Even Leaders Get the Blues

We all fall for the “grass is greener” thing. Employees wish for their boss’s power and authority, managers are jealous of executive pay and perks, and workers dream of starting their own business.
The only “grass is greener” scenario you never hear about happens more frequently than most would imagine. That’s when leaders have days I can only describe as demoralizing and depressing.
Look, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that anyone should cry for those who make the rules, not to mention the big bucks. That said, leaders shoulder a great deal of responsibility, and the stress and disappointment can be almost crushing at times.
I recently happened upon a post that brought back some memories I’d just as soon forget. In “Leadership Caffeine: A Mostly Thoughtful Guide to Surviving Bad Leadership Days,” consultant and writer Art Petty shines a rare but compassionate light on those in power:

Consider These Less Than Joyous Leadership Occasions:

• One of your top players and someone that you’ve invested a great deal of time mentoring announces that she is resigning.
• You just spent most of your day justifying your team’s existence to upper management.
  
• In spite of knowing better, you lost it and snapped at someone that truly didn’t deserve that reaction. (No one deserves that reaction.)
• You spent the day deciding who gets laid off and who doesn’t.
• One of your team’s major projects blew up and you spent the day as a human shield while your group took shots from everywhere in the organization.
• Your 360-degree feedback suggested that you have more than a few opportunities to improve.
• Speaking of feedback, you managed to end up with two people crying in your office today. You thought about it yourself.
• At 8:00 a.m., you saw the competitor’s announcement of the game-changing new product. Your deodorant failed by 11:00 a.m. when you were explaining to the executives yet again why you didn’t have a good response to the competitor.

Having lived through every one of these scenarios, not to mention quite a few others, I can attest to how draining and depressing those days can be. Just because a company has invested in you and depends on you doesn’t mean your confidence, optimism, and drive don’t occasionally abandon you.
Art offers 7 suggestions for those days when you’d just as soon throw in the towel:

Every problem or crisis is an opportunity to build your leadership skills along with your confidence and credibility.

Problems create teachable opportunities. Don’t waste these opportunities.

It’s the challenges that you and your team conquered that you will remember.

Remember that you don’t have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. Ask for help.

People aren’t programmed to act and respond in ways that always fit your plans.

Be thankful for feedback that says that you can improve.

Leaders earn dividends over the long term.

My method for dealing with this stuff is usually to whine to my fellow mates  and drink heavily. Come to think of it, it might actually be cathartic to drudge up some of those horrible old memories, not to mention illuminating to share my worst days as an executive with you, faithful readers. Stay tuned.

if

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

To or Not to

Once I read in a blog "Do not post somethig personal in your blogs". thI thought the reasons given by that blogger were pretty good. But how to define what "personal" is. Where is the thin line between public and private life? It had always been a tough call . when I look at my blogs these days I feel like more personal stuff out there rather than my random ramblings. My mind is always divided on this issue. To handle the freedom of virtual world gets tough on my nerves. It takes me back to my first blog ,deleted. I discussed a lot about childhood ,how a lot of impact is being made on a child's mind through adult's conduct ,sometimes just unknowingly. And how those unknowing things affected me. This attracted some attention
I had no idea what kind of impact it would make on some who is going to read . I simply wrote everything on my mind. A reader from a far flung place told me that she found the similarities between my situation and her family's and how they failed to recognize it and how my blog tells her that it is true. I was totally surprised. I felt I was not ready to discuss something personal and withdrew the blog. Now I write anything. Topics don't bother me whether they are personal or not. I delete some posts when I am in a dubious mind . But Now this looks more like my personal diary to me. I always refused to show it to others since my childhood. Now I post certain stuff which I can't fathom someone I knew only through web will be reading and feeling a lot known about me. Will that be true? Virtual world can beat real world communication?. I never thought so. But where to draw the line...why I withdrew a blog a couple of years back and writing a similar stuff without much guilty feelings now? Sometimes I do feel confused and ask myself one question. Am I ready to take the same stuff to real world?. May be not.when I look at some of my friends who are as closed as GrandMa's trunk and very very personal about anything it reminds me of my earlier self. when I threw caution to the wind ,I don't know!. But this doesn't seem wrong too, nor right . somewhere there is a urge to break that chain what if? and go ahead or just go back to old ways?. To or not to a question is still lingering, but I don't feel like withdrawing this time. I always did what I felt like. Not all of them, but most of them......Only thing that bothers me is I refuse to talk to my best friend about down hill, but I post it online. A couple of years back I would have given him a call rather than blogging about it. which is the only thing that scares me .

ITS ALL ABOUT "LIFE" ......

Its all about “ LIFE “…. 

Cradle as soon you were born, Coffin when you leave the world.

Do something in between. Rule this world, play with this world.

Will laziness bring in bucks? Will it be yours if you just claim it?

Desires.. touches the sky, Life is very short

Turn it upside down, Plough it through... clear it

Live a life on your own term’s …

Oh no! Don’t grib about the opportunity not knocking your door

It would have knocked long back you might have miss hearing it.

If you curse yourself in dark, sitting in dark

There’s no chance of a dawn to you.

Yesterday will not return, nobody knows Whats in store tomorrow

All you have is just today only …

Paths without sorrows, Lives without sorrow’s, Lives without any risk

It is a big bore …

Though you may reach the top of the world and earn billions.

Don’t let fame take over you.

Victory is not somebody’s personal property .It didn’t start with you it’s a 50-50 chance

Just go on …..You can catch a bus if you wait in a bus station.

Whats there for you if you fall into frustration?

All your mistakes till date, you can cover it up with your success.

Rising after a fall is a child’s first lesson...Isn’t it strange we forget it is so quickly?

Knows what you want before embarking a journey .To makes it happy and eventful...

Whatever you fear the most do it one every day, you will never have fear.

Though life hits rock bottom, though life turns into a hell .Work only if you love to do it …… by Saikumar Vuppaladhadium