Distinguish Yourself (#51 – #100)

In this series, you will find 50 entries from the “Distinguish Yourself” on my blog Life Beyond Code

#100 -Get OFF the way (22 Jan 2006)
The point to ponder is “How could you create an environment so that you are not stalling the growth of any superstars in your team?”

#99 – Forgive and Forget (22 Jan 2006)
Life would be simple if everyone was nice to you, if no one took advantage of you, no one “used” you or everyone was fair to you all the time. It would almost be “Unreal” to imagine those things.

#98 – Clarify your intentions (22 Jan 2006)
In a way, intentions provide a starting point for any significant journey. Obviously, watching your intentions closely will help as your broad brush strokes of destiny are painted via your intentions.

#97 – Use power appropriately (22 Jan 2006)
How much power is really required to do what you need to do?

#96 – Let Go First (22 Jan 2006)
In your own world, try and see if you are behaving like a trapeze artist who is wanting to make a jump but is unwilling to let go first. While you are not letting go, the advantage is that you won’t be in that “risky” position where you are “support less.” The disadvantage, though, is that you are not going anywhere.

#95 – NEVER forget any help (19 Jan 2006)
You will agree with me that wherever you are today, you didn’t get there all by yourself. There are a lot of people who would have helped you at various points in your life. As you can only expect, many of those people who helped you at an earlier stage in life no longer have the capacity to help you anymore. May be you have grown bigger than those very people who helped you to get where you are today. If you decide to forget the help that these people provided, there won’t be a material impact on where you will be going next.

#94 – Learn to meditate (19 Jan 2006)
The topic of mind-body connection has been written about endlessly. We all know that there is enough scientific evidence to establish the mind-body connection. If this is the case, it is in our best interest to keep our mind healthy. Meditation, I think is one easy way of doing just that!

#93 – Be comfortable contradicting yourself, sometimes! (Jan 16, 2006)
The other way of saying this is that if you are TOTALLY wrong, just admit it!

#92 – Watch with whom you spend most of your time (15 Jan 2006)
I am in no way suggesting that you should not have friends with whom you have a lot of fun. The wisdom is in determining how much fun you will have NOW in your life and how much you will reserve for the future

#91 – Be comfortable to say “I don’t know” (14 Jan 2006)
There is a problem if you regularly say “I don’t know” and there is a problem if you never say “I don’t know.”

#90 – Question the question (12 Jan 2006)
Whenever a question is asked, our general tendency is to respond with an answer. That is the way we are programmed – right from home. The same thing continues at school. The teacher asks a question and the student answers. Go to work and most often, the practice continues. The boss asks a question and you answer. It is this conditioning that makes it hard to act otherwise.

#89 – Avoid the SEABE Trap (11 Jan 2006)
SEABE = Searching for the Best Excuse

#88 – Close the loop (07 Jan 2006)
Closing the loop consistently takes a lot of hard work. If you are committed to closing the loop on tasks assigned to you, you will watch your commmitments carefully. You will think before you make promises and you won’t over-extend yourself.

#87 – Manage your filters well (02 Jan 2006)
So one simple approach can be that every now and then drop your filters when you listen to a new idea or a concept. Or, mentally assign the source of this idea to someone that you trust a lot. Who knows – you might be pleasantly surprised!

#86 – Spread your payback horizons (30 Dec 2005)
Payback horizon is the amount of time that has to elapse before you see a return on your investment. Smart people unconsciously design their lives to spread payback horizons. Doing this consciously will increase the effectiveness by leaps and bounds.

#85 – Bring the right puzzle pieces into the game (29 Dec 2005)
Just taking the time to think about what puzzle they are solving and what pieces are missing can make a huge difference in the way you will approach offering help to them.

#84 – Stretch your payback cycles (23 Dec 2005)
I am of the firm belief that there are things in our closets of the past that are not fully leveraged thus shortening payback cycles for many of our investments. Once we become conscious of this, things change dramatically.

#83 – Be comfortable being alone (19 Dec 2005)
Practice being alone for sometime. It can be as simple as taking a walk in the evening. And yes, please shut off the cell phone and the blackberry while you are taking that walk

#82 – Connect the unknown to the known (17 Dec 2005)
Next time when you need to communicate something, think about the audience and see what is already “known” to them. Once you know this, you can try and relate whatever new you have to communicate using what is “already known.”

#81 – Develop cultural sensitivity (16 Dec 2005)
We have been saying for a long time that the web is breaking the borders and making it seamless for people to collaborate globally. Whether we want it or not – globalization is here to stay. If you can’t beat it, best is to make the most out of it. Developing cultural sensitivity is no longer a luxury. It is almost mandatory!

#80 - Don’t chase exclusivity without a CLEAR plan to leverage it (12 Dec 2005)
Question for you: What kind of exclusivity are you chasing right now? Can you make the most out of that exclusivity when you do get it?

#79 - Gather the right puzzle pieces (14 Dec 2005)
Imagine that you have a set of lego blocks – let’s say about 60 of them. What we can do with these blocks depends on our creativity, skill level, amount of time we are willing to commit and so on. Some people may create a small object and others might build something big. Each person can create something of their own.

#78 – Think! (13 Dec 2005)
Do you think? OR Do you think you THINK?

#77 – Treat your competition with respect (12 Dec 2005)
One of the key reasons there might be no competition is because really, there may be no market for that product or service.

#76 – Follow up (11 Dec 2005)
When you make a compelling product or service offer to people, they may not be ready to sign up immediately. If you are confident that there will be a match in the future, it is your responsbility to follow up and be on the mind of the customer.

#75 – Provide early warning signals (09 Dec 2005)
One of the biggest problems leaders have is that negatives on any project are not known until it’s very late – sometimes until the project is in crisis.

#74 – Activate the catalyst: Intensity (06 Dec 2005)
Just like in sports, Intensity makes a big difference in life and in work. If you turn your intensity a notch higher, you will probably see a jump in your productivity. We all know that flatlining won’t take us far in our careers. With the right intensity, flatlining won’t have a place in our work and in life.

#73 – Watch how you say “what you do” (05 Dec 2005)
The question for you is “What do you do?” and now observe how and what you say in response. What you say and how you say it makes a big difference.

#72 – Be willing to step back to move forward (04 Dec 2005)
Talk to people who you think have made it and ask them if they had to step back sometime in their life before reaching the heights they reached – you will be surprised how many will answer in the positive.

#71 – Expand your capacity to receive help (02 Dec 2005)
Rather than complaining that everyone is selfish and nobody wants to help, should we not focus on exapanding the capacity to receive help?

#70 – Increase “shelf-life” of your power relationships (01 Dec 2005)
Young and upcoming professionals typically have a hard time building relationships with very powerful people unless they bring something extremely compelling to the table. Unless this changes, their own rating on the power scale won’t go up. Meeting powerful people is only a part of the equation. The real test is how long can you hold the attention, engage them and keep them in a relationship (shelf-life of power relationships)

#69 – Balance home runs with small wins (29 Nov 2005)
Always focusing on small wins has one danger – that you might be in a Continuous Spiral Syndrome trap. It feels like you are winning in the short term but in the long run you may be losing out. On the other hand, just focusing on home runs (big wins) also has a danger that if there is no sign of measurable progress in reasonable time you might get disillusioned and give up.

#68 – Generalize (very) slowly (27 Nov 2005)
If you observe carefully, the root cause is our tendency to “assume that something is true for the whole when it’s only true for the part.” You can beat this system by just slowing down whenever you are making far reaching conclusions or generalizations.

#67 – Understand the 3T Rule (26 Nov 2005)
The danger of not mastering the 3T rule is that we might think working hard is the answer to speed up things (and break our back bones) when all we needed to know was that things just take time sometimes.

#66 – Keep your “story so far” ready (25 Nov 2005)
Stories are powerful. Your own story is powerful. Since you are the most important person in your life, it is worth recording your story. Keep “Your story so far..” up to date and ready to be exchanged with your friends to take your relationship to the next level.

#65 – Be grateful (24 Nov 2005)
In summary, everyone needs help. Most people get significant help. However, only a handful are grateful for all the help they receive. You can stand out from the crowd by being one of these handful people.

#64 – Smile! (24 Nov 2005)
Yes, that’s right. It can be as simple as that. You can stand out from the crowd just by boosting up your smile a bit and spreading cheer wherever and whenever you can.

#63 – Avoid CSS Trap (18 Nov 2005)
CSS = Continuous Spiral Syndrome

#62 – Stop comparing to the ideal scenario (16 Nov 2005)
It is good to compare to an ideal scenario when the objective is to improve and perform better. However, most of us carry out this comparison to complain or to feel miserable.

#61 – Package information for easy consumption (16 Nov 2005)
Because we are so busy, we take shortcuts and send data and expect the other person to figure it out the real information from within this data. This may work well but imagine if one of your peers is always “Packaging information for easy consumption“, he or she will instantly differentiate and stand-out from the crowd.

#60 – Recognize and respect potential (14 Nov 2005)
You want to make a lasting impression on someone’s life? Start recognizing and respecting potential in those young people way before someone else does. You would have secured a permanent position in their hearts and minds.

#59 – Avoid Passive Resistance (11 Nov 2005)
The soul searching question to ask yourself is “Am I committed 100% to all the projects that I am participating in?” If the answer is “Yes” then you may not be playing the “passive resistance” game. Good for
you. If not, you may be playing a passive resistance game to some degree.

#58 – Understand the law of the bucket and the glass (08 Nov 2005)
Next time, when you are talking to someone, please see whether the other person has a glass or a bucket and then pour your information appropriately. It will save both of you a lot of time and energy!

#57 – Focus on the last mile (04 Nov 2005)
Think about it – how many of your projects are almost complete? If a few projects come to your mind instantly don’t panic – you are not alone. We all are experts in getting to 90% completion level on most of the projects that we are working on.

#56 – Craft a compelling elevator pitch for yourself (04 Nov 2005)
You are your biggest asset. It is worth spending your time on preparing an elevator pitch for yourself. It will pay back big time over a long time.

#55 – Commoditize your work at regular intervals (03 Nov 2005)
Don’t hold on to your idea as if it’s the last one on your mind. Start giving it away and make room for new ones in your mind

#54 – Expand your 100% Trust Network (30 Oct 2005)
A person is in your “100% Trust Network” if you trust him come what may. It is not a simple “trust” that you extend where it really means “I trust you 100% as long as you don’t screw up.”  In other words, it is sort of an un-conditional trust.

#53 – Always be ready to win the “boxing game” (30 Oct 2005)
You are constantly being “boxed”. Work towards something remarkable so that you are always ready to win the boxing game. Learn to communicate well and be relevant. Make it a point to give a compelling elevator speech.

#52 – Continue to gain respect from people close to you (28 Oct 2005)
Think about people that are close to you. They know a lot more about you than others. There is no question of you putting the best foot forward. You can try. But these people know your best and the worst. So, if people that are close to you have to genuinely love and respect you, you must be “special”. If you want to continue to gain respect from people that are close to you, it requires special effort.

#51 – Work on your “Mile High Factor” (25 Oct 2005)
Since you Mile High Factor does not automatically grow, you have to work towards growing it diligently.