Excuses...

Excuse is a one single thing that stop you from doing a good thing for youself and for the society.

If you don't want to do one good thing then you can come up with many excuses for not doing it, but you just need one good reason to do it.

By nature human brain seeks easier solution and excuse is the outcome of that nature. 'I am too busy to do it, have no time' is one common excuse. One more frequently used excuse is 'every one else is doing it, hence I will do it'. When it comes to actions, we don't want to do anything different and better than the others; but when it comes to end result we want better than anyone else.

We need to understand one thing, what we give is what we get. If we don't give 'outstanding' input (through our efforts), then we will never get 'outstanding' output. If we keep on finding excuses for not doing great work then system will also excuse us from its list of top achievers.

So its our choice, which side do we want to be on, and please don't try to find new excuse for not picking a correct choice.

Success in a team!

So what contributes to ones success in a team? My take on this will be 2D - Dedication and Discipline.
For me if a person is 100% dedicated towards what he/she is doing while following a set discipline or by setting a discipline then no one can stop you from being a star performer.
We actually can look at multiple examples which can prove this -
a) Sachin Tendulakar, highly talented player, but what separates him from other equally (or may be more) talented player is his dedication and discipline towards the game.
b) Rahul Dravid, highly successful player, but did he carried the talent from his birth, arguably NO. He nourished the talent by his well know dedication and rigid routine.

Both these Ds are so critical because these can only be measured over a long period of time, and so thus the success!

Change!

Change is the most integral part of all living beings, and is also the most difficult part too. Why is it so difficult? I guess there are two parts in this answer-
1) We are afraid of change.
2) We are upset with the change.

So, what is difference between being afraid and being upset? We are afraid because we are not confident of our ability to face the change. There is something within us which doubts our capability to face the unknown and succeed. Our past failures or other failure stories contributes to this. This thing is very internal, you can overcome this by preparing yourself in a better way for the change.

Being upset is something external, there are some elements outside your control that make you upset. You being not involved in the decision of change, some hidden things can contribute to make you upset.

After knowing this, as a leader how do you prepare your team for a change. As a leader you should be as transplant as possible with your team, don't keep any hidden agenda from your team, show your team what exactly is expected from them and what they can expect when the change occurs. Showing a realistic picture is very important, you should not frighten the team by showing pessimistic view neither should you be too optimistic and promise them what is not expected to happen. Being realistic is very important because it can help the team prepare for a change in better way, thus taking care of their fear of change. Also it doesn't left anything away from the team thus getting them involved in the change and removing that uncertainty and hence the upset feelings.
So, be open, and enjoy the change with your team and prepare for bright future!