Do You Want to Become a Leader?

Over the course of my career, I have come across, seen and heard many management people. For some strange reason, some of them really inspired and motivated me. If you are working in User Experience (UX) domain, then leadership really becomes an important trait for you. Selling and champion UX in the organization is part of our day-to-day job for all UXers.

Therefore, I decided to pen down my thoughts and definition of leadership. Here is my definition of true leader with which you may agree or disagree.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "A true leader is someone who creates new leaders." This holds true for today's corporate context also.

1. A true leader mentors and provides exciting opportunities to others.


2. A true leader is never afraid of losing his position because he is continuously growing and educating himself with others.


3. A true leader is devoid of any ego, proud, or superiority complex.


4. A true leader understands the power of one-to-one human bond and believes in life-long personal relationships that go beyond professions.


5. A true leader knows you as a person and not as an employee/worker.


6. A true leader treats everyone equally and fairly.


7. A true leader is both a great listener and speaker.


8. A true leader does not command respect because he earns it.


9. And lastly, a true leader brings smiles, joy and hope.

As true User Experience professionals it is important for all of us to instill these leadership values to grow ourselves and the organization.

(Photo Courtesy: http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_416/1246919002m7z0lD.jpg)

One Fine Rainbow

Weather Gods have not been treating Minneapolis with respect since last week. Today evening, the Gods blessed me with a beautiful rainbow in Saint Paul, MN sky.

I could not wait to get my camera and click some pictures. Here is the visual treat for all of you.

Photo Journalism from 200 feet

One Monday (May 10, 2010) morning, while getting ready for office, I looked outside my window to find lot of journalists, in the campus of federal court, taking someone's interview. Yes, I literally live opposite to federal court in Saint Paul. If it was not Robert Street between us, I would be living in the court itself.

I was curious about the interview so I rushed back to my living room and picked my 20X Nikon P90 camera to investigate further. I zoomed in 20X and clicked couple of shots, which informed me that the protest was about Fong Lee case in Minneapolis. I Googled Fong Lee and found this article: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/05/12/fong-lee/

Now you can read this article with the pictures from my camera. A budding journalist....aha!

The Motorcyclist by Martin Eden

The Motorcyclist

"When you have crossed the most rugged and daunting peaks in utter darkness, while the heavens pour out their fury upon you and you grapple for control, the feeble ray of light before you barely visible;

When you have traversed the endless tracks of blistering deserts, the sands a roaring furnace all around,and the sun a burning torch above;

When you have prevailed upon the tortuous traces left by those who came before you, seeking to tame a wild land and forge a better life;

When you have stood alone in the vast and terrible chasms hewn and rent from living rock by the immutable forces of nature, and felt yourself so small as to disappear;
When you have merged in perfect union with a stunning, cloudless sky fueled by the fragrant wind alone, to follow the sinuous course of a thundering river to the mighty cataracts that form its source;

When you have felt the sublime and awesome hand of God in your every move, and in your soul a communion with the ineffable;

When you have clasped in desperation the hand of a comrade who has fallen, his machine a twisted, steaming wreck, as the very life flows from his bosom and he becomes still in your arms, never again to draw breath;

When you have done all this, not once but again, and still again, and can yet gaze with wonder in the quiescence of deepest night upon the machine that was your accomplice, partner, and associate in all this;

When you have come to regard it in your inmost reflections as sinister and seductive, soulless and transcendent, ordinary and ennobled;

When you have done this, and yet thrill to the promise of the unrisen sun that will soon shine upon the hook and crook of a gnarled mountain trace, fully apprehending the machines propensity to deal death or exalt life -- then will you have become a motorcyclist."

Amen!!!

- Martin Eden