Entries Tagged 'Toastmasters' ↓

Last night for the first night,we got a night off from our golden den. They are so caring here in IVAC when the Medical Doctor heard that we are eating out, he immediately wanted to make sure that the food that we were eating would be compatible with the diet prescribed. He also made recommendations on the type of food we should keep away from.

Through the Administrative Manager,Pramilla I got the phone number of the owner of the Chinese restaurant. I was told that they served Hakka noodles and it was ran by Indian born Chinese. I try my luck and got Mr.Yung on the telephone.I struck gold, Mr. Yung spoken Moyen hak, my mother tongue. He immediately told me that he would prepare food for home Hakka eating. Yoopi! that made my day. He had red rice(tsao) ginger chicken soup, followed by a pork dish, fish , Hakka crispy chicken and Pipangaille stir fried with chicken breast and tung choy. A feast it was!

The Indian couple who accompanied us for the occasion said that they had eaten several times at the same restaurant but never ever before they had such dishes.

I was told that the owner’s wife also ran a beauty saloon. As it is the case in India, most chinese mostly hakka oirigin were, in the past, only allowed to open businesses in leather, more precisely in cowhide and allied industries, restaurants and Beauty Saloons.

Well I would sum up and say that I felt great to have eaten this meal in Mysore and be connected to a brother of the Hakka Diaspora. 

It was also to thank Pramilla  for the kindness she extended to us, to meet her husband and finally to fete Marie Anne’s departure today to Mumbai on her way to Canada.

You will recall that I did mention in my previous blog The Three legs of Persuasion the wonderful works and writings of Chris Widener. Today I just finished reading his e-book “Up to speed Leadership. 52 Lessons and Actions to Get You Up to Speed and Make You an Extraordinary Leader”. Easy reading as many e books can be, of only 100 pages; this book focuses on the essence of the subject and gives very practical, hands on advices and action points. I would consider the book more as a work book. It took me hardly more than one hour to read through the book. I love these types of books: to the point and a minimum of blablabla and fillers. Then it is then up to you to note, reflect and action on the points raised.One of my teachers, my physics teacher, a jesuit seminarist, Bro. Thomas, with a wierd indian accent, from my days in Form I (1958) use to sound in my ear drums: Hindsight reflexion is the (v)Way to (v)Wisdom.

More over it is possible to obtain a copy of the e-book free of charge!

An extract of 2 chapters might well excite and motivate you to get your copy:

1. Establish Your Goals

The key to any achievement is goal setting. You have to know what it

is that you want and how soon you want to have it. Whether you want to

save a certain amount of money, lose a certain amount of weight, or yes,

even become a certain kind of leader.

Let’s face it, “I want to become a better leader,” is relatively

ambiguous, isn’t it? Who wouldn’t want to become a better leader? If you

were to ask almost anyone whether or not they would like to become a better

leader and have more influence on those around them, they would almost all

say, “Yes!”

The question is: What does that mean in actuality? What does a

“better leader” look like?

Action Point: Spend some time answering for yourself the following

questions, then setting goals according to your answers:

Q. What does becoming a better leader look like to me?

Q. In what specific ways do I want to grow as a leader?

Q. What specific areas do I need to grow in?

Q. How much time am I willing to put in each day or week to grow in

my leadership?

Q. What resources do I need to take advantage of in order to increase

my leadership skills?

Q. What specific things can I do today and this week to begin my

leadership growth process?

Q. What time frames am I looking at when I think of becoming a

better leader?

Q. What people would I like to spend more time with who would

challenge me to grow as a leader?

10. Skills – Part IV – Communication: Writing

If you are going to lead you are going to have to write. Only when you

get to be the CEO of a huge company can you even begin to think about

pushing that off onto someone else and even then you would be wise to keep

writing yourself!

So how can you use writing to increase your influence? Here are some

tips:

Become a good writer. There are lots of ways to do this, but the top ways

are to write often, get feedback through a class or writers club, and to write

in various venues.

Write often. Write often so that the law of repetition takes over and people

begin to get the message. This doesn’t mean the same thing every time. You

have to change it up a bit or people will just stop reading.

Let your writing support what you are saying. If you are communicating

effectively through speaking, then your writing becomes something that

supports what you are saying. It says it in a different way, it says it at a

different time, and it says it through a different venue. All of this will help

you get the message across and support your vision.

Write through different venues. Write a book. Write a newsletter. Write an

article. Write a memo. Write an email. Write a PowerPoint presentation.

Send them at various times.

Write the same message using different words. Try writing a sentence out

and then rewriting it in three different ways changing the words and

structure. You have to change it up or they will stop listening.

Write using stories and examples. This was one of the best lessons I

learned as a leader and as a professional speaker. People like stories and

examples. I am more of a facts and figures guy, but stories and examples

move people!

Action Point: Sit down and write as soon as you can. Try to write the same

thing in three different ways. Try to write it for three different venues. Try to

use a story or example for each one.

Enjoy!The content which is not mine but Chris Widener’s!to whom I am very grateful.

Now you understand the reason of my blog writing. The more, I write, the better I shall become! Wishful thinking may be! Feedbacks from others could possibly enhance my writing skills,provided I use the feedbacks and comments to hone my writing. Dear readers, I thus invite you to comment on my blogs not only on the content but also on the style. Hopefully I shall improve:Thank you.

In almost all work situations, there are some office politics. When there are humans involved there is politics. This happens even in families. The game of influencing, threatening, pressuring, convincing, and yielding or complying be it soft or hard are always present in human interactions. Some years ago, I had the chance of attending an enlightening lecture by a Belgian author, Jean Jacques Creve Coeur who wrote “Relations & jeux de pouvoir”.

I have traveled fairly well in this path in my work career. As a junior, I yielded more easily, sometimes I gave in unconsciously. At the start, I was often a door mat: I would not react either out of fear or timidity or out of not wanting to create waves. As I grew older and when I acquired more experience and responsibilities in the working environment, my level of awareness of “office politics” also increased. I have learned how to discern the office politics and how to be saved from situation before it gets out of hand.

In the nutshell, I learned when and how to play with the sharks without being eaten by them. I practiced the art of turning an unavoidable evil into a source of information for better understanding and better informed actions. Just like rumors, one needs to know which part of it is false (intoxication) and which part has a base of truth. Who are the guys spreading the rumors and for what purpose is the propaganda? Who are the initiators, designers and who are the unconscious carriers of the rumors?

I always thought that if I was made aware of the intricacies of “office politics” well ahead, I would have acted in some cases better. “Un homme avisé en vaut deux”. Can one attend a seminar on the subject?

As a matter of interest, at least those who might be swimming with some sharks now, I like to share with you a power point presentation on the theme. May the PowerPoint get you to think and be warned ahead?

In my last blog I promised my Rotarians friends, average age population of the Rotary club: 53.222, that I shall share with them the small budding knowledge I have about Blogging. By the way, I have well passed the average age.I have decided to start blogging to understand the E-volution of today’s world.

How I got hooked?

Indeed I was kicked off by my son who shared with me his experiences coming from a WEB 2.0 symposium some time ago. He was talking to me in a vocabulary which was beyond my understanding. I had to choose to die stupid or carry on living on today’s world and be part of the E-volution to stay wired & connected. I have chosen.

I found existance in the virtual world. My son gave birth to me in this newfound world by setting me up as a blogger. Through “FTP” (sorry for the jargon) he took over control of my computer whilst sitting in his apartment Toronto, Canada. Like magic, I watched my mouse and computer cursor zapping all over my screen. In a few minutes, his voice came back to me over SKYPE to tell me that I am done, ready to be in the Blogosphere. I am now enjoying my new existence. Everyday is now filled with new discoveries and new thrills; I have acquired a new mobility in spite of my recent physical handicap.

My latest thrill is Naked Conversation. Robert Scoble & Shel Israel who prophetize an E-volution of communication through blogging.

“Today’s consumer craves human contact. We’re sick to death of voicemail.

Menus of options that never offer the option we need. A deluge of

carefully spun “information” designed not to answer our concerns, but to

influence our decisions. Mechanical voices telling us our call is important

to them even as they refuse to answer it.

We’re frustrated in our attempts to reach a live human being, and when

we finally do, all too often it’s someone who barely speaks our language

and only reads from a script.

Is it so surprising that the consumer distrusts the corporation?

Into this charged atmosphere comes a phenomenon called blogging. It’s

interactive. It’s informal. It’s peppered with misspellings, grammatical

errors and an occasional forbidden word.

It comes from a real person. And it allows the consumer to talk back. The experts believe blogging is

already changing the face of business.

The experts show readers of their book, how employee

bloggers altered the public’s perception of Microsoft, how company leaders

use blogs to connect with customers, how small businesses and Fortune 500

companies alike can benefit from blogging and how failing to use it properly

can be disastrous.

The Six Pillars of Blogging

1. Publishable. Anyone can publish a blog. You

can do it cheaply and post often. Each posting is

instantly available worldwide.

2. Findable. Through search engines, people will

find blogs by subject, by author or both. The more

you post, the more findable you become.

3. Social. The blogosphere is one big conversation.

Interesting topical conversations move from

site to site, linking to each other.

4. Viral. Information often spreads faster through

blogs than via a news service. No form of viral marketing

matches the speed and efficiency of a blog.

5. Syndicatable. By clicking on an icon, you can get

free “home delivery” of RSS-enabled blogs. RSS lets

you know when a blog you subscribe to is updated.

6. Linkable. Because each blog can link to all others,

every blogger has access to millions of other bloggers.

Everything Never Changes

The birth of the blog was a little-noted incident. A brilliant,

curmudgeonly technology pioneer — Dave Winer —

was fiddling with a project and organized a series of entries

in a new way. He looked at it, thought “Wow, that’s cool,”

and circled back to expand on it later. He added a variation

on an emerging technology and created a syndication feature

that would eventually emerge into Really Simple

Syndication (RSS). Other people — such as Ben and Mena

Trott, who founded Six Apart Inc., and Evan Williams, who

co-founded Blogger — would make blogging tools easier

so a great number of people could use them. The number of

users has gone through the roof ever since.

Do you want to live or die stupid? It is your choice!

For the last few hours today and last night, I have been reading Guy Kawasaki. I find his writing sensible and his various tips on presenting really worthwhile. A true marketer or Evangelist he could call himself sometimes. It is a pity, because of the speed of our internet service available in Mauritius, it is almost impossible to watch his video pod casted. Hope that the upgrade of the Mauritius Internet service is coming soon.

I immediately borrowed an extract of his writing to share with my net work of Toastmasters.

I recommend you to visit his blogs: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/

I have read him before in The Art of Start and am very pleased now to share with you an audio Pod cast.

May you enjoy discovering Guy Kawasaki! Do give me your feedback soon as you have enjoyed the audio document.

TheArtoftheStart-lofi.mp3

[audio:http://www.josephyiptong.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/TheArtoftheStart-lofi.mp3]