Animal Group Names You Probably Never Heard Of

We’ve all heard the names for certain groups of animals – like a pack of mules or a litter of kittens – but how many of the following unusual collective nouns do you know? We’ve gathered some of the most unique and bizarre, while adding a bit of light speculation on what each might mean!

A corps of giraffes. The military term sounds right; a corps of giraffes racing across the savannah certainly makes for an imposing sight.

 

A bloat of hippopotamuses. Considering their size, this is quite apt too! Did you know that hippos sweat a red substance that works as a sunblock?

 

 

A business of flies. We wish they would do their business somewhere else.

 

 

A crash of rhinoceroses. The sound two make when fighting, a habit of theirs during mating season.

A gaze of raccoons. That gaze of entreaty from hungry raccoons near your house is hard to resist if you are an animal lover, but they are often considered pests.

 

A glaring of cats. When they want their morning food, kitties sure will glare right at you.

 

A parliament of owls. If only our parliaments had the wisdom of owls.

 

A plum of seals. We’re not sure about the word ‘plum’, but a seal’s Latin name, ‘pinna’, actually means ‘fin-footed’.

 

A shrewdness of apes. Apes definitely are shrewd and they also use tools – for example, sticks to get at termites and ants in anthills.

 

A scold of jays. Jays not only sound like they are scolding one another but they taunt and tease cats as well.

 

An obstinacy of buffalo. Trying to make a large number of buffalo do something against their will, you sure would come up against some obstinacy!

 

A prickle of hedgehogs. Stepping on a hedgehog certainly is a prickly situation!

 

A labour of moles. They certainly work hard enough making hills in farmers’ fields.

 

A smack of jellyfish. When you swim smack into them you can get some nasty stings!

   

Photo: Stan Shebs

A gam of whales. Well they may not have gams – slang for beautiful women’s legs in America – but they are beautiful.

 

A husk of hares. Hares might be said to get worn to a husk when reproducing!

 

A grist of bees. Pollen is grist for the bee’s mill as it pollinates flowers around the world.

 

A den of snakes. Nothing pleasant about finding a den of snakes at the bottom of your outhouse!

 

A clutter of spiders. If you have a lot of clutter you may well find a spider’s web on it!

A knot of toads. The ‘warts’ on a toad are actually glands, knot warts (get it?).

 

A sowse of lions. We haven’t seen many soused lions, but if you were to see some, it could have some interesting results!

 

A rag of colts. Colts are rambunctious and rag each other.(A colt is a male horse, usually below the age of four or not more than four years of age)

 

An ugly of walruses. How overwhelmingly apt! Walruses are not the prettiest of creatures – but they are the only species in their family (Odobenidae) left on earth.

 

A leap of leopards. Leopards are great hunters and leap at their prey!

 

 

 

11 Simple Concepts to Become a Better Leader

Dave Kerpen

Being likeable will help you in your job, business, relationships, and life. I interviewed dozens of successful business leaders for my last book, to determine what made them so likeable and their companies so successful. All of the concepts are simple, and yet, perhaps in the name of revenues or the bottom line, we often lose sight of the simple things - things that not only make us human, but can actually help us become more successful. Below are the eleven most important principles to integrate to become a better leader:

1. Listening

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway

Listening is the foundation of any good relationship. Great leaders listen to what their customers and prospects want and need, and they listen to the challenges those customers face. They listen to colleagues and are open to new ideas. They listen to shareholders, investors, and competitors.

2. Storytelling

"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McAfee Brown

After listening, leaders need to tell great stories in order to sell their products, but more important, in order to sell their ideas. Storytelling is what captivates people and drives them to take action. Whether you're telling a story to one prospect over lunch, a boardroom full of people, or thousands of people through an online video - storytelling wins customers.

3. Authenticity

"I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." -Oprah Winfrey

Great leaders are who they say they are, and they have integrity beyond compare. Vulnerability and humility are hallmarks of the authentic leader and create a positive, attractive energy. Customers, employees, and media all want to help an authentic person to succeed. There used to be a divide between one’s public self and private self, but the social internet has blurred that line. Tomorrow's leaders are transparent about who they are online, merging their personal and professional lives together.

4. Transparency

"As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." -John Whittier

There is nowhere to hide anymore, and businesspeople who attempt to keep secrets will eventually be exposed. Openness and honesty lead to happier staff and customers and colleagues. More important, transparency makes it a lot easier to sleep at night - unworried about what you said to whom, a happier leader is a more productive one.

5. Team Playing

"Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." -SEAL Team Saying

No matter how small your organization, you interact with others every day. Letting others shine, encouraging innovative ideas, practicing humility, and following other rules for working in teams will help you become a more likeable leader. You’ll need a culture of success within your organization, one that includes out-of-the-box thinking.

6. Responsiveness

"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." -Charles Swindoll

The best leaders are responsive to their customers, staff, investors, and prospects. Every stakeholder today is a potential viral sparkplug, for better or for worse, and the winning leader is one who recognizes this and insists upon a culture of responsiveness. Whether the communication is email, voice mail, a note or a a tweet, responding shows you care and gives your customers and colleagues a say, allowing them to make a positive impact on the organization.

7. Adaptability

"When you're finished changing, you're finished." -Ben Franklin

There has never been a faster-changing marketplace than the one we live in today. Leaders must be flexible in managing changing opportunities and challenges and nimble enough to pivot at the right moment. Stubbornness is no longer desirable to most organizations. Instead, humility and the willingness to adapt mark a great leader.

8. Passion

"The only way to do great work is to love the work you do." -Steve Jobs

Those who love what they do don’t have to work a day in their lives. People who are able to bring passion to their business have a remarkable advantage, as that passion is contagious to customers and colleagues alike. Finding and increasing your passion will absolutely affect your bottom line.

9. Surprise and Delight

"A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless." -Charles de Gaulle

Most people like surprises in their day-to-day lives. Likeable leaders underpromise and overdeliver, assuring that customers and staff are surprised in a positive way. There are a plethora of ways to surprise without spending extra money - a smile, We all like to be delighted — surprise and delight create incredible word-of-mouth marketing opportunities.

10. Simplicity

"Less isn't more; just enough is more." -Milton Glaser

The world is more complex than ever before, and yet what customers often respond to best is simplicity — in design, form, and function. Taking complex projects, challenges, and ideas and distilling them to their simplest components allows customers, staff, and other stakeholders to better understand and buy into your vision. We humans all crave simplicity, and so today's leader must be focused and deliver simplicity.

11. Gratefulness

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -Gilbert Chesterton 

Likeable leaders are ever grateful for the people who contribute to their opportunities and success. Being appreciative and saying thank you to mentors, customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders keeps leaders humble, appreciated, and well received. It also makes you feel great! Donor's Choose studied the value of a hand-written thank-you note, and actually found donors were 38% more likely to give a 2nd time if they got a hand-written note!

The Golden Rule: Above all else, treat others as you’d like to be treated

By showing others the same courtesy you expect from them, you will gain more respect from coworkers, customers, and business partners. Holding others in high regard demonstrates your company’s likeability and motivates others to work with you. This seems so simple, as do so many of these principles — and yet many people, too concerned with making money or getting by, fail to truly adopt these key concepts.

Are you being Mahabharat's Bhishma at work?

      

I am the CEO of a media company serving my last days. A successor has been appointed and I am supposed to help him takeover. It has been an interesting phase. Already people have started ignoring me and sucking up to the new CEO. The board has started reaching out to the new candidate , sometimes keeping me out of the loop. Even the new candidate treats me like a piece of history. I have a mind to take back control and show everyone I am still the boss. I know you will tell me to let go and be a bigger man. I don't agree with that logic. I have put my heart and soul into this company. Why should I let go? 

Let us first clarify. Are you the owner of the company or just the professional hired to do the job? If the media company is the yagna, then the yajaman of this company is the board of directors. They have a right to choose who will be their chief priest. In the popular versions of the Mahabharata told in comics and teleserials, Bhisma is presented as a noble figure who takes a vow of celibacy. Flowers are showered on him. Yet, few ponder on why Krishna insists that during the war at Kurukshetra, he be pinned to the ground, suspended between heaven and earth, unable to move his limbs.

In the old Vedic ashrama system, a man is supposed to retire (vanaprasth ashram) once his son has a son of his own, and renounce the world entirely (sanyas ashram) when the grandson has a son of his own. In the retired state he is supposed to eat half of what he ate as the householder (grihasth ashram) and in the renounced state he was supposed to eat whatever the wind brought him. What does this mean? This is essentially a 'talent management system' meant to ensure that the old makes way for the new so that society is always taken care of and there is not too much burden on the resources of nature.

Bhisma goes against this system. He takes advantage of his boon of choosing the time of his death, refuses to die, even after his grand-nephews, the Pandavas and Kauravas, (who are old enough to be his great grand nephews) become old enough to be kings. He may have renounced conjugal pleasures but he refuses to renounce his position, because he believes he is still responsible for the welfare of the family forever. Basically he does not let go and Krishna pins him to the ground, gets him out of the way, so that life can move on. Are you a Bhisma?

You may have given your heart and soul to the company as the hired professional. For that you have been paid, I am sure. Why then do you demand more? It's not about being a bigger man and letting go; it is simply about being a professional.

But it's hard to be professional when our source of self-worth comes from the successful organisation. We are identified with the work we do. Hence we cannot let go of the work. When we let go of our work, we let go of our identity and that is terrifying.

Monkey Management

imagine one day that you are walking down the hallway at your organization, and a subordinate approaches you with a problem about one of his subordinates. "I cannot believe how Jane is acting toward our customers. She is curt, unfriendly and sometimes downright difficult. I have told her several times that her behavior is just not acceptable, but it doesn't seem to help. Can you visit with her and see if she takes it better from you?"

As a manager, you have a number of choices. Which is the right choice for you, for the supervisor, and for Jane? 

In a classic article in the Harvard Business Review in 1974, authors William Oncken, Jr., and Donald L. Wass offer a theoretical framework for seeing this situation in its true light and making the right decision. In the article "Who's Got the Monkey?" the authors tell the tale of an overburdened manager who allows his employees to delegate upward. When a manager takes an unsolved problem from his subordinates, he is allowing a figurative monkey to leap from the employee's back to his back. When a manager has too many monkeys, he is increasing his own load, failing to develop his subordinates, and probably not solving the problems effectively in the final analysis. 

Oncken and Wass offer a well defined basic law for managing monkeys. It is: At no time while I am helping you will your problem become my problem. The instant your problem becomes mine, you will no longer have a problem. I cannot help someone who hasn't got a problem. You may ask my help at any appointed time, and we will make a joint determination of what the next move will be and who will make it.

Refusing to accept problems that subordinates try to delegate upward, and instead giving them opportunities to meet with you to "feed the monkey" is the best choice for both the monkey and for its keeper. The employee who is closest to the problem usually has the knowledge and skill to solve the problem, if empowered to do so. Consultations with the manager will serve to broaden perspective and offer new ways of seeing the problem.

And as the employee feeds and eventually solves the problem, he or she learns important skills that make them more valuable to the organization and to the managers.

In addition to the law of monkey management, the authors list six rules of managing monkeys that are instructive to managers.

These include:
 
1. Monkeys should be fed or shot. No one likes the consequences of a starving monkey. They tend to be very disagreeable and squeal and raise a ruckus. Monkeys must be fed periodically; in this analogy, the problem must be dealt with between the manager and the employee with the problem on a regular basis. If the monkey can be shot (the problem solved quickly), then feeding times are not necessary.
 
2. Every monkey should have an assigned next feeding time and a degree of initiative. After a feeding session, the manager should select an appropriate time for the next feeding and should have a number of action steps for the employee to take. "Can we meet next Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. to see how things are going and what we should do next?"
 
3. The monkey population should be kept below the maximum number that the manager has time to feed. The authors suggest that it should take 15 minutes to feed a monkey, and that managers should keep the list of problems that are in various stages of solution at a manageable number.
 
4. Monkeys should fed by appointment only. Allowing employees to bring problems to you on their timetable increases the chances that the monkey will move from the employee to the manager. By setting specific times for addressing the problem, managers empower employees to make interim decisions about the problem, and still report back.
 
5. Monkey feeding appointments may be rescheduled but never indefinitely postponed. Either party, the manager or the subordinate, may reschedule a feeding appointment for any reason, but it must be scheduled to a specific time to avoid losing track of the monkey.
 
6. Monkeys shall be fed face to face or by telephone, but not in writing. Holding feeding sessions via e-mail or memo transfers the monkey to the manager. An employee can pass the monkey to the manager by simply requesting a response. Feedings that take place in person or on the phone require the monkey to remain with the employee unless the supervisor takes an affirmative step to take it.

Proper delegation skills, properly applied as suggested in this creative approach, can help managers better solve problems and develop their employees' problem solving skills. Visualizing each problem as a monkey that is impatient and noisy can help managers see problems as they really are and address them in the best possible way.

Beware of the monkeys that may come into your life today!

The world's biggest family: The man with 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren

• Ziona Chana lives with all of them in a 100-room mansion
• His wives take it in turns to share his bed
• It takes 30 whole chickens just to make dinner

He is head of the world's biggest family - and says he is 'blessed'  to have his 39 wives.
Ziona Chana also has 94 children, 14-daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren.
They live in a 100-room, four storey house set amidst the hills of Baktwang village in the Indian state of Mizoram, where the wives sleep in giant communal dormitories.

The full monty: The Ziona family in its entirety with all 181 members

You treat this place like a hotel: With 100 rooms the Ziona mansion is the biggest concrete structure in the hilly village of Baktawng

Mr Chana told the Sun: 'Today I feel like God's special child. He's given me so many people to look after.
'I consider myself a lucky man to be the husband of 39 women and head of the world's largest family.'
The family is organised with almost military discipline, with the oldest wife Zathiangi organising her fellow partners to perform household chores such as cleaning, washing and preparing meals. 
One evening meal can see them pluck 30 chickens, peel 132lb of potatoes and boil up to 220lb of rice.

Coincidentally, Mr Chana is also head of a sect that allows members to take as many wives as he wants.

Feeling peckish? The senior ladies of the Chana family show what it takes just to make a meal

The wives and I: Mr Ziona Chana poses with his 39 wives at their home in Baktawang, Mizoram, India

He even married ten women in one year, when he was at his most prolific, and enjoys his own double bed while his wives have to make do with communal dormitories. 
He keeps the youngest women near to his bedroom with the older members of the family sleeping further away - and there is a rotation system for who visits Mr Chana's bedroom.
Rinkmini, one of Mr Chana's wives who is 35 years old, said: 'We stay around him as he is the most important person in the house. He is the most handsome person in the village.
She says Mr Chana noticed her on a morning walk in the village 18 years ago and wrote her a letter asking for her hand in marriage.

Shared bedroom: A look inside the four-storey mansion, Chhuanthar Run - The House of the New Generation

Another of his wives, Huntharnghanki, said the entire family gets along well. The family system is reportedly based on 'mutual love and respect' And Mr Chana, whose religious sect has 4,00 members, says he has not stopped looking for new wives.
'To expand my sect, I am willing to go even to the U.S. to marry,' he said.
One of his sons insisted that Mr Chana, whose grandfather also had many wives, marries the poor women from the village so he can look after them.