Self-leadership at the workplace

Path to self leadership...

I have been longing to record my observations and experiences on how self leadership can go a long way in building a positive image about you at your workplace. My observations aren't necessarily exhaustive in nature, since it stems out of the fact that the period of interaction that I have had with people at my work place has been brief. But I believe that the best way of moving towards becoming a complete professional is to first learn the art of self leadership. I know I have a long way to go before I could master a few tricks of the trade! But this is a small attempt to jot down (for my own future reference) my point of view on what makes self leadership so important at your workplace.

The following is the list of qualities I would categorize as important traits of a person who is self lead:

• Ability to communicate seamlessly: I know that you would have heard it a gazillion times from infinite number of sources, but here I am stamping a seal of authenticity on this trait! The effectiveness of a professional lies in the clarity with which he/she conveys his ideas to the people with whom he/she communicates (both verbal as well as non-verbal) on a regular basis.
  
• Time Management ability: The most precious thing for a professional is the quality of time he puts in a day to finish his/her task. Especially if you are a billable resource to your organization, time management is the biggest virtue you could posses. It always zeroes down to the point as to how you can prioritize things at the beginning of a day and live up to those promises you make for yourself and your team. A simple way I found to do this is to send out an email to your immediate supervisor on your agenda for the day and sort out the work to be done, before you jump in to execution!
  
• Ability to handle pressure: IT is such an industry where encountering pressure situations are a common thing. Since a team invariably involves people with different character traits, there is all possibility of you encountering a situation which demands a lot of maturity on your part to not loose your cool, no matter what. Trust me when I say this, if you master the art of handling pressure it will help you a lot in the long run.
  
• Ability to abstract information at various levels: One thing at which I used to fail in my communication a short while back was my ability to abstract a piece of information and send out processed information that really mattered to people. For eg: If you are asked to send out an update to different people (Technical lead/PM/Client) on a problem that you are facing while working on a module, you should learn what is the amount of technical/functional information that you need to share with each of them, that helps them understand the problem better. Your ability to discern and filter out the necessary details in each communication is what speaks volumes of your effectiveness in communication.
  
• Ability to receive things: All of us have heard of the ability to give. Many of us are very good at it! But frankly, how many of us have the potential to receive? As a young professional who has along way to go in the industry, I feel it is very important for all of us to learn the art of receiving things. The ability to receive things includes your capability to grasp information around you, take feed back, etc. Subroto Bagchi, in a speech delivered at IIMB, emphasizes on this very fact. In an industry like IT where it is extremely important to be not merely technical/functional but be techno-functional, the essence of openness to learning is of paramount value.
  

I have collated a few qualities I felt are quintessential for self leadership. If you happen to come across more of them, please do write them under the comments section.

~IT's My Life

The Bucket List - A Review

The Bucket List - Things you would like to do before you die!

As usual (read it as a holiday) I hit the DVD store near my room to grab a few movies. I happen to come across this amazing movie called 'The Bucket List'. I can't stop myself from posting a review on this.

The movie is about 2 characters (Jack Nicholson as Edward Cole and Morgan Freeman as Carter Chambers) that are terminally ill. It as all about what the duo decide to do when they realize that they have very little time on their hands. It is about a list of things they wish to do before destiny decides to write them off.

Why should you watch this movie?

1. Your appreciation for the state often called 'well-being' will increase by multiple folds. You will definitely start to relish each and every moment of your life.
   
2. You will appreciate the importance of positive attitude. I swear, it takes a lot out of common people like you and me to embrace hard realities of life, the way these characters do it on screen!
3. You come face-to-face with the bitter fact of life that time and tide wait for none. (Ah! It's been a long time I sounded cliched. So tried being one here!)
4. You get to see 2 great actors in sublime form, portraying characters we often get to see around us, on a day-to-day basis. I am sure you wouldn't wanna miss them. Do you?
5. Last but not the least, watch this movie solely with an intention to discover where true joy really lies in your life. I am sure you will figure it out.

Just in case you are curious to know the kind of witty conversations the characters have, take a look at this.

I wouldn't wanna make this post a spoiler since this movie definitely is worth your time and money.

PS: This co-incidentally happens to be my first post published via Google Chrome. Let's hear it for google guys! They are an awesome dole of people.

~IT's My Life

I almost forgot!

I almost forgot... I happened to complete 2 years in blogosphere. It has been such a revelation for me till now. Got to discover some wonderful people through this medium. I take this opportunity to thank all of you for being so encouraging. Blogging has been such a wonderful medium for me to let out all my feelings candidly. I just can't imagine my life without this blog of mine. It shall continue to be a part and parcel of my life:)

Just came across this wonderful song from the movie Anari (1959). A very meaningful song by Mukesh. Hope you enjoy it.

~IT's My Life

What does financial independence mean to you?

A freedom that brings with it more responsibility!

Disclaimer: This post has a lot of indirect references to experiences from my personal life. I am just making an attempt to connect those innumerable dots and trying to make sense out of it. The following is an attempt to answer one such question that has haunted me for quite some time now. I have tried to put forth my point of view on this subject.

My current mood is one of total discombobulation. As I wrote before, I have been constantly battling out with my mind to find answers to a few questions in my life. I some how have figured out a logical reasoning to a few of them but a lot of them still remain pending for a more profound thought process.

One thing I always have found necessary is that if ever you want to feel independent, it almost always begins with you becoming financially self sufficient. Financial self sufficiency not only gives you a sense of freedom but also gives you an inexplicably great feeling of security. The feeling of having the choice of to decide what you wanna do with the money you earn is simply great! You bid farewell to those good old days where you are dependent on someone for your pocket money. Suddenly you start to take ownership of all your expenses. When I look back at the day I got my first salary, I still remember how happy I was. I sensed a true feeling of independence. I also happen to realize that I had gotten a bit more responsible as well. It had brought in me a great confidence, a sense of accomplishment and a sense of subtle joy that I could, from there on take on bigger responsibilities and help my parents in whatever the small way I could, to make life more easier for them and for myself.

I somehow feel that every individual at some point or the other would want to take charge of their lives and decide for themselves as to what they would be doing with their lives. One of the basic requirements for such a thing to happen is financial self-sufficiency. When you are confident enough to say, "I will take care of myself, come what may!", life suddenly begins to appear so different. You will start to realize that life offers you with a great chance to choose. And I swear... If there is one thing you would ever want to be gifted with for a life time, it would undoubtedly be the ability to choose, for life is all about choices!

Don't you think you would appear very fragile and helpless if you are financially dependent on others? I strongly feel that at least after a point in life, when you are very much capable of making a livelihood of your own, you should start to take things seriously and act up on it. If you don't realize that, gradually people around you would start to disrespect you and even before you realize what damage you did to your life, you would have reached a point of no return! Trust me, it kills your confidence.

Having said so much about removing the financial dependencies from your life, I strongly believe that it shouldn't isolate you from the other relationships in your life. Having read multiple times about how the same 'financial independence' has resulted in shallow marital relationships, I feel that it should handled very carefully. If you start to exercise your freedom a bit too much, you definitely might land yourself in to trouble. One needs to learn how to strike a balance between his freedom and his duties.

At the end of the day, what one would need is a confidence to say, "I am in charge of my own life. I'll take care of myself." It is very essential that one should learn how to use this independence and not abuse it.

I would love to hear your views on the same as well.

Note: It is a humble request to all those readers of this post to please read through the comments before they comment. B'coz you know what? I'm tired of making myself clear on this one!

~IT's My Life

Chain emails and their consquences!

Have you broken the chain, ever?

Have you ever forwarded an email to someone simply because it read something in the end like, "If you forward this email to 10 people in 10 seconds, it will result in blah blah blah?"

I am sure you would have at least read them and shown them their 'true destinations' in you mail box!

I just happen to read this email that I got from friend of mine a few days back. Probably the poor soul seemed to have gotten pissed off with these kinda emails. Found it really amusing. Take a look.

I want to thank all my friends and other unknown people who have forwarded chain letters to me in 2001, 2002,2003, 2004 ,2005 ,2006, 2007 & now in 2008.

Because of your kindness:

• I stopped drinking Coca-Cola after I found out that it's good only for removing toilet stains.

• I stopped going to the movies for fear of sitting on a needle infected with AIDS

• I smell like a wet dog since I stopped using deodorants because they cause cancer.

• I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they may ask me to dial a stupid number and then I get a phone bill from hell with calls to Uganda, Singapore and Tokyo.

• I also stopped drinking water outside for fear that I will get sick from the rat shit and urine.

• When I go to parties, I don't look at any gal, no matter how hot she is, for fear that she will take me to a hotel, drug me, then take my kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice.

• I also donated all my savings to the Amy Bruce account. A sick girl that was about to die in the hospital about 7,000 times. (Poor girl! she's been 7 since 1993...)

• My free Nokia phone never arrived and neither did the free passes for a paid vacation to Disneyland.

• Made some Hundred wishes before forwarding those Dalai Lama, Ganesh Vandana, Tirupathi Balaji pics etc..
  

• Now most of those "Wishes" are already married (to someone else)!

• You can add your own notes based on your similar experience and send them to your friends.
  

• If ORKUT deletes my account, it doesn't matter BUT PLEASE DON'T SEND me "Orkut is deleting accounts: Due to sudden rush..." Otherwise I'll delete my E-Mail account!

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you do not send this e-mail to at least 91376021341245402021324231152114 people in the next 10 seconds, a bird will shit on your head today at 6:30 p.m.

This link might help!


~IT's My Life

Jaane Tu Ya Jane Na - Ab jake pata chala!

For the past 2 weeks my schedule has been really hectic and I couldn't checkout any of the movies. I finally managed to compensate for the loss I incurred by literally watching quite a lot of movies and also grab my quota of naps, that I happened to miss badly over the last weekend.

Jaane Tu Ya Jane Na - Ab jake pata chala!

For all those who are yet to checkout this movie, lemme tell you, this one isn't a romantic comedy that will take you by surprise. Nope! Not a single bit. One can literally see through the 'plot' of this movie right from scene one. It is the same old story guys. A boy meets a gal. They have this really 'kewl' kinda friend circle in the college. Wahi ghisi-piti kahani. Wahi sade hue jokes! They spend sometime together (kinda 5 years or so) and still they are only FRIENDS! I swear you know it when you are in love. Come on guys, grow up! Go get a life!! Were you guys trying to miss out on the obvious or something? I dunno. I am quite a fan of Genelia, but I felt she has been doing these kinda roles a little too many in number. It is time she moves on and explores her true potentials. How does the newbie Mr. Khan fare? Well, I feel there wasn't much for him in terms of performance in this movie at all. Ab aise kahani bana ke aap log bechare se Aamir Khan ki level ki performance expect karoge toh its heights of expectation yaar!

I really question the prudence of the director and the producer for being so naive in sketching this plot. When I could guess the plot without even having to wait for 'OMG-ab-kya-hone-wala-hain?' moment, so will any movie buff for that matter. Such is plainness of this plot. It is the same story retold gazillion times in bollywood. For heaven's sake, it is time you directors figure out better plots for launching newbies in the film industry.

The only plus point in the movie is its music. Rehman does it for every movie yaar. You see he is the only soul who ensures you are hooked on to your seats until the last moment. I personally like 'Kabhi kabhi aditi...', 'Jaane tu ya jane na...' and 'Pappu can't dance sala...'

If you are looking for a time pass movie and wanna have fun with your buddies, go check this one out! Par dobara mat dekhna!


~IT's My Life

Terror Zameen Par!

The title of this post is in no way an insult to the wonderful movie we got to see a few months back. It is actually the review of another movie called 'Aamir'. I am not sure how many of you even got to hear about this movie. If I am not wrong, rediff had rated it 4 stars. So I was looking forward to watch this movie at the earliest. I managed to watch this movie last night.

If you have already clicked the link I provided above, you would be aware of its plot. If not, here is the story line for you. It is a thriller that keeps you on the edges of your seats. It revolves around a character called Aamir Ali (played by Rajeev Khandelwal) who returns from London to join his family in Mumbai. You start to get a hint of the movie's theme right from the scene at the airport where his baggages are checked thrice, even though they are cleared each time. The reason being his name is Aamir not Amar! After a rather humiliating clearance from the airport authorities, he tries to contact his family, only to find them unreachable. In the meanwhile, he is handed over a mobile phone by a pair of stranger motorists. While he is still digesting the shock of not being able to reach his family, he gets a call from the so called apni-kaum-ki-bhalayi-ke-baare-main-sochnewala guy. He threatens Aamir to follow his instructions chup-chaap else he would have to lose his family.

The rest of the movie is all about Aamir being directed periodically of what he is supposed to accomplish so that his family is set free. The best part of this movie is that it touches up on so many issues that go unnoticed whenever media serves us with a 'sensational news'. Aamir is great in also the sense that it hits the nail on its head, rather than making frivolous attempts to hype the underworld and their nuances. You get to see the reality (in great detail) behind a planned bomb blast. You get to see the trauma of a man battling hard to break the shackles of a negative image that the society has 'bestowed' on his community for no fault of his. You also get to see how some people in that community try to hijack the thought process of innocent people like Aamir Ali.

Hats off to debutant director Raj Kumar Gupta for being so elucidative in his narration. The background scores literally make you feel as though you were walking through the same stinking pathli-gallis and brooking the pain as much as Aamir does in this movie. In short you get to the see mumbai in great originality.

What happened to Aamir? Did he accomplish the job? Does he get to see his family? Do those anti-social elements succeed in their mission?

Since my post isn't supposed to be a spoiler, I would highly recommend you guys to go watch this movie and figure out the answer for yourself.

~IT's My Life

Ten things you wouldn't find me blogging about.

Niveditha has tagged me yet another time. I had the option to choose between two tags. I chose to do the following one.

10 secrets that I’d kept out of my blog:

1. I am not a great fan of cricket. If you ever happen to find anything referred to cricket, even remotely, just check if you hit the right URL.
   
2. I ain't a great cook. So all you tindi potas out there you better not expect a post or two from my side on how to prepare new dishes!
3. I hate hypocrisy. Period!
   
4. I actually follow a lot of blogs that aren't listed in my blog roll.
   
5. The person who inspired me to kick start blogging is in my blog roll. I shall leave the better half of discovering who it is, to you guys!
6. I hate politics to the core. So if you happen to find anything on politics on this blog, let me know. I shall delete this bullet.
   
7. I hate to write those "Ten things to blah blah..." stuff of my blog, even if it costs me dearly in terms of my page rank. Google adsense isn't helping me pay my bills anyway!
   
8. I always try to look at positive side of things. For eg: Dwindling comments on your blog is actually a healthy sign for you. In the long run you might eventually get inspired to quit blogging and do yourself a great deal of favor. Not to forget, this entire blogosphere as well. That's optimism for you guys!
   
9. I actually want to rant a lot about some funny stuff I read about meta blogging.
   
10. 95% of what I write is straight from my gut. The rest is truth!

This one goes unnumbered. Something like, "You know that is larger than being bulleted kinda stuff." I actually hate those captchas that appear at the end of a post in blogger. They are rendered so horribly.

PS: Being humorous is one thing and being pathetic is another. If you figured out the difference between the two by now, it's good. Else god bless you!

~IT's My Life

When I figured out what being busy is all about...

It has been quite sometime since I posted something on my blog. Wahi office ka kaam! Nope... I am not hyperbolizing. I dunno if it is for the good or the bad or the ugly, I have been quite busy with some office work. In fact I finally figured out for the life of mine, what being busy is all about. I got loads to share with you guys... It is just that I'm unable to make time for myself and this blog of mine. But I must confess that I'm enjoying every bit of it.

I hope that I shall devote some quality time in the near future and rant on some useful things on my blog!

PS: Adi would be glad to see such micro posts from me. But lemme tell you something... You aren't gonna be lucky for too long Adi!

~IT's My Life

Apple ipod nano... I'm loving it

Apple's ipod nano - An absolute sweetheart!

What a gadget! I'm stumped by this flawless piece of techonological brilliance. Thank you apple :) It has deepened my love and passion for music. An Apple Ipod Nano is every music lover's priced possesion!

~IT's My Life