Kavitha and I had an opportunity spend the evening with the giants in the world of presentations – two people that have influenced how I create and deliver presentations – Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte. Nancy had organized a get-together hosting Garr at her office. We had an opportunity to meet several wonderful people. The… Continue reading
Date Archives → August 2010
What IF you realized that you are a spammer…
I have not found someone who loves spam. The feeling everywhere is that spam is bad. In fact, most people detest spam and people who engage in spamming. So I am sure you are not engaged in spamming people. You are sure? Well, are you really sure? May be in the way you look at… Continue reading
Ways to Distinguish Yourself #213 – Beware of mis-aligned benchmarks
Modeling someone that you respect is a great way to push yourself to be better than who you are. Role models help you to set higher benchmarks that will push you to perform better. The beauty of following role models and setting higher benchmarks is that you don’t have to wait to reach those levels… Continue reading
The Power of Storytelling – Neal Baer of Law and Order SVU
Kavitha and I had an opportunity to listen to Neal Baer ( Producer of Law & Order SVU) at IDEO recently. You may already know this but every week 58 million people watch one or the other episodes of Law and Order SVU. Nael talked about many things but the highlight of the talk was… Continue reading
The daily 2-minute progress checklist
To-do lists are great for increasing efficiency but you may need other tools for increasing effectiveness. So if you had to take ONLY 2 minutes to check YOUR progress for the day, how would you spend that? Think about two questions: 1. Did you ensure that your contribution was higher than the consumption today? 2…. Continue reading
The 9 components of connecting well
Every human being is different and connecting with another human being will require some investment of time, energy, mindshare and of course, there is an opportunity cost always – you could be doing something else right. Here are the nine components to consider: 1. Character: Connecting or not, a strong character forms the foundation on… Continue reading
Mini Saga #59 – Assignment
You can skip the assignments but you can’t skip the consequences of skipping the assignments. Mini Saga #59 – Assignment Jack got a bit carried away during his school days. He outsourced all his assignments. Born to rich parents, there was money to get the grades he needed to get through. The problem started when he… Continue reading
Ways to Distinguish Yourself #212 – Use self-deprecation right
Self-deprecation is simply under-valuing one’s own talent or abilities. It is to show that you have a low opinion of yourself. Generally, it is an indication that you have a low self-esteem. At an extreme it shows that you have an inferiority complex. This all looks so negative and how could this be remotely of… Continue reading
One stumbling block to get started (seriously) on your project
What is that stumbling block that prevents you from getting started on your pet project (seriously)? When I say seriously, I mean you put something of value at stake – typically money. The other soft items that you may not notice are something like time, energy, mindshare and opportunity cost for engaging with this project…. Continue reading
The ONE thing to do before you make your case
Here is the answer for those of you who are in a hurry: In short, you need to first build a case to make a case. You need to raise awareness to the related issue or opportunity so that someone is open to you making a case on a topic. Now a longer explanation. I… Continue reading