Life Changing Literature of Our Times

The power of a written word has always astounded the world, many kingdoms have toppled, many revolutions have risen, by a scribble. A well written book, has the power to make us transform ourselves and to influence our thinking, probably that's why the medium of  instruction in education gives so much emphasis on the books, in every culture and society. The world has seen many great books and many great writers and some their work has become immortal. Here's a list of five life changing books of our times.

The Fountainhead- Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand’s novel follows the life of Howard Roark as he is expelled from an architecture school and makes his way into the world. Yes, whilst it sounds boring when written like that, it’s so much more when you look deeper.

It’s not a rebellion against society or a war on design principles, it’s simply one Man living his life on his terms, not in-spite of the world, but simply regardless of what the world says he should do.

This is a must read book for anyone who wants to understand what living with integrity really means.

The Way of a Superior Man- David Deida

David Deida is a profound spiritual teacher whose books have help thousands of Men and Women around the world experience a greater level of depth and intimacy in their lives.

The book walks you through a series of concepts and ideas to help you understand how a ‘Superior’ Man needs to live his life. This isn’t so much a transformation manual as a new age ’10 commandments for the spiritual Man’, but it doesn’t diminish the power of this text.

This is a must read book for anyone who wants a guide on a more powerful and ethical way of living.

To Kill A Mockingbird- Harper Lee

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.

Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank

A beloved classic since its initial publication in 1947, this vivid, insightful journal is a fitting memorial to the gifted Jewish teenager who died at Bergen-Belsen, Germany, in 1945. Born in 1929, Anne Frank received a blank diary on her 13th birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Her marvelously detailed, engagingly personal entries chronicle 25 trying months of claustrophobic, quarrelsome intimacy with her parents, sister, a second family, and a middle-aged dentist who has little tolerance for Anne’s vivacity.

Many Lives Many Masters- Dr Brian Weiss

Dr. Brian Weiss brings to us in this book a very strong concept - that of past lives, rebirth and of a higher consciousness or state - and his inadvertent revelation to the same through his unsuspecting patient. This book transforms our thinking and makes us focus on the true meaning of the gift of life. This book has the power to make you spiritual if you're not.

Make an effort to read these books, they will change your life for sure.

Managerial Competencies

Managerial Competencies can be defined as the personal traits and skills required by a Manager, to perform his job effectively. The importance of good management in organization has led to various training and development activities dedicated to enhancing Management Competencies in their employees.

The critical Management competencies can be categorized as the following: 

Technical Competencies 

Technical Skills Involve process or technique knowledge and proficiency in a certain specialized field, such as engineering, computers, accounting, or manufacturing. These skills are more important at lower levels of management, since these managers are dealing with employees doing the organization’s work. 

The technical skill involves the manager’s understanding of the nature of job that people under him have to perform. It refers to a person’s knowledge and proficiency in any type of process or technique. In a production department, this would mean an understanding of the technicalities of the process of production. This type of skill and competence seems to be more important at the lower levels of management, it's relative importance as a part of the managerial role diminishes as the manager moves to higher positions. In higher functional positions, such as the position of a marketing manager or production manager, the conceptual component, related to these functional areas becomes more important and the technical component becomes less important. 

Human Competencies 

Human Skills Involve the ability to interact effectively with people. Since managers deal directly with people, this skill is crucial. Managers with good human skills are able to get best out of their people. They know how to communicate, motivate, lead, and inspire enthusiasm and trust. These skills are equally important at all levels of management. 

Human skills are also the ability to interact effectively with people at all levels. This skill develops in the manager the ability to perform the following :

a) To recognize the feelings and sentiments of others

b) To judge the possible reactions to, and outcomes of various courses of action he may undertake and

c) To examine his own concepts and values, this may enable him to develop more useful attitudes about himself.  

Conceptual Competencies 

Conceptual Skills Involve the formulation of ideas, conceptualization about abstract and complex situations. Managers understand abstract relationships, develop ideas and solve problems creatively. Using these skills, managers must be able to see the organization as a whole. They have to understand the relationships among various subunits, and visualize how organization fits into its border environment. These skills are most important at the top management levels. 

Conceptual skills refer to the ability of a manager, to take a broad and farsighted view of the organization and its future, his ability to think in abstract, his ability to analyze the forces working in a situation, his creative and innovative ability and his ability to assess the environment and the changes taking place in it. In short, it is his ability to conceptualize the environment, the organization, and his own job, so that he can set appropriate goals for his organization, for himself and for his team. This skill seems to increase in importance as a manager moves up to higher positions of responsibility and authority in the organization.

Thus, technical skill deals with things, human skills concerns people, and conceptual skills have to do with ideas.

The Value of Time

Tick tock....tick tock....time is always counting no matter what happens, our excuses, problems, situations etc. do not work on time, it goes on relentless, ruthless!

 

We are always short of time and time is an important commodity. We all need time to finish our important tasks but as ruthless as it is, it is always less. Even though it is critical at every stage of life , however, there are some phases in life when it matters the most and it is these times that teach us to appreciate the value of time.

Time Management is not only important but also critical for our personal and professional growth. Time Management is an activity of using our time effectively towards set objectives or goal. Here are some basic techniques of Time Management.

Creating Effective Space Around Yourself

To be able to work towards your goals, the first step is to set up organised, work conducive environment around yourself. One needs to bring order to their life before starting anything important, because chaos not only causes unnecessary delay, but also sets in disinterest towards our work.

Setting up Objectives

The next important step is to set up clear cut goals or objectives for ourselves with timelines. This serves as a constant reminder for us that keeps us motivated and also serves as a tool for self evaluation.

Prioritizing

The next step is the most important of all, one has to prioritize their tasks according to their urgency and importance. This step is also the most difficult, hence one can use the below mentioned tools for this purpose.

Pareto Analysis

Pareto Analysis uses the Pareto Principle – also known as the "80/20 Rule" – which was developed by Joseph M. Juran in 1937. It is the idea that 20 percent of causes generate 80 percent of results. With this tool, we can find the 20 percent of work that will generate 80 percent of the results that doing all of the work would deliver. 

ABC Analysis

ABC Analysis is a method of categorization of inventory, for proper material management, however it has been used in a wide variety of concepts, it can be very effectively used for Time Management.

ABC Analysis allows you to prioritize tasks into three categories :

A - Important and urgent

B - Important but not urgent

C - Not important and not urgent

POSEC

Posec stands for "Prioritize by organizing, stream-line, economizing, and contributing." To prioritize means to put first things first. The Posec method is loosely based around Maslow’s theories regarding the "Hierarchy of Needs". It gives the individual a realistic tool for setting priorities as they pertain to one's own unique needs and life goals.

 

The Eisenhower Tower

The Eisenhower Method helps you decide which action you should or shouldn't do. It aids you to divide actions into one of four categories. The quadrants are divided by importance and urgency.

Using the Eisenhower quadrant is very easy. You pick an item from your to-do list and you ask yourself these two questions.

"Is it urgent?"

"Is it important?"

You can now put the action into the correct quadrant. Below is an explanation of each quadrant.

Simple Implementation of Goals (Task Lists )

Apart from the above mentioned tools, there is another way that is very conventional, which says to go with the flow. Here one can take the help of Task lists, that can be made as per the individual's priorities.

Eliminate Non Priorities

The next step is to eliminate non priorities from our work and then proceed further.

Prepare Schedule

Based on all the above, one needs to prepare a schedule for himself that would ultimately lead to the desired objectives in the set time limit.

Time Management Software

In addition to the various tools and techniques available for Time Management, there are certain softwares that are also available.

Rescue Time

Platforms: Windows, OSX, Linux, Android

RescueTime is easy and hot favorite time tracking application. It tracks how you use your computer, from soup to nuts. It tracks what websites you use, and then breaks them into categories for more in-depth look. You can block yourself from distracting websites, and even set manual timers away from the computer.

Chormeta

Platform: Windows, OSX, Android, iOS

Chrometa is cut from the same vein as RescueTime. It automatically tracks everything you do on your computer and neatly categorizes it. Emails, what article you were reading (and how long it took to read it), etc.

Where Chrometa and RescueTime diverge, is that Chrometa also provides a way to bill clients. You can track meeting, phone usage, and even invoice clients straight from within the app.

Don't Forget

The most important is not to forget to add the two most important activities that make life worthwhile and good, to the schedule and that is to take short breaks and always leave time for fun.

The Great Management Books You Should Read

Management is probably the most exploited word by in today's professional environment, then be it any industry, organization, education, leisure and even personal lives of individuals ( Household Management etc.). Management is needed in every sphere of personal and professional life, organizations are paying more and more emphasis on developing managerial competencies in promising individuals. This is reinstated by the fact, that most Training and Development activities in organizations, are centered around the concepts of Management. 

 

There are various Management books that have flooded the market of late, but some remain the Golden etchings in the history of Management writing. Here is a list of the best ones that you should certainly read.

The Gorilla Marketing

Author:                Jay Conrad Levinson

Category:            Sales and Marketing

In the Mad Men era, marketing and advertising implied a big money investment. In this book, though, author Jay Conrad Levinson explained how unconventional efforts can often create better results at a lower cost. Amazingly, Levinson had this insight more than thirty years before social networking and smartphone apps became such a huge part of the corporate landscape.

The Little Red Book of Selling

Author:                Jeffrey Gitomer

Category:            Enterpreneuship

Every entrepreneur will need to know how to sell.  Whether you’re selling prospective employees on your vision, investors on your company, or customers on your product, you need to be able to sell.  Even if you have a partner who is responsible for sales or hire a sales person, you need to understand a methodical sales process.  This book takes you through an industry-generic process for the sales cycle.  It’s a fast read, and a book to keep for reference. 

The One Minute Manager

Author:                 Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

Category:            General Mangement

Believe it or not, there was once a time when most businesspeople believed managing people was a fairly difficult job. However, that was before Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson set out their simple (some say "simplistic") rules for common-sense management. The success of this booklet spawned an entire industry of "management made easy" consulting.

The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship

Author:                Willam D. Bygrave

Category:            Enterpreneurship

Another classic reference book, well organized and with great set of best practices and references.  One to keep on the bookshelf. Reference it as needed.

The Greatest Salesman of The World

Author :                Og Mandino

Category:            Sales and Marketing

When this classic sales book was written, most people thought of salesmen as slick, fast-talking con-men. While that stereotype still exists, most sales people now, see themselves the way author Og Mandino saw them:  as essentially moral people who are striving to make the world better and make other people happy.

3-D Negotiation

Author:                David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius

Category:            Business Negotiations Skills

Much as fighting in a skilled way isn’t about wading in and swinging wildly and aggressively without direction, negotiation isn’t about shouting loudly and playing hardball on every point.  This book is used by the Harvard Business School for some of their executive level negotiation courses.