Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The month of personal development

Last days I was reading a lot... I love when I have time to read for pleasure (not school things) because I enter a new world... a world where I escape with my thoughts&dreams& feelings ... I feel free to SMILE and Dream of changes I want to make in this world.

Ilinca a really nice girl who enjoys the adventure of living each day with a smile on her face sent me a great document related to 25 ways of distinguish yourself by Rajesh Setty. The most important question is "Why should you distinguish yourself" ?

Short answer: Being part of the commodity crowd erodes your value.

So let's see below 25 ways of distinguish yourself

  • Care as if it's your own
  • Do you daily work with passion
  • Building strong relationships
  • Dream big ( Let your imagination be imaginative and let your dreams be unreasonable and seem unrealistic. Watch people who have achieved significant milestones; their dreams were not reasonable at first.
  • Set the right expectations
  • Ask for help
  • Celebrate small victories
  • Set higher standards
  • Know your values
  • Pursue right membership
  • Help people themselves
  • Be a reader (They say all leaders are readers ..from statistics a manager read about 0.75 business books in five years. That's dismal. We should have a year plan for reading. U can set your own goals related on your priorities and needs. U can read a book a quarter,1 book a month, 3 books in a year -is your choice but have a plan)
  • Plan by outcomes
  • Think Long-Term
  • Embrace uncertainty with ease
  • ask the right questions
  • engage with a coach
  • be relevant
  • get back on your feet fast
  • Lead a volunteer effort
  • Balance innovation and continous improvement
  • Learn to SELL
  • Learn systems thinking
  • Walk away from free
  • Influence the influencers

More info here

Besides this document I was reading a lot about Leadership. My degree paper is about "Development of leadership skills at young people". I've read "The Tools of leadership " by Max Landsberg.

Key learning points:

  • The essence of leadership = Vision * Inspiration*Momentum.Anyone who personally engages with his or her team to create vision and inspiration and momentum will almost certainly be regarded as a leader.
  • Leadership almost involves initiating and driving change
  • Leadership is highly creative activity
  • Leadership is an instrinsically interpersonal activity
  • Timing is important in developing a carrer as a leader

Another book I've read this days "Taking great photographs. How to get the best picture every time, with every camera" by John Freeman. I found out many interesting things about taking great photos and photography techniques. About the light, travel photography, photographing people, tips&tricks.

Photography is one of my hobbies and lately I read about this(and go out to shoot).I'm going to start a personal blog about this issue with photos taken by me. I'm still learning how to use my new camera on Manual.

The last book I've read was 500 Tips for Trainers by Phil Race and Brenda Smith which will help me a lot in the future.

Striving for personal development!

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