The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #200 Staying Upbeat with Rajesh Setty
Posted on 20. Jul, 2009 by Wayne in Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel celebrates 200 interviews with people way smarter than him. Today it’s Rajesh Setty, author of the perpetually positive “Upbeat”. We also quote an operetta and ask my 16 year old about her manager.
My friend and mentor, the always upbeat Rajesh Setty
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the 200th episode of the Cranky Middle Manager Show. I am taking this moment to let us quit being noble and helping our companies and teams and concentrate on ourselves. In Episode 198 it was all about being Hip and Sage with Lisa Haneberg. In Episode 199 it was preparing ourselves to take control of our careers with Mike Cook. Today it’s all about keeping an upbeat attitude, even when that’s the last thing you feel like doing. Misery is optional.
2:14 No dedication this week, because I am interviewing my 16 year old daughter, Her Serene Highness about her new job. If you read the Management Issues article, you know it didn’t start well but I thought I’d ask her about her manager. it also stops her nagging me about being on my show. If you’re going to manage millenials, might as well talk to one. Good luck to all of us.
5:25 The quote of the week is from W S Gilbert. Staying positive is important, but lots of us kind of enjoy being miserable on occasion….. admit it. I’m not alone here. Am I?
6:30 Welcome back Rajesh Setty to the show. He was one of our earlier guests, has been responsible for a number of others and has been a mentor to me and the show. (Hear his earlier interview here). He is also the author of a little book on keeping an upbeat attitude in spite of everything that’s going on. In fact, his first big idea is to quit thinking of everything that’s going on and worry about your own work and what you can actually control.
11:00 One of the great human instincts is to vent, but harping on how bad things are doesn’t accomplish anything. Quit talking about how bad things are, it creates a cycle of depression. That doesn’t mean you don’t talk about what’s going on in the company. I’m not sure I buy all of this, but then I’m uhhhh cranky.
15:05 You have to take care of your health. Seriously. For the record, I have lost almost 35 pounds and am in great shape. In a perfect world I’d be too busy to work out but I’ll let that irony sit there. Don’t let bad times be an excuse or you won’t be in shape to handle the demands on you.
18:00 Setting goals and being accountable for yourself is a huge piece of your attitude. You are important enough to keep promises you make to yourself.
21:51 Weird times are exactly the right time to take a risk…because the normal safe route isn’t working. It sucks but it’s true.
23:00 Raj is one of the best networkers I know. Tweetfacelinkblogging is not sufficient. Raj gives us some tips for creating a great network. A network is not there to help you….. it will but that shouldn’t be your focus. Start by seeing what you can do for them first…the rest will follow. Trite, but this guy lives it more than most I know…..
Rajesh’s Resources
His own Life Beyond Code Blog
a very cool site I can personally recommend: Active Garage
Don’t let the weasels get you down!
Hey Wayne,
Congratulations on your 200th episode!
By the way I really enjoyed your interview with your daughter! I was imagining interviewing my daughter on a webcast :)
Also, what a great speaker you have with Rajesh! By the way I remember having some of those times where “Whatever could go wrong, went wrong”, and I agree that keeping an “Upbeat Attitude” is the only way to survive!!
Nice to meet you a while back and consider me a regular listener from here on!!
Congrats!!
Gary Anderson
Netbriefings, Inc.
Congrats, too on #200. Its just a number, but aren’t we supposed to be rewarded (or at least praised) when we ‘hit our numbers’?
Holey crap aha moment … we must keep our promises to ourselves. Yea, that’s what motivation is supposed to help us manage, but putting it that way shows how important we should treat it. Like you said, he ain’t making it easy on us!
Oh, and if you are Tweetfacelinkblogging, where’s your Facebook fan page? Silly that you have to set up your own fan page, but that’s the rules.
Thanks for the kind words everyone. Dave, I have a Facebook page for me, but haven’t set one up for the show separately- not enough hours in a day with things heating up at http://www.greatwebmeetings.
200 is a lot of shows and I’m grateful people enjoy them.
I loved Rajesh’s talk!! As a coach for technical managers, I find what he says is so right on!! Managers really need to be up beat, stay out of the drama, focus on what they can control and take care of themselves. I also agree that these goals may not be easy for people. (Some of us do really want to be lazy. We deserve it!) As a coach I find clients thrive on having an accountability partner of some sort to get them into new habits. As a reader of neuroscience, I know how the brain always wants to revert back to the old habits. Also, his comments on networking were really inspiring!