Life Hacks for Leader in You

  How ironic that in real practical world, we make hero’s of leaders who save the day through crisis management. It never occurs to us that they ‘actually failed’ to prevent the crisis in the first place. We make them role models, write stories and hero worship them. Won’t it be appropriate for the system to actually reward those wise captains who steer the ship around the icebergs and bring the ship safe to harbour every time till they retire than reward those who wreck their ship and rescue all people on board later, write books about it and also inspire a movie!!! Haven’t we heard a million times that ‘Prevention is better than cure’, ‘a stitch in time saves nine’. These are timeless wisdom. It would not be out of place to call ‘wisdom is prevention’ What do you think?

So often we see in real world the credit or discredit for completing the target successfully or failing getting attributed to the last leg guys who happen to be at the finishing line. That is how human nature is, what’s in front of our eyes gets maximum attention, both positive and negative. But is this true and fair?  Have you ever seen a group of rock breaking workers who keep hammering the wedges in turn to split the rock? Who do you think can take credit for splitting the rock? The man who hit the last hammer? Who do you think won the relay race? The last runner who crossed the finishing line?  Most complex endeavors are performed by teams, each focusing on a specific activity and supporting others.  In the military competitions, the rule is very clear, either the whole squad wins or loses together, there are no stars. This ensure that whole team works jointly towards a common goal and each one puts the team mission above personal ambitions.  The Good Leaders und...

  If there is onething that will never be in short supply is "Problems"? And one thing that will always be in short supply is "The Problem Solver". Organisations obviously pay premium for people who can solve problems. You need to decide which side of the fence you want to be, the solver or a passenger. There are many elements that go into becoming a successful "Problem Solver". While experience and domain knowledge can help, but not necessary as these skills can be brought/arranged,  the key ones are more related to personal attitude, perspective and values of the problem solver/leader. I will not undermine the importance of a logical process or methodology which helps to model/structure the problem framework, identify the root causes, work out the options, analyse best course of action etc but the success depends on how these are applied in practice.   All successful problem solvers develop an inquisitive  mind which has the ability to simplify complex s...

When do you know you are wealthy? Happiness is gap between expectations and what you have or make. If you are worth a million dollars and want 1.1 million, you will still be miserable. Ability to get up when you want, do what you want, do at your own pace is one sign of being wealthy. You are no longer on the treadmill. You can be stuck on that for all your life. It is important to know when to stop and start enjoying. If you cannot do it, you will always be miserable, all your life, even if you have stashed billions of dollars. The level is for you alone to decide. After a stage, money is just a number. Unfortunately most of us don't know when and how. Every time we hit a financial milestone, we create another one. It never ends. A bigger car, bigger house, bigger portfolio and so on. An average citizen of most countries makes double of what they used to make in 50s and is half as happy today. Happiness is managing your expectations, it's within you. Chasing more money is ...

  If you have not tried and failed, you have done nothing new in your life. How dreadful life would be if we were stuck in the same place, however comfortable it may be. Leadership can be lonely sometimes. especially when you face a big setback. The fundamental of leadership is that the leader is finally accountable for the outcome. Good leaders use these failures as opportunities to rally the team around, learn from the experience, and pivot to move toward the next objective. Action is the best medicine to overcome procrastination and negative thoughts. Leaders should reach out to their network and deliberate on what happened, how things could be different etc. This helps the leader to look at things from an entirely new perspective and also share the learnings for others to benefit. Leaders always have a choice at all points in time. Success depends on the ability to decide quickly and decisively. Weak leaders get paralyzed and fearless leaders decide and act. Only actions conver...

  It is easiest to succeed in today's World. You must be taken aback and a bit surprised to read this when the most common thread we keep hearing is the crib about succeeding in the extremely competitive world. One most common traits that all successful people across the World who sustain success, irrespective of geography, culture, and time is:- "They have consistently given back more in value compared to what they get" Look around yourself, how many such people do you find around you? (Don't forget to count yourself in!). Negligible, isn't it? If you actually find somebody, you will not fail to notice that they will be highly in demand, always sought after, and generally more happy, content, and successful for their age and experience. So, you actually have very little Competition provided you decide to live by the Mantra of giving back more than you get. It takes very little to do that, just a bit of introspection and commitment to yourself.

  Many times in our lives, unknowingly, with all good intentions, we create a Bonsai of our loved ones, may be family or our team members. In our zeal to protect them from the wicked world and its hardships, we shelter them.  We would see many examples in our real life among our family, friends and relations. While we all want them to grow and flourish in life, do we really plant them into the open sky and expose them to all the vagaries of nature? A tree planted in the open soil, under the sky has infinite space for its roots to grow and its branches to spread out into the sky unlike a Bonsai tree which stagnates and remain a dwarf. Lets give them the space, allow them to flourish and achieve their full potential.  

Have you experienced that your star  performer has suddenly  become a liability? Such situations can be seen in organisations that are on a rapid growth trajectory such as startups or in their early growth stages. Some hi-potential talent who were great in early stages and smaller scale get pulled up the ladder along with the organisation's growth and may land up in such a situation. This happens very often when we elevate and promote a person too early in our enthusiasm to reward performance and of course our efforts to take our ‘winning team’ along the growth path sometimes. He is ‘My Man’ (using ‘He’ only to narrate, it may mean 'She' as well). The person gets placed in a position for which they are not mentally, emotionally and skill wise ready. They are not prepared for the stretch that comes with the new expanded and higher role. Also given the past performance reputation we assume that he will cope. Our lack of time for mentoring and coaching makes this a very likely...

  Research shows than most of us have already forgotten our New Year Resolutions by end of the first week. But frankly we don't need a year change to start something meaningful. That’s 3,15,36,000 opportunities lost that every second brings us in one year. The very next second can be THE transformative moment in your life. A second ago he was Mohandas Gandhi and very next he was on his path to become a Mahatma; a second ago she was a Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, a humble school teacher in Kolkata and very next she took her first step to become Mother Teresa. We all get such moments and most of us ignore it. Every sunrise is restart of our life going ahead, with the advantage of hindsight, experiences and lifetime learnings preloaded. It is like a head start of many years on our life marathon. What more can you want!

One N ew Year resolution that will transform your life is starting Meditation. Simple. As we step into another Year of our life, open a new page and write your own future. Imagine that your phone has decided to play truant and starts displaying random apps on the screen in quick succession without your control! Your phone is almost bricked as it is of no use to you. Before you can take some action on the app of your interest, it disappears and another show up.  Are our thoughts that show up in our mind any different? Our mind keep jumping from one to another randomly with almost no control. While our brain has massive processing power and memory, unfortunately has only one CPU which can process a SINGLE THREAD at any given instant. If you allow the CPU to be loaded with irrelevant data, your human computer is as good as crashed. What a waste. We all know that thoughts turn into actions, which in turn decides where we go in life. There is a solution which can help, even if not 100% ...

  Do we realise that the secret of moving forward lies in a state of Unbalance? We can only walk or run, if we are ready to unbalance. We are continuously moving between states of balance and unbalance. When we lift our foot forward, we actually unbalance ourselves. If we fear unbalancing ourselves, we will be stuck in the same place for eternity.  The same applies to every endeavour in our life. If we do not have the courage to move out out of our comfort zones, we will just stagnate. Fear the State of Balance and NOT Unbalance. Fearless leaders continuously challenge themselves and their teams to shake off the inertia at all times so that they can maximise their potential instead of stagnating with mediocracy. The trick lies in using the State of Unbalance to make progress and evolve and State of Balance to consolidate the gains and prepare for the next step. The State of Balance prevents us from falling over but progress will only be made in an State of Unbalance.

  The World demands that our children grow into a emotionally and physically strong citizens who can face the challenges head on. But the question we need to ask ourselves is, are we REALLY doing something about it in a purposeful manner, early on when the time was right? Are we really investing time and energy into cultivating the right values and behaviors in our children, preparing them for the tough competitive world? While I was contemplating on the leadership demands of being m ore fearless and confident that is put on young citizens and managers today, it stuck me that this muscle is best built when minds are fresh and uncorrupted, during early childhood. With nuclear families and conflicting demands of time and attention, parents are more than eager to meet each and every demand of our children so that children are 'apparently' happy and contented. Who does not want to give our children all that we could not get in our early childhood, due to lack of money or availabil...

 People have written books on how to manage your time, thinking deeply, I consider it not a issue of time but mind management. After all you will act on and spend your time on what thoughts are coming to your mind. It is impossible that body acts independently of the mind and the thoughts. Control and manage your mind and time will automatically be better managed. Everybody has 24 hours in day, how you use it makes all the difference.  A chaotic mind runs random thoughts, most which are irrelevant to the present. Have you noticed that the physical time and physiological times are not the same. When you are bored, time just not pass and seems to be stuck. Exactly opposite happens when you are engaged in an interesting and stimulating activities fully focused on it, hours pass by and you feel as if it was just a few minutes. Time stops when you are in deep sleep or meditation.  The more calmer your mind is, the more aware you will be of the situation and more focused and pu...