Main | Next month (Jul 2008) »
Friday Jul 18, 2008

Connected Women Leadership Forum

Back to work totally charged !! Revitalized..Re-energized.. I attended a one-day conference called "Connected Women Leadership Forum" hosted by Cisco WAN (Women Action Network). The program was quite an eye opener. Had a lot of take aways and was a real wake up call !!
I have a gist of it here.

Indian Women are born/groomed Managers

Bringing us up the way our parents/society has we have a lot of inherent qualifications that make us her stand apart.
We are able to deal with a lot of our relatives (read as in-laws) very effectively.
We are able to juggle multiple things in a very effective manner.
Multi tasking is pretty much ingrained in us. Remember, you had to help your mom in her household chores while your brother could get away doing just his studies.
We are given varied opportunities/options - Girls are encouraged more to take up fine arts with an assumption that the husband will take care of the finances and the women can take care of the hobbies.
We are Born perfectionists.
We are Good Planners - There is hardly a day that there is absolutely no grocery in the kitchen.

Well with so many pluses why is that women are not making to the top ? Because we have converted our pluses to our minuses.
a) We do juggle multiple things and keep feeling guily about not doing things perfectly or not doing enough.
b) We do not make the best use of our opportunities.
c) We have benchmarked ourselves with wrong people which has created a false glass ceiling.
d) We do not want to grow too high up as we feel we will not be able to manage the home front once we get to the top.
e) Being very sensitive -we mix emotions with work.

TLA : Three Letter Acronyms.

CCC : Capability - Credibility - Confidence Only because you have the capability did you get into the workspace, clearing all the necessary exams/interviews. Now, you have to keep working on your deliverables and gain the credibility. Once you have the credibility, you will automatically get the confidence which will help you negotiate when need be. Especially if you want to work from home or take a part time assignment etc.
PPP : Power - Passion - Purpose Once you are give the power to do things, remember to have a purpose and wear your passion on your sleeves. It's not very acceptable in the society but it is true that we are the drivers of change.
FOGs : Failures - Own Nature - Gaps ---> Success Failures are stepping stones for success. Understand your nature and do things that make you happy. Follow your dreams. Imagine a book without any spaces or commas or fullstops,that will make the book totally unreadable. Thus have your gaps to re energize. Once the FOG is clear it will lead to "SUCCESS"

Action Items

Networking : Do you think its a waste of time to mingle/chat with people - You want to finish your work and get home as more work is awaiting you.. But this is the key for success. It not only helps career moves, it gives a great opportunity and easy access to different knowledge banks.Have a network not just at your work place but in all your various social circles.
Attend Brown Bags : They can give you the buzz words, if not the depth into each of technological advancements happening around you.
IEEE/ OpenSource Forums : Be there not to get help only. Be there to give help as well and Be there long enough to gain credibility.
Mentoring/Training : "Sharpen your Saw" is a constant requirement. Choose your mentors and learn from them and strive to grow beyond them.
Branding : Key Factor for people to identify you which eventually helps in the persons growth.
Plan Ahead : Think what you want to be in the next 5 years and iterate through that plan every year . Re prioritize/Change the plan if need be. Don't wait till the end of 5 years to assess it.
Social Responsibility : Help bridge the digital divide by giving back to the society. This also helps in networking.

Growth is not just about getting to the next grade in your career. It is about the experiences your work life and home front that you learn from and adopt.Experiences that help you grow from within as an individual is what is real GROWTH.

Press Coverage

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/43972
http://www.itexaminer.com/cisco-launches-womens-forum.aspx

Posted at 04:47PM Jul 18, 2008 by Smitha Prabhu in Personal  |  Comments[0]

Wednesday Jul 02, 2008

Install & Configure LB on Apache(Steps using Glassfish v2ur2 & Apache 2.0.59 on Unix platform.)

If you are using Glassfish v2ur2 instead of v2ur1, the installation & configuration instructions are the same as that of v2ur1 except the installation of glassfish which is detailed here.

Install Glassfish v2ur2.

  1. Download bits from http://www.java.net/download/javaee5/v2ur2/promoted/SunOS/glassfish-installer-v2ur2-b04-sunos.jar

  2. java -Xmx256m -jar glassfish-installer-v2ur2-b04-sunos.jar - to unbundle glassfish.

  3. cd glassfish

  4. chmod -R +x lib/ant/bin

  5. lib/ant/bin/ant -f setup-cluster.xml

Posted at 02:08PM Jul 02, 2008 by Smitha Prabhu in Sun  |  Comments[0]