Moving to www.anbusivam.com

Dear Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's Blog Page.

Thank you all for your wonderful support, encouragements and criticisms.

I am moving to my Own Domain, now let's continue our journey together @

http://www.anbusivam.com

Looking forward for your support as usual.

Thanks for Visiting my Page.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Looking Front and Marching Ahead

Dear Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's Blog Page.

After my previous post on Looking Back, I lately realised that I had almost forgot to look front. Now, I've decided to march ahead with newer learning’s and experiences in life.

At this juncture both in my Personal and Professional life, big changes are taking place that's going to bring in more responsibilities with greater expectations. At personal front I’m getting married on 2nd September. It's taking up most of my time after work and that's the main reason for no regular updates here in www.anbusivam.com.

I am sure Life is going to be colorful with lots of new experiences and learning’s particularly in terms of understanding personal relationships. I am used to live alone, away from my parents now for almost more than 5 yrs. I think I've become less sensitive to the under currents of actual feelings and emotions expressed to me in all these years. May be I should spend some more quality time looking within myself to understand me as a person first and next relationships with my near and dear ones. I am trying to be more sensitive to the feelings expressed and unexpressed sometimes.

My DCS (Diploma in Counseling Skills) would be of greatest help to make my life really fruitful and joyful. I can never forget one question that I’ve learnt on relationships, which is “Do you want to be correct or do you want to be happy…?” Mot of the times we want to be correct, want to be perfect, continue the argument just to prove that other person is wrong and at the end what remains is not happiness, but a bitterness in relationship. The moment we let go those compulsions to prove a point or to be perfect always, close relationships would bloom into flowers of happiness.

Off late I am getting comments from my friends that most of my recent posts are based on emotional and psychological factors. Yes, after my counseling course and little experiences with the few clients I’ve got, I think mental wellness is utmost important than any great leadership qualities in life. Sound mind in a sound body is the basic stepping stone to any great journey in life.

I am starting to look forward and march ahead with new thoughts, ideas and experiments in life to understand ultimately “What makes us do what do we do…?” that is "Motivation" in life.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love,

Anbusivam

Experience - The Best Teacher

Hello Friends.

Welcome to Anbusivam's Blog Page.

While I was travelling from my home town to Bangalore last night, numbers of thoughts were rambling in my mind due to couple of comings and goings in my life. I was thinking of my recent experiences and lessons I am taught by them…therefore got a thread for this post.

Yes, I am absolutely convinced that experience is the best teacher in our lives. First Person Experience in particular is the “Bestest” teacher. I agree that its always good learn lessons from others experience and not to burn our finger once again to learn things. Yes reading biographies, listening to experiences, seeking wisdom from our elders are all means of taking lessons for us to make our lives easier. What we learn through experience is more lasting than that acquired through reading. It is accurate, complete and permanent. It is first-hand knowledge. But, nothing can teach us as good as our own personal First Person Experience. I’ve learnt that, grueling experiences at some point of time will always be a great saviour at some later stage in life and I am sure it’s pretty much true for all of us. A child does not stop playing with fire till he burns his fingers. He learns from his own experience.

Moreover, involving as a first person brings in all the senses of ours into the situation and our brain precisely records that experiential learning so that, it would be readily available for us in future at the right moment when needed. Before crying out “Why Me…?” we should understand that the experiences we have had all through our life is not just to test our faiths in some unknown beliefs, but only to make us as strong as what we are today. We should be thanking the experience and feel blessed for having given this wonderful opportunity to learn. There is profound meaning and purpose to everything that happens to us. May be we are not aware of the purpose right when things are happening to us, but certainly looking back we can very well understand that, its all well connected to our present:

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer said,
You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.

It’s also interesting to know that, two of us exactly experiencing a similar experience may feel entirely different based on so many factors. It may depend on our child hood, up bringing, society, family values and many more. Hence it is important to experience the experience personally in first person to get the best out of it.

Experience is the "bestest" teacher that always results in the most enduring lessons.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With love,
Anbusivam

Counselor Chalisa...!!!

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Welcome to Anbusivam's Blog Page.

Hanuman Chalisa is a Hindi poem on Lord Hanuman written by Shri.Tulsidas, which is recited as a prayer by Hindus. The moment I came across an excellent poem on Counselors , I shared it with my DCS ( Diploma in Counseling Skills) classmates of Banjara Academy. I would say nothing else in this world can depict what counseling and counselors are all about as perfectly as this one poem does. I am really really grateful for the person who had written this wonderful poem. Its simply amazing combination of words together that makes a huge impact. And yes, we as counselors decided to recite this day in and day out. We named it "Counselor Chalisa".

Here it goes:

"Counselor Chalisa"

I can't give solutions to all of
life's problems, doubts, or fears.
But I can listen to you and
together we will search for answers.

I can't change your past with all it's heartache and pain,
nor the future with it's untold stories.
But I can be there now when you need me to care.

I can't keep your
feet from stumbling.
I can only offer my hand
that you may grasp it
and not fall.

Your joys, triumphs, success,
and happiness are not mine;
Yet I can share in your laughter.

Your decisions in life are not mine to make, nor to judge;
I can only support you, encourage you,
and help you when you ask.

I can't prevent you from

falling away from friendship,

from your values, from me.

I can only pray for you,

talk to you, and wait for you.

I can't give you boundaries which I have determined for you,
But I can give you the room to change, room to grow,
room to be yourself.

I can't keep your heart from breaking and hurting,
But I can cry with you and help you pick up the pieces
and put them back in place.

I can't tell you who you are,

I can only love you and be your friend.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love,
Anbusivam

New Year Afformations...!

Hell0 Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's Blog Page.

Wishing you all a very prosperous New Year 2009.

Read it again....not Affirmations, its "Afformations". Before we talk about Afformations, let me tell you something that happened last week. Last Friday after dinner we discussing on some movies and suddenly my sister brought in the topic of an old time singer who was my favorite in school days. Surprisingly I was not even remembering his name and tried all my best to recollect it by all means from my memory, but couldn't. That night when I went to bed, I was unable to sleep without knowing the name of that singer. The question of What's that singer's name...? occupied my mind completely and it was a long night indeed.

Being a student of Human Mind, I just wondered how smart our mind is. It was literally stuck in a question, trying all means to find answer for that. Almost all of us are wired with this inherent curiosity to find/search answers for the questions posed to us in our lives. I was thinking how can this tendency of Human Mind to seek answers to the questions can be used in the field of self development.

After various searches in Google, I ended up with "Empowering Questions" which took me to this wonderful world of "Afformations" a word coined by Noha.St.John of The SuccessClinic. His wonderful book The Great Little Book of Afformations talks in detail about the power of Afformations.

Unlike affirmations, afformations are not just positive statements. Its all powerful positive questions. I've been using positive affirmations since my NLP days, but yes there is always a conflict between my conscious and subconscious mind each time I repeat my affirmation statements. As Noha says in his book, "I am rich" is indeed believed to be a positive affirmations. Important thing to notice here is do we sincerely believe this affirmation statement or do we doubt them..? Okie if I believe it and then, what's next after this art of convincing ourselves with what we are not. Noha's Afformations takes us to the next level, that is the new way of asking powerful questions to which our mind automatically try to find out the answers leading to greater results at the end.

According to Noha,

Affirmation --> "I am Rich", this is a statement to which our mind says "Yeah, Right". It all ends there most of the time.

Afformation --> "Why am I Rich?", this is a powerful positive question to which our mind starts seeking/searching answers. In the process we find all possible means and ways to become rich actually.

In this New Year 2009, We can simply modify all our negative questions into positive, empowering questions which will cause our mind to focus on the positive possibilities.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love.
Anbusivam

Leadership through Physical Fitness

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's Blog Page.

When I was doing my regular weekend long-run this morning, the thought stuck in my mind was, "Is there a relationship between Leadership and Physical Fitness...?". From my few experiments and little experience I am fully convinced that, Yes there is a great relation between one's Leadership Qualities and his/her Physical Fitness.

It is also true that, children involved in rigorous physical activities like sports and games could concentrate better in their studies as compared to the children who spend most of their time with computer games or television.

Here is what physical fitness can bring in to our lives,

1. Keeps us healthy and fit.
2. Positively impacts our personality.
3. Increases our self confidence.
4. Certainly clears of all the stress and tension.
5. Brings in lots of clarity in thinking.
6. Provides more behavioral choices.
7. Increases our ability to handle stress.
8. Increases our endurance.
9. Makes us more flexible.
10. Gives better emotional stability.
11. ...
12. ... i am sure this list could go on and on.....!

Research have proved clearly that there is an obvious connection between the employee muscle and employee behavior. A study undertaken by Naval postgraduate school, gave organizations a better idea of what to expect from improved management and employee muscle. The results indicated the improved physical fitness can significantly affect the individual in terms of changes in personality and behavior. The changes also appear to have a significant positive effect on individual leadership traits.

Barack Obama, one of the very few fittest presidents usually starts his day in the gym. He says,

“I tend to be a healthy eater. So I probably could get away with cutting my workouts back a little bit. The main reason I do it is just to clear my head and relieve me of stress. It’s a great way to stay focused.”

One key thing to remember is, what ever we do, its all going to come back to us.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love,
Anbusivam

My Presentation at IgniteBangalore2008

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's Blog Page

I am sharing the presentation slides from my talk at IgniteBangalore2008.

What is Ignite?

If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers.

IgniteBangalore was the first of its kind in India organized by the folks from McKinsey here in Bangalore on Thursday, November 13, 2008. I must say it was an excellent evening, with enthusiastic and wonderful crowd. I was one among the 12 presenters , who were from different walks of life passionate about Technology, Biking, Humanity, Social Contribution, Child Education, Political Awareness, Innovation and so on.

World May End Tonight Ignite Bangalore

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

(Hope the video will be up soon too)

These slides were running at one slide per 15secs, I had 20 slides and 5mins to talk. Let me know if you can think of what I would have talked there...???

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Motivation from Special Children

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's Blog Page.

Last Friday I had a great opportunity to visit Spastic Society of Karnataka, which is a special school for children with special needs. It was a part of my Counseling course and I was not even aware of the meaning of Spastics till I go there to see those wonderful children.

Yes, this school is mainly for children with Neuro-muscular disorders, Developmental and Learning Disabilities. All the teachers there are well trained special educators with lots and lots of care and empathy for those children. It was absolutely an amazing experience when we were taken to the classrooms. Those children seems to be enjoying and having a great time in their own world with their special school, special friends and special educators. Paradoxically I felt a huge pain and agony to see those innocent little ones in need of special care. Children were very happy to see us and they were well trained to handle thier basic physical needs and ettiquites by themselves. And the best part I observed is those children are highly helpful to eachother than the children we see in normal schools.

In spite of being differently-abled with special needs, I felt somehow the nature had given those little ones something more than what we all have and striving for. That something is Happiness. They are just laughing, giggling, smiling, talking, and playing all around with no big sorrow and worry on their disabilities. They also do some wonderful paintings, craft work, bakery products. We picked up some wonderful paintings and nice biscuits those were made by the children themselves.

The greatest Motivation I got from the visit is "When those children can be happy and enjoying life all the time, why can't we too...!!!"

Please, find out a special school near your place, do visit them, just spend some time with those little one's and help them as much as you can. I am sure you'll feel great and contented at the end of the day.

Thanks for Visiting My Page.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Swami Vivekananda on God and Religion

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

I wanted to write my thoughts on God and Religion. I've been into this spiritual quest of understanding what is God? who is the creator? is he really sitting up above the clouds in a place called heavens? what is the need of prayer?........these questions goes on and on......!!!

Yes, sometime I get some answers but more often nothing but confusion remains. Being an engineering student, I always tend to look for logical answers than a conclusion that is merely based on faiths. Okie, I'll spend some good time to put down my own thoughts and understandings in one of my next posts.

For now, I've some thoughts from the Great Hindu Monk of all times Swami Vivekananda here:

"Many years ago, I visited a great sage of our own country, a very holy man. we talked of our revealed books, the Vedas, of Bible, of Koran and of revealed books in general. At the close of the talk, this good man asked me to go to the table and take up a book; it was a book which among other things, contained a forecast of the rainfall during the year. The sage said "Read That". And I read out the quantity of rain that was to fall. He said, "Now take the book and squeeze it". I did so and he said "Why, my boy, not a drop of water comes out. Until the water comes out, its all book, So until your religion makes you realise God, it is useless".

"A man may believe in all the churches in the world, he may carry in his head all the sacred books ever written, he may baptise himself in all the rivers og the earth, still if he hasno perception of God, I would class him with the rankest atheist. And a man may have never entered a church or a mosque, nor he performed any ceremony, but if he feels God within himself and is thereby lifted above the vanities of the world, that man is holy man, a saint".

You are most welcome to share your thoughts on the above passage.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love
Anbusivam

Excellence Always from Tom Peters

Hello Friends.

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

In my previous post on Personal Brand, I just wrote down some of my thoughts, that popped up while pondering over the term "branding our own self" with the global brand Coke as an analogy. Interesting comments/replies from my friends and readers came in, which made me dig further into the aspects of branding.

My further study on personal branding ended up in the homepage of Tom Peters, an American writer on business management practices. The term Personal branding is thought to have been first used and discussed in an 1997 article by Tom Peters. Personal branding is the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands.

His famous book In Search of Excellence was published in 1982, and became a bestseller. Here is an interesting video from Tom on "Excellence Always"

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love
Anbusivam

Leadership in Building Our Personal Brand

Hello Friends.

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

After my previous post on PepsiCo's Leadership Philosophy, here I’ve some thoughts to learn from Coca-Cola alias Coke.

The moment, I thought of writing on branding, first came in my mind was the survey I came across last year from Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2007. The brand “Coca-Cola” ranks 1^st among the 100 global brands surveyed, with the estimated brand value of worth $65B.

Personal Branding is some thing that each one of us should sincerely think about. I am sure the moment we hear the word “Coke” number of thoughts comes up in us about Coca-Cola, which is nothing but just a soda. In the same way, the moment when someone hears “our name”, what are the kinds of thoughts that occur in their mind…? Do we really have control on what others think of us…? Can we manage our reputation, perception, image that other people have about us…?

If not 100%, I am sure it is possible for us to have a substantial control of what others think of us. This could be made possible only by the way we live, the values we choose, the way we interact with others and the way we give back to the society. Key point to notice here is, we need not blow our own trumpet, but let’s clearly communicate to the people around us about what our values and ethics are, particularly through our deeds not just words. It’s nothing but creating an identity, mage or a perception on us.

Starting point of this is to answer this important question “What do we want to be known for?” When we seek answers for this question sincerely from the bottom of our heart, we would be able to effortlessly create our own reputation in our family, among our friends and colleagues, wherein they will clearly understand the kind of person we are.

As pertinent to any other brand, some of the key qualities of our personal branding should be honesty, clarity, reliability and consistency. Of course, better branding plays a key role in every aspect of our lives like getting a graduate school admission, finding a perfect soul mate, getting a good job and so on.

Above all it’s not going to be an overnight process; it has to be built brick by brick with utmost sincerity. Let’s start building our own “Personal Brand”, I am sure its going to be a pleasant life time pursuit.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love
Anbusivam

PepsiCo's Leadership Philosophy of Performance with Purpose

Hello Friends.

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi, PepsiCo's CEO, named frequently as one of the most powerful business leaders in the world, listed as fifth most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine, named among Time's most influential people in 2007 - 2008, spoke about the key roles that PepsiCo's employees play in realizing the vision of "Performance with Purpose".

Nooyi says, she believes that each one of PepsiCo’s 185,000 employees is a leader. There are two reasons for this. First, PepsiCo is a meritocracy. Hard work gets recognized. Second, PepsiCo has an entrepreneurial culture, so people have the ability to take the initiative to develop good ideas.

These are some skills that Nooyi believes to be the hallmarks of a good leader:

1. Competence:
You must be an expert in your function or area of expertise. You will become known for that.

2. Take a stand:
You must be known for your courage and confidence to act and say what you believe is right.

3. Communication skills:
Communication skills are critical. You can never over-invest in them.

4. Coaching:
Surround yourself with good mentors. Listen. Learn. Your mentor is a major force.

5. Your moral compass:
Have the strength and courage to do what’s morally right, not what’s expedient. Your moral compass must be your true north.

She also says that, Companies that want to grow and prosper must attract the best people to come to work for them. That means having a work environment that inspires people, motivates them, and brings out their best.

According to her, it’s important to create an inclusive culture: a place where people can “bring their whole selves to work.” A place where diverse values, beliefs, and practices are treated with respect. It’s also vital that people are shown respect by speaking to them with truth and candor. Give people honest feedback. Let them know where they stand. Be clear about what they need to do to improve or to reach their career goals.

Find below her interview for ASTD's training and development magazine T+D. --> Performance with Purpose

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love
Anbusivam