Entries from May 2008 ↓

I wrote about What Would Buddha Do to Become an Enlightened Worker earlier. Continuing in the series, here’s what he would do to create and expand superb relationships at work.

Part 2: Cultivating Enlightened Work Relationships

• True leadership is service to other people.
• A tough demanding boss is like a tough coach who demands more from his athlete. Good leaders stretch your capabilities and provide regular feedback.
• Wise people admit they don’t know everything.
• What goes around comes around. This is the law of karma. Do a good job at work, respect your boss even if you don’t like him and let the law of karma work its way to him.
• Give unselfishly to your coworkers.
• Do your work without complaining.
• To influence others, you must have competence and character.
• Do something extra for others. Ask a stressed coworker what you can do to help.
• Offer to stay late to finish an important deadline. Ask coworker’s about their families.
• Bring home-baked goods to lunch and share it with everyone.
• Give others the benefit of the doubt and avoid making judgments.
• Listen more than talk.
• Let go of your ego and listen to other people’s feedback.
• Respect the learner or trainee. Teach her by invitation, not by command.
• When you are about to criticize someone, stop and ask yourself if you mean to teach that person or do you simply want to establish your own superiority?
• Take responsibility for the problem and the solution. Be personally accountable.
• If people are hostile to you, maybe you did something to deserve it. People are jerks to us now because we were probably jerks to them earlier.
• Don’t give in to your anger. Keep your mouth shut and do the right thing.
• If someone is bad-mouthing you, ignore him.
• Unconditional love and understanding in the face of hostility is the noblest of all human acts.
• Revenge is not sweet. An eye for an eye makes us all blind.
• Avoid negative people. These are the chronic complainers, whiners, and cynics.
• Survival at any cost, dog-eat-dog mentality, and war-like thinking in business leads to great social costs. We must see everything as interconnected.

Want more? I will post about Buddha’s wisdom on being a boss, dealing with customers, hiring people and more in the next few days!

What we ponder and what we think about sets the course of our life. Any day we wish; we can discipline ourselves to change it all. Any day we wish, we can open the book that will open our mind to new knowledge. Any day we wish, we can start a new activity. Any day we wish, we can start the process of life change. We can do it immediately, or next week, or next month, or next year.

We can also do nothing. We can pretend rather than perform. And if the idea of having to change ourselves makes us uncomfortable, we can remain as we are. We can choose rest over labor, entertainment over education, delusion over truth, and doubt over confidence. The choices are ours to make. But while we curse the effect, we continue to nourish the cause. As Shakespeare uniquely observed, “The fault is not in the stars, but in ourselves.” We created our circumstances by our past choices. We have both the ability and the responsibility to make better choices beginning today.

This is what Jim Rohn said. And boy, this is inspiring!!

And if you are really serious about transforming your life, they have a limited time special offer going on on the Jim Rohn 2004 weekend. The event had special guests like Denis Waitley, Brian Tracy and more. For around $200, you get 24 hours of leadership training, a 283 page workbook and special bonuses!

If you don’t want to spend the money yet, check out the free ezines (and archives)! Even they are full of wisdom!

The monthly theme for us at Magnet is Getting Things Done. Applying David Allen’s methodology of stress free productivity.

I tried a lot to find a simple presentation on the subject online. I wanted something I could use in a session I take. Something that will organize the key ideas, will not have the typical PowerPoint clutter and compliment the speaking. I found a few, but nothing that suited my needs.

So I made one of my own! Taking information from various sources and adding some of my own. Here’s the presentation! Feel free to comment on it. I would love it if someone can make it look more attractive (without making it complicated!). If you do, send me a note, and I will credit you!

So here’s how to get things done!

| View | Upload your own

It turns out that facing the hard facts is something that human beings are remarkably bad at doing. We “shoot the messengers” who bring us bad news; we seek, remember, and act on bad evidence that supports our dearly held beliefs; we avoid, forget, and fail to act on evidence that clashes with our ingrained if flawed ideologies.

The best leaders and companies have “the attitude of wisdom”: They have the courage to act on what they know right now and the humility to change their actions when they encounter new evidence. They also know how to argue as if they are right, and listen as if they are wrong — so they can develop and think about their ideas without becoming narrow-minded slaves to bad or incomplete ideas.

As former Intel CEO, Andy Grove, put it, “I think it is very important for you to do two things: act on your temporary conviction as if it was a real conviction; and when you realize that you are wrong, correct course very quickly.”

Excerpted from ChangeThis manifesto: Management Advice: Which 90% is Crap? by Bob Sutton.

If Buddha worked in your office, how would he work? What would he think? What values will he live by?

I recently read What Would Buddha Do At Work by Franz Metcalf & BJ Gllagher Hateley. The wisdom is just right, and there are answers to all common business problems in this book. I am going to do a series of posts summarizing the key ideas I liked! Feel free to comment on them, and share your experiences from workplaces.

Part 1: Becoming An Enlightened Worker

• First recognize that you are responsible for your own future.
• Second, recognize that you always have a choice.
• Mission statements for your organization and life are key to enlightened work. The mission statement is a compass to guide your priorities and decisions so you do not become lost in day-to-day activities.
• Do great work, all the time.
• Start work before the boss gets in, and leave after she does.
• Do not take more than you should. Taking home a pencil or minor office supply is stealing.
• You represent your employer, so uphold the company name.
• Your self-confidence increases when you know you have done good work. Good results come from healthy self-esteem.
• Action always beats inaction. Making mistakes is better than not doing anything at all. If you aren’t making mistakes, it means you are not taking risks and not trying hard enough.
• You are a work in progress. You are responsible for your own self-improvement.
• Practice yoga or meditation to learn how to focus.
• If you have ten things to do and only enough time to finish six things, choose the right six and go home without worrying about the four you had to let go.
• There is nothing you can do about the past and you cannot predict the future. The only time that matters is now.
• Speak your mind and share your ideas. Do not keep them to yourself.
• Under-promise and over-deliver. Keep all commitments.
• Talk is cheap. People like to see action, results, and follow-through.
• Your internal moral compass will warn you when you are violating your own integrity.
• Respect company property like it is your own.
• Go about your work quietly and deliberately. There is no need to make public all your efforts. Results will speak for themselves.
• There is no single right way to solve a problem. The problem itself is always changing.
• Be flexible and learn to live with uncertainty.
• Admit you made a mistake. It means you are teachable and humble.
• Do your best work. Promotions and perks are only side effects of doing brilliant work.
• If you wear self-confidence, it doesn’t matter what you are wearing.
• Celebrate the successes of others.
• Physical and worldly things like money are necessary for survival but they will not make you happy.
• The best things in life aren’t things.
• There is nothing wrong with personal wealth as long as it is put to good use. Good stewardship of money comes from a sense of integrity.
• Real happiness comes when we are free from cravings and endless desires.
• Treat money like a visitor we respect but we know can be dangerous.
• When depressed, the best way to feel better is to do something for others.
• You don’t need a lot to get by. Work with what you’ve got.
• Learn from every opportunity, even if it means taking on a task you don’t want to do. It may be that nobody else can do the job except you at the moment.
• Hypocrisy happens when you fool yourself.
• Gossip is a waste of time.
• Surround yourself with people you admire and respect. When you work with someone better than you, your performance will improve.
• You can change.
• Make every day productive.
• It is healthy to balance work and personal life. This is the Middle Way.
• It’s easier to just follow the pack and be mediocre. Living a life of integrity is hard work.
• Wealth and power won’t make you happy. Health, love, and peace of mind will.