"Unless You try to do something beyond what you have already mastered,
You will never grow..!" Ralph Waldo Emerson

How so easily said, yet how so true!!! Keep learning a New Skill regularly (Could be anything – mastering a new Software, Interpersonal skill, working on something you have been procrastinating for a long time, a New hobby or finally doing something you are passionate about…) - this will keep Your mind busy, help think better and also make you ready faster to move up the corporate ladder.

Take the small Poll on the New year resolutions, & tell us what you feel about it

Hi Friends, So here comes a Special Edition 34 of Good to Great… This weeks thanks and Special credits are to Kala, Manoj, Jyoti, Nisha, Kamesh, Kannan, etc. Please read in Leisure and continue to share your articles, jokes, puzzles, feedback to balajineela@gmail.com

Contents

1. Its all about YOU.. B/f Sriram, Akila,
2. Thought for this week…B/f Ram
3. Health..Parenting…B/f Murthy
4. Management quick tips..Self appraisal....B/f SK
5. Jokes corner....B/f Angelenaa
6. Management thoughts… What Businesses Must Do To Succeed In 2009 B/f Manoj
7. Cartoonz..
8. Tip for this week....Managing Change..B/f Mythily
9. Financial Scenario…

1. Its all about YOU

Choose to love-rather than hate.
Choose to smile-rather than frown.
Choose to build-rather than destroy.
Choose to persevere-rather than quit.
Choose to praise-rather than gossip.
Choose to heal-rather than wound.
Choose to give-rather than take.
Choose to act-rather than delay.
Choose to forgive-rather than curse.
Choose to pray-rather than despair

Simple tips, follow these & I am sure 2009 would be a great year for each of us.

2. Thought for this week

When Dale Carnegie was puny lad, his dream was to become a football player. A college coach convinced him that he couldn’t become a football player.

But Dale refused to accept it and started analyzing his problems. To his great surprise, he discovered that he doesn’t want to become a football player but he wants the applause and popularity of a football player.

He developed his talent in public speaking and established a school of public speaking and also wrote the famous book ‘ How to win friends and influence people’.

We must follow his example, and start analyzing our goals. Write down your goals and ask yourself why you want to achieve those goals. With some small changes, you can make the unattainable goal, an achievable one. Always see the source of the goal.

3. Health - PARENTING!!!!

Understanding a child psychology & nurturing them with great care is perhaps the most difficult task. Though everyone is doing it since the inception of the earth & everyone tries to solve out the missing pieces of the puzzle & every now & then there are more & more numbers of psychologist who come up with n-number of theories, the puzzle at the large always remains unsolved. Each child is to be given a different care & understanding. Each one is unique.

Discipline & manners are always there for us to teach them & if they fail learning so, we are again there to teach them say SORRY. Say sorry, my son! Say sorry...We force them to say sorry in name of teaching them goods of the life but

We need to remember that they don't learn from what we teach but what we do in fact. They have seen us never apologizing on any of the ego-matters & that makes it the hardest for them to say sorry when it comes to do so.

4. Management quick tips.. Self Appraisal

Timely one, when we are all busy with year end Appraisals

A little boy went into a drug store, reached for a Soda carton and pulled it over to the telephone. He climbed onto the carton so that he could reach the buttons on the phone and proceeded to punch in seven digits (phone numbers).The store-owner observed and listened to the conversation:

Boy: "Lady, Can you give me the job of cutting your lawn?

Woman: (at the other end of the phone line): "I already have someone to cut my lawn.

"Boy: "Lady, I will cut your lawn for half the price of the person who cuts your lawn now."

Woman: I'm very satisfied with the person who is presently cutting my lawn.

Boy: (with more perseverance): "Lady, I'll even sweep your curb and your sidewalk,so on Sunday you will have the prettiest lawn in all of Palm beach , Florida.

Woman: No, thank you.With a smile on his face, the little boy replaced the receiver..The store-owner, who was listening to all this, walked over to the boy.

Store Owner: "Son… I like your attitude; I like that positive spirit and would like to offer you a job".

Boy: "No thanks",

Store Owner: But you were really pleading for one.

Boy: No Sir, I was just checking my performance at the job I already have."I am the one who is working for that lady, I was talking to!"

This is what we call "Self Appraisal"

5. Jokes corner.. Male or Female Fly

A woman walked into the kitchen to find her Husband standing around with a fly swatter

"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Hunting Flies" He responded.
"Oh. ! Killing any?" She asked.
"Yep, 3 males, 2 Females," he replied.
Intrigued, she asked. "How can you tell them apart?"

He responded, "3 were on a beer can, 2 were on the phone.

6. Management thoughts - What Businesses Must Do To Succeed In 2009

Very relevant article in current time…thanks Manoj

With the economic climate so precarious, 2009 will be a time when successful businesses have to redefine what they do and how they do it. Hunkering down to weather the storm and emerging the same as before when the economy begins to recover won't cut it. Too much will have changed. But the opportunities will be extraordinary for business leaders who have the vision, skill and courage to move forward.
What should you watch for? What are the opportunities and perils of the immediate future?

First, leaders at every level will have to make very big choices. The era of covering up conflict by funding something for everyone is over. Great teams will need all their shared trust and commitment to work through the inevitable battles that break out when making tough choices. Handled right, these struggles will be about creating breakthrough futures, not about protecting turf or power. They'll be about making choices that allow for rapid progress even in complex multinational organizations. Look for leadership teams that regularly invite productive dissent and then fully get behind and act on the decisions they make.

Second, corporate agendas will have to embody a clear understanding of the implications of global networks--financial, social and business--for the marketplace and for business. The current crisis allows us, indeed forces us, to drop the baggage of the past and to work in ways that make sense in the 21st century. Networking and connectivity cannot lag.A wide range of companies, such as Baxter Healthcare, IBM and ExxonMobil, are already pushing the frontiers of internal and external networking. Businesses that use their networks and connections to reach out to their communities to help them through these difficult times will reap a reward of goodwill and loyalty that will pay off for years.

Many business leaders have yet to grasp an essential implication of the Internet: Customers not only have all the information they need at their fingertips, but the Internet gives them a long memory, too. For instance, investment advisers who are touched by the Madoff scandal will be remembered on the Internet long after the scandal is over. Fairly or unfairly, they'll have a harder time moving on and putting their involvement, even at the periphery, in the past.

Third, local will be the flavor of the year. Big multinational businesses have discovered that their bigness doesn't at all exempt them from the vicissitudes of the financial markets. In a time of crisis, open, honest communication becomes even more important as people demand to know who they're dealing with and insist on a deeper sense of scrutiny and trust. This gives the local, the small and the regional a special opportunity to compete. But don't be fooled.

The new "local" is more about connection than about geographic location. L.L. Bean, for instance, has invested in both call center training and high-tech support so that its employees can make personal recommendations based on individual customers' purchasing histories. Companies that fully understand networks can find ways to combine thin geographically local presence with vast non-local resources to greatly enhance the customer experience while taking unnecessary cost out of the system.

Fourth, green matters. The price of oil may have plummeted in recent weeks, but it's a temporary respite. Winning businesses will take advantage of the crisis to make major moves to lessen their dependence on carbon energy forms and find ways to save both money and energy in all their activities.

Consumers are becoming less and less tolerant of mindless energy waste in small ways such as packaging, and companies like Wal-Mart, Johnson & Johnson, and GE are already addressing this concern by taking huge steps to take waste out of the supply chain. In 2009 the pressure for this kind of change will only accelerate.

When the crisis recedes, businesses that haven't taken steps to compete in sustainable ways will be left further and further behind. Now is the time to get moving on the initiatives that not only save in the short run but position your business for a viable future.

Finally, leaders everywhere will seek new perspectives and invest more time in thinking about alternatives and different futures from anything they had imagined before. It's a rare crisis that doesn't force survivors to rethink their direction, assumption and prospects.
We are already seeing the speed with which individuals are rethinking their habits of consumption, from driving to retail purchases to entertainment. Many are taking a very different view of their careers, choosing to seek work that will be more meaningful, not just more lucrative.

Everyone in significant leadership roles needs to ask themselves, "What did I know, and why didn't I see this crisis coming?"

Leaders everywhere need to ask how they can resist the urge to close off and do without and instead enlarge their circles of advisers, their perspectives and their spheres of influence to understand better what the new world will look like once the storm is past.
If we didn't know it before, we certainly know now that not questioning group think is not good enough. Smart leaders will raise both their personal and their organizational bar to seek out many perspectives and entertain many future possibilities. They'll make it a regular part of their job to do the very hard work of thinking beyond today's conventional wisdom.

7. Cartoons..

No scam in this....but a cool cartoon on Being Lean and utilising your available resources to the maximum.

8. Tip for this week…. Tips for managing change…

The only thing that does not change is Change -how can we Face it better, adapt & Grow with change – here are some very simple tips.

* Be open to change.
* Make sure that you handle the tasks that you face at the moment.
* Be positive & active.
* Be prepared to use your feelings and the energy that comes from them, to positive effect.
* Be realistic, deal with positive as well as negative facts.
* Make the effort to look for the alternatives even if they are hard to find at first.
* Develop your skills.
* Like yourself.

Learn love to change

9. Financial Scenario

The LIE called SATHYAM?
Sathyam collapse widely followed by the media and thru email chain forwards is undoubtedly going to cause a further turmoil (atleast in the Indian context) – Indian Software giants would com under lot of scrutiny and it is at this time companies need to be further re-silent – Sticking to basics, On time delivery, High Quality outputs, etc.,

Irony was that Satyam has won this prestigious award in 2006(!!!)
Satyam receives global recognition from the Institute of Internal Auditors, USA
The Internal Audit team of Satyam awarded the "Recognition of Commitment Award (ROC)"

Sure there is going to be lots of questions raised – on the Management, Auditors (PwC), awards received by Satyam – Hmmm!!!

At a global level, the financial situation is becoming even murkier – clearly the absence of leadership at the US is not helping things either…here are some Quotable quotes from Jay Leno on the current state of US economy

1. The US has made a new weapon that destroys people but keeps the building standing. Its called the stock market.

2. Do you have any idea how cheap stocks are? Wall Street is now being called Wal Mart Street.

3. The difference between a pigeon and a London investment banker. The pigeon can still make a deposit on a BMW.

4. What's the difference between a guy who lost everything in Las Vegas and an investment banker?
A tie!

5. I want to warn people from Nigeria who might be watching our show ...
if you get any emails from Washington asking for money, it's a scam. Don't fall for it.