Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Gibraltar Briefcase: The Wise Weapons of Exceptional Executives
    The Gibraltar Briefcase: The Wise Weapons of Exceptional Executives
    The Gibraltar Briefcase: The Wise Weapons of Exceptional Executives
    Ebook148 pages1 hour

    The Gibraltar Briefcase: The Wise Weapons of Exceptional Executives

    By Thejendra Sreenivas

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    UPDATED 2022 EDITION

    The Gibraltar Briefcase is a bunch of raw advice on management, leadership, and self-improvement for the modern business executive. The Rock of Gibraltar or Pillar of Hercules, located in Europe has been standing tough and strong for centuries despite several enemy attacks and long sieges and nothing can destroy the Rock or her people. The statement 'Solid as the rock of Gibraltar' is often used to describe a person that cannot fail or be subdued. To become such a rock, you must continuously repair and detoxify yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually to protect the forts you hold dear. The techniques in this book are the knowledge weapons to help you thrive and survive in modern stressful workplaces and become like a rock but without turning into a stone.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThejendra Sreenivas
    Release dateDec 11, 2019
    ISBN9780463612538
    The Gibraltar Briefcase: The Wise Weapons of Exceptional Executives
    Author

    Thejendra Sreenivas

    Thejendra Sreenivas is a Technology manager with nearly 28+ years of experience in the IT industry handling a variety of technical roles & projects. He is also an Author and Life Skills coach. He offers personalized coaching in Self-Publishing, Financial Literacy, IT Asset Management, and various Self-Improvement concepts. He has also written 20+ mild & wild books on a number of subjects. His inspiration for writing unique books comes from Toni Morrison who said, “If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”Please visit his web cave - www.thejendra.com for details of his books, articles and coaching information.

    Read more from Thejendra Sreenivas

    Related to The Gibraltar Briefcase

    Related ebooks

    Personal Growth For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Editor's

      Jul 11, 2019

      Everyone’s rushing around trying to make sure they’re across everything – so as not to be left behind in this age of rapid change. This issue looks at it all, from mentoring, to education, to skills, career progression, leadership and everything in b

      2 min read

    • Article

      8 Skills To Achieve Success

      Aug 25, 2022

      8 Skills To Achieve Success
      5 min read

    • Article

      Dating Drama

      Jun 1, 2020

      Dating Drama
      8 min read

    • Article

      Brain Trust

      Jul 11, 2019

      The best career advice I received was to overcommunicate, underpromise, and overdeliver. It’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming people have the same level of skill and knowledge as you on a subject, but often this is not true. If you’ve been wor

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Clear Purpose

      Aug 12, 2018

      Imagine that when you were born, you were told that as part of being allowed to enter this world, you then had to sign up to leave it in a better state than when you arrived. Then, imagine that we were all told the same thing and that all 7.2 billion

      4 min read

    • Article

      Divorcing Differently: An Intuitive Path from Untethered to Empowered

      Apr 25, 2022

      Estimated reading time: 10 minutes — Divorcing differently…is it really possible? “Look, the last thing I could imagine doing when my life was spiraling out of control during my divorce — was get ZEN and centered and make grounded decisions. That so

      6 min read

    • Article

      Reaching Out

      Dec 21, 2021

      Reaching Out
      5 min read

    • Article

      It’s In The STARS

      Mar 21, 2021

      You want to make your opinion known and not just in your work or social circle. There is a situation that you feel needs to be addressed and you have to do something. Time to get involved in politics on some level or help a humanitarian organisation.

      3 min read

    • Article

      You Must Be Real To Heal

      Nov 16, 2022

      You Must Be Real To Heal
      4 min read

    • Article

      Good Advice!

      Sep 1, 2022

      Good Advice!
      7 min read

    • Article

      Cyberbullying

      Dec 16, 2020

      Cyberbullying
      4 min read

    • Article

      Q & A

      Sep 1, 2022

      How do you define a ‘person of influence’ in today’s world? Whether we realize it or not, we are influencing people all the time, from the time we are very young. Whenever you do or say something that effects a change in someone else’s thinking or be

      8 min read

    • Article

      Communicating With Empathy

      Nov 23, 2022

      Communicating With Empathy
      7 min read

    • Article

      Mitch Wallis

      Nov 23, 2022

      Mitch Wallis
      4 min read

    • Article

      An Emerging Leader's Mindset

      Sep 1, 2019

      You are known as a champion of workplace inclusivity. For anyone who still needs to be convinced, why is it so important? This is something I’ve always been passionate about, even before it was part of my job description. There are two things in part

      6 min read

    • Article

      Q&A

      Jan 1, 2023

      In your book, Jerks at Work, you outline four types of destructive colleagues. Who are they? The first type is the ‘kiss-up, kick-downer.’ This is a person who is really talented at work; they have the skills needed to get on their boss’s radar, and

      7 min read

    • Article

      Saying No Takes Practice

      Nov 25, 2017

      Saying No Takes Practice
      2 min read

    • Article

      Redesign YOUR LIFE

      Mar 5, 2020

      Redesign YOUR LIFE
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Practice of Positive Leadership

      Sep 1, 2019

      Great leadership is surprisingly rare. Why is that? While there are plenty of well-intentioned individuals in leadership roles, they face a few key challenges. The first is time pressure. Research shows that when we’re under time pressure, we become

      6 min read

    • Article

      Thinking Out Loud

      Sep 1, 2022

      Thinking Out Loud
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Gibraltar Briefcase

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Gibraltar Briefcase - Thejendra Sreenivas

      Acknowledgments

      My first thanks go to Toni Morrison, a famous American author, and recipient of countless awards including the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, who first planted the incredible seeds of writing a book in my head. Even though I have never met her it was her amazing quote, "If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it," that inspired and motivated me to write articles and books nearly two decades ago.

      My second thanks go to my family members, friends, neighbors, and relatives for helping me accomplish this literary feat by completely forgetting or ignoring me on countless weekends while I was pounding on my keyboard with wild ideas setting my head on fire.

      My third thanks go to the various bits and pieces of enlightenment gained from dealing with countless people over the years, opening all the mental taps, personal and witnessed experiences, pleasant and nasty encounters, rational and irrational thoughts in solitude, wake-up calls, famous quotes, and most importantly those bizarre ideas being mysteriously pumped into my brain by a naughty higher power. So, a lot of earthly and cosmic folks have directly or indirectly contributed to the flow of thoughts presented in this and all my other books.

      Thejendra Sreenivas

      Book Publishing Coach

      www.thejendra.com

      T:\THEJENDRA-PRODUCTION\BOOKS-MAGAZINE-2021\LOGOS\DIVIDER1.png

      About the Author

      Good day. My name is Thejendra Sreenivas. I was a Technology Manager in the IT industry for nearly 30 years. Before entering the IT industry, I was also an electronics lecturer for a short duration.

      I have written and self-published 35+ books on various subjects. All my books are available in both Paperback and eBook on all major book retailers. I am also the Editor and Publisher of a font-optimized digital magazine called Self Improvement International which contains articles on personal development, workplace issues, humor, writing, and publishing.

      I am now a Book Publishing Coach and offer services like Assisted Self-Publishing, Manuscript Formatting, Facebook Ads, Ghostwriting, One Page Websites, Article Writing, and Podcast Creation. In addition, I also offer Personal Development Coaching.

      Please visit my web cave - www.thejendra.com or www.author-world.com for details of my books, magazine, and coaching information.

      T:\THEJENDRA-PRODUCTION\BOOKS-MAGAZINE-2021\LOGOS\DIVIDER1.png

      Review Request

      Thank you for buying and reading my book! If you enjoyed this book or found it useful, I would be very grateful if you would post a short review online and also share it with your friends, coworkers, relatives, and your social media platforms.

      T:\THEJENDRA-PRODUCTION\BOOKS-MAGAZINE-2021\LOGOS\DIVIDER1.png

      Preface

      The Gibraltar Briefcase is a bunch of raw advice on management, leadership, and self-improvement for the modern business executive. The Rock of Gibraltar or Pillar of Hercules, located in Europe has been standing tough and strong for centuries despite several enemy attacks and long sieges and nothing can destroy the Rock or her people. The statement ‘Solid as the rock of Gibraltar’ is often used to describe a person that cannot fail or be subdued. To become such a rock, you must continuously repair and detoxify yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually to protect the forts you hold dear. The techniques in this book are the knowledge weapons to help you thrive and survive in modern stressful workplaces and become like a rock but without turning into a stone.

      Ancient humans survived by eating food and fruits in their raw, natural state. But the modern human has become largely dependent on processed, packaged, and contaminated food. Similarly, the modern business executive today has limited access to natural unadulterated advice and has become accustomed to canned management fodder. This lack of clean advice is leading to constant stress, unrealistic expectations, rapid burnout, etc., for all modern executives worldwide. 

      Essentially, there are two ways to lead one’s life. The first way is you can either slog through life, waste time, and energy or make endless mistakes trying to discover things from your own experience. And the second way is you can profit from the knowledge and wisdom gained and documented by others. This book shows how you can benefit from the second way. Like a banquet containing an array of delicious healthy fruits, this book contains a bunch of diverse chapters that can change the way you look at yourself, your colleagues, and the wacky world around you. Though there is no promise of revolutionary magic here, you will definitely see improved results if you use the advice within to guide your future actions. Give it a try. You may be pleasantly surprised.

      How to Ask Beautiful Questions

      Sometime back I was watching a TV program on a business channel where a bunch of reputed CEOs, CFOs, COOs, etc., were the judges for a young business entrepreneur program. Each young participant was expected to present a business case for the winning entry. However, the program was going nowhere as the judges weren’t allowing any participant to complete their presentation or go beyond a couple of sentences, and would constantly bombard them with questions after questions.

      The judges were even firing questions at each other and answering every question with another question. Every young participant, half their age, was being ripped to pieces with their incessant and often cynical questions. Finally, one of the participants was awarded a ceramic pot of un-definable shape with something inscribed on it, while the others walked out dazed and gasping for breath.  Mercifully, the program ended soon.

      What the above incident teaches you is the world today is full of people who love to ask tough questions. Interviews, talk shows, blogs, corporate seminars, meetings, vendor discussions, business strategies, IT support, journalism, service level agreements, etc., all love bombarding someone with truckloads of smart and intelligent sounding questions. Today, asking questions that others cannot answer is a favorite hobby for many people. Hence, many executives nowadays take great pride in asking complicated and smart questions that can make others squirm, shut their mouths or run away from the scene. Also, many people believe just asking a tough question settles the matter without the need to get involved to solve the issue. Secondly, a large percentage of people ask tough questions just for the heck of it, especially in meetings.

      The basic reason why many people ask tough questions is mainly to satisfy their ego by making others uncomfortable, covering up their lack of knowledge, or just to impress others. For example, most discussions and arguments you may have observed are all about how someone outsmarted someone else by firing a smart question. Watching someone squirm gives a self-congratulatory sadistic pleasure to many people like, ‘Hah, you should have seen that bozo’s face when I asked him that tricky question.’ But it doesn’t mean people will be using tough and rude questions with everyone, but they will definitely not miss an opportunity to fire it on someone they can afford to be rude with. Anyway, nowadays with the amount of information overload it’s very easy to ask plenty of good, bad, tough, smart, rude, tricky, vague, stupid, dumb, and rubbish questions. And a large percentage of those questions just don’t have answers.

      However, the habit of asking questions is not a bad habit, but deliberately asking questions that you or others cannot answer is dumb. You can keep asking such questions for eternity, but you will not get any correct answers or solutions. Rude and rubbish questions, even smart-sounding ones, often create a lot of problems. Very often, people ask tough questions because they think a tough question will get the necessary answer. But the fact is people avoid people who ask tough questions. Bombarding anyone with tough questions is a futile exercise because you will never get the right answers. It only makes people avoid you, or give you evasive, defensive, and incorrect answers. Besides, a shoot-the-messenger approach will make people tell lies and cover up bad news to prevent their heads from being chewed off. Secondly, rough and tough questions simply create stress, anxiety, and fear in a lot of people. Such questions make people commit more mistakes because the brain goes numb with fear. Toughness prevents the truth from being said and people will invent excuses. And the list can go on and on. Maybe rough and tough questions are useful in police interrogations, but rarely necessary in business life. As Bob Parsons said, ‘Every business everywhere is staffed with imperfect human beings and exists by providing a product or service to other imperfect human beings.’ So, if you are a sensible person, you will understand the limitations of our species.

      To get correct answers or solutions from others you need to ask beautiful questions. Now you may ask what a beautiful question is, and how do you ask one? But a beautiful question cannot be exactly defined, nor is it possible to give you a specific list of beautiful questions that can be used in every situation. However, a beautiful question can be described in many ways. Here are a few ways to learn how to ask beautiful questions.

      A beautiful question doesn’t have any toxicity, cynicism, or tricky content into it. It’s a question that does not trap people or put them in an awkward position. A beautiful question can be a straightforward question, but it’s asked in a non-threatening or non-intimidating way.

      A beautiful question doesn’t hurt sentiments, make people defensive or point fingers at them in an accusatory manner. People make mistakes and will continue to do many mistakes in their lifetime. It’s quite possible for someone to have completely goofed up

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1