Great Ideas! Passion! Tenacious! Irrepressible!

"Number one, great ideas matter. Number two, find passion and, number three be tenacious, be irrepressible" preached Ballmer to the students. He said these were three keys things that he learnt in Micorsoft.

Ballmer made the parents of the students to walk down the memory lane, to remind them of their college days. He explained how difficult it was to write a term paper without a word processor and without the Internet. And now Information technology has shaped the world in such a way like none other in the human history.

Steven Anthony "Steve" Ballmer was born on March 24, 1956. He was born in Detroit, Michigan. In 1973, he graduated from Detroit Country Day School, a private college preparatory school in Beverly Hills, Michigan, and now sits on its board of directors. In 1977, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a B.A. in mathematics and economics. At college, Ballmer managed the football team, worked on The Harvard Crimson newspaper as well as the Harvard Advocate, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates. He then worked for two years as an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble, where he shared an office with Jeffrey R. Immelt, who later became CEO of General Electric. In 1980, he dropped out of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business to join Microsoft.

Ballmer's entry into Microsoft was during those days when Ballmer was doing an MBA program. A friend of his who he had gone to college with Bill Gates, offered him to drop out of school and join him for his venture. When Ballmer explained this to his father, his father had no clue of what a software was neither was his mother, who ended up asking him why would a person ever need a computer?

As Albert Einstein once said "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination," Microsoft proved the statement with two people's daring imagination, Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Microsoft was the result of one single good idea that was never thought before. Ballmer explains that it was one fundamental idea by two individuals, which has ended up with every home having a computer. He said that a microprocessor is some form of free intelligence which when combined with right software will form a computer for every home.

Another way to sort of grab this idea about ideas and direction, Ballmer quoted Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky said "good hockey players skate to where the puck is; great hockey players will skate to where the puck is going to be."

Ballmer went on to speak about the second key thing: Passion. He said "This is not an easy one. People think passion is something you either have or you don't. People think passion is something that has to manifest itself in some kind of explosive and emotional format. It's not. It's the thing that you find in your life that you can care about, that you can cling to, that you can invest yourself in, heart, body, and soul. Finding passion is kind of your job now."

Speaking about his passion, Ballmer said he was under a lot confusion to find out what he truly liked to do. He tested his likes and dislike when he was in the ninth grade and he had to write a computer program. He hated it and though he was never qualified for computer programming. When went on to do his college he thought he would be a physicist or a mathematician, but at the end of his freshmen year he had realized that he had too little patience for those.

The one thing that Ballmer enjoyed doing was being the football manager for the college football team. Organizing things was what the job demanded and that is where Ballmer realized that he passionately liked his job. When Ballmer was looking out for a change in his career, jobs from movie business came knocking at his door. Then by luck, Bill Gates asked him to join his 30 member team and since then there has been looking back.

And last but not least, Ballmer said "be tenacious. I actually prefer the word irrepressible.Irrepressible is kind of tenacious, but with optimism. You keep going and going. You could say, isn't that the same as passion. It's not. Passion is the ability to get excited about something. Irrepressibility and tenacity is about the ability to stay with it. If you take a look at all of the companies that have been started in our business, most of them fail. If you take even a look at the companies that have succeeded, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, you name it, all of these companies went through times of hardship. You get some success. You run into some walls. You try a formula for a new idea, a new innovation, it doesn't work. And it's how tenacious you are, how irrepressible, how ultimately optimistic and tenacious you are about it that will determine your success."

Ballmer joined Microsoft on June 11, 1980, and became Microsoft's 30th employee, the first business manager hired by Gates. Ballmer loved working at Microsoft.He was initially offered a salary of $50,000 as well as a percentage of ownership of the company. When Microsoft was incorporated in 1981, Ballmer owned 8 percent of the company. He has headed several divisions within Microsoft including "Operating Systems Development", "Operations", and "Sales and Support." In January 2000, he was officially named Chief Executive Officer.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave the commencement speech at the University of Southern California.

Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

10 things end users do that drive a consultant crazy !

As a consultant, my primary jobs are remote support and Onsite client side support. Because of this, I deal directly with our clients a lot. Although I am fond of many of those clients, most of them still display behaviors that drive me, as a consultant, crazy. And maybe it’s the excessive rain and storms we’ve been having, but these behaviors have escalated lately. So I thought I would share some of these things with you to see whether you’ve run into them —and whether you’ve encountered other behaviors you want to share with your fellow readers.

Please understand, I do this to lay down a bit of humor so we can all commiserate, cope, and (I hope) laugh at the follies we deal with day in and day out. I do not, in any way, mean to suggest that I think people are horrible or that I don’t like to deal with them.

1: Take control of remote sessions
I do a lot of remote support with the supplier related isssues. For that support, I use either LogMeIn or Team Viewer. Inevitably, I run into clients who constantly want to “show me” what’s going on, take over the mouse to point out something different, or even use their machine for something else (like replying to an email that should be able to wait or they simply get excited to some friends popped a message online and they start to reply them just by forgetting their screens are shared). Outside of annoying any support tech, this does one thing — extends the length of time needed to do a job.

Sometimes, it seems clients/suppliers don’t realize that other clients/Suppliers are actually waiting for my help, so they think they can take up as much of my time as they want. But beyond taking up time, this type of behavior often can lead to an environment of mistrust, where techs feel the client does not trust their work. No one wants to work under these circumstances.

2: Give too much irrelevant information about an issue
What I really want to know is that you clicked on an attachment that was in an email. I don’t care to know the email was originated by your grandmother on your father’s side and the email had the most darling picture of kittens and puppies playing together in a field of daisies. I also don’t care that you were sitting at your desk, having your usual lunch of yogurt and sliced apples dipped in caramel when everything started to go down the drain. Get to the point, give me the facts, and I will do my job to the best of my ability.


3: Blame the issue on something I (or another tech) did previously
Yes, I’ve worked on PO output issue before. No, what I did last time to change the terms & condition pages that goes with the PO’s to all suppliers and that has zero effect on the fact that now you can’t get a PO print. Although they may be related, they are not directly cause and effect. Trust me on this. I’m not trying to pull a fast one on you, and I am 100 percent sure that the PO Output for communication issue is not related. But on the off chance that you simply will not believe me, I will do everything I can to show you the two are not related in any way. If you still don’t believe me, I have no other consultants who will be happy to have your work — until they’re no longer happy to have your work it’s going to be only me again and again.

4: Lie
This one should not need any explanation. But for those who have yet to experience the liar, let me set the stage. There are times when you log into a user’s machine and discover that something obviously has been done —most of the time not following the do’s and don’ts document guide lines and land in a problem— that can be done only by an end user/supplier. When an end user has made such a mistake, he or she will sometimes try to deny doing anything to cause the problem. That’s fine. But most of the consultants can see through the thinly veiled lie. We know the truth… so it’s okay to admit, rather than to bluff saying I did not do anything wrong that was mentioned in do’s and don’ts document even tough your system shows an error.


5: Take control of conversations
When I’m trying to explain an issue to an end user, it really bugs me when that user takes over the conversation, preventing me from being able to effectively communicate either the problem or the solution. Generally, these people tend to have more to say on the issue than necessary and assume what they have to add to the situation is far more important than what they have to learn. If those end users would stop and listen for once, the reoccurring issue I am trying to help them with might not reoccur. No one is ready to listen.


6: Ask the “quick question”
This one really bothers me. Without fail, a client will call me with a “quick question” that inevitably winds up being a 30-minute phone conversation. My time is valuable through the workday and those quick questions add up. Not only that, but many clients use the quick question to avoid having to pay for support on the real issue. Most often they start with the quick question to find a place where they can point their hand safely to push on their issue. They call us to get a confirmation of their blame is technically right.


7: Chat while I’m concentrating
This goes along with dominating the conversation. Many users, while in the middle of a remote session, want to chat. Sometimes that’s okay, as we are simply waiting for a download or waiting on the progress of a service or application. But when I’m elbows deep in the dirt and grit of trying to resolve a crucial issue, don’t try to chat me up about the weather, the royal wedding, or the price of gas. Please let me resolve the issue at hand (especially one that requires my concentration) and then I will happily chat about whatever (so long as I don’t have a pressing appointment after yours).

Sometimes they chat to deviate your attention not to find the issue was created due to lack of his concentration or ignorance.


8: Insist what their “cousin” or “geek friend” told them was true
I get it. Some companies enlist the help of “Cousin Joe,” or armature “geek friend” who happens to owe the secretary a favor and “knows a thing or two” about computers or the application a specific business uses. Well, “cousin” or “geek friend” didn’t do you any favors when he caused even more problems doing what he did. Not that I am going to slam your cousin and kick your geek friend. But when I say that although cousins and friends intentions were good, what he did was counterproductive to solving the issue at hand, please don’t insist that the cousin was in the right and that I am only trying to bilk you out of more money. Of course, if it ever comes to those kinds of words, you will most certainly be looking for a new support specialist.

9: Undo my work
Raise your hand if you’re guilty of undoing all that work the consultants did with the help of support techs the very second they left. I’ve seen this happen plenty of times. I’ve had clients actually confess to doing this. What those clients don’t realize is that I will more than likely have to come back and redo what I did prior to this visit (I have installed a old java version to test a special type of customization on the client PC which will be required by him and recommended by oracle to do so but the client called support guys for a different issue and on the way they found his java version to be old and would have changed it favoring the client. Then the application forms screen will not open with my clients work PC) — and I’ll also have to fix problems they caused by undoing my work. Do us both a favor and don’t undo my work. This is rarely going to be a smart choice, and the possibility that you’ll be able to resolve the issues created by your tampering are nil.

10: Lack the necessary information
Most of the time it’s like this – “I have an issue in submitting the Quotation through your company’s Oracle web portal” , just like that nothing more. You will not get any information (screen shot of the error page, what they were trying to do at the time when they got the error, how long they are facing the problem, Is this happening with only a particular document/Particular user)
When end users or suppliers call for a help, 10 percent of the time they have all of the information necessary for a successful appointment. The other 90 percent? Not much. In fact, a large portion of that 90 percent require nearly double the normal job time just for fact gathering. So… when you call, please make sure you have all the information needed to complete the appointment. Otherwise, you are wasting my time and running up your bill.

Other peeves?
Do these users sound like some of your clients? If not, you are one lucky consultant/support specialist. If these clients do sound familiar, you have my sympathy. What other user behaviors do you run into that annoy you or impede your work?


Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

10 easy ways to get your life back and still excel at work !

You love your job but loving it too much could be dangerous to your health. The more often you stay late in the office or clock in extra hours over the weekend, the more stress you are adding to your life. When was the last time you went on leave - and left your notebook and phone at home?

A survey of British workers by the Mental Health Foundation found more than 40 percent of respondents are neglecting other aspects of their life because of work. When working long hours, respondents reported feeling depressed or anxious. Nearly two-third of employees have experienced a negative effect on their personal life. This ranged from lack of personal development, physical and mental health problems, and poor relationships and poor home life.

With IT playing a crucial role in organisations, it's easy for IT pros to become overworked. Responsible employers and employees understand though that a healthy work-life balance goes a long way to maintaining a happy and productive workforce. Here are 10 ways you can tip your work-life balance to your health’s favour.

1. Do what you enjoy best
Don't you find that it takes twice as long to complete uninteresting tasks than it does to do something you love?

Nick Woodeson, a former IT director and now owner of Essential Business Skills Consulting in his work-life balance blog writes: "The secret to a better work-life balance might well be not in managing your time and reducing your overall time in work, but increasing the time you spend in the aspects of your job that you find most absorbing and fulfilling. Remember - if the time just passes without you taking account of it, you’re doing the right thing!"

Clifton StrengthsFinder, a management philosophy believes that employers benefit if they encourage employees to play to their individual strengths. Let your boss know the aspects of your work you like best and suggest alternatives to completing the tasks that don’t play well to your strengths. Find out who in your group possesses the strength you lack and let them enjoy those tasks.

2. Be prepared for the unexpected
If you already have excessive stress in your life you'd be less able to handle a crisis, says Woodeson. Stress depletes energy, something that’s required in abundance to navigate sudden unforeseen emergencies.

Woodeson writes: "... most people would struggle if they lost all the contact details of people stored in their mobile phone or if they had their notebook stolen, but relatively few people take the trouble to learn how to back up their important data and to then do so on a regular basis."

Aside from backing up your data, begin to document your work so you can easily hand over the tasks to a colleague if you need to take a few days out in an emergency. This could be storing files in a public folder or creating a spreadsheet with project milestones, contact details and file names and locations.

3. Save time for yourself
If your work environment allows others to access your calendar to schedule meetings, be sure to block off some time for yourself. This could be two or four hours each week. Use this time as a buffer in case you need extra time to complete a task, run errands or catch up with colleagues.

4. Schedule your day's deadlines around your body clock
Studies by human biology professionals show that our bodies have various internal clocks but society forces us to ignore those signs. Perhaps you feel sleepy after lunch or are more energised for work early evening. Everyone is different.

Blogger Woodeson says the best way to discover your own cycles is to work from home for a period. You'll then recognise the times you are most energised. Use those times to schedule your most pressing deadlines.

5. Reconsider your philosophy of working late
Harvard Business Review blogger Ron Ashkenas studied successful medical professors for his doctoral research on the balance between professional achievement and successful family life. He found that the most successful professors in his sample group also tended to have the most instances of divorce and estrangement from children.

"Naturally, none of these highly successful people had consciously chosen to sacrifice their families in order to advance their careers. Instead, they had made hundreds of small tradeoffs over the years - such as staying in the lab instead of attending a child's school concert. It was the accumulation of these small choices that seemed to gradually tip their lives one way or the other," Ashkenas writes.

He suggests pros think about the following philosophical questions:

What's the balance that you want to strike between personal and professional success?
If you had to honestly choose, is one more important than the other?
What are your goals in each of these spheres and what can you do to optimize both?

6. Prioritise your commitments
A work-life balance article in Forbes advises readers to: "Consider all the things competing for your time and decide what will stay and what will go ... What about the three nonprofit organisations you belong to?"

Decide on what’s important to you in your life right now. If you’re an IT pro wanting to hone your soft skills, perhaps the volunteer work you do for nonprofits is helping your personal development. Perhaps your weekly task of clearing the yard of your elderly neighbor could change to a monthly commitment.

7. Use technology wisely
Technology has done so much to improve the quality of our lives. Think of the time and energy we save by shopping online instead of driving to the store. Even GPS navigators save precious minutes by speaking the directions so we don't have to make frequent stops to check a printed map.

However,don't let technology run your life. Make it a philosophy to switch off your phone during dinner with the family. Leave your phone at the office at lunch and go for a walk or read a chapter of a novel. Perhaps even try spending one weekend a month without computers.

8. Make the most of your employer's wellness programs
Employers spent 35 percent more - about $220 - on each employee who participated in a wellness program in 2010 compared to 2009. According to "Working Well: A Global Survey of Health Promotion and Workplace Wellness Strategies," by Buck Consultants employers offer wellness programs to reduce workplace stress and improve workforce morale and engagement.

Another study, this time in the US, by Fidelity Investments and the National Business Group on Health found that employers are offering several types of incentives to encourage employees to participate in health improvement programs. Such incentives include cash, gift cards or offers to make additional contributions to health savings accounts. So go on, sign up for a wellness activity today. What do you have to lose (aside from stress)?

9. Consider a results-only work environment
The latest work philosophy making headlines is Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE). Developed by two former HR managers at U.S. electronics retailer Best Buy, ROWE allows employees to establish their own work schedule as long as the work gets done on time.

ROWE companies don't track workers' time on the job (vacation, sick days or if they’re prompt into the office); employees are measured on whether they achieve their goals. There are formal steps that organisations must take to become "ROWE Approved." Even if your employer is not ROWE Approved you can incorporate some of the ROWE philosophy to your team. This could include allowing team members to work from home or take "unofficial" time off when needed, as long as it’s clear that you expect them to get the work done.

10. Lead by example
Your management philosophy dictates how employees work. Encourage employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance by leading by example.

Create a supportive team where members help each other out to meet tight deadlines.
Speak up against impossible deadlines, no matter whether they’re imposed by stakeholders or by the employees themselves.
Involve and communicate with your stakeholders. Let them know if there are problems along the way that could affect deadlines. Instill ownership in everyone. That way, both stakeholders and project members will work together to solve problems.
Add buffer of time to the project schedule. It’s better to overestimate the time you think it will take your team to do something than to underestimate. Some project practitioners advise adding 25 percent buffer time to a project. That will give you some breathing space if something crops up.

We hope some of these tips will help encourage you to take some time out of your crazy work schedule to find ways to restore your work-life balance.



Edited and Extracted from various sources and posted by..
S.Grace Paul Regan