Swamigal’s compassion for Kalpana’s grandmother!

Shankara!

It was in Arni (North Arcot District) where my wife’s paternal grandfather (Late) Sri  A.N. Lakshman Rao, a school teacher and Headmaster, was living with 7 kids, when our beloved Poojya Sri Maha Periyavaa had made Digvijayam to Arni!

Devout Granny (Late) Smt. Shanta Bai, was very eager to have HIS darshan and seek HIS blessings. When she had expressed her desire, the grandpa had turned it down stating, there are lots of work pending and need to take care of the domestic work or so. Being a very obedient and pious wife, she couldn’t utter a word against him and stayed back at home, with her mind still uncontrollable.

In the mean time, she could hear people chanting “Jaya Jaya Shankara; Hara Hara Shankara” behind their house. She realized that Swamiji was in the street behind their house.

Needless to mention that her mind was totally oscillating with the…

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3 Words That Will Revolutionize Your Leadership

Leading with Trust

“I trust you.”

When it comes to building trust in relationships, someone has to make the first move. One person has to be willing to step out, be a little vulnerable, and place trust in another person. Is it risky? Yes! Without risk there isn’t a need for trust.

So in a work setting, who makes the first move, the leader or the follower? Some would argue that trust has to be earned before it is given, so that places the responsibility on the follower to make the first move. The follower needs to demonstrate trustworthiness over a period of time through consistent behavior, and as time goes by, the leader extends more and more trust to the follower. Makes sense and is certainly valid.

I would argue it’s the leader’s responsibility to make the first move. It’s incumbent upon the leader to extend, build, and sustain trust with his/her followers. Why?…

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We No Longer Initiate, Instead We React

Cory Galbraith

I don’t know about you, but I’m becoming increasingly frustrated by a world that reacts to things, but doesn’t actually want to initiate anything.

Decisions bring responsibility, and many of us are afraid of that. Afraid of making a mistake. Of offending someone. Or of looking foolish, in an increasingly critical and judgmental society.

Best not to decide on anything. Do nothing and wait for something to happen.

In a recent blog post, marketing guru Seth Godin puts a lot of the blame on technology. He points out that we have audiobooks, self-driving cars, inboxes, google navigation and apps that are in our face – doing things for us, guiding us, and alerting us. We’ve become people who are “led” by gadgets. There really isn’t the need to think any more. Machines do it for us.

Godin goes as far as to say “The decline of our personal momentum might…

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Successful Supervisor 87 Trust and the Quality of Your Life

While doing research for my third book, Leading with Trust is Like Sailing Downwind, I studied the personalities of numerous supervisors and other leaders to determine their characteristics. I found an interesting trend that has an important lesson about trust.

The most highly successful supervisors seemed to be having more fun, while the supervisors who were not doing well were really miserable.

I noticed that the top-rated supervisors had created high trust organizations, and they were allowed to be human beings. They could make occasional mistakes and the people who work for them would still respect them.

The supervisors who were doing poorly were bundles of nerves trying to figure out how to be perfect, because there was low trust in their organizations. If they did not spin every statement the right way, people would jump all over them.

These supervisors of low trust groups were staying up all…

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Three Key Attributes Of A Great Employee

Practical Practice Management

I have managed a medical practice for 22 years now and I am always grateful for employees that have that desire to be the best they can each day.  The way I think is why come to work if you are not going to bring your best you to perform.  No employer wants to pay 100% pay for an employee who performs 75% of what is expected.

Employees that get this and do it are so valuable to a company and should be recognized and rewarded for their effort to do their best each day.  To some people this mindset is a given, possible they were taught this throughout their childhood or maybe they had a great mentor at a prior job.  For others, they need the opportunity given to them to learn this, because it will benefit them throughout their working life.

There are so many attributes that make…

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Take Time To Care

Practical Practice Management

With the hustle and busyness of our day-to-day lives we can so easily forget to take time to care for others.  I know for myself that there have been times when I heard that someone I know or work with is having difficulties and my first thought is “I don’t have time to get involved.”  When in truth, it would only take a small amount of time to reach out and see how they are and to let them know that I care about them.

The second truth is when I do reach out, not only does the person respond with gratefulness, but I am the one who truly gets the blessing.  I encourage you to take the time to care, it is what we are here to do.

“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own…

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Science versus Mythology – Conspiracy Theories

Vividcomm

The fact or fiction debate has never raged stronger than it is these days.  Social media is an opportunity to have a voice.  But, it needs to be an authentic voice.  In the world of fake news, there are way too many posts to count every day that offer ideas that have no basis in fact and are completely contrived.  They are built upon wild and unsubstantiated thoughts and ideas that someone simply decides are the ‘truth’.  At least, their ‘truths’.

In our every day business world, we face similar scenarios that taint, colour, or distort our business decision-making processes.  Separating the facts from the fiction is mission-critical to your success.  In retrospect, some of these myths seem silly and unbelievable, yet they are held to be true by many.  In business, people lock on to myths too.  They hold them very close and defend them at all costs, even…

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Artificial Intelligence Partiality

Vividcomm

Now, during the very infancy of the development of artificial intelligence (AI), we are seeing bias programmed into it, to influence a significant level of unfairness.  We naturally expected that AI would be impartial, equitable, and able to compute solutions to problems without any ulterior motives or undue influences.  However, this does not appear to be the case and AI is clearly being heavily influenced.  It is amplifying the prejudiced inherent in the coders writing it.  This is wrong, and it must stop now, before it proceeds to far and perhaps beyond the point of no return.

We expected that AI would be emotionless, calculating, and sterile.  It would mathematically deduce outcomes that were logical, practical, and without unjust effect.  It was suppose to be much better than how we humans come to our decision-making, which is polluted with coloured prejudices, lopsided opinions, and personal hatreds.

For example:

• Google’s first…

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‘Agile Culture’ Failures

Vividcomm

In software programing there are several approaches to building products.  The two most popular are the agile and waterfall methodologies.  Both methods are good.  Both methods have there place whereby they fit better than the others.  However, there is a disturbing trend happening whereby the agile method is being applied to every project, every task, every meeting, in fact – to everything.  This is wrong on so many levels.

In our fast paced world, the need for rapid development is obvious and the agile method accelerates the deployment of new code.  This is a good thing.  Often, some solutions only have a shelf life of less than three years, so the sooner you can get it to market the better.  Its operation lifespan is all that matters.  Since agile is an iterative process, the solution can be improved during its lifespan.  If we are building an iPhone app, then agile…

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STEM to STEAM: The ‘A’ Makes a Difference

Vividcomm

For the past few years, a powerful acronym has been commonly used to describe a trend to promote children to focus upon education.  The topics of education are Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths.  Most of the attention has been to convince young ladies that these STEM study themes are a smart strategy to consider.  Historically, these themes have been male dominated.

Women represent the majority of young university graduates, but are still underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science (STEM) fields.

• According to the National Household Survey (NHS), women accounted for 39% of university graduates aged 25 to 34 with a STEM degree in 2011, compared with 66% of university graduates in non-STEM programs.
• Among STEM graduates aged 25 to 34, women accounted for 59% of those in science and technology programs but accounted for 23% of those who graduated from engineering and 30% of those who graduated…

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