Claiming to be an online directory of accredited 4 years institutions, 4icu.org has just released a  list of 200 top ranking universities across the world - based on their website popularity - covering more than 9000 institution in 200 countries.

This ranking has no co-relation with the quality of education provided by these universities, as it highlights their web popularity only -- based on Google Page Rank, Yahoo Back Links and alexa Rating.

As far as India is concerned, only 4 universities are included in this prestigious list: IIT, Mumbai occupies the 26th slot; followed by IIT, Kanpur at 29th; then Delhi University at distant 130th and finally Anna University occupies the 200th position. Pathetic! Read more here

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Originally published on my personal blog Here

How about sharing your workspace with robots, as coworkers? Sounds amazing, but that's what likely to happen soon.

According to NASA's recent release, "NASA and General Motors are working together to accelerate development of the next generation of robots and related technologies for use in the automotive and aerospace industries."

"The partnership's vision is to explore advanced robots working together in harmony with people, building better, higher quality vehicles in a safer, more competitive manufacturing environment," said Alan Taub, GM's vice president for global research and development.

Robots, as such, are nothing new to automobile industry, but most of them are a series of mechanical arms or wheels
with built-in tools and sensors. This Robonaut2; however, is a technologically advanced version capable of lifting 20 pounds with each arms -- 4 times higher than any other robots.

Although, the current focus is on space and automobile applications, but I am sure, very soon the concept will spread to other industries as well. Who wouldn't like to avail the huge benefit of using robots over human: Cost Effectiveness, Productivity and Safety?

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The other day while introspecting through my career achievements, I suddenly remembered a professional with whom I'd worked for few years, as his deputy .

The company was not in good shape -- incurring huge losses. As a last resort, the owner agreed to pay hefty compensation and managed to get the best available talent from reputed organizations. Somehow, I got included in the list and landed there.

Having worked with one of the largest system driven organization of that time for many years, I was suddenly at loss of enthusiasm and initiatives on the very first day.

Though I was told about the background and also the current state of affairs, but living with it even for few hours    turned out to be a different kind of experience. Only news worth mentioning was: my new boss would be joining the next day.

He came, silently, mingled freely with all of us, and in just few days became one of the most admired senior managers in the organization -- exhibiting essential ingredients of a true Leader.

He successfully removed all other priorities from our life by channelizing our thoughts in one direction: Revival of the company. All the team members followed him blindly, rather he made us follow him blindly which we didn't  realize at that point of time, but his ability to inspire and motivate us was remarkable.

Entire team worked round the clock, happily, embedding in mind, the single objective of reviving the lost glory of the company in terms of reputation as well as profitability -- finally, achieving the objective.

In less than 3 years, he turned around the company from a blacklisted entity to a self certified vendor, supplying precision engineering products to a galaxy of public and private sector organizations.

What made him such a good leader could be a million dollar question. But the answer is simple: It was his “Social Intelligence” skills, exhibiting empathy for all and becoming attuned to our moods, synchronizing his own brain chemistry with ours.

Apart from professional issues, we're confiding in him about our personal matters also, taking his guidance time and again -- making him an integral part of our life.

It was a unique biological synchronization or brain interconnectedness, through which he guided us to develop genuine interests in the purpose, fostering positive feelings in us -- whose cooperation and support he needed for achieving the goal.

Well, a recent discovery of mirror neurons in widely dispersed areas of the brain confirms above connectivity: helping us detect consciously or unconsciously others' emotions through their actions, and our mirror neurons reproducing those emotions. Collectively, these neurons create an instant sense of shared experience -- a mirror image.

Perhaps, because of these mirror neurons we followed his emotions and actions, moving seamlessly towards the goal , no longer his, but ours also.

Today, the company is 16 times bigger than what it was 17 years ago when I joined. Though, I decided to move on - 3 years later -  after contributing my share of dedicated efforts to rebuilding of the organization, but the memory of those 3 years still gives me immense satisfaction -- in terms of career achievements.

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A couple of weeks ago I met a CEO, who recently took over the charge of fairly large organization. Being a good listener - developed this habit with great difficulties - I gave a patient hearing to his future plans: How to make the company highly profitable etc.

In few minutes I got impressed; Not just because he speaks well but intelligent too. So I decided to probe further and initiated a general discussion on his strategic initiatives.

Gradually, he opened up, and we had an interesting brain-storming session lasting for more than an hour - although my appointment was for 30 minutes only. We discussed at length about the leadership qualities  essential for achieving success in a difficult environment.

Let me now highlight the gist of our discussion:

You can taste success even in a difficult situation, if  you remain focused on the following objectives, continuously and consistently.

1.First lesson of leadership is to get involved in everything that matters. Success is like a chain, and ignoring even one link may lead to breaking its continuity . Identify the links and do your best to maintain them.

2.Second lesson of leadership is to improve self-knowledge. For helping the poor you have to be rich; so for guiding your team members you must have a strong knowledge base.

3.Third lesson of leadership is to eliminate fear of failure. Battles are not won in the ground but in thoughts.

4.Fourth lesson of leadership is to Improve confidence level. Nothing can be achieved, unless you are convinced that you can achieve it.

5. Fifth and final lesson of leadership is to develop team members to the extent that they are able to reach their maximum potential.

It was a good learning experience and one of the best meetings I had with industry leaders recently. If you wish to add more, pl share. Image Source

Update: Nice to see this topic - the message - being debated on Wall Street Journal - over a posting - published today. Read it HERE

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Linkedin has tremendous potential; all of you know and eager to en-cash. However, very few are actually doing so; rest are just moving around circle without visible results: better job, or new business opportunity!

How to improve? For the right answers, read this article carefully going through all links in details.

"LinkedIn, in fact is a web worker’s best professional friend," said Leo Babauta of zenhabits fame, suggesting 20 Ways to Use LinkedIn Productively  in an old but very relevant article. Most of them are very useful.

Narrowing it down to using linkedin as a job search tool, Guy Kawasaki made some remarkable recommendations through his article "Ten Ways to use Linkedin to Find a Job." If you can sincerely follow some of them, you'll surely land a better job sooner than expected.

The Other day while searching for a relevant candidate  for a CEO position, I came across hundreds of senior level profiles with hardly any information that may catch recruiters' attention.

If you're serious about using linkedin for spicing up you career, pl fill out the profile completely. Remember, in virtual world, it's authentic information that marks the beginning of a trustworthy relationship.

Another innovative method suggested by C G Lynch while searching for a good job through linkedin is, to keep track of companies on linkedin for extracting relevant information from your connections there.

I'm sure, there would be very few companies that are yet to establish a profile page on linkedin. So identify the companies of your interest,  and focus on developing new connections with their employees.

Highlighting the importance of "writing in first person, not third" and also the importance of 'uploading the same photo you use elsewhere online," Ari Hezrog suggested quite a few unconventional but killer approaches for  building your personal brand on linkedin.

Finally, I agree with Lisa Barone: linkedin gives you a huge opportunity to establish your expertise, but I must caution you that you should use it with utmost care for projecting your true-self only!

So make a good strategy, work seriously on it and establish your personal brand on linkedin -- visible to millions worldwide. I'm sure, you'll hit the bull's eye, very soon!

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Author: Abhijit Kar

Originally published on my Personal Blog

Yes! Reveal the findings by Stanford Researchers. Their claim that the impact of income is more prevalent when calculated on hourly basis, makes sense, logically, in my opinion too, because you know how much you have made at the end of the day.Overlooking, but not neglecting, the happiness index, as highlighted in the findings, I would like to look at it from a different angle: net result of efforts invested in every hour.

And, I think, the realization of the exact worth of each hour, that you invest, has tremendous motivational force to ensure your best performance.

Whatever was the objective of this study, but the topic is worth a serious thought, as far as performance index is concerned. What's your opinion?

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Long ago, I wrote an article on this subject with specific reference to a question posted on one of the linkedin forum, "How to overcome Anger ? Has Anger any bright side also?" which drew huge attention from the forum members, and we almost concluded exactly in line with the following statement.

"The emotion of anger is neither good nor bad. It’s perfectly healthy and normal to feel angry when you’ve been mistreated or wronged. The feeling isn't the problem—it's what you do with it that makes a difference. Anger becomes a problem when it harms you or others," said Joanna and Jeanne on HelpGuide and I in total agreement with them.

What could a better example of the devastating manifestation of out-of-control anger, than the one demonstrated by Joe Wilson during US President Obama's speech on health-care reform to Congress, and how it impacted his political career, is known to all of us. I tried to throw some light on this issue through another article, with reference to Ex-President of US  Jimi Carter's statement --  alleged underlying current of racism.

I think anger has got a sinusoidal relationship with motivation, reaching the peak - charging us fully to perform at maximum potential - at some point, but beyond, it starts influencing our senses negatively and obviously affecting our logical ability to perform efficiently. 

If you are prone to such emotional outbursts, better do some home work - may refer to the guidance offered by APA - on this and bring it under control, - before it starts controlling you -  which otherwise, may jeopardize your personal and professional life -- beyond repair. Image Source

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With so much stress in life particularly in professional sphere, its important to have a peaceful environment at home, and nothing, but a good understanding with spouse can serve the purpose.Cultivating some of the habits highlighted in Psychcentral and Times of India could be a decent beginning. Since it takes only 21 days of repetition of a behavior for converting to habit, both of you may pick few - matching your likings - and experiment.

Mutual trust and confidence along with showing genuine concern for each others are some of the major contributing factors for turning any relationship into happy and fruitful. Most of us know about these facts but overlook for no reasons.

"Mistrust is one of the key deal breakers in relationships. And once trust is lost or broken, it can take a very long time to re-establish it in the relationship.The happiest couples are the ones where honesty is as natural and every day as breathing." Via: Psychcentral

"If you look for things  your partner does wrong, you can always find something. If you look for what he or she does right, you can always find something, too. It all depends on what you want to look for. Happy couples accentuate the positive." Via: The Times of India   Image Source