Kazira

The Last Lecture

by Randy Pausch (Author), Jeffrey Zaslow (Author)

Randy Pausch, a Computer Science professor at Carnegie Mellon, struggling with all the physical and phychological issues related to pancreatic cancer – gives his last lecture in front of Carnegie Mellon Students and other audiences. The lecture was given last fall and; subsequently, the professor died on July 25, 2008 at the age of 47. His book has become a phenomenon.

It’s an academic tradition to giving students a last lecture, where the professors hypothesize that if this were their last lecture – what would they say to the students? For Randy Pausch, this was not a hypothetical frame work – it was all too real. He came to know about the fatality of his disease after he was invited to give this last lecture. He used up this opportunity to collect his thoughts and wisdom to pass along not only to his three kids but also to the rest of the world. The wisdom passed along from a dying intellectual is always forceful.

Reading this book has really made me think. If I knew that I would die within 6 months or so; what exactly would I write or say to my son. He is only 2-1/2 years old – What could I possibly leave behind that would tie my trajectory of life so he can use to propagate himself forward? I know its morbid and it is depressing – But face it – life is not always full of fun and frolic – and some times (more than what we would care to acknowledge) life really comes at you fast. "What would you like to see scribed on your tomb stone" is a potent motivational force - But thinking of what you would impart upon the next generation on your deathbed is a different beast altogether.

So, me personally - I would tell my kid about –

• My life’s story (history of family as far and as far out as I can remember)
• His life’s story as perceived by me
• All the life’s incidences and books that have changed my life forever.
• All the dreams and aspirations that I have for him
• A synopsis of world history, religion, and evolution of human psychology as far as I have understood them ….
• Some secrets of religion and history that I have collected over the years

But enough about my morbid thoughts…. Randy, in his book, gives a list of ideals and philosophies to live by – inspired by his life and nicely summarized in the book with stories from his own life. The take away message from his book to me was – It’s not the quantity but the quality of life that matters. Randy also gives some great pointers on work ethics, time management, and work performance optimization. “Don’t sweat over what other people think”, “Dance with the one who brung you”, “Treat the disease and not the symptoms”, and “look for the best in everyone” are some of my favorite pearls of wisdom from this book.

A definite must read for getting some really cool ideas on improving your family life, work life and spiritual life.

You can download an iTunes version of Randy’s actual last lecture from the Carnegie Melon University Website at

http://www.cmu.edu/index.shtml

A transcript of his last lecture can be found at –

www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/Randy/pauschlastlecturetranscript.pdf

As you can tell (This is my second blog on stress management), I worry about stress way too much. I stress about stress. Hence I consider myself sort of an expert at managing stress. I feel I must share my experience and tid-bits of techniques that I picked up over the years.

Being a part of the American Corporate world for a while now; I know a thing or two about stress. I have experienced and survived extreme stresses to the point where they became severe strain on my body. I’m sure those working on the Wall Street or at an Air Traffic Control Tower at JFK Airport, NY must experience way more stress than I could ever imagine. But I consider my feat to be worth mentioning. Also, I guess with the current economic and job market woes; we’ll see more and more of stress creeping up on our back. A little stress is healthy – it helps a person propel forward - but when it becomes chronic and starts affecting your life – you need to really watch out then.

Let me start with a real life story – which has made a tremendous impact on my attitude towards stress, work, and life. I thank god for letting me experience this when I was only starting my professional career. I met a distance relative of mine for the first time – he was 65 or so years of age – highly successful in life – retiree VP of a larger Pharmaceutical company – spoke proudly of using corporate jets on his whims. On the swing side, he underwent so much of work related stress, he had two heart by-pass surgeries already and his family-life showed clear evidence of a severe deterioration. He, secretly, confided into me – saying that I should dedicate more time on my family than at work (His idea of stress reduction) – He added that I should take plenty of vacations with the family (again his stress reduction technique) and spend as much time with them as possible. He mentioned all this by giving his own example. He said that at times he was so involved in his work that he thought very soon he will accomplish enough (that he set as goal) for him to take plenty of time off and take care of himself and family. That time, he said, never came. As he climbed up the corporate ladder, there was less and less time for him and family - and more and more of work related stress. He soon died of a heart attach, during one of his business trips, in a hotel room, all by himself.

I took a vow never to get so involved in my work that I forget my health and family. What does this story tell you? Stress is a monkey that once it gets on your back – it feeds on your work habits and family discord culminating into severe body injury or break-up of a family. Here are a few tips to keep this monkey off your back (or at least in check).

WHEN AT WORK –

a) Leave your work bench and take a walk out in the open air for a few minutes everyday. A walk after the afternoon meal is not just de-stressing but also reinvigorating.

b) Manage your time well – Know when to say ‘When’. This may be one of the greatest tricks or stress management.

c) Never miss a meal – No matter how busy you are. If you are that super-busy dude – a critical contributor – working on that precious proposal due by the end of the week – there is still access to some ‘healthy fast food’ (This is not an oxymoron anymore).

d) Keep an iPod with music that relaxes you; handy – listen to it when there is a few minutes of downtime.

e) Don’t sweat over things at work that are beyond your control.

WHEN AT HOME –

a) Alcohol, caffeine, and TV are not your friends when it comes to stress management.

b) Exercise and family time are your best friends in stress reduction. Try Tai-Chi or Yoga – Any of those mind-body harmonizing practice will do. For example, when you are really tired when you come home from work, a simple Yoga posture such as ‘SAVASANA’ helps immensely - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savasana

c) Take regular short family outing trips in addition to the big ones that you plan for every year.

d) Never bring work home. Try to finish everything that you need to do at your work. Not even a thought of your work should cross as you step out. I know, in the age of E-mails on cell phones and Blackberries – I’m fighting a losing battle here.

e) Get hold of a good masseur or a masseuse. An occasional good massage really relaxes and rejuvenates the body. I have noticed these small kiosks of massage parlors pop up at airports and at malls. Just stay away from the massage parlors in San Francisco – They offer way more stress reliving services than I would care to employ.

f) Eat vegetarian when possible. Stay away from red meat diets (big source of stress in your body). ‘Vegetarianism’ is catching up as a source of stress reduction technique and is not for those weirdos anymore.

g) Do some community service on the weekends. In whatever form it may be …

I’ll end this blog by stating a great line of wisdom – probably from native American tribes – “God, give me courage to accept the things that I can not change; give me strength to change the things that I can, and above all – give me the wisdom to know the difference between the two.”

** Image curtsy http://5dresses.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/stress-picture-stress-relief-kit.jpg

At first, when I heard of the term Emotional Intelligence (EI) or Emotional Quotient (EQ) – I thought to myself, this is cool – especially for those of us who didn’t scope too high on our Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test – and for those who have always sensed a bit standoffishness from those who scored high on their IQ test – finally, there is another measurement of capability where we (The less fortunate IQ deprived folks) would be able to turn the table around. I’ll show you now Aagashe (He was an all around topper when I was studying in Mumbai). As you can tell, I used to be very naive and hyper-competitive during my adolescence.

Emotional Intelligence is a term well researched in the past but was popularized by a psychologist turned reporter, Mr. Daniel Goleman and his best seller book – Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ . Wikipedia describes Emotional Intelligence Quotient ( EQ ) as an ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups . So, emotional intelligence is a measure of your zeal, determination, motivation, persistence, hope etc. It is also a measure of how well you can regulate your mood, frustration, empathy and also how well you play with others etc. There is another way of looking at it – if IQ is your measure of rational brain; EQ provides a sense of your irrational side.

There is no equivalent bench mark test to measure your EQ (Good!!! Last thing I need now is another test score to tell me how ungifted I am).

So, why bother with EI or EQ at all? How do I figure where do I stand on the EQ spectrum and could I improve my EQ? If I can improve it – How do I do that? Or is this just another technical term that psychologists use to explain why some folks with mediocre IQ excel above their more IQ-gifted peers????

It turns out – EQ is an emotional quality in you that you use most to succeed in life. A well balanced, less temperamental and stable mind is more useful to succeed in life than an unstable, temperamental, and erratic logical brilliance. Who would you rather have; a boss with calm-mind that gives you constructive criticism or a yelling maniac who is always stresses you out…

Unlike IQ where test scores, which generally do not change much after the teen years, EQ is a set of skills learned throughout life. By understanding ones current EQ individuals can begin to implement effective action plans to improve their emotional intelligence. By learning to be aware of the power and wisdom of emotions in themselves and others and achieving the balance between logical and emotional approaches, individuals can become much more effective in their roles as managers, workers or co-workers.

EQ spectrum for any individual contains a measure of the following emotions –

a) Happiness/Sadness

b) Anger/Cheerful

c) Stress

d) Gratification (Delayed or instant)

e) Empathys

f) Self awareness

g) Anxiety

h) Depression/Optimism

i) Ability to resolve conflict

j) Social skills

k) Impulse

l) Aggression etc.

So, how do I improve my EI? First trying to figure out which of the emotions mentioned above affect your performance. Which of these emotions completely and negatively overtakes your life once in a while? Then work on those using specific self help plan developed with friends, family or a therapist. For example, if anger is the one emotion that causes you mental and other social issues – Count till 10 before you say something hurtful – Deliberate long breaths for a few minutes dissipates the anger quickly – Wait for 24 hours before you send that scathing e-mail etc. are plans to help yourself manage your emotion in life and at work place.

Last thing I want to bring into these discussions is ‘Religion’ – But it turns out – Silent prayers, meditation, and contemplation plays a bigger role in improving your EQ.

Last time when I thought about this topic of ‘knowing thyself’ (a long time ago, I must admit) – the first thought that ran through my head was – “Well, how the heck am I suppose to know myself?” All I know so far has been put into my head by my gurus, my teachers, parents, and preachers. They never told me who I am – They only told me who I should be – Characteristics, virtues, and traits that I should strive to possess – “Picture a person who really inspire you” they said “and then follow their footsteps” …. Well, that exercise really did not work out as planned – since who I am and whom I was striving to be – apparently were two different people. I’m not exactly a very deep thinker; so, after a while, I left pondering this question thinking that such abstract issues are better left for the “philosopher types”. And that was that … Until recently ….

Fairly recently, I got introduced to a phenomenon (outlined in a series of books) that is primarily based on improving your professional life based on exploitation of your dominant personality strengths ( I must thank my Friend Rajiv Roy for introducing me to this complex mess …) . The author of these (series of) books, Marcus Buckingham, is from Gallop organization and has published three books on the subject (a couple with other folks as co-authors).

The first one, published in 1999 was titled - ‘First, break all the rules’ which was a survey and a study of bunch of managers and their issues on finding the right people, retaining them, and keeping them satisfied with respect to the kind of work that they would love to do. The synopsis of that book came out to be – “don't try to put in what was left out; instead draw out what was left in”. You must hire for talent, and hone that talent into outstanding performance. Work your people’s strengths rather than forcing them to improve upon their weaknesses.

Then came his second book – “Now, Discover your strengths”. This was the book where Marcus introduced a concept of Strength Finder – An online tool (NOT FREE – but when you buy a book it lets you take the test once) that asks you a (whole) bunch of questions in rapid succession and records your answers based on your first instinct (it pushes you to answer promptly – the first thing that comes to your mind). The questions have a very short duration and so you don’t have much time to think before answering. These questions vary in terms of “what ifs scenario” and what would your reaction to a particular scenario be … etc. This tool then identifies your top 5 strengths (out of 34 outlined below - Each of these strengths is described in details in the book ).

1. Achiever

2. Activator

3. Adaptability

4. Analytical

5. Arranger

6. Belief

7. Command

8. Communication

9. Competition

10. Connectedness

11. Context

12. Deliberative

13. Developer

14. Discipline

15. Empathy

16. Fairness

17. Focus

18. Futuristic

19. Harmony

20. Ideation

21. Inclusiveness

22. Individualization

23. Input

24. Intellection

25. Learner

26. Maximizer

27. Positivity

28. Relator

29. Responsibility

30. Restorative

31. Self-assurance

32. Significance

33. Strategic

34. Woo

Once I finished taking this test, I was surprised who I really was or what my predominant strengths were – and these were completely different from what I had previously assumed. After this test, I really am looking at the world and my actions very differently.

Now, here comes the third one – Go Put Your Strengths To Work – This is probably the last in this a series of personal development books that, from book to book, have moved from being guidance for managers to guidance for any professional. This is the book that tries to trains you, the individual professionals, in terms of how to manage your strengths, how to manage your weaknesses, and how to put your strengths to work for a more fulfilling personal and professional life. And this book offers 6 steps to do this –

Step 1: Bust The Myths

Step 2: Get Clear

Step 3: Free Your Strengths

Step 4: Stop Your Weaknesses

Step 5: Speak Up

Step 6: Build Strong Habits

The book suggests adopting five regular habits in your life:

• Every day, look over your strength statements and your three weakness statements. This keeps them fresh in your mind.

• Every week, complete a “strong week” plan. Basically, identify two ways you’ll maximize your strengths in the coming week - at the same time, identify two ways to minimize your weaknesses in the coming week.

• Every quarter, close the book on your strengths. Schedule a meeting with your boss and go over ways you maximized your strengths in the previous three months.

• Every six months, go over your strengths in detail. Make sure you understand what they really mean and how you’re applying them.

• Every year, toss out your strengths and start over. You can use your old ones as a starting point, but there will likely be some clarifications as your understanding of your strengths and your weaknesses grow.

Authors also discusses the myths that holds us back and provides the truth as he sees it. The myths that he tries to bust are –

Myth 1: As you grow, your personality changes
Myth 2: You will grow the most in your areas of greatest weakness
Myth 3: A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team

I would definitely RECOMMEND this book to anyone who feels that their professional career has stagnated or is in desperate need of a kick start. The book gets a little preachy time to time and is repetitive at times.

Now getting back to ‘Knowing Thyself’, there are yet another series of (personality or career) tests that you may take which, results in identification of your personality traits. These tests also suggests the most suitable career paths for you. Some of them are free and some will set you back $80 - $100 per person.

Some of the career evaluation tests evaluate you (based on the questions that you answer online) for the following 6 personality categories. Based on the predominance of one over the other, it offers careers that would most suit your personality.

• Realistic—the doers

• Investigative—the thinkers

• Artistic—the creators

• Social—the helpers

• Enterprising—the persuaders

• Conventional—the organizers

And then (last but not least) – there is ‘Myers Briggs personality test’ – You can take a free test at www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm. The result will classify you using four classifications.

• Extroverted ( E ) or Introverted (I)

• Sensing ( S ) or Intuitive (N)

• Thinking ( T ) or Feeling (F)

• Judging ( J ) or Perceiving (P)

So in the end you could be ENTJ or ISFP etc. These can then be used to indentify the most suitable career paths for you.

More details on these in Part II of ‘Knowing Thyself’.

Further Read - http://jobsearch.about.com/od/careertests/a/careertests.htm

Heck, “they” wrote books titled “Tao of Pooh” and “Tao of Steve” – So then why not a foray into “Tao of a company”. All I mean out of it is the inherent structures and classes within a typical company. You get glimpses of it when you enter the work force but no one tells you about it. It is what we, as human beings; eventually settle into; as a structure, as a character; for a company.

I think a new comer to the global work force must understand the soul of a company before defining a career path for himself/herself. So, what is the soul of the company and its corresponding characteristics of different layers of definitions? Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) – A company can be thought of a living, breathing entity and the people who define it are the people who work for it. It is the collected souls of the individuals and there collective wisdom, weaknesses, and all other human attributes – define a company. And just like the human body, where each part of its physical and psychological constitution define the whole human personality – a company has the same distinguishing attributes that makes it whole.

So lets begin understanding how a companies are laid out these days – how they aught to be laid out and how you can maximize your contribution and your potential while making a mark. Based on your education and capability, the levels described below will be applicable for all parts (departments) of the company – Sales, marketing, purchasing, human resources, design, production, finance, travel, business –development etc. I must make another point that when you join a smaller company, these responsibilities described below will be more apparent and utilized – the bigger corporation loose sight of these and the folks stay locked into one level without much exposure.

GROUND ZERO – Level 1 – YOU ARRIVE AND YOU ARE HERE – Junior Level – At the bottom of this enterprise. A new comer, ready to make your mark in this world. This is where all the grunt work gets done. You want to work and you will be assigned a lot of it. Initially not a whole lot will be expected of you but sooner or later you will be expected to produce. All the knowledge that you have gathered from your teachers and professors from your school are now ready to be used. There is a big disconnect here – what you do and how you do it in the school will not be applicable here. Depending on the company that your join – there will be a lot of learning expected from you – to come up to speed on how the business gets done there – open yourself to learning and embrace all its culture and idiosyncrasies. It is good to realize the importance of ‘practical training’ during your education – because the intent of it is to get you a head-start in learning exactly this ….

Level 2 – Senior Member – This is the second layer that sits on top of the junior folks – Theoretically, their task is to perform detailed work that may require experience to support clients. Some responsibility of this layer includes mentoring of the junior folks and also provide guidance to them – at the same time – use the folks at level 1 and utilize them to the best of their ability. Now to get to this level from level takes time and dedication – and that’s it. Senior associates, senior members, senior engineers are some of the designations that you see at this level.

Level 3 – Senior Management – These is the layer of the company that can be very aptly called “Middle Management” and most of the ambitions find their resting place at this level. Most folks showing up at this level are either long-term company veterans, acquaintances of the levels above or hot shot MBA’s. Product lead, senor financial analyst, Chief Engineer, program managers, Brach chief etc. are the designations that you may see at this level.

Level 4 – Vice Presidents – vice-Chief Executives and other CXX’s. These are the guys and gals that ensure the fact that the policies set by the President and the CEO are properly executed. They are CEO’s most trusted bunch and offer suggestions and recommendations on policies. They are also the ones that run the company while the CEO battles the political crisis or takes the credit for all the success. Chief Financial Officers, Chief Operating Officers, Chief Information Officer etc. are the designations at this level.

Level 5 – The big cheese – The President – and usually the Chief Executive Officer. All the VPs and other COO’s report to this person. Usually the company founders or the choice of the board of directors decides the appointee. Based on the size of the company, these are the ones that see most of the lime light, get to meet the decision makers from other companies and also do the company public relations to the investors (banks and corporate investors). The CEO pretty much sets the tone and the culture for the company. His or her policies are the ones that gets implemented in due course and set the long term vision for any given company. The skill sets required for this job are very succinctly summarized by Lee Iacocca in his latest book on leadership – Please refer to my February book review to see the 9 C’s of leadership that he mentions in this book.

Level 6- The Board of Directors – The board of directors are usually formed by choosing the appropriate . The appointment comes from the investors or the fellow board members themselves. The Board of directors are the final authority on approving the CEO plans and the tone for the company. Depending on the company, the board of directors are the usually the luminaries such as the ex-government officials etc.

Now that you know the layout of a typical company – you, when starting at the bottom, need to know the traits required for each level – Know who you are (Refer to Uday's previous blog on “Knowing Thyself”) and finding the right place where you’ll be most productive at the same time would meet your career ambitions.