Learn to Lead - Leading Self

As discussed, the first step in personal development process Is leading self or personal leadership.
Personal leadership precedes everything. If we do not learn to lead self, we will be finding difficult to manage others, organizational roles and responsibilities, and even family life.

What does “leading self” mean?

Leading self-means being aware of yourself, your emotions, beliefs, values and how you are effectively managing yourself. It is more of strengthening your inner world. The quality of your inner world would reflect externally as your outlook, appearance, tone, and style of carrying out your activities.

Hence, leading self-means how you are strengthening your quality of inner world.simple.

If your inner world is positive, vibrant, peaceful, then our external personality will also be more positive, energetic and pleasant to you and others.     
    
How to strengthen the inner world?

Irrespective your upbringing and environment, with little awareness and practice, you can strengthen your inner mindset, and thereby you lead yourself. It is all about keeping your mindset in a positive mode.

Given below the factors contributing to strengthening your inner world.

1. Self-image
2. Personal responsibility
3. Self-discipline
4. Being grateful
5. Faith

When we enhance our perspectives on the above factors, eventually we can strengthen the inner mindset.

Let us discuss each factors next week. 

Steps in Leadership Development Process

As discussed, leadership is all about personal development, and it is not given by others.
How to develop your leadership capabilities?

It consists of 4 steps. 

1.Personal leadership or leading yourself
2.Ensuring cordial Relationship with others or leading others
3.Performance  or delivering results
4.Developing others as a leader 

This step is applicable for everyone at ANY stages of the life cycle. 

For example, if you a "business head," you need to develop your leadership qualities by continuously working on those four steps.

If you are entering into the professional ladder as “ Trainee,” you have to develop your leadership capabilities continuously on those steps

On a personal front, if you are entering from "Bachelor to spouse role or spouse to father /mother," you have to develop your family leadership qualities based on those steps only.


It is a continuous improvement journey throughout life. There is no guarantee that as Manager you exhibited good leadership qualities would help you at General Management level. Each level or position calls for the development of different leadership capabilities.

As mentioned earlier, the leadership capabilities could be your thought process, attitude, words, actions and results and how it lifts your surroundings, your organizations, your teams and your personal and family quality of life.

Also, you observe that the development from one step to another step is sequential.but, in reality, it is parallel development only. We can not wait for PERFECT personal development to get into the next step of RELATIONSHIP building.

The point is you need to be conscious enough to develop yourself, your relationship quality, your performance and your effort in developing others on a continuous basis.

Let us discuss each step and its components in next week.

Learn to Lead (Understanding Leadership)

What is leadership?

Leadership is all about greatness in your thinking, your words, your actions and your results which leads to making a positive impact on your surroundings, organization, and family.

Leadership is a quality of the individual on character and competency which positively helps others.

Misconceptions about leadership :

1.    Leadership is given by others
2.    Leadership is related to a title like a manager or CEO
3.    Leadership is directly related to age and experience or educational qualification
4.    Leadership is for the organizational or political environment.
5.    Leadership is more about charisma

All the above are just a misunderstanding about leadership.

If you make a positive impact even a smile in others, that is leadership.

For example, we respect some people irrespective of their age, experience, position but only for the positive impact they made on us through their intention, words or actions. Whereas we may not like some people, even though they are holding reliable power. You can relate this with your network of people.


Leadership is all about what you do rather than who you are.

To illustrate this definition of leadership, some year back, Times of India had launched ad campaign " Lead India". The video link is given below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-gvE7MGIBw

Having understood the leadership definition as more about personal development, let us discuss the step by step development process next week.

Learn to Lead

If you observe any individual’s phenomenal growth or any organizational growth or any family’s upliftment, the hidden factor among all is“leadership.”

Leadership is not about the resources or positional status; it is more of personal qualities which are uplifting the individual or organization. For example, all organizations are filled with many people with various designations denoting as leaders, even then the organization struggles to make a positive impact or sustained growth. The reason is not due to resources, it is due to a lack of leadership.

As there are misconceptions on leadership and development, a holistic understanding is required on Leadership from the inside out perspective and we will discuss  the following  aspects of leadership
1. What is leadership and how it is different from a leader or manager?
2.Steps involved in developing leadership capability irrespective of your age, qualification or position
3.Insights in each of the steps in leadership development

I am firmly believing that “ Personal Leadership precedes any organizational, family leadership.” If the person is molded with the right leadership qualities, the organization he is associating with will also be flourishing. If the person is molded with right personal leadership qualities, his family upliftment also is ensured. The starting point is " personal leadership".

The fundamental is developing personal leadership capability WITHIN, and hence we will discuss more on Personal Leadership and its insights in the following weeks in detail.

Achieve small,incremental success

Everyone desires to improve the quality of life in both personal and professional life. In reality, a few are achieving more and moving on, and the rest of them are still dreaming. The key is to take action and to make small, incremental success. The small, incremental success will give momentum to higher level achievements.
    For example, you desire to master your communication skill to scale up your professional success. One of the steps you can take is to more expressive in your organizational meeting and be heard by others. That is small; incremental success takes you towards mastery of communication.   
    Similarly, you may desire to be a likable person and balance your emotions. The first thing you can do is take a conscious call and achieve the success of being cool( not getting angry unnecessarily !) for the next one week. That is a small success. That small success will reinforce your confidence, and incrementally, you can move towards your bigger goal.   
    Likewise, in your business, if you want to scale up internationally, stabilize your business first in domestic, and it is a small success. The small, incremental success will help you to move towards a bigger goal.

    To sum up, instead of only desiring or dreaming of achieving something big, take action, achieve small, incremental success.The small, incremental success will give your positive reinforcement to achieve more!

Mindset & Qualities for professional growth

As discussed in previous weeks, in a professional environment, you are being measured through Result orientation and Relationship only. On recognizing this truth, growth-oriented people develop a growth mindset towards the profession, and they display in their work as given in the following ways.

Relook at your mindset and your behaviors in the workplace for accelerating your professional growth!

How to quickly overcome when you feel low?

The difference between a person, who is happy and someone is unhappy, is not about how often they feel low or depressed. It is how they deal with “low mood” situation.

For example, most of us, when we feel bored, sad or feeling low, what we use to do? Immediately we switch over to browse WhatsApp, Facebook or changing the channels on TV. The strange thing is even after completing all the outlets; again we feel sad or depressed. The reason is that we are not accepting the reality of the state and allow our mind to undergo the feeling of low .Instead we switch to others.

Just experiment this when you feel low. Be open and accept that you are feeling sad, and go through the moment of sadness for a few minutes. You will surprise that you come up with the positive mood in a moment. Instead, if you look for some outlet, you are suppressing the reality, and again you start feeling low.

As I observed a few highly effective people when they feel low or hear bad news, they accept that moment and use to be calm for a few moments. Then they recover back quickly to their routine.

Hence accept – undergo – get back. This requires your awareness of your intention when you feel bad and overcome it positively!

How environment triggers your behavior and action?

when I asked the following question  in my management seminar, the response would be as follows"Imagine you are in an airport. You eat the chocolate and search a dustbin to put the wrapper. However, you do not find a dustbin in a nearby area and also you hear the announcement for boarding into flight. What will you do with the chocolate wrapper when you are in airport 1 & 2 ?"

In almost the session, to my surprise, people responded  instantly as follows

In case of  AIRPORT1, I will through  the wrapper in the corner and move on, even though it is embarrassed me,

Whereas in case of AIRPORT 2, I will keep the wrapper in my pant pocket to find a dustbin later and dispose of it.What does this behavior or response indicate? 

As a human being, we create a perception about the place based on its environment ( how it is organized & cleaned, lighting, visuals, and visibility). When the environment is more appealing, it triggers positive behavior on the people and action also positive.

Alternatively, when the environment is not conducive, it triggers negative behavior and action.

It holds good for the home & organizational environment as well. When the internal organization is organized neatly, it triggers positive behavior in the people, and it would get demonstrated with timely communication, care for the people, product, and equipment,. When the workplace is not organized correctly, people working in that environment also behave negatively as not caring anything and adding further chaos in the system.

As you are the leader of your system, create a positive environment as much as possible for conducive communication, relationship, and growth. That is a responsibility of everyone who leads.

Change Environment ----Change perception ----Trigger Positive behavior

Being proactive and cool

In personal and professional life, everyone has some primary responsibilities which can be done only by self. When we do not execute the primary responsibility on time; the consequence may be more stress or pain. Also by nature, any delayed response will consume more time and energy.For example, 

As an individual, if you are not spending time proactively on taking care of your health, any way you need to spend time when you get sick.

As a business head, If you are not spending time proactively on planning your customer orders delivery at the beginning of the month, any way you have to spend at the end of the month in firefighting mode which more stressful.

As a leader, If you are not spending time with your team on developing, mentoring and teaching the skills, any way you need to spend time when they make costly mistakes in their execution.

As a parent, If you are not spending time with your kids during  childhood on values development, any way you need to spend time in future when they slip on the life values which is more pain

The point is that proactiveness is required at least on your prime responsibilities. Else, any reactive time spending would affect the quality of life. Hence, be aware of your prime responsibility and be proactive!

Thinking of Possibilities

The first and foremost requisite for transformation either personal or business is the thinking of possibilities. That is the possibilities of change from existing level or chances of success. When we think of possibilities, then this thought process reinforces further and becomes a belief. The belief will drive your actions towards the achievement.

         For example, consider any successful people from business, sports, media, politics, etc. During early part of their life, their background was ordinary. They became successful because they believed in themselves. Before believing themselves, they think the possibilities of becoming successful or achieving something great. They believed in the possibilities of changing their destiny better than they were. That thought process only brought all the opportunities, environment to them.

           The point is to enhance your thinking towards new possibilities as a starting point for any achievement in personal and business. Possibility thinking reinforces your beliefs; in turn, drives you to take right actions!

Motivate your team with “Why.”

One of the challenges most of the managers/leaders have today is to keep the team motivated towards their work. Many factors are contributing to people motivational level, and there is no single universal solution which caters to all people’s motivation problem. One of the solutions, as a leader/manager, you can inspire the team is through your communication about their work, effort , contribution to result.

For example, the person has to be communicated why his work is important to the organization in terms his contribution to the organization’s wellness. (Instead of merely explaining his job description of what and how part)

Similarly, when you are asking for some information, you can communicate why this information helps you will motivate them to add value in their working rather than just asking for a report.
Likewise, when you are initiating any new changes, tell them why this initiative is important for them and their role on the result.

Personally, it is working well for me when I work mostly on project based environment where just dictating won’t work.
People are relatively inspired if they knew the purpose of their work and inclined to put extra effort when they know their work can add value to the others. 

Be aware your communication process by explaining WHY part and test it yourself with your team. It may initially require patience and ego aversion . Once you practice, whenever you communicate, you tend to explain with WHY part, and it likely improves the motivation level.

Your self-esteem grows through your actions

Self-esteem is all about how you feel and think about yourself as this determines your quality of life. Even though factors like your childhood, upbringing, environment influence your level of self-esteem, one of the most significant factors drives your self-esteem is your own thoughts and action. When your thought process and action are same, your self-esteem improves. Alternatively, when there is misalignment on your thoughts and actions, it affects your self-esteem.

       For example, you want to inculcate a new habit to improve your effectiveness, and you form a resolution to surf the social media contents only when you are in leisure, not during busy hours. When you are determined by this resolution and make it happen, your self-esteem goes up as your subconscious mind reinforce that you are capable of making anything happen with your persistence.

       In case, if you are not able to follow your own resolution and break the habit formation, your subconscious mind reinforce that you are weak in following up on your own resolution. When this kind of instances happen frequently, you mind convince that you are either strong or weak in following your own commitments and your self-esteem grows or pulls down.
 
      That is, our self-esteem grows or falls on our own thought process and action. This is applicable both in a personal and professional environment too as a leader. Just be aware of your thought and action alignment, raise your standard continuously and stick on it.

How do you look at your work?

Once three people were working on the bridge construction. The stranger approached the first person asked what he was doing.T he person said, “Can‘t you see I am laying stones.” The stranger quickly moved on to the second person and asked the same question.T he person replied: “I am working on my income so that I take care of myself and family.”

      The stranger moved on the third person and asked him what he was doing. The person replied with a smile “I am building a bridge, once the bridge construction is over, many people will pass on.I am helping others to move fast. This bridge will be here centuries after I am gone”    

       This is a well-known story, and the profound message is that how you are looking at your work with great purpose on it makes a difference in your quality of work and life. Irrespective of your profession, each one of us is doing our bit for the benefit of others as a whole. When we realize the purpose of our work in a big picture, the work will bring happiness and also the quality of work will be enhanced.
 
        Identify the purpose of your work!! 

How does “being punctual” help your growth?

If you observe highly successful people, you can identify one universal quality they consistently display in their life is “Being Punctual.” 

What is meant by “being punctual.”?
As we generally understood, being punctual is not only on time for any event or meetings, it is adhering to the commitments to self and others. It is a commitment to yourself towards any activities and respect for others or sensitive to other’s time.

Being punctual is all about organizing self.

It is all about your attitude towards yourself, your work and care about others. 

How this attitude does helps you?:

When you organize yourself, eventually you will get the capability to organize others

For example, when you are committed to your work and you showoff on time, that makes you calm and you can think clearly. When you are sensitive to your commitments to others, it makes you more alert .when you are in calm and alert that makes you more effective in your execution. When your execution is effective, likely you achieve success.

Alternatively, when you are not showing off on time, you demonstrate your irregularities. You are perceived as not trustworthy. Sometimes, your irregularities make you restless, anger and eventually affect your work quality. This attitude reduces your personal effectiveness and in turn growth.

Hence, Set right your attitude of “ being punctual “ and this  will accelerate your growth as we witness from achievers ! 

How to be grateful forever?

Being in a grateful state is one of the biggest virtues a person can possess. Grateful is a powerful feeling of being thankful for everything happened in life. A lot of research is being conducted for the benefit of being in the grateful and many studies show that the person with gratitude mindset will have more satisfaction, happy in life and less disturbed with life challenges.

Being in the grateful state is a natural process for a few people and difficult for some people in the world of a busy lifestyle.However, from my experience, with a little effort, the mind can be trained to look at the life with more gratitude 

How to practice gratefulness?:

1.Pick any one aspects of your life, say your education, job, family members, friends or any other opportunities you got in your business.
2.Think through how much lucky you are to have those aspects of your life. Think through the possibilities of forces which could have worked against you and how all the forces have worked out in your favor in getting those aspects.
3. When you think through deeply, your mind starts accepting your giftedness.When you do this frequently, eventually, you start looking at everything in life with gratitude mindset.

The point is that everyone has troubles and challenges, but how you look at the things with gratitude will give you strength to overcome the challenges. Being in a grateful state is possible by all with a little bit of awareness and effort!

How to change the mindset of others?

One of the frequently asked questions in most of the conversation with business head or managers is, “How to change the mindset of my team?”. Business head intends to change his fellow manager's thought process or mindset. Similarly, managers also expect to improve his fellow reportee’s thought process.It is reasonable expectation a senior person likes his team member to look at the things as he sees.

Let us understand the process of changing the mindset of others.

Mindset means we set our mind or thoughts towards something in a particular fashion and our behaviors/actions are in line with thought process or mindset. Now as an elder, if you want to change the mindset of others, you need to feed their mind with new thoughts or experience or new learning, then only old mentality disappears, and new mindset or thought process settle in. That is merely enhancing the mind to accommodate a new way of looking at things.

If you understand this process, as an elder, your job is to continuously educate or communicate with your fellow team members till they enhance their mind. You need to give a new exposure in the form of training or further learning. That way only, you can change other’s mindset towards business.

The point is that educating or communicating or exposing for new learning is your responsibility. Are you owning responsibility and spending your time, energy towards developing your team is the point of self-introspection!

Who is a winner when you quarrel?

There were a couple of lions lived in a forest.One day, both felt thirsty and reached the water pond.They immediately began to argue about who should satisfy their thirst first.The argument became quarrel and each took a stand to die in the quarrel rather than give up the privilege of being first to quench the thirst.

       They started attacking each other as their emotions turned into rage. Suddenly they stopped their attack and looked up at the sky as there was a flock of vultures circling the pond. Those vultures were eagerly waiting for the loser to die and it would become a feast for them for a week.

       On realizing the intention of the vultures, both lions stopped their quarrel and shared the water together to quench the thirst and walked away. The vultures disappointed.

Moral of the story:

When you quarrel each other as a couple for a silly reason, the loss would be family harmony only. Similarly even in the organization, when we spent energy on small things and argued for hours, the loser would be the organization, and the winner would be your competition.

Be aware of what for you are fighting and against whom you are fighting! 

Why do we lose opportunities?

     

      You may have an ambitious goal about your personal or business. When the right opportunity comes in to achieve the ambitious goal, how you communicate yourself makes much difference in grabbing the opportunity.

       For instance, you get an opportunity to work with dream employer but in a distant location. You are aware that this opportunity will change your life in a big way. However, your mind works on the small hindrances in the opportunity. For example, rather than visualizing the benefit from the opportunity, you may be worrying about the small hindrances like to how to relocate or how to reach distant and so on... The more and more you get into thinking about “concern “areas, more you will be missing the big picture of achieving your ambitious goal.

        There is no doubt that small concerns also need to be addressed, but the instant communication yourself on concerns outweigh the benefits and shuts your grabbing ability.How you are communicating yourself is important.

           This requires just awareness of your thought process on how you are looking at opportunities and concerns!

Why do some people reach top position fast?

Given the right educational background and potential, some people reach the top position in their career very faster than average pace and others it takes a time or stagnant at some level.
What makes some people move fast to reach a top position like CEO or head of the organization?

One of the HBR articles revealed interesting facts about the reason for some people take fast track.Researchers found some pattern among them as follows
1.Sometimes in their career journey, they step down and take a small role to develop them to accelerate. For example, functional head of large organization takes as in charge of small unit or projects to build his business skill. Even though it looks like step-down, they are preparing themselves for higher responsibilities.

2. Even at young age, they accept significant responsibilities even though they were not ready for that. That is taking a calculated risk and developing self on competency.

3.Emerge out as a visible leader during the crisis.That is, guidance and direction are usually essential during crisis time, and some people emerge as leaders during the crisis. For example, when the specific supplier is shut down the plant, quickly getting into alternate and resuming operations without any damage.

The point is, the above behaviors are some of the traits of people who reach the top position at a fast rate. If you have the aspiration for growth, just reflect your mindset, behaviors and your approach! Each one deserves for higher growth in the career! 

source courtesy:
HBR Article -The Fastest Path to the CEO Job, According to a 10-Year Study

Elena Lytkina BotelhoKim Rosenkoetter Powell Nicole Wong

Being grateful on a bad day

Generally, not all the days in our life go as we expect and make us happy at the end of the day. Sometimes a day is filled with a lot of disappointments, irritations, delays, hurting, rejections, and annoying situations.

The reason could be due to petty reasons like water tap leakage, housemaid not turned up on time, pickup cab late, not getting the preferred food at café or even at home, weak signaling or network issues.It could be even reasonable reasons like customer’s turnout, non-cooperating colleagues, angry moments with boss or spouse or anyone else.The list goes on ………………………..!!!!

That is, we have infinite reasons to claim the day as the dull or bad day on any labeled reasons.Cumulative of all reasons eventually affect our mood either as sad or unhappy at the end of the day.
How to turn the bad day into happy?

Just count the blessings of the day. If you observe all the moments of the day, amidst of the entire bad moments, something turned out as your favorites. That is natural design. Think of those favorable moments.(for example, your dear ones smiling face or some one's supporting words to you ).Be grateful for those moments.

The point is that there are no such only bad moments in life.Either we forget or ignore to see the positiveness in all the moments.It just needs awareness and widening of our perspectives of life!