Passion for Success

As we all know, to be super successful and achieve our dreams takes more than working incredibly hard, it is also about doing the right things right and rising each time you fall (thanks Bruce). There is a long list of things we need to do.... and over time we will explore and chat about them...

One of the things we all need to do is 'take time out' whether it is to go fishing, catch butterflies or fly colourful kites.. we all need to recharge our batteries, to do some uncluttered thinking when our minds aren't pre-occupied by the normal spirals of work and to have quality time with loved ones..

So I am going fishing...I am off to fly some wonderful colourful kites...to read some stimulating and hopefully interesting books... so you won't be hearing much from me in the next two weeks... but I promise not to forget you and to continue observing life so I can share the interesting things on my return...

Enjoy the holiday weekend :o)

Ever since I started blogging... (well i am into my 2nd week).. I realised I am no longer just a participant in life, but a keen observer of life, I watch and listen to normal day to day happenings and wonder if it would be an interesting topic for my blog.... Darren Strange, king of the bloggers, warned me this would happen..

Anyway, I was watching a very interesting DVD on Sunday evening, Grizzly Man directed by Werner Herzog , it's a documentary about a guy called Timothy Spelling who dedicated his life to the grizzly bears...It's a bold and accurate depiction of someone who follows their dream, but is so passionate about the dream that he loses touch with reality (IMHO)...check it out... over 5k people can't be wrong... it was rated it 8 /10 on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427312/

Back to the title of this posting ... when one of his friends was asked about Timothy and if the friend got upset with Timothy's tall stories ... his friend said this wonderful memorable saying I had not heard of before...

'We have a saying down on the farm....if it doesn't scare the cows, who cares?' (a.k.a what real harm is being done?)

When I think about this quote, it made me thing of one of my philosophies in life...which is ...don't get annoyed unless you really really really have to, don't waste valuable energy having negative thoughts about folk.. life's too short for that

... so when I am at work or when i am out and about, if a person I encounter is a bit off or cuts me up in traffic for example, I always ask myself if the person was being specifically rude to me, was it personal, did they go out of their way to be annoy or upset me?....

..if not, I put it down to them having a bad day, maybe they have had a row with their partner, maybe someone they love is ill, maybe they are having money or career problems...maybe they are having a bad hair day, whatever!!!

... does it really matter? If they are not being rude to me with intent, I give them the benefit of the doubt...so back to my earlier point...if it doesn't scare the cows, what does it matter? (...you may be thinking I have lost the plot at this point :o)

I don't know about you, most the great or best advice you read or hear is normally common sense anyway...but we humans have a tendency to forget some of the basics in life :o)

So how is your relationship with your direct manager?

Do you feel he/she is supportive of your talents, they want to help your grow and succeed in your job, to achieve your goals, dreams etc..do they provide you with the strong foundation to enable you to 'fly high'?

As we know the manager has a lot of influence, they can influence your grade, salary, bonus, job opportunities... or 'not' as the case maybe!

Well I am one of the lucky ones (phew!) and I hope you are too... but I have not always been that fortunate in and outside of Microsoft. Someone once told me, you learn more from 'bad' managers that you do from good ones... as you learn how 'not' to manage, lead, motivate people.

Anyway... my point is.. if you want to improve your relationship with your manager.... you gotta take control and start managing them...communication is key (back to my earlier point on common sense)

1. it is vital you have regular 1-1s...at least once a month (absolute minimum IMHO)
2. know and agree upfront the 2-3 priories you will get measured on
3. every 1-1 discuss and provide an update on the priorities, share what is going well and where you need their support
4. every 2-3 months ask if they had to rate or grade your work year-to-date, what rate/mark/grade would you be tracking to? ask what do you need to do to improve the rating before the end of the year 
5. regularly solicit feedback on how you could improve your performance, ask for tips or tricks

By doing the above...there should be no surprises in your annual performance review (fingers and toes crossed)

I have learnt this from my own painful experience, a few years back I thought I has  a strong relationship with my manager, we didn't have regular 1-1s and I assumed he/she was aware of my great work...at my end of year review I had the shock of my life (I can honestly say I was gobsmacked) my performance review did not go as well as I had anticipated and you guessed it, I didn't get the grade I had hoped for.

When I finally removed the emotion from my thinking (it took me a week or so to get to this stage),  I realised I played a significant role in ensuring my manager was informed/updated on what I was doing...and by not managing my manager I had contributed to the problem.

If you haven't already...and you want to learn from other greats - whether from the sports industry or business/ IT etc... you should treat yourself to this week's Business Week.

One of my BIG things is to fast track learning by learning from the experiences and mistakes of others... and when a magazine pulls together the thinking from some of the folks I respect, it can't be all bad (can it?).

Some nuggets from Joe Torre, the baseball great coach, on winning and leading.

•  'anybody who is not afraid to fail is a winner... a winner is someone who goes out their everyday and exhausts him/herself trying to get something accomplished'
• I really like this...  at MS, I am fortunate to be surrounded a lot of people who want to do their best... whether it is to help their customer or partner, their team/group or just for themselves personally... whether you believe it or not, most microsofties really do want to help companies and normal folks to succeed or dare I say it.. to realize their potential(!) 
• Joe shares about the importance of ensuring (your) people feel necessary, even if their contribution is minor, it adds to everything thing else
• as one of my work-mates said to me yesterday,  you can tell a lot about a person on seeing how he/she treats the waiting staff in a cafe or restaurant.. it made me think... am i always pleasant to the people I work with? the guy/girl who serves the latte's, the temp/contractor in our office or the cleaner who tidies the offices at the end of the day? I am sure you all are!! As my mum would say, this is only good manners anyway, isn't it?

There's lots more great articles and insights to be had from this magazine...but as I should keep my postings short, I will sign off for now :o)

Well I am... until I hit the button to post this to my blog!! Once I hit the button I am joining the millions of other folks worldwide who have been bitten by the blogging bug (don't think bug is a great word to use but hey what the hell... i am new to this game)

So some background... I am one of the few members of my team who did not have a blog. And for a year or so, I have resisted the urge.. I did not want to become a statistic of a blogger who posts a few times and then their blog disappears to blog heaven (or hell depending on how you look at it)... I wanted to wait until I was 100% committed to blogging, where I have a topic I feel amazingly passionate about, where I would look forward to sharing some of my thoughts or passing on smart thoughts/experiences or learnings from people more clever than me...

So why now? Well one of my great friends (and fellow microsoftie) Steve also known as Geek in Disguise has been raving for months on a book 'has changed his life', ... a book I am sure most of you already know 'Naked Conversation' by Robert Scoble & Shel Israel.. so I finally get around to ordering it from amazon (if you haven't read it... order it here)

Well... I am now a believer :o) I have not been as excited about a new technology in a while... this book is truly fantastic.. I dare anyone to read it and not have the urge to get blogging..

Another one of my work mates is Allister who writes the Useful Tech. Blog   has been giving me some tips and tricks... I think I have broken one of the cardinal rules to keep it short... promise to in future :o)

So there you are... in a mo I won't be a blogging virgin... fingers crossed someone enjoys the experience along the way :o)