" Berfokus Pada Kelebihan Diri "

"Anak-anak, coba tuliskan tiga kelebihanmu," kata seorang guru pada anak-anak sekolah dasar.

Menit demi menit berlalu namun anak-anak itu seakan masih bingung.

Dengan setengah berakting, sang guru kemudian bersuara keras :

"Ayo, tuliskan! Kalau ngga, kertasmu saya sobek lo." Anak-anak manis itu seketika menjadi salah tingkah.

Beberapa di antara mereka, memang tampak mulai menulis. Salah satu di antara mereka menulis di atas kertas, "Kadang-kadang nurutin kata ibu. Kadang-kadang bantu ibu. Kadang-kadang nyuapin adik makan."

Penuh rasa penasaran, sang guru bertanya kepadanya : "Kenapa tulisnya kadang-kadang?". Dengan wajah penuh keluguan, sang bocah hanya berkata :

"Emang cuma kadang-kadang, Bu guru." !

Ketika semua anak telah menuliskan kelebihan dirinya, sang guru kemudian melanjutkan instruksi berikutnya :

"Sekarang anak-anak, coba tuliskan tiga kelemahanmu atau hal-hal yang buruk dalam dirimu."
Seketika ruangan kelas menjadi gaduh. Anak-anak tampak bersemangat. Salah satu dari mereka angkat tangan dan bertanya :

"Tiga saja, Bu guru?".

"Ya, tiga saja!" jawab sang guru. Anak tadi langsung menyambung :

"Bu guru, jangankan tiga, sepuluh juga bisa!".

Apa pelajaran yang bisa kita petik dari cerita sederhana itu? Saya menangkap setidaknya ada beberapa hal penting yang bisa kita pelajari. Salah satunya, kita sering tidak menyadari apa kelebihan diri kita karena lingkungan dan orang di sekitar kita jauh lebih sering mengkomunikasikan kepada kita kejelekan dan kekurangan kita.

Baru-baru ini, saya menyaksikan di sebuah televisi swasta pertunjukkan seni dari para penyandang cacat. Kami benar-benar terharu. Ada orang buta yang begitu piawai bermain piano atau kecapi. Pria tanpa lengan dan wanita muda yang tuli dapat menari dengan begitu indahnya.

"Luar biasa, dia bisa menari dengan penuh penghayatan. Yang membuat saya heran, dia kan tuli tapi kok bisa mengikuti irama lagu dengan sangat tepat?", kata saya dalam hati terkagum-kagum.

Seorang pria buta yang bernyanyi dengan nada merdu sempat berkata,
"Saudaraku, saya memiliki dua mata seperti Anda. Namun yang ada di depan saya hanyalah kegelapan. Ibu saya mengatakan saya bisa bernyanyi, dan ia memberi saya semangat untuk bernyanyi."

Benarlah apa yang dikatakan Alexander Graham Bell : "Setelah satu pintu tertutup, pintu lainnya terbuka; tetapi kerap kali kita terlalu lama memandangi dan menyesali pintu yang telah tertutup sehingga kita tidak melihat pintu yang telah dibuka untuk kita."

Fokuskan perhatian pada kelebihan kita dan bukan kelemahan kita.

Sumber : Anonymous



On Becoming a Servant Leader
Robert K. Greenleaf, edited by Don M. Frick and Larry C. Spears

Reviewed by Jeff McCollum

This volume, published as a companion to Seeker and Servant, includes private writings of Robert Greenleaf which span the period between 1935 and 1986. Many include ideas of astonishing clarity and insight. Some include predictions that have failed to materialize. Others invite the reader into dialogue and challenge us to a deeper understanding of concepts like leadership, strength, power, persuasion and foresight.

In choosing the title, On Becoming a Servant Leader, editors Don Frick and Larry Spears have invoked other seminal thinkers in human development like Carl Rogers (On Becoming a Person) and leadership like Warren Bennis (On Becoming a Leader). In assembling the book, Frick and Spears have avoided the conventional by not presenting the writing in chronological order. They have, instead, chosen to present this material in four segments: Greenleaf's thoughts on the ethic of strength; his thoughts on organizations and power; a collection of five fascinating lectures delivered at Dartmouth College in 1969; and a retrospective interview with Greenleaf conducted by Joe DiStefano, whom Greenleaf mentored and who now teaches at the University of Western Ontario.

The first section, The Ethic of Strength, is the manuscript for an unpublished book. This section has the rough quality of a work in progress. And it is a diamond in the rough. Strength, Greenleaf argues, requires focusing on means and attitudes as well as outcomes. It requires the ability to see choices, the willingness to make the right choice (based on values like respect and caring and competence) and the responsibility to stay the course. This kind of strength is the antithesis of the insipid "flavor of the month" approach that beleaguers today's organizations on the cusp of the millenium.

In The Ethic of Strength, Greenleaf attempted to speak to young people entering business in the mid-'60's. He emphasizes personal qualities like openness to knowledge, being a seeker, and introduces the idea of organizational spirit, entheos, which is coming back into our thinking about organizations. The language is spiritual. He talks of preparation, awareness, compassion, the problem of knowing and a concept of time in which now is the past--becoming the present--becoming the future. As revealed in other parts of the book, he deliberately chooses to phrase his ideas in a way which would be accepted by those in the mainstream of business.

It has been said that it takes a generation for the true innovator's ideas to gain general acceptance. Greenleaf's prophetic and innovative accomplishments are revealed in the second section of the book, Power, Management and Organizations. The innocuously titled chapter, Behavioral Research, written in 1955, introduces ideas which have roared into the mainstream of human resources management in the 1990's. The origins of assessment centers, mentoring, competency-based management, and benchmarking are all discussed. This chapter also makes a clear distinction between training and development and presages ideas in current publications like Peter Vaill's Learning as a Way of Being and Howard Gardner's Leading Minds.

Growing Greatness, penned in 1962, includes some startling insights into the process of development and reflects on the process of mentoring. Greenleaf holds George Wythe's relationship with Thomas Jefferson as the embodiment of mentoring. Mentoring is the process of allowing the person mentored to become. "I believe that people grow in these moral, perceptive, creative, and decisive qualities as they achieve the freedom to become themselves (Greenleaf's emphasis)", he writes. Jefferson, in turn, became a mentor. Stephen Ambrose's current history of the Lewis and Clark expedition discusses Jefferson's mentoring of Meriwether Lewis in depth.

Those who are, or have been, associated with AT&T will find the essay, My Life in AT&T, interesting- -especially Greenleaf's assertion that AT&T's divestiture was created by the triumph of managers over statesmen, the loss of spirit and the lost knowledge of the institution' s history. Those who are interested in being an effective internal change agent will also find it insightful. Greenleaf's experiences as an internal agent, "kept revolutionary" as one AT&T president described him, is woven throughout this section.

The section of the book which includes Greenleaf's 1969 lectures at Dartmouth College is, to me, the clearest explication of his ideas. The chapter, Leadership and Foresight, is compelling and haunting. It offers, for me, insights into why I feel so disenchanted with contemporary politics. "...the failure to foresee is an ethical failure, because serious ethical compromises today are usually the result of failure at an earlier date to foresee today's events and take the right action .... The action that society labels `unethical' in the present moment is often really one of no choice. A lot of guilty people are walking around with an air of innocence that they would not have if society were able always to pin the label `unethical' on the failure to foresee and the failure to act constructively when there was freedom to act." Reading this quote took me directly to what was not discussed in the 1996 election.

Throughout his latter writings, Greenleaf expresses the hope that the 60's marked the beginning of a fundamental change. I think he would be disappointed with what those of us who were on college campuses in that period have done.

In conclusion, the writings in On Becoming a Servant Leader reflect Greenleaf's quest for new ideas, his own search, about institutions. There are echoes of W. Edwards Deming, Carl Rogers, Chris Argyris, Kurt Lewin and Carl Jung. There are foretastes of Robert Bly, Peter Block, Peter Senge and Howard Gardner. There is no evidence that Greenleaf and Deming ever met. What is fascinating is the parallels between the two. They were contemporaries- -Greenleaf at AT&T and Deming at Western Electric (now Lucent). Both must have been influenced by the spirit of the organization in the 1920's and 1930's which Greenleaf extols. Both worked in relative anonymity until the 1980's. Both used the power of a question to stimulate thinking and learning. Both had an element of crankiness to them in the light of mediocrity and fuzzy thinking.

In the process of becoming, Bob Greenleaf has left a legacy. The final section of the book, the interview with Joe DiStefano, provides a glimpse into what Greenleaf felt his legacy could become.



Employee vs. Independent Contractor - What's The Difference?

Business owners quite often overlook the possibility of lowering their expenses for salary/benefits and related employment tax.

In addition, a business can also in some instances reduce their overall risk by looking to outside sources of labor such as freelance personnel

Whether a person is a freelancer, working on an independent basis or an employee generally depends on the amount of control exercised by the employer over the work being done.

Dictating how a job is to be done or limiting the actions of the worker may establish an employer-employee relationship.

An independent contractor:


* Operates under a business name
* Has her own employees
* Maintains a separate business checking account
* Advertises her business's services
* Invoices for work done
* Has more than one client
* Has own tools and sets own hours
* Keeps business records

An employee:


* Performs duties dictated or controlled by others
* Is given training for work to be done
* Works for only one employer

The Internal Revenue Service relies on the facts in each case. It does not recognize the validity of any written agreement between the parties. Anyone can get a ruling from the IRS by completing Form SS-8.

For most small businesses, an independent worker should not be considered as a substitute for regular employees.

Government agencies generally find that people in the work force are legally employees for tax purposes and the cost of being wrong, remitting unpaid payroll
taxes, interest and penalties can be very high. Selling of real estate is an example of an industry that depends heavily on the spirit of the independent contractor.

Real estate agents are typically not classified as an employee. Instead they agree to work on an independent basis so they only get paid when and if they sell homes. They benefit by associated their name with a well known brand in the market place, but they are fully responsible for doing the job and bring in revenue to the firm.

The firm only gets paid if the agent is making money. In other words, any independent contractor who isn't doing his/her fair share in revenue can be dismissed in favor of a more energetic salesperson.

On the other hand, each independent worker can jump from firm to firm at any time of their choosing.

If you are unsure as to whether or not you wish to hire an employee or an independent contractor, simply consult your accountant.

3 Langkah membuat e-mail sebagai sales tools terbaik
4 pertanyaan yang sering kami temukan dalam konsultasi e-mail marketing dengan berbagai klien akan kami sarikan dalam satu sesi seminar dan workshop yaitu :
“Bagaimana membangun database e-mail yang tepat dan baik berdasarkan asas permisi?”
“Bagaimana membuat e-mail marketing yang menarik. Menarik tidak hanya mata namun dompet para pelanggan kami juga?”
“Bagaimana membuat desain terbaik dengan gambar di dalamnya namun besaran file-nya tidak lebih dari 20kb?”
“Bagaimana saya mengirimkannya secara efektif dan efisien ke ratusan bahkan ribuan database pelanggan saya hanya dengan satu klik saja?”
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ______
Topik bahasan :
Pengetahuan dasar e-mail marketing dari sisi pemasaran

1. Mengapa mengunakan e-mail sebagai marketing tools anda
2. 9 strategi e-mail terbaik guna meningkatkan penjualan anda
3. 8 tipe pendekatan e-mail marketing
4. Membangun hubungan dan bisnis berulang dengan e-mail marketing
5. E-mail marketing yang sempurna?
6. 21 kesalahan e-mail marketing yang tak termaafkan



REFLEKSI: Perlu gundul hutan? Apa keuntungan bagi rakyat, bila Pertamina dengan migasnya tidak memberikan hasil pendapatan sebgaimana mestinya?

http://web.bisnis. com/sektor- riil/tambang- energi/1id16856. html

Rabu, 01/08/2007 13:39 WIB

21 Perusahaan Jepang akan masuk bisnis biofuel RI
oleh : Rudi Ariffianto

JAKARTA (Bisnis): Sebanyak 21 perusahaan asal Jepang berencana masuk ke bisnis biofuel tahun ini, satu diantaranya akan masuk 19 Agustus.

Sekretaris Timnas Pengembangan Bahan Bakar Nabati Evita Herawati Legowo mengatakan dari sejumlah perusahaan itu, 20 diantaranya dikoordinasikan oleh Jetro dan Nedo.

Namun, nama-nama perusahaan tersebut masih belum diketahuinya. Sedangkan satu perusahaan yang ingin bekerjasama dengan Molindo di Jawa Timur dan Lampung adalah perusahaan migas bernama JGC.

"Mereka sudah melakukan studi kelayakan. Untuk Jetro dan Nedo sudah koordinasi dengan Kadin Indonesia. Sedangkan? JGC tanggal 19 Agustus nanti mereka akan tandatangani MoU dengan Molindo," katanya hari ini.

Menurut Evita, ke duapuluh perusahaan itu diperkirakan akan masuk tahun ini, atau setidaknya tahun depan. (tw

TujuhBelasAgustus
Pada 17 Agustus setiap tahun kita disibukkan dengan lomba-lomba sampai pada titik puncak nonton panjat pinang ramai-ramai di RT masing-masing. Kineforum bukan cuma menawarkan keriaan, kita juga akan melihat bahwa kemerdekaan yang kita rayakan itu punya banyak sisi. Untuk menyebut beberapa contoh, dalam Naga Bonar kita disuguhi parodi perjuangan bersenjata, pada Mardiyem kita melihat salah satu peristiwa kejahatan terbesar dalam sejarah yang sampai sekarang belum diakui dan lewat PB XII: Berjuang untuk Sebuah Eksistensi kita tahu bahwa negara ini dibangun dari sumbangan para pendukung awalnya.
Selain melihat kembali apa yang kita rayakan tiap 17 Agustus, kineforum juga menawarkan film cerita dari Jepang karya sutradara Shinobu Yaguchi dan seri terakhir dari program film-film sepakbola. Dalam program Sepakbola kali ini kami mengajak Anda menonton Die elf Teufel (Sebelas Iblis), film bisu yang dibuat menjelang kelahiran film bersuara, karya penulis skenario Jerman Reisch yang kemudian pindah dan bekerja bersama sutradara terkemuka Hollywood.
Dalam bulan ini kineforum kedatangan Festival Penyutradaraan Institut Kesenian Jakarta dan juga menjadi salah satu tuan rumah untuk Q Film Festival yang ke-6. Festival yang berlangsung tiap tahun ini mengangkat film-film dengan tema gender dan seksualitas. Sementara dari seri pemutaran film ScreenDocs, bulan ini kineroum dan In-Docs akan memutarkan koleksi Eagle Awards, menjelang penganugerahan penghargaan film dokumenter ini untuk tahun 2007. Pada pertengahan bulan, kineforum bersama kelompok musik White Shoes and The Couples mengadakan acara bersama untuk penggalangan dana bagi Sinematek Indonesia.




$500 Juta Pendapatan Australia Berasal dari Mahasiswa Indonesia

Canberra (Lampost Online) - Indonesia masih mengalami defisit senilai 500 juta dolar Australia setiap tahunnya dari sektor pendidikan dengan Australia, karena lebih dari 15.000 dari 16.500 mahasiswa Indonesia yang belajar di negara ini membiayai sendiri studi mereka, kata seorang pejabat KBRI Canberra.

"Karena itu, dalam berbagai kesempatan, saya selalu mengimbau AusAID untuk menaikkan jumlah beasiswa bagi Indonesia," kata Atase Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan RI di KBRI Canberra, Dr. R. Agus Sartono,MBA, saat berbicara dalam pertemuan delegasi Konsorsium Perguruan Tinggi Negeri di kawasan timur Indonesia dengan pimpinan Universitas Canberra, Senin (30/7).

Agus mengatakan defisit yang sangat besar itu juga disebabkan terganjalnya para pelajar dan mahasiswa Australia yang ingin belajar di Indonesia akibat pemberlakuan "travel advisory" (imbauan perjalanan) Pemerintah Federal bagi para warganya untuk mengurungkan niatnya bepergian ke Indonesia karena alasan keamanan.

"Travel advisory itu kini merupakan tantangan terbesar bagi program kemitraan antaruniversitas kedua negara," katanya.

Menyinggung tentang 5.000 beasiswa dari pemerintah RI bagi para dosen universitas negeri untuk melanjutkan studi di luar negeri untuk program magister dan doktoral pada 2008, Agus mengemukakan Universitas Canberra dan universitas- universitas lain di Australia termasuk di antara perguruan tinggi yang dituju.

Namun, yang perlu segera disiapkan berbagai perguruan tinggi di Tanah Air adalah para dosen muda yang berpotensi serta penyiapan kemampuan Bahasa Inggris yang baik dengan skor IELTS 6,5 sehingga mereka bisa diterima di berbagai universitas di Australia, katanya.

Bagi perguruan tinggi di kawasan timur Indonesia, selain program studi manajemen perkotaan dan akuntansi, manajemen pelestarian sumber-sumber air juga perlu menjadi pertimbangan mengingat terbukanya ancaman kekeringan di kawasan itu, dan Australia cukup berpengalaman dalam masalah ini, katanya.

Delegasi Konsorsium PTN kawasan timur Indonesia yang bertemu Wakil Rektor Universitas Canberra, Prof.Deborah Ralston dipimpin oleh Prof.Ir.L.W. Sondakh,MEc, PhD.

Selain Prof. Sondakh yang juga rektor Universitas Sam Ratulangi, hadir pula dalam pertemuan ini wakil Universitas Negeri Gorontalo, Prof. Dr. H. Mansoer Pateda, Direktur Program Pascasarjana Universitas Tadulako, Prof. Dr. Hj. Sieng Daud Laratu, MS, serta wakil-wakil Universitas Hasanuddin Makassar, Universitas Udayana Denpasar, Universitas Palangkaraya, dan Universitas Cenderawasih, Jayapura