Overcoming Fear

Sandeep Aggarwal, founder of startup Droom, is paranoid about physical contact with people. Even when people put cake on his face on his birthday, he regarded it as an encroachment of his privacy, He recalled  the activities he did back when he was in Microsoft, which had helped him build lifetime relationships with his team members. So he organized a cake - smashing session for his team - hurling 250 pastries and 50 cakes at each other. himself included.

#MyLearning
Fear of fear can come in the way of building  lasting relationships, or delivering our best. To overcome fear, - confront it.

Enemy of Excellence

In a recent TV commercial,  a father and son go to a prospective bride's place to see her. When the girl enters the room, the boy looks at the picture he had been given of her earlier, finds a mismatch and tells the father so. The father tries to mollify the son with 'unees bees chalta hai', or, minor differences are to be condoned.
#MyLearning
Can our ingrained Indian habit of settling for 'unees bees' or second best, letting price and crude functionality win over quality, the 'chalta hai' attitude come in the way of our goal to become the manufacturing destination of the world?

Learning in New Ways

Faced with the problem of excessive product failures, Rajiv Bajaj turned to unlikely places to glean management lessons. Places such as yoga, homeopathy & even philosophers, like Seneca & Confucius. Yoga taught him that "a posture without a sound position is a monkey on the mat. (Similarly) a brand without a sound position is a commodity in the market."

#MyLearning
When stuck with a problem, think out-of-the-box - look for solutions outside of your industry or field of work. The metaphors & analogies from the learning and practice, drive home the lessons of key imperatives in powerful ways.

A Phased Approach to Goal-Setting

David Berg, COO Carlson Hospitality and Travel Co. uses a phased approach to goals; Core goals are the short term success measures for the next 12 months where he puts the maximum amount of his resources. Optimization goals are those where success measures 12-18 months out and where he puts a modest amount of resources. The Transformation goals are ideas to explore with impact beyond 18-24 months, here he puts a small amount of resources.

#MyLearning
By giving our goals labels that indicate the meaning they have for us, we invest them with a clarity and urgency that can shape the nature of our priorities, and extent of our responses.

Picture: mattaboutmoney.com

The Relationship Dance

"Love is not the only emotion felt between a mother and child.  The relationship is like a dance - sometimes you are close, sometimes you pull away;  there is passion, anger and forgiveness;  and much like a dance,  the relationship will end one day." - Anita Ratnam, Indian classical dancer.

#MyLearning
Every relationship goes through the motions of this very dance - whether personal or professional. While relationships with no expectations attached are the most lasting, it is good to occasionally reflect on what a relationship means to us - what emotional sustenance does it provide us?  Does it make me feel wanted? Does it give me joy and happiness? Does it insire and motivate?  And more such questions. The idea being not to treat the relationship a transaction,  but to make us aware of it's importance in our lives.

Picture: aninception.com