained activities are those with durations that don't change based on the number of resources applied. For example, you may be allocating team members to a five-day class. The class takes five days if one person attends, and it takes five days if 10 people attend.

Check all of these time-constrained activities to validate the timeframe. Perhaps you're making assumptions that could be changed with a different approach. For instance, if you allocated three days for a contract to reach a client, perhaps the time could be reduced to one day by paying more for overnight delivery.

#5: Swap resources
I mentioned that the first thing to do when you're trending over your schedule is to determine the cause. One cause you may find is that you have one or more resources that aren't as productive as you planned. Perhaps certain team members don't have the right skills. Perhaps they aren't as productive in this particular area as they are in other areas. Regardless, there may be opportunities to replace resources.

In some instances, you can simply swap people who are working on different activities within your project. Other times, you may release a team member and bring in another person.

Remember that the activities on the critical path are key. You may have options to assign a more productive resource to those activities, while reassigning a less productive resource to noncritical path activities. If the activities off the critical path are delayed, you may still be okay in terms of meeting your overall project deadline.

#6: Crash the schedule
Crashing the schedule means applying additional resources to the critical path, the sequence of activities that must be completed on schedule for the entire project to be completed on schedule.

It's always possible to just throw more resources on the critical path, but crashing also means you try to get the biggest schedule gain for the least amount of incremental costs.

For example, if one person were assigned to complete an activity in 10 days, you could see whether two people could complete it earlier. If two resources can complete the activity in five days, you may not be adding any incremental cost to the project, since you're applying twice the resources for half the time.

In another example, if two people can complete the work in six days, you will have accelerated the schedule at an incremental cost of two workdays (two people for six days vs. the original 10-day estimate). In this example, you could further crash the schedule by applying three resources. Perhaps then the activity would take four days, or four and a half days.

Typically, the more resources you throw on an activity, the more the incremental cost will be and the less incremental timesavings you will receive.

The additional resources may come from within the project team or they may be loaned temporarily from outside the team. One of the goals of crashing the schedule is to minimize the incremental cost. However, crashing--in exchange for completing some work ahead of schedule--usually leads to some incremental cost increase to the project. If cost is not as important as the deadline, crashing a set of activities can result in accelerating the schedule.

#7: Fast track it
Fast track means that you look at activities that are normally done in sequence and assign them totally or partially in parallel. Back to our home-building example, you can't construct the frame until the foundation is dry. However, if the house is large enough, you may have options to fast track by starting to erect the frame on the side of the home where the foundation was poured first. The foundation will start to harden there and might allow you to erect the frame on that side, while the foundation on the far side of the home is still drying.

Another example involves designing an IT application. Normally, you wouldn't start constructing a solution until the design was completed. However, if you were fast tracking, you would start constructing the solution in areas where you felt the design was pretty solid without waiting for the entire design to be completed.

Fast tracking usually involves risk that could lead to increased cost and some rework later. For instance, in our example of designing and constructing an application, it's possible that the design might change before it is finalized, and those final changes may result in having to redo some of the work already under way.

#8: Prevent all scope change
Many projects begin to trend over their deadline because they are doing more work than they originally committed to. This could be a result of poor scope change management or it could be that small changes are being worked in under the radar screen.

If you're at risk of missing your deadline date, as the project manager you must work with the client and team members to ensure that absolutely no unplanned work is being requested or worked on, even if it's just one hour. All energy should go into accelerating the agreed-to core work.

#9: Improve processes
When you look at the cause for the project trending over schedule, you may find that some of the internal work processes could be improved.

Solicit team member feedback and look for ways that are within your team's internal control to streamline processes. For instance, perhaps you have a daily status meeting that is not providing value and that can be scaled back to once per week. You may also find bottlenecks in getting deliverables approved.

If you discover delays caused by external processes, try to negotiate changes to the processes going forward, at least on a temporary basis. For example, you may find that activities are being delayed because people need to work on their yearly performance reviews. While these are important, perhaps the timing of completing the reviews can be changed to allow critical project activities to be completed on schedule.

#10: Scale back the scope of work
One option that is usually available is to look at the work remaining and negotiate with the client to remove some of it from the project. If you think some of the remaining work is not core to the project, you could discuss eliminating it quickly.

If the remaining work is all core to the solution, this discussion still might need to take place as a last resort. It may be an option to complete this project on time with less than 100 percent functionality and then execute a follow-up project to complete the remaining requirements.

Determining priorities
I've pointed out 10 areas to examine if you're behind schedule. Obviously, one solution is just to deliver the work at a later date. In some cases, that may be perfectly acceptable. However, the assumption here is that the scheduled completion date is important to the client.

Some of these techniques don't require any incremental budget. You should look at them first, if possible.

Other techniques to accelerate the schedule will result in increased cost to the project. If the deadline date is more important than costs, these techniques should be applied next.

If the deadline date is extremely important and you can't move the schedule or the budget, there may be options associated with scaling back the scope of work. Usually you can complete less work faster.

Once you know the cause of the problem and your budget flexibility, you can determine the best actions to undertake to get you back on track to hit your deadline.

SELF ESTEEM

Self-esteem is made up of three elements: -

· what you think of yourself
· what you think other people think of you
· what you think you should be like.

Self-esteem: the perception one has of one’s own competence and the ability to cope with any situation that arises


1.1.1 How is self-esteem developed?

From the moment that babies take their first breath, they begin to experience feelings. Babies do not have the language to think conscious thoughts about it, so they experience feelings. Babies might experience a feeling of comfort and wellbeing, because their parents care for them by feeding them when they are hungry, wrapping them in a blanket when it is cold and holding and touching them lovingly to make them feel wanted. Or babies can feel neglected if they do not get fed on time or if they are left alone for long periods of time without being cared for or caressed lovingly.

The babies in the first situation will already have experienced their first positive feedback from others, which will foster a positive, healthy self-image. The babies in the second situation already feel that they are not worthy of other people’s love, and they start to develop a negative self-image.

For the rest of our lives, every experience contributes towards building our self esteem. When we experience something good we feel successful and our self-esteem grows. When something bad happens, we feel like a failure and our self-esteem takes a knock and spirals downward.


People with good self-esteem are: -

· confident
· willing to take risks
· relaxed
· not afraid of criticism
· motivated




People with bad self-esteem are: -

· negative
· unmotivated
· shy and lacking in confidence
· scared of risk
· nervous and uncertain
· react negatively to criticism




1.1.2 Is it possible to improve my self-esteem?

Yes, it is! It is not easy and might take some time, but such a change can turn your life around. You first need to understand all the dimensions of self-esteem before you can do anything to change it.

Self-esteem comprises five dimensions: -

i. dexterity or skill
ii. intellectual
iii. psychological
iv. physical
v. gender


i) My dexterity and skills
How good am I with my hands? Can I easily learn new skills like playing a musical instrument, or am I good with sewing or making things? If I tried sewing, for instance, when I was little and someone laughed at my efforts, I might get the idea that I will never be good at it. If I am able to learn to do something fairly easily, I will know that I am good at it. If something negative happens more than once. I will become convinced that I am hopeless. The opposite is also true.

ii) My intelligence
If my parents react positively to things I say and do, the idea that I am OK will be reinforced in my mind. If they say things like ‘clever boy!’ or ‘good girl!’, I will start believing that I am clever. At school, this dimension of my self- esteem gets fed every day, because now I start comparing myself with my peers. If others constantly do better than me, I will believe that I am stupid, and if I do better than others, I will be convinced that I am clever.

iii) My psychological characteristics
Through experiences, I will either see myself as a well-balanced person, who knows what I want, or I will regard myself as a person who cannot make decisions, and will overcompensate in other things.

iv) My physical attributes
This is the dimension to which people pay most attention. This is about what you look like. Sometimes a person’s perception of what others think about their appearance is very different from what others really think. Unfortunately, your appearance often determines how others treat you. Boys will pay more attention to a pretty, slender girl than to a plain, overweight girl, even if the second girl is a much nicer person. That is why the beauty and slimming industries are multi-billion Rand industries.

v) My gender dimension
This is influenced by the society in which I grow up. The traditional views and values of my community will determine the role that I am expected to fulfil as a man or a woman. This differs greatly from culture to culture, It is very important that each person assesses objectively what the priority is in his or her life, and then strives to reach those goals for himself or herself.


1.2.3 How can I improve my self-esteem?

i) Do not be afraid to change
Take control of your own life today, and fearlessly go for it! Make a conscious decision that you are going to stop cowering in your corner, and boldly make the changes necessary to improve your life.

ii) Accept yourself
Make a list of your positive attributes, and focus on them rather than attributes that you are not satisfied with. Also look at your negative attributes, and decide what needs to be done to improve on them.

iii) Be positive
Enjoy life! Be thankful for what you receive every day, and you will start feeling fortunate. Believe in yourself and your abilities, and you will see things starting to change for the better.

iv) Set realistic objectives
Just wishing you could be more beautiful or good at sports, will not make it so. You would have to pay more attention to your appearance, by dressing your best and having your hair cut professionally or diet to lose the extra weight to look better. You might also have to practise very long and hard to become a good golfer or athlete.

v) Accept others for what they are
Treat others as you would like to be treated. Look beyond appearances, and do not judge before you know a person.



Activity 3
Individual work

1.
Make two lists:
a. all your skills and attributes that you feel good about
b. things about yourself that you would like to change

2.
On the list that you made in 1 b), write a goal for achieving each item.

3.
Explain how you can help a staff member do what you did in No. 2, above.

Points to ponder. . .
v Do you think that an emotionally intelligent person has good self-esteem?
v Do you think that a good leader needs to have good self-esteem?

Management is Not the Same as Leadership

This is similar to a DIFFERENCE Between a MANAGER and LEADER

Management is a hard science but leadership is a
delicate art. Colin Powell said that leadership is
the art of accomplishing more than the science of
management says is possible.

Because managers have authority over their employees,
they can force employees to comply with the rules even
when the employee disagrees. For example, I met a young
man working at a Burger King in Kentucky who had holes in his
ear lobes. I asked him what happened and he explained
that his manager forced him to remove his ear hoops
and facial piercings before he clocked in (thank
goodness!). The young man was not happy about
it and his heart obviously wasn't in it, but he
didn't have to be. If he wanted a paycheck, he
had to abide by the rules.

But leaders can't force their followers to do anything
because leaders don't have any authority over the
people who follow them. Leaders must get commitment
from their followers, and this only comes from the
heart. There is an old saying that you can lead a
horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Country
music star George Strait had a hit song titled "You
Can Lead a Heart to Love, But You Can't Make It Fall".
Leaders are in a similar position. They must get their
followers to voluntarily follow them.

One of the difficulties in transitioning from management
into leadership is getting accustomed to working
without formal authority. Managers can choose the people
they hire and fire. Leaders cannot choose who follows
them. For example, Martin Luther King is considered by
everyone to be the father of the civil rights movement.
He was adamant about being peaceful in everything he did.
A violent faction of the civil rights movement called
The Black Panthers participated in some of Dr. King's
marches, and he was not happy about it. Yet
he had to accept the fact that all leaders must accept,
the fact that with the good comes the bad.

Another difference between managers and leaders is that
managers don't have to have their employees' respect.
It certainly helps, but there are plenty of people who
work for bosses who they refer to as "idiots". (Just look
at the cartoon series Dilbert.) These are not great managers,
but they can still get the job done because they have
authority to hire and fire.

Leaders MUST have the respect of the people they
lead, because people will not follow someone they
don't respect.

The final difference I'll share with you in this
mini-course is that managers need healthy,
reasonably independent, well rounded individuals
in order to get the job done. Leaders sometimes
get their positions because weak, needy, unfocused
individuals seek them out. Sociologists have
studied this phenomenon in cult leaders.

Managing and leading are two different ways of organising people. The manager uses a formal, rational method whilst the leader uses passion and stirs emotions.

Management usually consists of people who are experienced in their field, and who have worked their way up the company. A manager knows how each layer of the system works and may also possess a good technical knowledge. A leader can be a new arrival to a company who has bold, fresh, new ideas but might not have experience or wisdom.

The Leader Is Followed. The Manager Rules

Differences In Perspectives
Managers think incrementally, whilst leaders think radically. "Managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing.". This means that managers do things by the book and follow company policy, while leaders follow their own intuition, which may in turn be of more benefit to the company. A leader is more emotional than a manager . "Men are governed by their emotions rather than their intelligence". This quotation illustrates why teams choose to follow leaders.

"Leaders stand out by being different. They question assumption and are suspicious of tradition. They seek out the truth and make decisions based on fact, not prejudice. They have a preference for innovation."

Leadership is just one of the many assets a successful manager must possess. Care must be taken in distinguishing between the two concepts. The main aim of a manager is to maximise the output of the organisation through administrative implementation. To achieve this, managers must undertake the following functions:

• organisation
• planning
• staffing
• directing
• controlling

Leadership is just one important component of the directing function. A manager cannot just be a leader, he also needs formal authority to be effective. "For any quality initiative to take hold, senior management must be involved and act as a role model. This involvement cannot be delegated."

In some circumstances, leadership is not required. For example, self motivated groups may not require a single leader and may find leaders dominating. The fact that a leader is not always required proves that leadership is just an asset and is not essential.

=====================================================
Secret #2:
Business is Business, but Leadership is Personal
=====================================================
Have you ever layed off an employee who got emotional?
Chances are that you comforted the employee
by saying something like "Don't take it personally.
It's just business". And as a manager, you know that
you have to keep your personal life separate from your
work life.

To make this even more challenging, business leaders
are held to an even higher standard than other leaders.

When former Georgia Tech football coach George O'Leary
was hired as head coach at the University of Notre Dame,
it was discovered that he lied on his resume. Notre Dame
withdrew the offer, but he was able to find a job as an
assistant in the NFL. When it was discovered
that the CEO of Radio Shack lied on his resume, he was
immediately fired and will probably never be an
executive again.

When former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani had
an extramarital affair, residents forgave him because
they were more concerned about his leadership after
the World Trade Center attacks on September 11. Voters
even re-elected Bill Clinton to a second term as
President of the United States after he admitted
to an improper relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
But when it was discovered that Harry Stonecipher,
the CEO on Boeing, had an affair with one of his
employees, he was fired, in his career as CEO was over.

Life is BEAUTIFUL

1. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile..

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.

3. Sleep for 7 hours.

4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.

5. Play more games.

6. Read more books than you did in 2007.

7. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.

8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.

9. Dream more while you are awake.

10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.

11. Drink plenty of water.

12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

13. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.

14. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.

15. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

16. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

17. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.

18. Smile and laugh more.

19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.

20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about. Don't
compare your partner with others.

24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

25. Forgive everyone for everything.

26.. What other people think of you is none of your business.

27. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

28. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

29. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

30. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

31. The best is yet to come.

32. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

33. Do the right thing!

34. Call your family often.

35.. Your inner most is always happy. So be happy.

36. Each day give something good to others.

37. Don't over do. Keep your limits.



It is a good practice.
Some call it as Yoga,
Any way, it can improve our quality of life.

Golden Rules for Career Success

WORKING as a business consultant all over the world, I have discovered some basic career-related rules that everyone should know-but many don't. - Richard Moran

1. Keep track of what you do; someone is sure to ask.

2. Never bring your boss a problem without some solution.

3. You are getting paid to think, not to whine.

4. Long hours don't mean anything; results count, not effort.

5. Write down ideas; they get lost, like good pens.

6. Always arrive at work 30 minutes before your boss.

7. Help other people network for jobs. You never know when your turn will come.

8. Don't take days off sick-unless you are.

9. Assume no one can/will keep a secret.

10. Know when you do your best-morning, night, under pressure, relaxed; schedule and prioritize your work accordingly.

11. Treat everyone who works in the organization with respect and dignity, whether it be the cleaner or the managing director.

Don't ever be patronizing.

12. Never appear stressed in front of a client, a customer, or your boss.

13. Take a deep breath and ask yourself: In the course of human events, how important is this?

14. If you get the entrepreneurial urge, visit someone who has his own business. It may cure you.

15. Acknowledging someone else's contribution will repay you doubly.

16. Career planning is an oxymoron. The most exciting opportunities tend to be unplanned.

17. Always choose to do what you'll remember ten years from now.

18. The size of your office is not as important as the size of your pay cheque.

19. Understand what finished work looks like and deliver your work only when it is finished.

20. The person who spends all of his or her time is not hard-working; he or she is boring.

21. Know how to write business letters-including thank-you notes as well as proposals.

22. Never confuse a memo with reality. Most memos from the top are political fantasy..

23. Eliminate guilt. Don't fiddle expenses, taxes or benefits, and don't cheat colleagues.

24. Reorganizations mean that someone will lose his or her job.

25. Get on the committee that will make the recommendations.

26. Job security does not exist.

27. Go to the company Christmas party..

28. Drink but Don't get drunk at the company Christmas party.

29. Avoid working at weekends. Work longer during the week if you have to. Moreover, don't stay late in night, it doesn't creates impression

rather shows lack in your productivity.

30. The most successful people in business are interesting.

31. Sometimes you'll be on a winning streak and everything will click; take maximum advantage.

32. When the opposite is true, hold steady and wait it out.

33. Never in your life say, "It's not my job."

34. Be loyal to your career, your interests and yourself.

35. Understand the skills and abilities that set you apart. Use them whenever you have an opportunity.

36. People remember the end of the project. As they say in boxing,

"Always finish stronger than you start."