Take something very basic – a bookmark. It provides a quick way to continue reading your favorite book from where you left off. It is very basic but provides great utility. The alternative is to dog ear the book or do memory magic and remember the page numbers of all the books that you are… Continue reading
Posts Tagged → Distinguish yourself
Ways to Distinguish Yourself #214 – Harness the Magic of a Thank You Counter
Here is a super simple exercise to do at the end of the month. The Exercise Simply choose a random number between 1 and 30 (or 31, 28 or 29 depending on the month and year). Now go to your email Inbox for that day in the month. First go through the Sent Items. Quickly… Continue reading
How to make your email stand out?
Most people who are writing and speaking get a ton of emails – all sorts of emails. I get a fair share of them myself. While most of the emails are pretty standard, every now and then, I get an email that stands out – distinguishes itself from the crowd. Rather than tell you what… 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
Ways to Distinguish Yourself #211 – Beware of Drama
I have to tell you a story to make this point. Some of you have seen Indian movies and some of you have not. Those of you who have seen an Indian movie will smile at this and those of you who have not will want to see an Indian movie ( a mass-market kind… Continue reading
Ways to Distinguish Yourself #210 – Bridge the “Gap” to Connect Well
Think about last week. You met with a lot of people personally and professionally. Only a handful of them “really connected” with you. Most others ( even those that impressed you ) did not bother to “connect” and you will probably wipe them out of your memory sooner than later. [ Note: On the flip… Continue reading
Ways to Distinguish Yourself #208- Don't forget the (indirect) responsibility
When I was at the San Francisco Airport recently, I couldn’t help notice the giant size Tiger Woods ad from Accenture. I didn’t have a problem with the message on the Ad, which read: “The road to high performance isn’t always paved.” But based on the recent events in the life of Tiger Woods, it… Continue reading
Ways to Distinguish Yourself #205 – Dis-Engage When Your Work is Valued Less
Photo Courtesy: psyberartist on Flickr Marketplace is right most of the time. It will set the price for what you bring to the table – based on the supply and demand equations that exist (all the time) Smart people sometimes hit a roadblock when they don’t get what they truly deserve. What they don’t realize… Continue reading
Ways to Distinguish Yourself #203 – Focus on the edges
A knife is sharp only at its ends. Your house key or car key is simply a piece of metal if the ends are flattened out. Your pen will fail to work if the tip is broken. You will probably your next email with your “fingertips” In most cases, edges are what matters. When it… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #202 – Avoid common mis-attributions
It is a problem if you are “smart” and “lazy” as you can explain away several things to your convenience. One way for coming with “explanations of convenience” is to mis-attribute things. If you want to distinguish yourself, you can avoid common mis-attributions AND stop playing mind games. I have chosen a few mis-attributions to… Continue reading