Crazy time

Windows was a glass

Virus was something that I had to visit a doctor

Worm was a young insect (caterpillar)

Bug was an insect too

Button was on cloth

Radio button was a knob on by old Radio

Tweet was the sweet chirp of birds

Hertz a car rental company

By burn it meant I set fire

FAT was opposite of thin

Java, the beans for coffee

An apple, keeps doctor away

Server, was at the hotel

Chip, a potato wafer

But all in my PC now

Nice quote

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. - Mark Twain

SMALL TRUTH OF LIFE

Every age, every culture, every custom and tradition has its own character, its own weakness and its own strength, its beauties and cruelties; it accepts certain sufferings as matters of course, puts up patiently with certain evils. Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap.
Hermann Hesse

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http://sourceforge.net/

Perfecting your email etiquette

The use of email in the corporate world is pensive.  I hardly get any letter to my postal address. Even a business phone call has become uncommon.

You might find yourself clicking to “Reply”,  “Reply all”, “Forward”, trying to respond to the email, thing not much what is conveyed through that email.

Experts speak that your reputation is portrayed both professionally and personally via an email.

It is the need of the day that the companies should have established rules for business email etiquettes. It is a known fact that the majority of the business communication is handled via an email which is sent to different people in different parts of the world. If the company is lacking in this skill, an appropriate corporate training must be organized.

Tips for perfecting your email etiquette

CAPS

Never type your emails with the Caps Lock On. All-caps means shouting. People assume that your are aggressive and commanding.

14 letters – A magic wand

It is three words and a total of only 14 letters, yet carry a great meaning. When reading an email, you may not notice these words, but if you forget to use them, you will be disrespected. The words are “Please” and “Thank You”. Take this as an advice. Another day, you might get back to me just to say Thank you.

NO to abbreviate words

I have come across emails with a bunch of abbreviations, U replaces you, 2 instead of to, plz for please, and thanx to thanks. Any business email must and should be formal, its fine to uses abbreviations in your personal emails.

Spelling counts and Grammar ……..

Use the spell checker. It is meant to check spellings. But, if you are using a wrong spelling, then you spell check cannot be blamed.

Good grammar is important. It speaks your tone.

Reply all – Beware

For emails you receive listing many recipients, do NOT hit "reply all" unless you really want everyone to receive your reply.

Bullets

Use bullets effectively, if you have to write briefly and succinctly.

Subject

Write a meaningful subject line; just don’t give a generic statement.

Exclamation

Use the exclamation mark sparingly. The more you use, the more it shows that you are childish and unprofessional.

Short and sweet

Keep you emails short and sweet. Do not add emotional flavor to your professional emails.

Signature

Always include a signature

Auto Response

Use auto response, when necessary. An automatic response that says, "Thank you for your e-mail message. I will respond to you as soon as I can" is useless. However, one thing these messages do great is alert spammers that your e-mail is real and that they can add you to their spam list.

Your e-mail is a reflection of you

Every e-mail you send adds to, or detracts from your reputation. An e-mail if scattered, disorganized, and filled with mistakes, the recipient will be inclined to think of you are a scattered, careless, and disorganized professional. Other people's opinions matter and in the professional world, their perception of you will be critical to your success.

Motivational techniques to improve employee morale

When you foresee success in your company, you can always trace it  back to  motivated employees. Happy employees gain victory for your company.

Unfortunately, we do not have any defined standards and concepts to motivate employees. We do not have any secret formulae, rocket science calculations, or any questionnaire to populate the answers. One employee may be motivated by the rewards in terms of money; another may be satisfied by the recognition.

Today, attrition coupled with the fear of losing top performers is the major concern of any IT company . Offlate the prevailing  approach of many IT companies to retain its employees is  to woo them by organizing outbound team building activities, team lunch and dinner at the city’s most coveted  restaurants .and last but not the least is throw lavish pay packages  in the name of appraisals.

We can boil down the employee motivation by finding what is needed and means of providing it. Studies have proved that, it is cost effective and better to retain the experienced employee than recruiting a new employee. As my observations goes, the companies are spending a lot of time on recruiting new heads instead of caring for the existing ones.

An employee decides to quit a company when he/she feels betrayed and their voice is neither heard or respected, and when the sense of belonging with the company ceases to exist.

Certain motivational techniques are:

Open communication

Just lay all the cards on the table. Share the pros and cons of the game (i.e.  Share the success and failure of the project) so that the employees feel connected to the company. By sharing the current status of the company, an employee is given the opportunity to analyze the situation and react accordingly. This germinates the sense of oneness in the employees.

Introduce them to the game

Never be a dictator. Never surprise your employees with your decision, but let them be a part of the decision. This motivates them since you are giving them the real picture of the company/project.

Connect the gap between the dots

Make the employees feel, how their contribution matters. Once the employee feels that his work reinforces the company’s efforts in building the customer satisfaction the mercury level of the motivation hits the boiling point.

Delegate responsibility

I see people fearing to delegate task with the fear of losing control over the employee. Break the ice, delegate the task effectively, coach them if necessary and remove the roadblocks from the path. This brings the winning culture in the company and the employee feels motivated. 

Retrospect and introspect

Retrospection sets higher standards and introspection fine-tunes skill set.

Are you encouraging your employees?

Customers and deadlines are your blue-eyed babies! Aren’t the employees???

You care your project and company; do you care your employee?

Have you heard the voice of your employee and have you stood by them when needed? (Hardship, personal problems, and career aspirations)

Are the drums hit or do you hear its cry???Is there a two way communication or just one way communication?

If the answers to all or some of the above questions are a big NO, then come-on wake up, change yourself right now. You will see a beautiful big smile on your employees’ face.

Treat others the way you like to be treated. Yes this is the golden adage. See your company ascending.

Lead the team by example that exemplifies your positive attitude.