Solitude

We dread being alone, being without anyone to talk to, share with. All of us go to any extent to be close to loved ones and friends.

Ever thought that solitude to some extent is actually enabling in nature. It empowers our thinking, strengthens our belief in ourselves as we connect to our inner self.

Most of the times we are driven by agenda set by others, impending deadlines set by boss, customer calls, pending bills to be paid, gifts to be purchased etc. We hardly allow our hidden potential to come out. 

Solitude permits us to do that. It gives us an opportunity to connect to our selves and find out the things which we love to do. We evolve when we do things which we love to do and not the other way round.

I purposefully devote atleast fifteen minutes every day for myself by switching off completely from the cacophony of the environment, emails, mobile phone, social networking sites etc. This period is most precious time of the day. I slowly get out of to do lists and allow the peace of solitude taking over. Heart beat slows down and breath unconsciously get corrected. The invisible halo of goodness takes over, all pains and miseries are forgotten. These are the precise demonic things which prevent us from connecting to our inner self. Once the connection is made, goodness takes over and right things come to the mind. That becomes agenda for self, not only for today or tomorrow, which are just milestones, but agenda for life.

Try doing it once, you would discover true you, bereft of titles, designations, pains, miseries, bank accounts, share market, property deals and what not. Remember none of this would accompany you in your final journey to supreme.

Evolution

This was a spontaneous post on linkedin while traveling to work in morning. Received lots of compliments on composition and content. Reposting here for your critical review...



"Purpose of life is evolution, being better everyday. Doing something which you didn't yesterday, knowing something which you didn't yesterday....

It is true for all forms of life on this planet. This is how all species have survived, by evolving every moment of their being.

Evolution brings joy. It brings purpose to otherwise meandering mind. It channelizes our energy to what is important, rather than just what needs to be done. It brings focus to our every increasing to do list.

While evolution is an ongoing journey, the destiny is unity. Unity with the evolved,the origin,  the supreme, whatever name you give him/her.
So what did you do to evolve yourself yesterday, this week, this month........"

Compassionate Leadership

Everything in life has an opposite .Creation/destruction, Yin/ yang, positive/negative, feminine/ masculine, and so on. What I've lately become acutely aware of has been the two opposing perspectives of compassion and judgment. These are two different perspectives as well as realities. One focuses on the awareness of multiple perspectives, and the understanding that one isn't necessarily better than the other, or right or wrong, and the other sees only one's own perspective and believes that it is right. Empathy helps one "feel" another's pain and allows for an understanding of the other's point of view. Judgment separates and creates an environment of fear. I'm seeing the importance of choosing to be compassionate in creating a culture of teamwork. 

When an organizational culture is based on judgment, an environment of fear is created; fear of being judged. Fear isn't a motivator; it makes people close down and prevents the building of confidence. Empathy helps find common ground, and allows for relationships to form and connections to be made.  

It's the difference between the people in charge believing the power is in them and the leaders understanding the power is in the people. The power of one is limited to the one, and the power of that one allowing the people to see that they have power and that collectively they are infinitely more powerful.  I believe that's what leadership is, setting the tone and not being set by the current tone.  The coach isn't the team, but part of the team. They only inspire the greatness in their people with the creation of a culture of vision with values, confidence, and providing a story of hope that creates an impassioned and inspired team.  To quote Dr. Martin Luther King, “I have decided to stick with love.  Hate is too great of a burden to bear.”  Love is the source of courage and passion, and fear is the source of anxiety. It comes down to a choice.  Do we choose to show compassion, or do we choose to judge?    

Compassion is a way for us to use our imagination and creativity, which is what separates us from the other animals, to show respect for others, and to understand that there are other possible ways of seeing the same thing.  

Where is our focus?  Is it on personal gain, advancement, or for our own personal agenda?  There is nothing wrong with bettering oneself, but if you find yourself stepping on others to get ahead, you may not be inspired or moved by a collective vision.  Selfish acts do not build a culture of teamwork; it only creates walls of mistrust and a culture of separateness.    

I have spoken to quite a few people about the seemingly impossible idea of changing our culture (our workforce in general) to this more compassionate mindset.  I have also been told that this is a task that would be impossible.  I see it differently.  I see people doing the very things that could inspire such a change, but they may be acting more on intuition than any conscious effort on their part.  I see this as an opportunity to teach them about the impact of what they are doing so that they are able to share this gift with others.  Culture, as I see it, is how we treat each other as a whole.

Are we perpetuating the same mistakes or are we learning what we can do better and influencing positive change?  Are we placing our leaders at the head of a canoe going downstream and calling it leadership, or are we using our collective vision to inspire positive change?  

Insanity has been described as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  Just because a group has always done something one way doesn’t mean it is a positive tradition.  Dysfunction can be a tradition, but that does not mean it is right.  Change can be painful, and almost always takes work.  If you are not working hard you probably are not leading. Change takes thought, vision, purpose, and dedication.  People want to be moved not manipulated.  If we help each other feel appreciated, respected, and valued, magic happens.  If we choose to give respect, people will stop trying to demand it. In my experience, humility infers compassion and removes judgment.

Where does passion come from?  What excites you, moves you, or intrigues you?The specifics are different for each of us.  We are all motivated or demotivated by different things.  I was asked this very question and I proposed an answer.  I tried to think of where my source of inspiration came from.  I came up with a possible answer which was simply, vision.     

We are all either moved or held back by possibility, and possibility is the route of vision.  We humans are animals with a certain trait exhibited by only our species, the ability to imagine possible futures.  It is in this ability to think of different scenarios and to create one that energizes us, or that incapacitates us. It is this cognitive process that allows us to choose to move ourselves forward, or to withdrawal into ourselves.  As I see it, this is where true leadership begins.    

With this power, the power of choice, we can create, and be moved collectively by a vision.  If there is one thing that can inspire a person or a group, it’s hope.  Hope is simply a story of a possibility, and in this positive possibility is where we can engage people on an emotional level.  Some feel that fear has a place to move people, but in my experience fear has the opposite effect.  A person will do what is expected of them when fear is used, but if we help them see their self-worth, feel appreciated, and respected as part of a team, there is no telling how far they will go for you.  This, when seen in action, almost seems like magic, but it is merely our basic human desire to feel like we have worth.  I have seen those who try to demand respect and used fear as their primary tool of management, not realizing they are desperate to get the very thing without giving it themselves.  

If we choose to lead with vision, respect, appreciation, and humility, not only will the team be inspired, but you will be building a family.  Brotherhood is based on action, not words.  Labels without action, are nothing but platitudes.  Passion is powered by positive possibilities, and anxiety is born from negative ones.  The vision gives us a common set of values in which to make decisions moving us in a desired direction.    

A good way of seeing what kind of culture you are working in is to see how people react to a member of the team speaking poorly of a teammate.  Are the people in charge jumping on the bandwagon, or are they offering help to the ones being spoken about?  Are the weaker members (the ones needing extra help and guidance) the problem, or are the ones choosing to chastise them the problem?  If the people in charge are sitting in the front of a canoe that is going with the current, no work is being done, only drifting with no direction.  

We the leaders need to understand that our team looks to us for direction, and our focus should be on our collective values.  Being a leader has less to do about where you sit in the boat, but the energy and direction you inspire in it. By choosing to help the team to believe in themselves, helping the rest of the group believe in each other, and to assist instead of criticize, the team will begin to bond.  People know when they are being singled out and being unfairly judged. This creates an environment of fear and animosity that is counterproductive and detrimental to team building. Create an environment where mistakes are welcomed and used as tools to learn instead of making people in need of training feel worthless. Compassion is vital to true communication, and communication is paramount in team building.  Too many people assume too much and understand too little.  It starts with the one person strong enough to set that tone and the culture will follow. Imagine, encourage, respect, and grow together while being mindful of your choices, and making sure they are inline with the core values.  

Leadership

Last night participated in a tweet chat on leadership.  The topic "leadership is a prerequisite or responsibility" intrigued me a lot and set me thinking.

For me,  leadership is neither a prerequisite nor a responsibility. It is an opportunity, yes, you got it right an opportunity to help people in discovering their hidden greatness.

Each and everyone of us has greatness hidden deep inside. What we need is a trigger to discover that. Role of the leader is to help these people in discovering it.

Obviously, results matter, so leader has to create an environment in which this greatness of people is aligned to the organisational goals.

This way leader creates a truly engaged and aligned organisation. Leader becomes an enabler not a pusher or executed. People execute, people deliver, people achieve and then celebrate.

Don't think that I am again pushing for servant leadership. These are all theories which may work for you. But, we all are at the ground where dirt hits the road. We have to deliver performance. It is only possible through an engaged workforce,  which has discovered it's own greatness.

At the end of the day, it is people's business.

Do Mukhi

Kyon log haath apna hai kheench letey, kyon muh apna hai mor letey

jo aapse samney itney ghuley miley hain hotey

peeth peeche aapki buraiyan, hathkali kyonhai kartey

jab aap kisi musibat mein hai par letey, kya maza aata hai dusre ke dukh mein sukh paakey

kyon nahin dil se uske gum mein shareek ho jatey

sab upari dikhawa hai, kitna chal chalawa hai

aaj ka yug jo tezi se hai badhta ja raha, insaan ko machine bana raha

hum subah kaam pe jaatey hain, wahan vyasta ho jaatey hain

aur shaam ko ghar aa apney kaamo mei lag jatey hain

kisi ke liye samay kahan nikal paatey hain

lekin agar kisi ke baarey mei kuch pata hai chal jata

jhut se aisa dhindhora pit jata

ki sab ko sunane sunnaane mei bada maza aata

kam hi us bandey ke baarey mei kuch soch paatey

aaj ki sadi ke log itney paraye hai ho gaye, ki do mukhi hai ban gaye.............

Leadership Crisis in 2015

World is facing a serious leadership crisis in 2015. This is hardly surprising due to lack of focus on creating a sustained pipeline of leaders for both public as well as corporate domains. When I say leaders, it means leaders who have followers and not the supervisors who have reportees as defined by org charts.

Crisis is much bigger than we think it to be. As humanity, we have failed to take action on:

1. Global Warming- There has been quite a lot of energy spent on arranging the conferences, but hardly any change on ground
2. Violence - Continues unabated in middle east, Africa and other places of the world
3. Global economy- It is currently designed to fulfill greed of few, rather than universal development
4. Discrimination based on gender, cast, creed and religion
5. Over emphasis on communication as developmental goal. Basis science and research seem to have taken a back seat
6. Hunger
7. Diseases like cancer

List can go on, what is to be noted is that world today is lacking leadership to tackle these issues in systematic way, one by one. 

Leaders have to serve, they can't be sitting in ivory towers and preparing tons of waste paper in the name of strategic plans. These plans are useless unless they marry the dirt on the ground. Universal suffrage has been reality for such a long time now in most of the world, why are people not allowed to change their destiny? Because, public leaders don't allow them to.

Same hold true for corporate leaders. 

1. Focus today is on meeting quarterly targets (QSQT - not quamat se quamat tak, but quarter se quarter tak), what about sustained growth for future? 
2. How do we create completely disruptive business models (like ford, apple, nokia etc)? 
3. How do we improve efficiency in all areas of working? Why should customer be paying for our inefficiencies?
4. How do we improve employee engagement so that to make her enjoy the work rather then doing a job ( Do punch ek lunch)
5. How do we integrate with universities to tailor make the curriculum to fit our needs and not the needs of institutes?
6. How do we serve customer (BTW customer is not "Kashto -se-mar")

One can go on as long as she wants. Point is we need to act immediately so that humanity benefits. Greed is not going to take us forward, universal development is only solution. 

Corporate and government leaders need to serve and not command. They need to get to bottom of the issues, superficial solutions are not helping.

My solution would be to:

1. Mandatory working at shopfloor/ public facilities for future leaders

2. Public service to be part of graduate level studies

3. Selection of leaders by followers not by superiors even in corporate world

As always would love to hear from you, remember diversity of view would make debate even better quality

You can't change the past, change the future

You can’t change the past, so just forget about that.  All you can do is make the future better. As we get older we seem to reflect more and more on what was, what is, and what will be. What lessons have been learned? What can we do better now? What does the future hold? Have you ever asked yourself those questions? 

What I know is that 15880 days have passed since day one. Wow! Hopefully there are more, a lot more, to come! Maybe it’s optimism, but I am counting on 14235 good days in my life, so I’m just 54.4 percent there. There is plenty more to do, and hopefully I will get it right.

There are a few principles that I know now, but maybe they weren’t so clear earlier in my life. Such as:

• Make every day a better day. Sometimes that’s easier said than done, but there are always things that we can do at work, at home, with friends, or somewhere that will make a meaningful difference. It is what you do each day that counts, not what you are going to do. Look for those opportunities and don’t let a day go by where you haven’t made a difference . . . somewhere.

• Live in the present. Or the precious present as a good friend likes to say. It is so easy to be driven to achieve big goals that we forget to step back along the way and see the good things right in front of us.  Go for those big goals . . .  but remember to stop long enough to see the small, beautiful things right in front of us. The moonlight over snow covered mountains, the beautiful words of a great melody, the smile on a child’s face, a small act of kindness that brings joy to someone close, and so much more. These seemingly small things can make a huge difference, for you and those close to you.

• Learn from what happens, the unfortunate things and good ones too. The Swon Brother’s song – This Side of Heaven – has a phrase that’s so true for all of us, “Somewhere this side of heaven is hell.”  Yes, there are tragic events that happen in life to everyone, and we make mistakes that we regret. The good news is that as long as we have another day, we have a chance to make it better, whatever it is. Learn from those events.  Find the good in them.  If you are person of faith, you’ll be strengthened by them. You can’t change the pain or the past, but you can move on and do something positive with it.

• Be better tomorrow than you are today. We are all a work in progress; a mosaic that’s never quite finished. We can learn something new each day. Make it our goal to do so. Be open to new ideas; to keep on learning; the different ways of doing things. Be enriched by them. You can be a better you tomorrow!

• Show little acts of kindness daily. We more than likely are pretty good at the bigger things in life, but it is the little things that we can miss doing. Look for ways to show people around you the best of you. The small things that can make a real difference really count.

• Remember that the best is yet to come. I believe that no matter what we have accomplished in our life, what we have been able to do, the biggest and best thing is yet to come. It is waiting for us to identify what it is. Be vigilant, have the confidence to take a chance, and look for those opportunities.

These simple things may seem obvious, but let’s not lose sight of them on our journey.

Keep discovering and exploring yourself...........