Step 4: Becoming Super Leaders - Revolutionary streams

STEP 4: Creating Revolutionary Streams of Business

I spoke in 'step 1' about creating a new application for your core strength. How can you apply what you are great at in a different area? If you are a fantastic sales person, what new areas of work can you apply your skills to? Could you be selling something new in an un-thought-of territory for a brand new product, and therefore, increase your area of influence.

The Challenge: What we are good at are also things we are mentally comfortable with. Generally speaking, of course. We keep doing the same thing because that's what we have done the most of. The dilemma of specialization v/s diversification. How much is too much?

The Key: The Apple way! Apple is a tremendous example of creating revolutionary products and business streams around their core strength - Innovation!

3 Practical Ideas:
Look to the future: Sounds obvious, and you will still be surprised how many of us don't. Most often as individuals and businesses we choose to look back at our past to gather data. To know what worked in the past seems like a natural action when deciding what 'could' work in the future. But the challenge of our current times is a different ball game altogether - and the answers don't lie in the past. The past, though not irrelevant, can be misleading. TATA Motors did not not consider Tier 3 cities or the rural market as their primary market. That is, until they came up with the little Nano! The common man's car is selling in the rural market more than anyone ever imagined, including the co.

Establish your True core strength: What are you seriously....fantastically good at? I am a trainer, so I am good at training, could be my answer. When I think deeper I know this is far from the truth. Training is not my core competence - understanding myself and extending that skill to understand others is my real strength. And I work mighty hard on it. So, what's your core strength - is it selling, speaking, treating patients, researching, designing? Or is it a deeper strength that enables you to do all the above and holds the promise of diversification, of extending your reach, of creating a business you never thought possible. I wrote a book because that seemed a natural extension of my core skill, not as tough as you might think because I had already worked on the raw material for fifteen years.

Be creative not competitive: When I experience someone interrupting another, so their point can be heard better, I am reminded of a beautiful thing I read long back. A participant wrote in their feedback - 'I stopped taking notes because if my point is worth anything it will survive the conversation and I will remember it.' What a great example of being creative and not competitive. What do you truly, and from your heart, want to have, do, and be irrespective of others around? Revolutionary streams of business and doing what hundred other businesses are doing don't go hand in hand. What unique combination of you as a person, your core strength, your idea, and your initiative can you bring to the table? That - if you can pull it off - is magic!

Revolutionary streams of business are not so revolutionary if you think about it. They are a natural evolution of your core strength polished to perfection.

Coming up next: Step 5: Treat your department as your own business venture

The day I learned to meditate...

I have never learned how to meditate, in the technical sense of the word, I mean. Oxford describes the word 'Meditate' as: "Focus one's mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation." Then in finer text below (and more importantly, I think) it says, "think deeply about (something)."

And that something clicked into place.

Some years ago my mind was in considerable turmoil. And the more I pressed for answers the more I came up with disappointments. I was in despair at how I had worked my ineffective lifestyle, fueled by my relentless work schedule, to a point of no return.

And then it happened. I burnt-out, I mean. Just for the sake of info, Oxford defines that as: "In a state of physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress." Now that meaning hit home right away.

And when my body broke down, I was forced to switch off my mobile, my laptop, my mind, my friends, my bosses, my TV, and anything and anyone who could speak even a word to me. I spent a good one week lying in bed - thinking! 

That was deep thinking - the deepest I have felt in my life. I soul searched, dug for answers, faced my demons, allowed myself to feel pathetic about my mistakes, and dared to accept the path that was obvious if I wanted to set things right. Though I have to say, the most intoxicating part of that one week was....to have felt nothingness. I came in touching distance of what it must feel to be in a spiritual state of mind. That thrill is tough to describe in words.

That one week of cutting myself off from humanity and being silent felt so right - and so timely. I felt meditative for the first time in my life. Clarity hit home with a vengeance. And I had learned to meditate.

Since then, I have accepted, with great humility, a different approach to indecision and persistent questions. Instead of talking and hunting actively for information - I have learned to shut down the machinery and peripherals of my life that are otherwise constantly whirring.

After all, as Alan Cohen says, "If you want to find God, hang out in the space between your thoughts."

PS: Just in case you get curious about Alan Cohen   http://alancohen.wwwhubs.com/

Step 3: Becoming Super Leaders - Integrity

STEP 3 - Exercise Unquestionable Integrity

Warren Bennis, the illustrious leadership thinker and researcher, revealed that more leaders lose their jobs because of character flaws than due to lack of technical skills. Also, his list of five qualities of great leaders places Trust way above Intelligence or Technical skills. Definite food for thought this.

The Challenge: Integrity, honesty, transparency - all of these are intangibles that are generally not well defined as part of our KRAs or Key Result Areas. Not to mention, the pressure of our work life pushes these finer aspects of business to the back burner.

The Key: Avoid doing things in private we might be ashamed to admit in public. Simple. Effective.Does take effort and willpower, I admit.

3 Practical Ideas:
Relate to people as people: Our relationship with our team at work takes on a brand new meaning when we consider them people first and then co-workers, employees, vendors etc. This 'real' connectedness with others at work encourages our mind to discriminate between right and wrong a bit better. We can be unfair to a cog in the wheel much easier than we can to a person whom we relate to and who respects us back.

Being fair v/s being truthful: A lot of managers say to me that they can't possibly be truthful all the time. What if the information is confidential, we can't share that with anyone? Fair enough. From my own experience of being a team member, I always looked up to bosses who were frank about their inability to share beyond a point. At the same time, they gave us a road map to follow and openly asked us to improvise on current practices. I don't remember any of us hammering on their door for unfairness. So, let's broaden the idea of integrity. It can mean you can be honest to your team on several levels. Tell them that you can't tell them! Or give a time when you can speak to them more frankly. Or share what you think should be the course of action all things considred.

Long-term v/s short-term gains: We can be ahead of ourselves in being shrewd leaders and even then, history tells us that what goes around comes around. Playing games with our team or customers comes right back to bite us. So, what are we gunning for as leaders? List 1) popularity, liking, approval, promotions, getting our way? Nothing wrong with any of that, just that the above priorities motivate us to do things we might not be proud of. What if we prioritize goals such as - list 2) fairness, dynamism, innovation, respect, customer referrals, repeat clientele, and learning and development. Interestingly list two leads to list one - it's inevitable!

Integrity is a personal decision that has little to do with our work place. The question is, who are we becoming as we confidently march towards leadership success?

Coming up next: Step 4: Creating revolutionary streams of business

The Importance of being Harry!

Am talking of the 'chosen one' - Harry Potter!

I remember borrowing The Sorcerer's Stone many years ago from a lending library after someone highly recommended it, and that it was a hit abroad. I'd never heard of it before, but read it anyway. Got hooked. For good. For years. Still am.

When I retire at, lets' say, ninety -  I picture myself in a recliner on a beach, reading HP through my thick glasses and sipping hot tea. Super cool.

Honestly, I don't feel sad that this is the last Harry Potter movie. And don't understand why this should be the end either. The end of what?? The novelty of special effects and cinematic experience of the books, maybe. But how can a series with an enduring plot like this one ever end?

JK Rowling has given us - and several coming generations - a huge gift. One that unabashedly reminds us of the ultimate triumph of good over evil. And that we can win the world - if only we could have on our side, the unrivaled strength of loyalty, personal integrity, and the ultimate powers of Love and Selflessness.

Some might say - that's an idealist's dream - works only in books. I want to believe otherwise. Maybe, our one huge hope in the current times is to re-learn the importance of being loyal, steadfast, honest, and good. As good as Harry! You never know - we just might win this war against the dementors and death eaters of our own muggle world. 

Ms. JK Rowling. Please don't stop writing. We need a lot of reminders still.

Step 2 - Becoming Super Leaders - Team Partnerships

STEP 2: Create Partnerships within your Team 

In my entire career I might have worked with a handful of bosses who were spectacular at forging partnerships with us. We really felt like their TEAM, and not subordinates. Do you agree that one great boss changes our entire perspective about our job, the organization, and esp., our longevity with the co.? One great quality that makes a leader a super leader is treating the team like partners.

The Challenge: Leadership comes with a built-in mechanism that makes it distinct and pegs it a few notches above the others. It takes a sound character and solid conviction to break away from the mindset of traditional leadership. 

The Key: Remind yourself often that people are not working for you, they are working with you. Leadership is about creating positive partnerships.  

3 Practical ideas:  

Be authentic than authoritarian. I was recently invited to attend a women’s meeting, and I was struck by how honest these women were in spite of not knowing everyone there. Very soon the entire room got excited and talking about meaningful issues they wanted to resolve. Was quite a learning – be true to yourself before you expect anyone else to be honest. Partnerships thrive in an environment of honesty.

Process to purpose oriented. Have you ever been upset with an airline staff that told you your flight got canceled or your baggage got lost or they can’t accommodate your family in the same row without telling you why exactly you were being made to suffer? A genuine reason/purpose goes a long way in winning support than slapping people with policies. Ask yourself as a leader today – what is the purpose of my leading this team? What is the purpose of the work we do together? You might surprise yourself with the answers.    

Move from inactive to influential. Don’t you just love people who genuinely ask you, ‘how are you doing’, and actually care about your response? Very rarely do leaders think about such minor interactions to be influencers. Try being really interested in your team mates and the small stories they might share with you. To measure your influence observe if your team whole-heartedly buys-in to your thoughts and ideas or to the objectives you have charted out together? Influence doesn’t need you to be the CEO really. Influence comes from unspoken respect and genuine intentions that you radiate through the smallest of actions.

Partnerships last. Jobs are temporary.

Coming up tomorrow - Step 3: Exhibit unquestionable integrity

Step 1 - Becoming Super Leaders - Think differently

STEP 1: Think differently and rapidly move to action. 

A while back I wrote about not doing what's popular. The first step here resonates with that same idea. Try not to toe the line, follow the herd, try too hard to conform, or blend in with the crowd. Trying to be just like others means we are trapped in our comfort zone. That's why it's called a comfort zone, because stepping out of it is like walking out in a dress you are uncomfortable wearing and not used to. Super leaders pave the way - first of themselves, and by example, for others.

The Challenge: Comfort zones come naturally to human beings. However, comfort zones are dangerous places to be in today's rapidly changing times. The skill you are great at today might not be needed three years down the line, or there might be too many others who can do what only a few can do today.

The Key: Innovate around your core strength and come up with a new application for what you are great at. That's a potent combination for a leader.

3 Practical ideas:  
Get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Seriously. This sounds like a cliche, but I have experienced it in my own career. Try not to shy away from things you have never done before. If you don't do them now, you might find it even tougher to do them two years down the line. Maybe, the latest promising initiative in your team is not your cup of tea. Ask yourself, why not? What's holding you back from doing something that might mean your future success and growth. You might still choose to not participate, but at least know your reasons clearly. 

Step up on innovation. We often get lazy about innovation because it's so much easier to do what we are already good at. If it helps you to motivate yourself, then let me say - it's a dangerous to  not change. A young, bright person bursting with new ideas might make you redundant before you know. Let's say, you give a stock presentation to your customer. And that's what you are supposed to do. Even then, what might be the results if you sat in a quiet place with the boring presentation and did two things: a) Figure out three recommendations to make the presentation engaging, more relevant, and a better sell to the client, and b) Sincerely ask yourself what can you do personally to make the job less boring and repetitive for yourself. Could you gather more data on the client and customize it as you spoke? Is there space for some quick anecdote to engage the client than point at slides endlessly?
 
Get moving. Let me underline this point. Nothing changes in life as long as we only talk about it during our tea-time huddles. My mantra is to act on what appeals to me greatly. I felt from my heart that I wanted to express myself through more than one medium, and this blog came about. I am not doing anything very difficult when I write this blog. But the decision to create this a/c, understand how it works, decide on my themes and actually write around them....took some real effort. Though it was all enjoyable because this is what I wanted to do.

Action is so much easier when we commit to bring our ideas into reality. And action that is innovative and adds value is a mark of a person leading themselves well.

PS: It will be great to hear what you think about this first step. Please feel free to write a comment in the space at the bottom of this blog. And I promise to respond.

Coming up tomorrow - Step 2: Create successful partnerships in your immediate team

The Ten Steps to Super Leadership...

I am here to keep my promise today. I had written a blog called 'Super Leadership' and talked about ten steps to super leadership. I am starting a series from today where I will be talking in detail about each step and how we can strengthen each of them to reach this exciting phase of leading ourselves and others.

First things first. Here is the older post to jog your memory:

I am very excited as I sit down to write this blog. It just fills me up with awe what new knowledge can do to our performance. Let me introduce you to a new term, 'SUPER LEADERSHIP'. I like to define super leadership as leadership that goes beyond traditional definitions of leadership. It is a trap in today's turbulent times to stick to the age old idea of leadership and try to accomplish just that at the workplace. No wonder so many good managers/leaders find themselves failing at their good attempts at great team work. Super leadership requires 10 distinct behaviors 1) to think differently and rapidly move to action 2) create partnerships in your immediate team rather than treat them like followers 3) exhibit unquestionable integrity 4) create business in tough times, come up with revolutionary streams of business 5) treat your department as your own business venture 6) be entrepreneurial than just an employee 7) forge unimaginable tie-ups with competitors and rivals 8) have a life of your own and personal space 9) have wisdom about not just your own area, but about your organization as a whole, and lastly 10) make every single person on your team benefit from success. Lookout for my detailed blogs on each step! Happy leading until then...and do give a thought to what I wrote here.

I read into the night yesterday....

I read till 1:15 am last night! After ages. And had no regrets when I struggled to wake-up today morning with slightly gritty eyes. It was all worth recapturing the joy of reading fiction late into the night and having the right atmosphere for that gory murder I knew was coming....

My husband gifted me Dan Brown's, The Lost Symbol (a hardcover at that) when it got released. And I started on it day before. This would have been sacrilege ten years ago when I would devour new books even if it meant staying up till 3 am...or beyond. Nope, that's not ideal at all....but heck, these were un-put-downable JK Rowlings, Dan Browns, John Grishams, Alistair McLeans,Jeffery Archers, Daphne du Mauriers, Agatha Christies, and ......Hardy Boys, Nancy Drews, and....Famous Fives and Secret Sevens! Yup! Together with countless comics, and hundreds of other random fiction.

Then suddenly, I woke up one day and realized I had grown older, and had a job to go to that sucked all energy out of me. Reading sat in the last row in the least priority class-room. Those were sad days!

Yet there is an unmistakable and stupendous sense of satisfaction of having gone down the crazy reading lane that knew no bounds, esp., no time-lines, bottom-line, top-lines, or any other dubious stuff we make our life's purpose to plod through.

Then a stroke of luck happened. I found an eclectic and committed reader in my husband who revived my joy for books, intense reading, pointless discussions, endless debates, and book shopping sprees - the joys of life. We excitedly caught-up on many notes, anecdotes, memories, and the thrill of reading our favourite authors. Together, we rummaged through dusty second-hand book stores, erupting with excitement on having found a book title that seemed impossible to have got published in the first place. Over time, we also had fun exchanging some of our unique reading interests that the other hadn't tasted yet.

Thankfully, some of our most enchanted discussions at home are around discoveries and learning, and spying new places in our small apartment to fit in more book-shelves.

When we recently moved into our second home, the first carton I looked for was the one with books. Which, btw, was meticulously marked, and so what, if we found my comb with the kitchen utensils. The first shelf I lovingly arranged was our book-shelf. And the most animated times while painstakingly packing our stuff (and doubting the whole move) was which books to leave behind and which to transfer to our other home.My best memories of packing and moving in the last two years have been - without a doubt - our collective books.

Somewhere down the line, catching up with management literature became important, and I read up frantically, so I could have meaningful things to say in a training session. That was important as well.

But now...once again....it's time to get back to fiction as well....I might not find a quotable quote to impress my training junta....but then, management books never kept me awake till 1:15 am either!

The joys of reading!

What Nirvana means to me...

I've used the big N word in the title of my very first book - 'Nirvana.' I am sure to be asked what the word means for me. I don't mind saying that the journey of writing the book taught me the real meaning of Nirvana. I don't think I knew it when I started out or even chose to name the book, 'Corporate Nirvana.'

Nirvana means for me a few simple things - to be at peace with what I have, to enjoy the present moment, to treat this day I am a part of with respect and joy in my heart. And I do feel that joy, because I am alive, able to move around and do things on my own, not have to worry about four square meals a day, and live in a house that I can call home. I feel fortunate because I have so much to be happy about and therefore, so little to crib about. I know I live in a democracy and not under slavery or destitution of any kind, so I can go about doing my business everyday with my head held high. Wouldn't you say those are a hell lot of reasons to smile and get through the day like a star!

I feel like an absolute star on a daily basis - on the inside. I have begun to understand this delicious paradox of what it means to be happy. This is my share of discovery - the more we have and get, the less likely we are to be happy and contented. Sounds downright silly. And do let me know if you grossly disagree!

That doesn't mean I say  no to the good stuff that is dropping in my lap, lets say. But when it does drop - I know for sure that that particular stroke of good fortune is not a compulsory part of my being happy that day. Even if it didn't happen, I had all that I needed to be happy on that day!

Profound stuff this. For me, that is. Taken a long time to get this far in my head.  

So, I wake up each morning, and stretch and thank God that I have everything I need today to make me insanely happy. A moment of personal Nirvana looks like that to me.

Don't do what's popular

Hello to everyone....which is in order considering the long time I've  been away from blogging. Not that I was a die hard one to begin with. I started a blog because I was curious to see what the hungama was all about. But my heart was not in it, so I couldn't sustain it, I guess.

And that's been a huge discovery for me in the last two years. Don't do things under the pressure of everyone else doing them! What doesn't come from your heart will never sustain itself - it doesn't matter if it's the brightest, smartest idea in the world. When you are tempted to do things that are popular rather than original - run!

Love what Oscar Wilde said - "Be yourself, everyone else is taken." What a stunning quote.

In which ever profession you might be, your audience still loves a dash of originality. So, a bunch of us could be trainers, but we all need to have our individual spark - something we are gifted to do, and so we do it the 'our own special way'. Or we have practiced something to an extent that we stand out when we do that something. Apply the same philosophy to your job as a banker, accountant, teacher, doctor or social activist. The principle doesn't change - 'originality wins hands down'.

And though I feel strongly about being ourselves, I don't steer clear of things that other people inspire me to do. I enjoyed reading some blogs, and thought - why not? When we feel inspired, we might still do something that is popular, but do it in a way that would be unique to us.

With this stint of mine in the blogworld, I might be here for the long haul. Because this time around - I really have something to say and a will to share it with all of you!