BEING WOMAN

It is a matter of fact that the girl child is viewed as LIABILITY. Birth of a child as a girl is not celebrated. If it’s not a tragedy, to a family it’s the setback. The only expectation is that she grows up to be a presentable young woman who can get a decent spouse. So, when woman start from a point like that it’s very hard to find pride in ourselves, confidence in your own being and in your own actions. Mutation in this mentality is must in modern era where a woman delivers more output with higher efficiency in all the arenas of society.

When we hear, or read such things, we are fantasized and overwhelmed by it. But we seldom follow it or somewhere deep down ourselves, we think it not how the real world works. Yet there are many epitomes who have proved that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A WOMAN. Let us have a look at what these women have to say about being woman.

Mother Teresa (1979 Nobel Peace prize winner) -

We had only 4 boys and all have been adopted. These are the only girls. (She smiled about it) These are the lucky once. They didn’t end up in dustbins. They ended up with the future.

Kangana Ranutt (one of the highest-paid actresses in India) -

Women are lot more than people think they are and we want to find ourselves. It’s a lot more important for women to accept themselves as opposed to others accepting them. Others opinion of you will always shift. Their perspective will keep changing. So, as women, we don’t have to hope that we get our due. We need to get up and get it ourselves. 

J.K.Rolling (author of the Harry Potter fantasy series) -

I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short lived marriage had imploded and I was jobless lone parent. I was as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless. I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, I was still alive and I had a daughter whom I adored a lot, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. So rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

Malala Yousafzai (2014 Nobel Peace Prize Winner) -

Thank you to my father for not clipping my wings and letting me fly. Thank you to  my mother for inspiring me to be patient, to believe in myself and be brave. I am just a committed and even stubborn who wants to see every child getting a quality education, who wants to see women having equal rights and who wants peace in every corner of the world. 

Taylor Swift (most popular contemporary female recording artist & an American singer-songwriter) - I want to say to all the young women out there that there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishment or your fame. But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people side-track you, someday when you get where you are going. Then if you will look around then you will know that it was you and the people who love you who were responsible to put you there and that will be the greatest feeling in the world. 

Priyanka Chopra (Miss World 2000 and most successful actress of Bollywood) -

The most beautiful thing about having dreams is that it’s in your hands how big your dreams become. No one can tell you that your dream is too small or your dream cannot come true or your dream cannot be allowed because you are a girl or a boy or because you look a certain way or because you come from a certain place. Don’t be afraid to dream because they do come true. They really do. 

Indra Nooyi (CEO of Pepsico) - Whatever you do, throw yourself into it. Throw your head, heart and hands into it. I look at my job not as a job, I look at it as a calling, as a passion. I don’t care about the hours and I don’t care about the hardship because to me everything is a joy. So, whatever you do, please look upon it as a calling, as a passion and not as job or something temporary. Please help others rise as greatness comes not from a position but from helping build the future. All of us in position of power have an obligation to pull others up. 

Selena Gomez (American singer and actress) - My mom had me when she was 16. She worked in 4 jobs and completely dedicated her life into making mine better. So to me, she is the definition of strong women. I wanted to be an actress and I had a casting director tell me that I wasn’t strong enough to carry my own show. I’m sure all of you have been told that you don’t have what it takes and you don’t have enough people supporting you. But deep down its all you want to do. You want to be the part of something great. The most important thing is to always have a trust in yourself. 

Kiran Bedi (retired IPS officer, social activist, former tennis player and politician) -

We were 4 girls and no boys. My father defied his own grandfather almost to the point of disinheritance. Because he decided to educate all 4 of us. He sent us to one of the best schools in the city. 

Susmita Sen (Miss Universe1994) 

 I have been blessed to be born in a family who raised me just as a human being. They didn’t differentiate between a girl and a boy.

Age of the Aquarius is when women will rise. It is the time when we will come to the awareness of the female strength. There is a reason why law of the nature says to you when you become pregnant you shouldn’t know it’s a girl or a boy. When we kill the nurturer, we create an imbalance that we will be so sorry in generations to have done because the life will stop to exist the way we see it. The world will change on its own. If you change one life and if you can change one thought that having girl is having the womb of the universe, you will then nurture the life beyond.

Top 10 Leadership Lessons from Chanakya

In the 4th century B.C., a philosopher-statesman Kautilya a.k.a. Chanakya wrote the first few ethics of administrative management. Widely regarded as India’s first economist, his management theories guided royalty from times immemorial.

Chankaya documented his life’s labor in the Arthashastra, a list of ethics that would ensure sound governance. The book is famous more for its contents on polity & economy, but also contains advice on financial administration & management . While a lot of his management ethics have been subject to wide study, his governance lessons are also more than relevant in today’s society.

The Bold Indian unfurls a bounty of Vedic wisdom from Kautilya for modern day managers and administrators.

1. Learn from the mistakes of others. You cannot live long enough to make them all yourselves.
2. Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.
3. A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first & honest people are screwed first.
4. As soon as the fear approaches near, attack & destroy it.
5. Even from poison extract nectar, wash and take back gold if it has fallen in filth, obtain highest knowledge from a low born person.
6. Conciliate a covetous man by means of a gift, an obstinate guy with folded hands in salutation, a fool by humoring him & a learned man by truthful words.
7. Before you start some work, always ask yourself 3 questions – why I am doing this, what the result might be & will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find suitable answers to these questions, go ahead.
8. The world’s biggest power is youth and the beauty of a women.
9. People who work sincerely are the happiest.
10. A man is born and dies alone. He experiences the good and bad consequences of his KARMA

CANDLE PROBLEM

The candle problem or candle task, also known as Duncker's candle problem, is a cognitive performance test, measuring the influence of functional fixedness on a participant's problem solving capabilities. The one is given below:

You can now try this and later view the solution given below.

Many of the people who attempted the test explored other creative, but less efficient methods to achieve the goal. For example, some tried to tack the candle to the wall without using the thumbtack box, and others attempted to melt some of the candle’s wax and use it as an adhesive to stick the candle to the wall. Neither method works. However, if the task is presented with the tacks piled next to the box (rather than inside it), virtually all of the participants were shown to achieve the optimal solution, which is self-defined.

The solution is to empty the box of thumbtacks, put the candle into the box, use the thumbtacks to nail the box (with the candle in it) to the wall, and light the candle with the match. The concept of functional fixedness predicts that the participant will only see the box as a device to hold the thumbtacks and not immediately perceive it as a separate and functional component available to be used in solving the task.

As long as the task involved only mechanical skills, bonuses worked as they would be expected: the higher the pay, the better the performance. But once the task called for “even rudimentary cognitive skills,” a larger reward led to poor performance. “In eight or nine tasks we examined across the three experiments, higher incentives led to worst performance.” We find that the financial incentives can result in a negative impact for overall performance.

You can google out and find many such examples or problems and check your problem solving ability. Such exercises really do help to stretch your ability.

Thank you for your time.

TOP 10 LESSONS FROM HARRY POTTER

Harry Potter  books  make up the popular  series written by J.K.Rowling. The book has been made into movies by Warner Bros. Pictures. These are some lessons from Harry Potter film cast.

1. HARRY POTTER 

2. HERMIONE GRANGER

3. FRED AND GEORGE

4. LUNA LOVEGOOD

5  NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM

6. DRACO MALFOY

  

7. HAGRID

8. DOLORES UMBRIDGE

9. PERCY WEASLEY

10. SNAPE

THE SECRETS FROM THE SCIENCE OF PERSUASION-3

5) LIKING

Our 5^th universal principle of influence is the principle of LIKING. People prefer to say yes to those whom they like. The Persuasion science tells us that there are 3 important factors.

i)                We like people who are SIMILAR to us

ii)              We like people who pay us COMPLIMENTS

iii)            We like people who CO-OPERATE with us towards mutual goals

As more and more interactions we are having takes place online, it might be worth wondering whether these factors can be employed effectively in online negotiations.

In a series of negotiation studies carried out between MBA students of the well-known business schools, 1^st group were told TIME=MONEY, so get straight down to business. In this group around 55% were able to come to an agreement. A 2^nd group, however, were told before you begin negotiating, exchange some personal information with each other, identify similarities you share in common and then begin negotiating. In this group 90% of them were able to come to a successful and agreeable outcome.

So to harness this powerful principle of liking, be sure to look for every such similarity that you share with others and genuine compliments you can give before you get down to business.

6) CONSENSUS

The 6^th and final principle of persuasion is CONSENSUS. Especially when they aren’t certain, people will look to the actions and behaviors of others to determine their own.

You may have noticed often at hotels that a small card in the bathrooms that attempt to persuade to reuse their towels and linens. Most do this by drawing a guest attention to the benefits that the reuse can have on environmental protection. It turns out to be a pretty effective strategy leading to around 35% compliance but could there be an even more effective way? Well it turns out that about 75% of people who check into a hotel for 4 nights or longer will reuse their towels at some point during their stay. So what would happen if we take a lesson from the principle of consensus and simply include that information on the card and said, “75% of our guests reuse their towels at sometime during their stay. So please do so as well”. It turns out that when we do this, towel use rises by 26%. Now imagine that next time you stay in the hotel you saw one of these signals, you picked it up and read the following message – “75% of people who have stayed in this room have reused their towels”. What would you think? Well you might think, “I hope they are not the same towels” and like most people you probably think that this sign will have no influence on you behavior whatsoever. But it turns out that change in just few words on a sign to honestly point out what comparable previous guests had done was this single most effective message leading to 33% increase in reuse.

 So these are some shortcuts of persuasion which can drastically change your life.

Thank you for your time. You can suggest any thing on which we can discuss upon.

THE SECRETS FROM THE SCIENCE OF PERSUASION-2

Hey folks, let us discuss about the other shortcuts for science of persuasion

3) AUTHORITY

Our 3^rd universal principle of influence is the principle of AUTHORITY. It is the idea that people follow the lead of credible knowledgeable experts.

Physiotherapists, for an instance, are able to persuade more their patients to comply with recommended exercise programs if they display the medical diploma of the wall of their consulting rooms.

People are likely to give more change for a parking meter to a complete stranger if that requester wears uniform rather than casual clothes.

According to science it is important to signal to others what makes you a credible knowledgeable authority before you make your influence attempt. Of course this thing can present many problems. You can hardly go around telling potential customers how brilliant you are. But can certainly arrange someone who can do it for you. And surprisingly the science tells us that it doesn’t seems to matter if the person who introduces you is not any connected to you but also like to prosper from the introduction themselves.

One group of real state agents were able to increase both, the number of property appraisals and the number of subsequent contracts that they wrote by arranging reception staffs who answered customer’s enquiries to first mention their colleagues quotation to the expertise. So customers interested letting properties were told, “Letting? Let me connect you to Mr. White who has experience of about 15 years in this area”. Customers who were interested in information of selling properties were told, “Speak to Mr. Brown, Head of Sales, who has over 20 years experience in selling properties”.

The impact of this expert introduction led to a 20% rise in the number of appointments and a 15% increase in the number of signed contracts. Its not bad for a small change informed from a persuasion science that was both ethical and cost less to implement.

4) CONSISTENCY

The 4^th universal principle of persuasion is CONSISTENCY. People like to be consistent with the things they had previously said or done. Consistency is activated by looking for small initial commitments that can be made.

In one famous set of scientific studies, researchers found, rather unsurprisingly, that very few people would be willing to erect an unsightly wooden board in front of their lawn to support a drive safely campaign in their neighborhood. However, in a similar neighborhood close by 4 times as many home owners indicated that they would be willing to erect this unsightly boar. Why? Because 10 days previously they had agreed to place a small postcard in the front window of their home that signaled their support for drive safely campaign. That small card was the initial commitment that led to 400% increase in a much bigger but still consistent change.

So when seeking to influence using principle of consistency, the detective of influence looks for voluntary, active and public commitments and ideally gets those commitments in writing.

      For an instance, according to one recent scientific study, there were reduced missed appointments       at health centers by 18% simply by asking the patients rather than the staff to write down                     appointment details on the future appointment card.

Thank you for your time.

THE SECRETS FROM THE SCIENCE OF PERSUASION-1

Persuasion Power is the most important tool that you need to carry in your business world. Persuasive Power means convincing power, which is needed every now and then in our life. Don't you think so?

If you have it, you can win the world. But if you lack it, you can gain it back. Here I will try to estimate some Shortcuts fro the Science of Persuasion.

1) RECIPROCITY

The 1^st universal principle of influence is RECIPROCITY. Simply put people oblige to give back to other the foremost behavior, gift or service that they have received first.

If a friend invites you to their party, there’s an obligation that you should invite him/her in the future party that you are hosting. If a colleague does you a favor, then you owe that colleague a favor. So in the context of social obligation people are most likely to say yes to them.

Best demonstration of principle of reciprocity is the series of study that was conducted in the restaurants. So the next time you visit a restaurant, there is a good chance that waiter or waitress will be giving you a gift. Probably at the same time they will bring you a bill with a cookie or perhaps a simple mint. So here is the question. Does the giving of the mint have any influence over how much tip you are going to leave them? Most people will say ‘NO’. But that mint can make a surprising difference. In the scientific study it was found that giving customers 1 mint at the end of the meal can typically increase tip by around 3%. Interestingly if the gift is doubled i.e. if 2 mints are provided, gift don’t double; they quadruple. So around 14% increase in tip was found. Perhaps most interesting is the fact that if the waiter provides 1 mint, walks away from the table, pauses, turns back and says ‘For you nice people here’s an extra mint’; tips goes through the roof  and there was 23% increase in tip influence not by what is given but by how it was given.

So the key to the principle of persuasion is to be the first to give and what you give must be personalized and unexpected.

  

2) SCARCITY

The 2^nd universal principle of persuasion is SCARCITY. People want more of those things they can have less of.

British Airways announced in 2003 that they will be no longer operating twice daily London – New-York flight because it had become uneconomical to run. Sales the very next day took off. Nothing had changed about the flight; it certainly didn’t fly any faster, the services suddenly didn’t get better and the air fair didn’t drop. It had simply become a scare resource and a result people wanted it more.

So when it comes to effectively persuading others using the scarcity principle, the science is clear. Its not enough simply to tell people about the benefits they will gain if they choose your product and services, you will also need to point out what’s unique about your product and what they stand to loose if they fail to consider your proposal.

     

Thank you for your time. We will shortly have a look over other shortcuts too.