Thursday, March 20, 2008

Where does the strength to work on weaknesses come from?

Hello Friends.

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

Reading my thoughts on identifying our weakness in my earlier post one of my regular readers Saranya sent me an email saying “I agree entirely! But then, where does the strength to work on weaknesses come from?”

Firstly, congratulations for identifying the weakness. The moment we know our weakness, 50% of the problem is solved right away. Knowing the weakness and being aware of it in our daily lives by itself is a great strive towards overcoming it.

Though I had plans to write, I was always hesitant only because I was not really confident in my proficiency in English language, especially its grammar. I registered this blog page and waited for almost six months to write down my first post with an amazing video of my all time favourite speaker and motivator Tony Robbins on why we do what we do.

How to overcome my weakness? Where does the strength come from?

Few thoughts from my personal experience:

1. I was aware that I am not so great in English writing. But, still I wanted to write. That “wanted-ness” was so strong in me; I just went ahead and wrote. The moment I come out of my gigantic initial inertia, sailing was smooth and effortless.

2. I looked for ways to improve my English, asked my friends, colleagues to point out the mistakes I make while talking, in my emails, in my blog posts and so on. They were only happy to help me out. Thanks to all of them.

3. I was not resolute to have zero mistakes in my writing on first go. I was easy-going and kind to myself saying “It’s OK to make mistakes, but not to repeat them often”.

4. I decided that, I’ll never let down my passion in moving towards the pleasure of being a good writer as said in my mode of motivation.

I’ve a long list of experiences/opinions to share, but it would be really great if you can share some of your thoughts on overcoming weaknesses…? --> here as comments

Your thoughts / comments / ideas / experiences are most welcome, which I am sure are going to be of great help for me and my readers.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love
Anbusivam

Thursday, March 6, 2008

NextGenWomen's "Women 2.0 Summit"

Hello Friends.

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

Starting from my beloved mother, dearest sister, admirable maths teacher till my current project leader, there were lot of women who made and are making my life wonderful. I take this great opportunity to express my thanks and gratitude to all those women out there.

Happy Women's Day to all you wonderful women out there!!!



The SmartTechie is organizing "Women 2.0 Summit" on March 10, 2008. International Women's Day celebrates the progress women have made economically, socially and politically. This unique one-day Summit is organized in the honour of International Women's day. Women 2.0 Summit provides a platform for like-minded women to learn, develop, connect, and network so that you can harness your inner qualities and bring out the best in you as an effective and authentic leader.

At this summit, nearly 1000 women technology professionals will come together to celebrate the great strides women are making in their companies and in the business world. It's obvious that diversity has an enormous, tangible meaning. Highly successful professional women from the technology industry will share their knowledge, experiences and insights to help empower more women to achieve their goals. At the Summit, there would be four panel discussions on: Ascending the Corporate Ladder, The Lady Entrepreneur, The NextGen Developers, The Intrapreneurs. This exciting summit will consist of lectures, skill building exercises, and group discussions. Highly interactive and engaging, we assure you that the one-day summit will be useful, insightful and lots of fun too.

When:
March 10, 2008
9.00AM to 6.00PM

Where:
Ambedkar Bhavan
Millers Road
Bangalore 560 001
Karnataka, India

Speakers Include:
Anagha Gadgil, Technical Manager, Avaya India

Aparna Pujar, Director - Media Products, Yahoo! India

Bharati Jacob, Managing Partner, Seedfund

C Mahalingam (Mali), EVP & Chief People Officer, Symphony Services

Dr. Ramanujan Kashi, Senior Research Scientist, Avaya India

Jessie Paul, Chief Marketing Officer, Wipro Technologies

Mangala Gowri, Research Scientist - India Research Labs, IBM

Mrinalini Ingram,Senior Director, Finance, Globalization Center East, Cisco

Pamela Kumar, Director - India STG Engineering Labs, IBM

Sapna Maheswari,Developer, ThoughtWorks Technologies

Sharada Satrasala, Director, Strategic Supplier Management, TI

Vani Kola, Managing Director, India, NEA-IndoUS Ventures

Vasantha Erraguntla, Senior Engineering Manager, Intel

At this summit, nearly 1000 women technology professionals will come together to celebrate the great strides women are making in their companies and in the business world. An excellent opportunity especially for Women. Don't miss it.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Sunday, March 2, 2008

To Be Successful Identify Your Weakness

Hello Friends.

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

Yes, If we want to be successful we must be willing to objectively identify our weakness. But, not only identifying, the next important step is to sincerely work hard to overcome those weakness and come out stronger than ever.

The most common question asked in interviews is, “what are your strengths and weaknesses…?” and second part is always the most dreaded part of the question. Everyone has weaknesses, but who wants to admit them? Most of us would readily come up with a long list of our strengths and suddenly stumble when we have to list our weakness.

It’s all well and good to talk about our strengths, but every coin has two sides. The purpose of evaluating our weaknesses isn’t to induce misery or frustration. But it can prove to be a very eye-opening experience. And it opens the door for a great deal of awareness and improvement. We should be analyzing not only our strengths, most importantly our weakness very often, only to understand and take necessary corrective action.

I’ve seen people being diffident about their weakness, and drown into the mode of insecurity when someone asks about their weaknesses. If we are unaware of our weakness, where is the way to deal with it? Accepting our own weakness is not really a great aspect, its simply being honest to ourselves. The moment we acknowledge our weakness, then there is a possibility towards overcoming them and evolving as a stronger individual.

Let’s look at things objectively, recognize and admit weaknesses, make conscious decisions on what to do about them. Until we are subjectively attached with our emotional insecure feelings, there is no way we can understand our weakness.

Let's be objective to identify, understand and fix our weaknesses to be successful.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Power of Language from Taare Zameen Par

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

About a week ago I watched the most applauded Hindi movie Taare Zameen Par. There is a scene, after in which the little boy Ishaan had a fight with another boy, got yelled at by his dad, after a shower he comes into the room where his dad is stuffing his suitcases.


Here goes the dialogue:

Ishaan : Papa, where are you going…?
Dad : I am leaving the house, I’ll not come back.
Ishaan : I am sorry Papa; I’ll not do it next time. I am veryyy sorryyy Papa.
Mom : Why are you scaring the child? Dear, Papa is going on an official trip, not because of you.

A single word, his mother said changes his emotions completely. Yes, by changing a word we can scare a child to any extreme. One frightening word can make a child shake and cry. The moment we change that word back to a pleasant one, the child is perfectly fine. Simple words can carry deeper meanings, create stronger feelings and attitudes.

Language is not just a mere communicating tool; it can change attitudes, transform lives. Words communicate not just the literal meanings; it does much more than that. Simple words communicate emotions, fears, happiness, confidence, joy, sorrow…and so on. Writers use language to illustrate and describe thoughts, situations and factual content. In our schools, colleges, offices and in the society, we are constantly confronted with languages either inspiring or depressing. How often we come across a person who really understands the power of language?? I think most of the times, most of us, use language just for the sake of talking, complaining, fighting, and screaming at others. We all know the importance of language, but we always overlook that in our every day conversations.

Constructively chosen language benefits the most. Simple turnaround in our language can bring wonders in our life. The moment we learn to use language efficiently, to get the best out of every situation we encounter in our life, the journey called Life becomes easy and effortless.

Let’s understand the power of language. Let’s make our lives easy and effortless.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Friday, February 15, 2008

Standard of Life Vs Standard of Living

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

There are two most critical things in life, one is the “Standard of Life” and other is the “Standard of Living”. We human beings have done so many things to fix our external things so as to increase our standard of living and nothing has been done to understand the standard of life.

The irony to be noticed here is, as much as we do to increase our standard of living; so much is the trouble we create to our standard of life. I was happy when I had an old television without a remote control and now that tiny electronic hand held device goes below the couch or its batteries are exhausted or its keys are not working…..finally it brings in annoyance and makes me upset.

Oh...no, I am not advocating to stay with the old ones, the point I am want to make here is, we human beings should learn how to handle the external factors those were created only by us for our own external comfort. The very creation of these comfort facilities should not put us into a depressed and anxious state of mind.

Right at this moment our standard of our life does not depend on the house we’ve or the car we’ve parked outside or our bank balance. It’s solely based on “How Happy Are We…?” One could be a great millionaire but he may never be happy and one could be a homeless beggar but still he may feel delightful and absolutely happy in this world.

Let’s understand that, increasing out Standard of living makes our lives easier in this world, but it can never bring in happiness and joy forever. Increasing our Standard of Life is the only way we can be ultimately happy and blissful.

Swami Chinmayananda says:

“The material growth and prosperity raise the ‘standard of living,’ whereas the spiritual inner rehabilitation improves the ‘standard of life.’ Both the ‘standard of living’ and the ‘standard of life’ have to be equally developed and balanced in order that one may sail through life’s different challenges with ease, poise, comfort and cheer.

The ‘standard of living’ is like the mast of the ship. If it is to be high, the keel must be made deep and wide enough to prevent toppling and this depth of the keel measures the ‘standard of life.’


Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love
Anbusivam

Friday, February 8, 2008

Peak Performance

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's blog page.

While we were trying to understand “Mind Training” in my previous post, one of my friends Jay was very curious about “Peak Performance”. Often he asks about the phrase “Peak Performance” in my blog heading.

Here go my understandings on “Peak Performance” the term that is mostly used by athletes and sports persons. If you watch carefully the world’s finest players like Roger Federer, William sisters, Sachin Tendulkar, Viswanathan Anand, Michael Schumacher and many others, all these players consistently outperform their opponents. How is that possible only for them…? Only because these players always maneuver at their peak and they are mentally not ready to accept anything less than that, “The best out of them”. Yes, they do fail some times but the vital point to notice is, they come back faster and much stronger than ever.
It doesn’t matter how often we fall; it’s how often we bounce back matters.
If we’ve climbed a small hill or ventured out on a trek, we’ll better understand this. When we are at the foot of the hill it’s really thrilling, exciting and curious about the stride. If we notice carefully the emotions and feelings of our friends or team members during the trek, I am sure at least one or two may not want to climb; they are comfortable with where they are. Most of us will start at full momentum with of lots of enthusiasm, eagerness and interest. Time and again in the middle of the course many of us look at the peak anxious, concerned and doubtful about completing the full climb. At the same time, we look back to the foot to feel happy, confident and convinced in our ability to climb the hill.

Here, we will see some more among us will not continue further, they would choose to sit back comfortably half way on the mountain. These are the people, think that they have done more than enough and happy with what they’ve got. Very few of us push ourselves to complete the trek to explore the peak of the hill.

When we reach the peak, there exists nothing. It’s just a crest of the hill, no great world wonders there. But, the moment we touch the peak wow it’s awesome, it’s splendid to feel as if we’ve conquered this world, bare minimum the smallest town around. There is nothing above us except, the beautiful blue sky and those floating clouds around. Once in life time if we touch the peak we will never settle anything less than that in future, no matter it’s a small hill or a huge mountain, because we know the happiness and bliss to be at the peak. That is where, all those finest players would love to be in every game of theirs.

And most importantly when we are at the peak, looking at this very huge mountain, open sky, never ending landscape makes us feel we are just a small creature in this massive universe. There blossoms humility, respect and kindness towards all creatures around us.

Let’s strive to reach the peak in all our endeavors in life. See you there.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love,

Anbusivam

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Mind and Its Training

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's blog page.

Mind, is a product of the impressions we have gathered so far in our lives, from the beginning onwards to date. Goaded by these impressions, an irresistible mind, wild and surging, drives us endlessly crazy. Only with thorough knowledge of the strategies of the mind and a full control of ourselves, we can hold the mind back to the point of concentration.

In one sense training the mind is to train it to behave. It is like catching a wild horse and turning it into a circus horse to do feats to order. How is it done?

Swami Vivekananda teaches:

Before we control the mind we must study it. The easiest way to get hold of the mind is to sit quiet and let it drift where it will for a while. Make no effort to control the thoughts, but watch them as a calm lake stretched before you and the thoughts come and go as bubbles rising and breaking on its surface. This will gradually lessen the circle of thoughts. We shall be surprised to see, when we begin this practice, how many hideous thoughts will come to our mind. As the practice continues the turbulence of the mind may increase at times, but with our sincere efforts the mind will become a circus horse.


Buddha teaches:



Nothing is more exhausting than a wrestling mind. Meditation is the only way to calm down one’s mind. By training the mind “we can transform the way we think, speak and act”. Mind training is not mere calming the thoughts; it is a way of going beyond to experience one’s innate natural self and radiance.



Let’s identify a meditation technique that is best suitable for us, purse it earnestly to Let Mind Run The Body.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love
Anbusivam


Friday, January 18, 2008

Let Mind Run The Body

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's blog page.

This morning, I went out in the streets of Indiranagar. Yes, I haven’t run long-stretch for a fairly long time. When I started last weekend, I wasn’t able to complete my full target of 1hr on the roads, but today I could do it. Yes, I did.

When I sat back relaxed to give it a thought, I realised that, I could achieve that only because of the Mind Training I did last night about the morning’s long run.

Mind Training…??? What’s that…???

Simple, it is some thing like preparing little ones for school. Yes, indeed lots of preparation happen much before a child goes to school. Parents enthrall their children with interesting stories and create pleasant fantasies in the young minds about school, new friends, play ground, sing, dance and learn. When an impression that, “Going to school and learning is fun” is created, then the child’s self confidence and motivation level ascends and now, the child starts waiting eagerly for the first day at school.

Likewise, training our mind becomes essential when we are running towards greater dreams and goals in life.

When mind and body are not completely aligned into one single goal or mission, most of the time body takes control. This is what happened in my previous weekend; my body was running the mind. Body is least interested in stretch targets, it’s more comfortable in accepting something less than what it is capable of without any pain involved.

But, this weekend it’s the other way. Mind was running the body. Hence I was able to complete my stretch target. Surprisingly I noticed that, mind sincerely listens to the body as well and adjusts its pace accordingly without stretching the body too much.

All this is because of Mind Training I did the previous night.

The empires of the futures are the empires of the mind.

- Winston Churchill

Ok, let's talk about how to do "Mind Training" in my next post

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love
Anbusivam

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Dutch Made Holland – A Lesson for Life

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's blog page.

The moment I stepped out of Schipol Airport in Amsterdam at 2PM on 1st Dec, I ran into the coolest weather that I’ve ever experienced in my life. I don’t think I can explain in plain word, that’s an experience to be felt, especially for someone from southern part of the sub continent. Thank goodness my friend was there to pick me up from Airport. We took a train to Nijmegen and on the way…….Oh Yeah; I’ve been talking about this all through the holidays and started here aswell.

Ok…coming to the business….yes, Dutch Leadership…!!!

In Netherlands they have a saying

“God made the Earth, but the Dutch made Holland”

Located at the mouth of the Rhine River, the Netherlands is a gateway to northwestern Europe and participates in the European common currency, the euro. Rotterdam, the world's and busiest general-cargo port, includes Europoort, a petroleum-refining center. When we are just talking of defending the fishermen folks and their villages from sea much after the horrific Tsunami devastation, Dutch started their defenses against sea much before almost 800 years ago. They built Dikes and Levies to protect their landscape from Invasion by the surrounding sea, as more than 60 percent of land is much below the sea level. Dutch water authorities (Rijkswaterstaat - in Dutch Language) are supposed to be the most advanced and admirable in water management. Interesting information I heard is, about 60 percent of the country is farmed with super-efficiency by just 2 percent of the population. Wow….that’s really amazing.

Hey..As I am writing this post, it is reminding me of a school time story 'The Hero of Haarlem", a nameless Dutch boy saves his country by putting his finger in a leaking dike and stays there all night, in spite of the cold.


Lucky to be there on the Christmas month, entire country was colorful with lot of decorations and gifts around. Though they celebrate Christmas in a splendid way, one will hardly find crowd in the Churches even on Sunday mornings, as most Dutch are not really regular in visiting Churches and almost more than 80 percent of the people I me don’t really have any great faith in God. May be they were busy in building dikes to protect their beautiful country against the sea, which still continues as a tradition.

Yes, I believe this is a great lesson for us; those striving to achieve great things in this world. Let’s not blame God or hold Him responsible for the happenings around us. Let’s be courageous enough to take things in our hands and have control over them. No one else can help us as truly as oneself.

Just by modifying the Dutch saying let’s say
“God made me in the Earth, but I made my Life”
Wish you a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year.

I sincerely believe, you had some useful information and worthwhile spending time here with me.

Thanks for visiting my page.

Dankuwel.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Coool...Winter in Holland..!!!!

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's blog page.

Netherlands, a nice Dutch country happened to my winter trip (oh yeah, its official. Why would I choose Holland myself in this winter...?)

Huh...in this damn cool weather, temperature is going down till -5 degC. Yeah, its very much new for me, but to my Dutch collegues surprise nothing could hold me all alone inside the apartment in the weekends.

I got a lot to learn, especially when I wore my favourite hat "Blogging on Leadership".

I've pleanty of details to share and will update in detail after coming back home to India.

Wish you all an excellent new year.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Mode of Motivation

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's blog page.

After writing one of my earlier posts Why do we need motivation…? I started eagerly observing people around only to understand their mode of motivation. Though it widely varies based on various factors, people’s mode of motivation is broadly based on the two ways, towards pleasure and away from pain. Our life becomes easy, if we can find out what the mode of motivation is for people around, those whom we want to inspire, influence, motivate etc.

Just by asking simple questions, we can easily find out one’s motivational mode. I asked a simple question to two waiters of a small south Indian restaurant nearby here in Bangalore. My question was “What makes you do this job?” in different occasions. First guy said “Sir, I did not like my previous job, I quit and I am here now in this restaurant. It’s all my fate; no one can help….hmm….hmmm”. Second guy said “Wow, I want to build a home in my village, open a small hotel there and settle down with my family”

Here we could clearly see the two different motivational modes. People with Inspiration/toward use words like “achieve”, “success”, “attain”, “accomplish”, “victory” and those with Desperation/away use words like “pain”, “avoid”, “get out of”.

If we can get to know the motivational modes of people around, then I am sure it’ll be pretty easy to get things done, by using the right choice of words and appropriate communication.


With Love,
Anbusivam

Monday, November 19, 2007

Oops...Coudn't Catch up with BCB5.

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's blog page.

I couldn’t catch up with the Barcamp this time due to some busy schedules in office, worked all through the weekend. To add fuel to the fire, I am getting mails from BCB mailing list saying...“I had a great time in BCB5”, “BCB5 was really wonderful”…….and so on :-)))

While trying to catch upwith the happenings there in BCB5, I found one of my friends and a very active fellow bangalore blogger Sanjukta's blog covering BCB5 in great details.

Sanjukta's BCB5 Coverage

With Love,
Anbusivam

Monday, November 12, 2007

BCB5 - BangaloreBarcamp Winter Edition

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's blog page.



Much awaited and the most happening BCB5 - BacampBangalore5 is coming as winter edition this weekend, 17th and 18th November 2007 @ IIM Bangalore. Again this unconference is a collective edition similar to BCB4 with some modifications and improvements.

Its a great opportunity for meeting likeminds, learning and have great fun. The best part of barcamps is, we as participants are going to create the complete flow, contents, talks and discussions of the entire conference..oops its "Unconference". Register yourself @ BarcampBangalore5 and take part in the discussions to make BCB5, a great grand success.

BCB4 was my first encounter with such an unconference and that was really an excellent experience. Look into my previous posts BCB4-Day1, BCB4-Day2 to get a feel about BarcampBangalore.

See you there in IIMB this weekend....!!!

With Love,
Anbusivam

Friday, October 26, 2007

Doing What We Love Vs Loving What We Do

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

When one of my friends asked, “What inspires you to write this blog?” I picked my journal only to turn the page I visit almost every day.

Sometime ago I wrote in my journal “Siva, you are here to do what you love to do, don’t ever settle for anything less than doing what you really love”. Yes, when I read this page every time, it reminds me the nights without sleep, terrifying thoughts flowing through my mind with full of doubts about the future. I’ve never had such longer, sleepless and contemplative nights afterwards. I am sure all of us had such sleepless nights in our lives, until deciding on what do we want from our life.

It’s chic among the new generation to say, “One should be doing what he/she loves”. Play guitar, travel the world, explore new things, write poems and of course if you are good at, money will follow. Research says that more than 80% of the young employees today are really not keen in what they are doing; instead love to do something else other than the job in hand. But, why are they stuck with the same old job? what stops them from taking that extra step? I’ve answers form my life.

Reality is indeed different; I have so many other commitments/responsibilities to my family members and myself. Let me not deny the fact that, my financial and economical conditions are not well enough to take that risk at present. May be I am not yet prepared to take up that trip through the road less traveled. I am sure, its going to be challenging and fun doing what I love. If I am not doing what I love, how am I handling my present until I start my journey on the highway towards what I love to do? There will be no energy, enthusiasm and fun in pursuing the dreams when there is a sense of dissatisfaction about what I have at present.

So, am I going to love what I do? Yes, I may not love my work; instead I love to do my work at present with 100% diligence. Somewhere, I read:
“There is always a choice about the way we do our work, even if there is not much choice about the work itself.”
I need to find the truth in that message, while getting ready, taking all possible efforts to jump start the highway journey. I also understand the risk of having too much of attachment to the present may probably fade the futuristic vision.

As I wrote in one of my previous posts Why do we need motivation…? I am getting closer to Inspiration in pursuing my dreams and goals in life.

This could be a blessing, while enjoying the present and getting ready for the future.

Thanks for visiting my blog page.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Producing Next Generation Leaders

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

We often relate the word "Leadership" with politics, business, sports, and very few areas of our lives. Many a times I've noticed people think and talk, that Leadership is all about position. But, I strongly believe Leadership is everybody’s business. It is for men, women and children. It is for families, business and communities. It is for me and you. It is for each one of us.

Now, I’ll take a back seat and want you to add in your cents here as comments. I really would love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

As a country are we producing moral leaders?
Are our schools and educational institutions teaching some life skills too?
Are the present generation bureaucrats’ ethical leaders?
Where are we failing in producing great inspiring leaders?
What could be done to get on ethical, inspiring leaders as our decision makers?


Eagerly awaiting for your thoughts..!!!

With Love,
Anbusivam

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Evolving Minds - Science Workshop

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

Anand, founder of evolvingminds is one of my good friends who shows tremendous amount of interest in others development. Though we don’t meet very often, one question he asks every time we meet is “When are you quitting your job?” Yes, Passionate young man I’ve ever met.

Being a physics enthusiast, he came out of the corporate jungle to pursue his dream of producing excellent young minds, started evolvingminds to bring down science & technology in simple and experiential forms to the younger generation. Helping the children in creating their own dreams and vision in their early age is really important in this world, full of opportunities and challenges. The key concept of evolvingminds is, helping them to explore their natural surroundings through thought provoking experiments, hands on activities and project works in Sciences, Mathematics and Technology.

Now, as a part of holiday events Evolvingminds is conducing “Dasara Science Camp” from 13th to 17th October, 2007. Excellent opportunity for parent’s to gift their child a great learning experience with lots of fun.

Find below the details:



Now, if we want to contribute our few cents in creating bright future by helping our children fly with colors in their life, let's share this workshop details with our friends, family and colleagues.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Let's Make Things Happen...!!!

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

Here is my first attempt to record myself and publish an Audio Podcast on "Let's Make Things Happen...!!!"



Enjoy Making Things Happen.

Awaiting your comments and suggestions.



With Love,
Anbusivam

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Why do we need motivation...?

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

When I am asked why do we need motivation in our life? I ask what makes them wake up everyday, rush to work irrespective of various problems in office and involve in regular routine. If we think these are really painful every day, then what makes us do the same mundane activities day after day all through our life?

As Anthony Robbins put it, “There are two things that motivate us to success: Inspiration or Desperation.

While operating from inspiration side, we strive to achieve something really great in our life and we are fully dedicated towards that higher goal or purpose. In that pleasure of pursuing the higher goal we normally tend to overlook the smaller pains and troubles we face in our day to day lives.

While operating from desperation side, we strive to get out of something that really bothers us and we are equally committed to work towards something better than what we are today. In that pursuit of coming out of the pain at present we normally tend to overlook the smaller pains and troubles we face in our day to day lives.

Inspiration or desperation, none of them is fully right or wrong, and no human being is operating completely from inspiration or desperation side. We tend to act according to the situations around, entirely based on our existing patterns that have been programmed all along our life since childhood. Either way is appropriate moving towards pleasure or moving away from pain, where as people moving towards inspirational goals are widely appreciated by the world around us.

A nice quote I came across just flashed in my mind and that goes like this:
The world is moved by highly motivated people, highly energetic folks, enthusiastic men and women who want to achieve something great and believe in greater aspirations.
Let’s find out our appropriate style of motivation that will drive us towards our greater purpose in life.


With Love,
Anbusivam

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Excerpts from SiliconIndia Leadership Summit

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

Isn’t it great, to have leaders of top companies sharing their leadership wisdom on a single stage. Yes, SliconIndia magazine made true in its SiliconIndia Leadership Summit held on Friday, 31 August.

One could see CEO’s and managers of big corporate houses, starting from pioneers of technology to small startups striving to take technology into a new higher level. I must say I am one among very few participants below 30yrs old. Leaders from different walk of lives added additional appeal to the summit.

Here are few excerpts from the summit and my learning’s out of spending a day with great leaders and visionaries. And the best part was none of them proclaimed themselves as leaders, instead they were humane and humble. Humility was the most commonly used word and every one of them insisted Humility as a must have quality to become a successful leader.

Sharad Sharma, CEO, Yahoo! India R&D gave first keynote speech on “From Offshoring to Incubation”. He talked in detail about, the importance of moving up in the global value chain by stepping ahead in to product incubation in place of offering only services. He said emerging markets are highly fragmented, hence one should come with niche solutions with customer focused design and innovative marketing. Only way to sustain and succeed is to out innovate in respective core domains by quick accelerating innovation, transfer of ideas and technologies within companies across global design centres and creating new products in close proximity to the emerging markets. He also insisted Leaders should encourage in bringing up “Intrapreneurs” with in their company to move fast ahead.

Ramesh Srinivasan, EVP, Bally Technologies India gave his keynote address on “Identifying Great Leaders Early”. He said “What I am today is lot of impressions people left on me”. He insisted the importance of identifying early leaders in a organization and the need for grooming them into future leaders. Though I personally couldn’t agree with few of his points, he gave a totally different perspective about early leadership.

Here are few key qualities of an early leader:

Humble and paranoid (Again Humility took first place)
Excellent work ethics
Great at improving
Can do attitude
Customer pleasers and not boss pleasers
Striking common sense
Challenging attitude
Respect for others
Aggressive commitments (will honor most of them)
Will not win popularity contests among team members
Peers will complain
Very good teachers
Not great long term thinkers (keen in completing the task in hand)
Attention to details
….and so on.


Dr. Vivek Mansingh, Country Manager, Dell India R&D enthralled the audience with his keynote speech on “Leadership through success: The Ramayana Way!”. He said we in India always “over manage and under lead” and I personally feel the same, as that’s how we’ve been learning from early school days.

He started with Daniel Coleman’s research paper "Leadership That Gets Results" published in Harvard Business Review. He also emphasised “Emotional Intelligence” as a key quality of a leader. Then went on to Ramayana from which he took few verses, where in Rama explains to Vibhisahan, what leadership means in a metaphorical way.

Rama said,

Battle field - Have a Noble cause or worthy result for fighting the battle.
4 wheels of the chariot – character, courage, ethics and valor
Horses to drive – strength, energy, passion, discrimination and empathy
Reins that’ll control – forgiveness, compassion, equanimity and consistency
Flag on the top – integrity and righteousness
Armours to fight the battle – right skills and attitude

Of course, Vivek was surrounded with the usual controversial topics in Ramayana, and lot of heated discussion went on during the lunch as well.

Dr. Biswadip (Bobby) Mitra, Managing Director, Texas Instruments India gave his keynote speech on “Leadership traits for emerging markets”. Bobby said volatility and uncertainty are the main characteristics of any emerging market. One who can plan accordingly and play effectively to mitigate the risks involved around uncertainties will emerge as a market leader in his domain of expertise. He said anchoring on customers, making right judgments/decisions on time to market neither too early nor too late and quality of the product will alone decide leaders in an emerging markets. He went on to add that leadership styles in developed countries will not suit our needs as we are totally different economically and culturally as well. Hence, we should learn from western leaders, apply accordingly in our context to be a successful leader.

There were interesting panel discussions on - how successful leaders think, great leaders take risk, managing the most talented and managing leadership derailers.

Overall, SiliconIndia Leadership Summit was an excellent platform to learn directly from the real life experiences and insights of great Indian corporate leaders.

Thank You SiliconIndia!!!


With Love,
Anbusivam

Friday, August 24, 2007

SiliconIndia Leadership Summit



SiliconIndia: Professional Network for Global Indians is organizing a Leadership Summit, which I am sure is going to be an excellent platform for the leaders of today and tomorrow. Agenda seems to be very interesting as the CEO's of top technology companies are attending to give keynote speeches, involve in panel discussions and share their thoughts and experiences on leadership.

When:
August 31, 2007
8.00AM to 5.00PM

Where:
Taj Residency, Bangalore
41/3, Mahatma Gandhi Road
Bangalore 560 001
Karnataka, India

Register Here:
SiliconIndia Leadership Summit

Speakers Include:
Sharad Sharma, CEO, Yahoo! India R&D

Naresh Gupta, MD-Adobe Systems India & SVP, Adobe Systems India

Anil Gupta, Vice President, Sun India Engineering Center

Vijay Anand, Vice President, Oracle India

Dr. Albert Stritter, VP & Managing Director,Infineon Technologies India

Sanjeev Kumar, VP & Head, BEA Systems India R&D Center

Srini Raghavan, Managing Director, Bally Technologies India

Dr. Biswadip (Bobby) Mitra, Managing Director. Texas Instruments India

Alexius Collette, CEO, Philips Innovation Campus

Sanjay Singh, Managing Director, Akamai Technologies India

Makarand Teje,President & COO, AppLabs

SiliconIndia says that, this is a closed-door invite only Summit, which allows for free exchange of idea’s and experiences among the attendees. Leaders gather in a dynamic forum for lively conversations and penetrating questions about the business, technology, innovation, and opportunity.

An amazing opportunity to learn form the leaders and don't miss it.

Participate, Contribute, Enjoy and Learn to Lead...

With Love,
Anbusivam