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A2Z About Spiritual Life

Spiritual, spirituality, spiritualism etc has become very common words now days. People feel pride in saying that I am spiritual but not religious. I was just trying to know more about the spiritualism and thought why not to find A to Z qualities of a spiritual person.

As per Wikipedia spirituality is defined as follow: Traditionally, spirituality refers to a religious process of re-formation which “aims to recover the original shape of man,” oriented at “the image of God” as exemplified by the founders and sacred texts of the religions of the world. In modern times the emphasis is on subjective experience of a sacred dimension and the “deepest values and meanings by which people live, “often in a context separate from organized religious institutions. Modern systems of spirituality may includes a belief in a supernatural (beyond the known and observable) realm, personal growth, a quest for an ultimate or sacred meaning, religious experience, or an encounter with one’s own “inner dimension.“

Most of us when we use this term, basically we want to say that I am not religious but I believe in common spirit of each other. So I think if a person has following A to Z qualities, he would be somewhat spiritual and he is on the path of spiritualism.

Atma:

One who believes that spirit or atma, in you, me, animal or plant is same is spiritual.This beliefs helps him in treating everyone with due respect.

Belief in Super Natural Power:

Normally these people don’t believe in a god as person but mostly believe that super atma or super spirit is there which is controlling us directly or indirectly in some or other way.

Compassion:

Such persons are compassionate about others including animals and plants. They empathize with the pain or weakness of others. They also try to help needy.

Detachment:

Complete detachment is not possible for general public but spiritual starts walking on path of detachment. First they try to get detached with material life and later with the relationships also. It doesn’t mean that they don’t respect or love people but they start understanding that we all are traveller here and nothing will go along with.

Enlightenment:

They understand the power of knowledge and wisdom. To achieve enlightenment becomes their ultimate goal. They start reading and learning philosophies. They also read about religions but to understand philosophies behind the religions.

Forgiveness:

They don’t carry grudges and make all efforts to forgive people who have misbehaved with them or cheated them. They learn that if they want peace, forgiveness is better option.

Give:

They believe in giving whatever possible. Their time, their money and resources. They find pleasure in giving. They understand that we all are interdependent on each other and if they have something extra either knowledge or resources they shall share with needy.

Humanity:

Many people think and believe that humanity and spirituality is same. Compassion and giving is also the part of humanity but it goes even beyond. They don’t harm the others and try to treat others as equal to them.

Interconnectedness:

They start realizing that all living and non-living beings in this universe is interconnected in fact the entire universe is interconnected. That insight helps in compassion and empathy with others.

Judicious:

They don’t judge people with their possession and status rather they start understanding what is right and wrong. Their major fear is becoming partial to anyone.

Kindness:

Spiritual people are polite and kind to all. They understand the need of others and tries to meet as per their capacity. Even if they are not able to help, they show their compassion.

Love:

It may not be easy to love all but spiritual people definitely don’t hate anyone. They consider all being one so question of hate does not arise.

Meditation:

Regular meditation helps in better control on emotions, thoughts, words and actions. It helps in control on anger and leads to peace of mind.

Nature:

Spiritual people are nature lover. They will plant trees and try to protect nature. They would not harm the nature and try to harmonies their life with nature.

Om:

Omkar is a sound of universe and basic sound within. Let us not attach this to any religion. Continuous chanting even silently can calm down the waves of thoughts.

Prayer:

Prayers are powerful. Prayer helps in directing our entire energy and universe to realize our dreams. Immediately after waking and before sleep, prayers helps in focusing our goals.

Quality of Life:

For spiritual people quality of life more important than money, power and fame. Quality of life comes from better health, good relationship, purpose of life and higher wisdom.

Renunciation:

Person on spiritual path starts renouncing his material desires. He starts putting limits on small thing such as clothing etc and progress towards limiting size of house and use of vehicle etc.

Secularism:

The people on path of spirituality follows the spiritualism in name of any religion. They are not fanatic religious but accepts good in every religion and philosophy.

Thoughts:

One can’t imagine a spiritual person with negative thoughts. Negative situation arises in life of everyone but a spiritual person always thinks positive and face the adverse situation with smile and velour.

Universe:

Spiritual person understand the vastness of universe and at the same time can comprehensible we are completely connected with vastness and start feeling oneness with entire universe.

Visionary:

Spiritual person develops ability to see in future and always keeps bigger picture and purpose in mind. They think more in long term and ignores the short term impacts.

Wisdom:

People on path of spiritualism are seekers. Always hungry for knowledge, learning and wisdom. They love to read and love to spend time with intellectuals.

Xplore within:

Spiritual seekers keep exploring within. They like to spend minimum 2-3 hours everyday with themselves. Their ultimate goal is to connect their soul with almighty.

Yoga:

Not necessarily yoga but spiritual person are conscious about their physical and mental health. They are regular in doing yoga, exercise, sports, walk, cycling etc.

Zeal:

Spiritual people are always enthusiastic irrespective of situation. They enthusiasm ignited enthusiasm. They always radiate positive energy.

Make Intervals Meaningful

Your growth and development depends how meaningful you make your intervals. The plethora of distractions that the 21st century brings in our lives with smart phones, TV social media, games, shows and Netflix drive us to become consumer instead of creators. Thus as soon as we get little interval from our routine office work or home work, we start playing with our phone or shifting TV channels for the next meaningless realease of dopamine.

We can’t focus all the time on our prime work and we are bound to get mini intervals during whole day. If we can develop a meaningful hobby which can help us in learning new knowledge or skills, it will help us in developing our personality. Reading, writing, blogging, podcasting, producing art work, creating music are just some small ways we all can become creators instead of consumers.

5 ways to making intervals creative:

1) Select 1/2 hobbies which you can pursue anywhere in any situation and which are meaningful.

2) Refrain yourself from getting addicted to wasteful activities.

3) Keep your secondary goals which can be pursued in free time.

4) Free time can be utilised for expanding network. Meeting, talking or chatting with relevant people.

5) Intervals are good to be utilised for thinking on constructive topics.

अंतराल हमको मिले, दो कामों के बीच।
सकारात्मक सोच को, लेकर आयें खींच।। अविनाश बागड़े

Dealing side Effects

I was reading a blog on “7 surprising ways meditation can be hurting you” http://www.thisisinsider.com/why-meditation-can-be-bad-2018-3?share=f0b9d422 and idea clicked to write this blog. Earlier mostly I have used the term “side effect” in term of medicines. However there is nothing in this world which don’t have some side effects including mother’s love or father’s duty or spouse care. I know one my uncle who takes extra ordinary care of his ailing wife, that has made my aunt completely dependent on him and she does not want to do any thing.

Whether it’s a fruit or vegetable, whether it’s live or care or whether it’s meditation or hard work, every thing have some side effects. However those side effects may not be much harmful or can be avoided if we know about those and deal them properly. We need to weigh the cost benefit analysis of every action. If we are receiving something then some price need to be paid.

5 tips for dealing with “side effects”

1) Don’t get carried away by the benefits and good side of any action. Whatever it may be. Every thing in this universe has 2 side of coin. Positive and negative.

2) Find out what are the side effects and do proper cost benefit analysis.

3) Find out the ways to neutralise side effects or accept those side effects with grace.

4) If the benefits are more than losses then only go for those actions.

5) With time, person and circumstances, intensity of side effect changes. So one need to be continuously alert about side effects.

Spirituality Vs. Science

Science and Spirituality

Spirituality is whole, science is part.

Spirituality is knowledge, science is discovery.

Spirituality is in dark, science is in light.

Spirituality is omnipresent, science is in present.

Spirituality is inner journey, science is outer journey.

Spirituality is visible and invisible, science is what is visible.

Spirituality is oneness, science is divisible

Spirituality is individual experience, science is collaborative experience.

Spirituality is whole truth, science is finding the truth.

Spirituality is faith, science is facts.

Spirituality is connecting soul to super soul, science is connecting matter to energy.

Spirituality is compassion, science is passion.

Spirituality leads to moksha, science leads to swarga (heaven).

Spirituality is perceiving, science is proving.

Spirituality is wonder, science is curiosity.

Spirituality is believing first then knowing, science is knowing first then believing.

Spirituality is end, science is beginning.

Spirituality is connecting and reach to atman, science is separating and reach to atom.

Spirituality is mystique till science finds it.

Choose Your Side

Often in life we need to choose the side, with whom we will place our support. It may be with family, at work, with friend or in society. Normally we have 4 choices.
1. To stand with weaker
2. To stand with strong
3. To stand with right
4. To stand with self interest

Most of us stand with our own interest and on the top we justify that we are right. However it take guts to stand with right and weak. It is not necessary that weak is always right and also it is not necessary that strong is always right. To know that what and who is right and what and who is wrong requires lot of rationality with wisdom. Most of the time our self interest cover our wisdom like cloud covers the sun.

I often say that it is easy to choose between right and wrong but very difficult to chose between wrong and more wrong or right and more right. Geeta reveals that Krishna chose Pandavas because they were right and on the path of Dharma where as Kauravas were wrong and path of Adharma.

5 tips to help in choosing sides:

1) Analyse the situation from as many views as possible.

2) Momentarily keep your interest aside and review the situation.

3) Hear and learn all the sides, their stand point of view. Try to step in shoes of others.

4) In case you choose the side which is contradictory with your loved ones, explain them your reasons. Some times keeping yourself neutral may be better option to save the relationship.

5) If you are convinced that you have chosen right side then stand like a rock.

7 Business Sutras, 7 Days, 7 Planets

As per Indian astrology, 7 planets have great impact on our life apart from Rahu & Ketu which are invisible planets. As per these 7 planets, 7 weekdays are named. Sunday to Saturday and Sun to Saturn. Though Sun is not a planet but a star but since from earth we see sun as rotating star, Indian astrology consider as planet only and have great impact on our life. To take this analogy forward I have derived 7 business sutra and aligned them with 7 days and 7 planets. A business leader shall focus on them for progress and sustaining the organisation on daily basis. One sutra per day.

1) Revisit your Goals on Sunday:

The Sun gives life force, the power of will, intellect, brilliance, prosperity, success in worldly affairs, wealth, personal, conduct, activity, cheerfulness, good fortune, wisdom, ambition, fame, the understanding of the phenomenal world, and the knowledge of medicine.

A business leader shall keep Sunday for revisiting his Vision, Mission, goals and targets in solitude. It requires lot of individual thinking with no disturbance. One need to meditate and realign his all forces. Growth and prosperity of organisation and its people shall be the main goal.

2) Engage your Employees on Monday

Moon as a Ruling Planet: Characteristics of the Moon in Astrology. The moon is Cancer’s planetary ruler – a sign that is known for being intuitive, emotional and sensitive. Cancer craves security and consistency; those ruled by this heavenly body are fiercely loyal to family and deeply motivated by matters of the home.

A business leader shall reserve his Monday for employees. Discussing their goals, plan for the week, performance of the past week. Engaging employees and motivating them regularly is prime objective of any business leader. In short focus on HR department.

3) Connect to your Customers on Tuesday

In astrology, Mars is the planet of energy, action, and desire. It is the survival instinct, and can be thought of as the “leftover” animal nature of man. Mars rules our animal instincts for aggression, anger, and survival. Our sexual desires come under the rule of Mars.

Loyal and sustainable customers are power of any business. A business leader need to visit or connect to his customers on regular basis. Understanding their needs, listening their complaints, focusing on outstanding, adding customer base shall be target for Tuesday. In short focus on marketing department.

4) Decide your Strategies on Wednesday

Mercury is nearest to the Sun. In Vedic Astrology this is called Budh which means cleverness. This planet represents the qualities of intelligence, wit and humour in a person. … Mercury is dual natured planet and governs two zodiac signs namely Gemini and Virgo.

A business leaders shall review his strategies of all areas on Wednesday. Strategies brings effectiveness. Efficiency is climbing fast on the ladder but effectiveness is making sure that your ladder is on right wall.

5) Enhance your Wisdom on Thursday

The planet Jupiter in Vedic astrology has a great significance. It is an auspicious planet that makes the people rich, commanding, wise, spiritual, educated, cultured, liberal and generous. The planet Jupiter is one of the biggest planets in the Solar System.

In Hindi Jupiter is called Guru. Guru is sign of wisdom. A business leader needs to intelligent and wise as well he shall focus on making the entire organisation intelligent and wise. Focus on R&D, new ides, training etc. some of the activities to focus on Thursday.

6) Review Your Finances on Friday

Venus Astrology Symbol – Characteristics, Planet Energy and More. … It is the only planet with the name of a female goddess – and therefore, many of its traits are feminine in nature. Venus was the Roman goddess of beauty, sex, and pleasure.

Finances are blood lines of any organisation. It is prime duty of the Business leader to regularly review his finances. Reviewing of Balance sheets, profit and loss account, budgets, cashflow, management information system, operations etc to be kept on Friday. In short Finance and Accounts function.

7) Reassess your competitors and other enemies on Saturday

Saturn is the planetary ruler of Capricorn, whose ambitions drive it to greater and greater heights – heights that can only be conquered through hard work and discipline. Those under this sign find comfort in understanding the boundaries in the world.

The enemies of organisation can put the survival of any organisation on the stake. A wise business leader shall keep continuous watch on nits enemies. They may be competitors, government policies, dissatisfied employees or any other elements.

Most important 8 lessons of my life

Where we reach in life, lot depends on, from where we started and the quality of our decisions in our life. Quality of decisions measured by ultimate results of decisions which lot depends on circumstances which are mostly beyond our control. It’s not that I have achieved the great height but at this stage of life I am feeling contended, satisfied, happy, peaceful and blissful. And I think that shall be the goal of each and every person. Few problems were always there and will always be there because problems are inevitable and beyond our control. It is not in our hand to stop the pains to come in our life but it is completely in our control to have positive reactions to the situation and face it with smile. I still remember clearly that when Papa was told that he has reached to last stage of cancer, his immediate reaction was that not to worry, cancer is to my body but not to my soul.

It is always better to learn from others experiences because we don’t have enough time to do all the mistakes and learn. Though I got enough but I made lot of mistakes also and based on my learning and experiences I am sharing few of my lessons. It is not good to give advise without asking but since you all are my close family and friends, so sharing.

1) PAHLA SUKH NIROGI KAYA- Health first:Papa used to say that take care of health. 3 things are most important to take care of health. one hour daily workout, healthy and controlled diet and proper sleep. Never compromise on health. There is a lot of impact of our genes on our health however those are not in our hand but these 3 things are perfectly in our control.

2) PARIVAR HI SARVOPARI – Family is Sureme:it so happen that when we are rising in life the first thing we ignore is our health and relationships but when we are in problem the first thing is we fall to our family. Family can be defined as immediate family, close family and extended family however it is important that we recognise each and every relation and build it to the full potential. Dont consider family as umbrella to be used in rain time but it shall be considered integral part of life. Taking care of parents, good understanding with wife, giving space to the children, respecting elders and love to young are some of our sankar which shall be adhered to no matter what.

3) Money is important but not every thing: The kind of life most of us are living is dream of billions. We are fortunate enough to get enough to survive and lead respectful life. It does not mean that young of our family remain contended. contentment is good at old age but young shall be full of enthusiasm and strive for great success in life but not at the cost of health, relationships and values. Dont make money as centre of your attention but make good purpose in life as centre of your focus. Let Money follow you rather than you are running after money like mad.

4) Do What you love or Love what you Do: Nothing can be great if our passion and profession is one but mostly it may not happen so it is better that we love what we do. Dont be complainer about our job and boss. Give your 100% on work irrespective of any damn reason. Apart from work we get many different roles and every role calls for a duty. Do your duty irrespective of any situation.

5) Give back to Society: When we born we inherited this earth with lot of nature and man made facilities. It is our duty that we leave the world better than what we got. There will be always few billions which are less unfortunate than us. As per our capacity give back to society in form of money, our time and energy.

6) Ahimsa Parmodharam: Live and let live. We are fortunate to born in Jain family. Though Jain darshan is very vast but Ahimsa is the greatest principle of Jainism out of 5 main principles. Every living being including plants have right to live their designated life. We have no power to give life then how can we have right to take life. Love all beings.

7) Keep enhancing your wisdom: Quality of our life depends on quality of our wisdom and quality of wisdom depends on what we are learning every day. Keep reading, keep learning and keep experiencing. Meditation and yoga helps in enhancing wisdom.

8) Every action has reaction: It is a greatest misconception that there is a God sitting who has power to give us pain or pleasure. Our present karma is our destiny. What we do and what we give, we get back. Karma is a very scientific theory However prayers or going to temples will motivate us to think right, speak right and do right. Dont go to temple out of fear or greed. Go for self refinement. Our soul has ability to become pure soul by becoming passionless. Equanimity in pain and pleasure shall be achieved to become blissful.

Live Good, Leave Better

Human being in general wants to live good life but rarely he thinks of leaving better. Leaving may range from toilet to this planet. We use toilet, room, office, public places etc and many times complain that it is not properly cleaned by previous user but how many times we make sure that we leave better what we got or at least same as we received before we started using it.

When we come to life, we get parents, family, society, city, nation and this planet. These are blessings to us because we got all these without being any efforts. It is our duty to leave this planet better than what we got. cleaning the toilet seat before leaving, closing the cap of paste, throwing waste in the basket, planting trees, not spoiling the public places, keeping cordial relationship with others, helping the needy etc are few examples of leaving better than what we got.

5 tips for Live Good Leave Better:

1) Make quality and cleanliness way of your life.

2) Cleaning of thoughts is as important as cleaning of body or surroundings. Keep learning.

3) Pause before you leave the place whether you are leaving a toilet or job. Think how can you leave better.

4) Be organised. Place for every thing and every thing is in place.

5) Dont complain about what you got, accept it as blessings.

Teams Need Leader

A great project is completed or event is over and we hear that it was a great team work. Even the person who was leading it overtly or covertly will also say with modesty that I have done nothing. It was a team work. There is no doubt that one person can’t do the big projects alone but at the same time it is also true that 100 people will do nothing if there is lack of direction.

When the birds flies in group or animals walk in herd or ants are on work, there will be one among them will be leading towards goal. Some times leader will be autocratic or may be democratic but leader will be there if the project or event is completed with great results or organisation is operating efficiently and effectively.

Leader will be sometime like pendant in neckless or thread in garland but leader will be there. However it is the prime duty of leader to set vision, give direction, keep motivated, give credit to members and take blame for failures. Leaders need to be flexible according to team, time and situation but not flexible towards goal. Whether one need to lead from front or behind or hidden depends on group, situation and time.

It is also important to know whether my role is of leadership or I need to follow someone. Role changes some timer in same project or event but if you lack wisdom and flexibility to adjust, you may be cause of failure for the entire project. Change your leadership style based on situation and this is called situational leadership.

Downsizing – Minimalism- Aparigraha

October 2019 I was in Canada to spend few days with my son and I met one local Canadian lady. While conversation she told me that she is downsizing. First I thought she is talking about health (LoL) but later she explained that she was having big house and lot of materialistic possessions but as her children grew they left for study or job and finally only couple remained. So they have moved to small house and sold of non-needed possessions. Since I was also sailing in similar boat, the idea of downsizing appealed me. In india also the couple in 50+ is going through similar situation. Big house, many vehicles, lot of furniture and goods and rarely being used.

Then while searching on google and talking to my son I came to know that even in young generation there is a trend of minimalism. Don’t own assets. Keep minimum. More liquid funds and more liquid investments. Enjoy life with minimum possessions. Even they don’t want to own spouse and child (LoL).

While studying philosophies I came to know that this is not something new. Our scriptures are full of this wisdom. In Ashtang yog of Patanjali first limb is Yama and 5th principle of Yama is APRIGRAHA (non-possessiveness).

अहिंसासत्यास्तेय ब्रह्मचर्यापरिग्रहाः यमाः ॥३०॥ Non-violence, Non-falsehood, Non-stealing, Non-cheating (celibacy, chastity), and Non-possessiveness are the five Yamas. (30)
— Patanjali, Yoga Sutra 2.30[17]

अपरिग्रहस्थैर्ये जन्मकथंतासंबोधः ॥३९॥ With constancy of aparigraha, a spiritual illumination of the how and why of motives and birth emerges. (39)
— Patanjali, Yoga Sutra 2.39[22]

In Jainism APARIGRAHA is one of the 5 vows for ascetic as well as person in family.

प्रकरण ११ अपरिग्रहसूत्र – Precepts On Non-Possessiveness from SAMANSUTTAM

१४॰ संगनिमित्तं मारइ, भणइ अलीअं करेइ चोरिक्कं।
सेवइ मेहुण मुच्छं, अप्परिमाणं कुणइ जीवो।।१।।

हिंसा, झूठ, चोरी करे, परिग्रह कारण जान।
काम वासना या नशा, जीव बँधा है मान॥१.११.१.१४०॥

जीव परिग्रह के निमित्त हिंसा करता है, झूठ बोलता है, चोरी करता है, मैथुन का सेवन करता है। इस प्रकार परिग्रह सभी पापों की जड़ है।

Owing to attachment, a person commits violence, tells lies, commits theft, indulges in sex and develops a will for unlimited hoarding. Lust of possession constitutes the root cause of all the five-vices(140)

So as per Jainism possessiveness or greediness is cause of all other sins. Jainism explains possessiveness in further details as follow:

Attachment of possessiveness is of two kinds; internal and external. The internal possessiveness is of fourteen kinds (1) wrong belief, (2) Sexual desire for women, (3) Sexual desire for man, (4) Sexual desire for both, (5) Laughter, (6) Liking, (7) Disliking, (8) Grief, ( 9) Fear, (10) Disgust, (11) Anger, (12) Pride, (13) Deceit and (14) Greed. The external possessions are ten: (1) Fields, (2) Houses, (3) Wealth and food-grains, (4) Stock of house-hold goods. (5) Utensils, (6) male or female slaves (7) Animals, (8) Vehicles, (9) Beddings and (10) Seats. (143-144)

The above is said by Mahavira 2500 years so some may be relevant some may not be but point is this gives a guidance that why and how we can downsize, internally as well as externally and lead more blissful life.

5 tips for Downsizing :

1) Make a list of most essentials, essentials, comfort and useless things.

2) Fix a limit for every thing like one house, 2 cars, 20 dresses etc and maintain your possessions within those limits.

3) Down sizing don’t mean that you live with uncomfort or don’t enjoy the life. Living with happiness and fearlessness shall be the main goal.

4) The process of downsizing shall be slow and not painful. Rather it shall give happiness.

5) Inner downsizing is more essentials. Giving away anger, ego, illusion and greed.

D-Path – 6 D’s from Dreams to Destiny

Whatever happening to us in present moment is our destiny and whatever we are doing, result of that will convert into the destiny. Destiny is nothing but combination of reactions to our actions and impact of external forces in our life. Though external forces are beyond our control but whatever we are doing right at this moment is in very well in our control. Mental creation precedes physical creation. Physical action is not possible unless we had generated thought about that. We may not be 100% capable of creating our destiny but our actions are major contributors in shaping our destiny. Let us explore 5 Ds which can shape 6th D- Destiny.

1) Dreams:

Here I am not talking about the dreams which we see during our sleep with closed eyes. I am talking about the dreams which we see with open eyes and passion of which do not allow us to sleep. Based on personality, a person may have pessimistic dreams or realistic dreams or optimistic dreams. Ideally one shall have optimistic dreams but too optimistic dreams can create disappointment, dissatisfaction and depression if they do not get fulfilled. Having no dreams or easily achievable dreams may not generate much of enthusiasm in life. Having right dreams is must because having inadequate dreams is like achieving much less in life compared to our potential. One must discuss his dreams with close family, friends and mentor. They may help you in framing proper dreams. Once decided, write down your dreams and regularly review based on changes in circumstances and situation.

2) Direction:

Dreams are not enough if direction is absent. Direction tell us which is the right path. In absence of direction we may reach to wrong destination. Your destination may be in north but in absence of direction you may go to south. Right direction is possible if your vision is clear. Suppose you have lost in a jungle. The best way is to climb the tallest tree and see which is right path. In case your vision is blurred take help of people who have already achieved those heights. Wasting some time in finding right direction is much better than running in wrong direction.

3) Decision:

Nothing great is achieved in absence of right decision. While finding direction, you may have many option to achieve the same dreams. Many times we waste so much time in looking at those options but are unable to chose one. Many people are fearful in taking decision. Most of the time full information is not available hence one need to chose based on intuition. If your intuition is not better and you are not able to decide take help of your mentor.

4) Dedication:

Here the role of mentor is over. Once the path is chosen one has to walk alone. Dedication in effort is important. One has to discard his laziness. Continuous effort without gap can only give you results. Most people fail to dedicate their efforts. Results will be directly in proportion to your efforts.

5) Determination:

Once you have started walking on right path, don’t stop or quit. Be determined. Many times you will have doubts about the results but keeping walking.

6) Destiny:

Destiny is nothing but culmination of your determined and dedicated efforts towards right dreams. Have patience. Many universal forces are either working for you or against you it all depends how determined you are.

Unlock Your Soul

Today 21st April 2020. Almost 30th day of lockdown due to COVID19. In my last 63 years of life, never seen almost entire world in lock down due to fear and despair. An invisible virus, not sure whether matter or living being, not sure whether human engineered or nature created, appeared suddenly and spread all over world in no time, not respecting caste, creed, gender, political and geographical boundaries. Almost the entire world has halted and feeling chained in the jail. Homes, offices, public places , transports every thing is locked. It seems we are playing a game of statue with the nature and nature has put all of us in statue position.

However when outer world is closed, one has no option but to do internal journey and I had a realisation that my soul is also chained and locked since time immemorial. As per ancient Asian theories, soul is polluted and locked by our day to day karma in endless previous lives, current life and endless future lives. First time realising that soul is feeling so helpless in front of cycle of karma. Karma can be good or bad but it binds. Good karma binds for good reactions and bad karma results into bad actions. And cycle of samsaara or birth and death goes on.

Philosophies have prescribed many ways to free the soul from this cycle- such as sanyam, vrat, tap, daan, swadhyay, dhyaan etc however I will mention mainly 5 ways in this time for people who want to unlock their soul:

1) Ashtang yog’s first limb is Yam and Jainism calls them 5 maha vrat. Non-violence, non-stealing, satya-truth, chastity and non-possession. By following these 5 vrat, one will be able to stop new bondage of karma by his/her 5 senses and mann (mind).

2) Reducing or eliminating 4 kasay. krodha (anger), mana (ego) and maya (deceit), lobha (greed). This will help in not accumulating or bondage of karma through 5 senses and mind.

3) Minimum one hour Aasana and pranayam will help in keeping synchronisation of body, mind and soul. This will also help in stopping of new bondages.

4) Swadhyay or study of scriptures or listening of scriptures will enhance the knowledge and wisdom and will be able to differentiate between soul and karma. It is also called Bhed-vigyaan in Jainism.

5) Dhyaan or meditation. This is the ultimate technique of looking into soul by the soul and for the soul and it has the ability to completely stop influx of new karma and shedding of old karma.

Be Ready for New Normal

In these lockdown days you might have heard that be ready for new normal. People say that people will forget to talk about BCE (before common era) and CE (common era). They will talk in terms of BC19 (Before Covid 19) and AC19 (After Covid 19). Before Covid19 we used to do like this and like that and now we do like this and like that.

The question arises what is going to be new normal. It is not easy to imagine and predict what future stores for us like just 4 months back no one heard of Covid19 and now it has changed every thing. The world will never be same again. Life will never be same again and business will never be same again. Whether it is your personal life or professional life, you will find a huge change. A new normal is created. We all are ready for change but when change comes as tufan or tornado, it finishes unprepared. Only fittest will survive. Only people or organisation who are fit will be able to sail through. It is not only physical fitness, it is about economic and emotional fitness too.

Be ready for faceless societies and cashless economy. Right from education to health to travel to food habits and the way we do business will change permanently. Students will learn more online then in classes. People will work more from home or offsite then in field. Big gatherings, fat weddings, socialising, cinema, malls, roads will not be crowded so much even in India. People will travel less and talk more, meet less and see online more. Efficiencies and effectiveness will increase manifold. People will waste less and have more cleaner environment. Though I am not sure how long it will continue but I see this phenomenon for at least three years. 21 days changes habit, 3 years are more than enough to change people permanently and adopt and adapt to new normal.

Spanish flue came 100 years back and killed millions and still killing lacs of people every year. We have built roads, 1000s get killed everyday in road accidents. In past several things happened or created which put human life in danger but we learn to live with that. Covid19 is going to live with us for ever. We need to learn to live with Covid19.

Snake and Scorpio bites that is why we do not take them in hand or don’t go in front of wild animals. Same way we need to use protectives or follow certain rules so that corona don’t attack us or we can keep virus away at least till science finds sure shot of vaccine.

Use protectives. Keep cleanliness. Maintain social distancing. Stay safe and keep working. We have no option but to adopt and adapt to new normal.

What After Me?

In your surroundings you will find many of your close relatives and friends who failed to plan “What after me” and that resulted into fighting within family or disputes in properties and loss of accumulated wealth. In India 99 out of 100 fail to write their will or fail to properly plan their finances and in case of sudden death the legal heirs suffer. Even you may find cases where person has been detected with terminal ill and had enough time to plan and write will but never did it. Indian wives are so much dependent on their husbands that they don’t even know how to write a cheque or withdraw cash forget about the lengthy legal formalities needed to claim the property or encash shares and mutual funds.

The other major problem with Indian adults is that many times they maintain secrecy with their life partner or don’t tell them under the pretext that she will not understand or don’t want to disclose how their property shall be divided among their children. Instead of fair and legal distribution, they believe in that who so ever will take care of them in their last days shall get major chunk but it so happens either last day comes unexpectedly or childrens behaviour change after they get married.

5 tips for planning about “what after me”:

1) Secure your partner legally and financially by clear will.

2) If either the wealth is complicated or family structure is complex, take proper legal expert help in writing the will.

3) If possible take all members in confidence and share the copy of will or appoint a good executioner.

4) If children are not interested in your business or living far off then better liquidate as much as possible.

5) Educate your spouse and share everything with her so that she can face the reality courageously.

Guard Your Happiness

Somebody asked me “what were my happiest events so far in my life”. I am 65 now and my happiest moments I could not complete counting till 15.

passed CA
First Job
My own wedding
First child born
Second child born
First child did his PhD with Gold medal
Second child did her CA
First child got married
Second child got married
First grand son born
built my own house
Bought my first car
Second grand son born
More or less every normal person will have 10-15 happiest moments in their life.

But the irony is many times even our close relatives don’t hesitate to poison our happiness. Either due to ego or jealousies. Specially in wedding events which are most happiest and sacred moments of our life but people around us will have number of complaints. We are not invited properly. Room given to us is not good. Food is lousy etc. etc. in present times when families are nuclear, as it is, it is difficult to manage grand events by family of 3-4. Our weakness is if any one says anything, we take it seriously and spoil our happiest moments.

My advise to people is don’t get fazed by such comments because as it is after few months these so called short comings are going to be immaterial but we can spoil our happiest moments which will never come back. My advise to the close relatives and friends is that if you can’t increase someone’s happiness then at least don’t spoil it by foolish acts.

Learn to let go.

Fix Your Focus

Someone said “You get what you focus on” so focus on what you want. The whole irony of our life is we want something else but in our thoughts, words and actions we peruse something else. No one wants negativity in their life but in this world more than 50% people walk, talk and think negatively. At every moment we have 3 choices. We remain neutral or positive or negative. Our mind television has these 3 channels only but we hardly tune our mind towards positivity.

On the more we are not very clear about what we want in our life. Our dreams or vision is limited to what we see or observe in our surroundings but we don’t stretch our dreams and vision beyond our realities. There are only handful people who has changed the course of world to where we are today with scientific advancements. Our potential is immense but all depends what we focus on. We can make our life beautiful and peaceful by focusing on right things. Here the focus mean channelising your thoughts, words and actions on particular thing.

In my opinion the best things to remain focused is happiness. But our jealousies, ego, anger and greed don’t allow us to remain focused on happiness. My five tips to “Fix Your Focus” on happiness is as follow:

1) Happiness is best things to remain focused on. You may have goal for material things and nothing wrong in that but don’t lose focus from happiness.

2) It’s obvious that we get carried away with our anger and greed but bring back focus on happiness in less than five minutes. For that you need to be aware of your thoughts all the time.

3) Find right things to focus on. If you are not able to find than consult the right people or make wise person your mentor.

4) Always keep studying your thoughts. Root cause of our actions are thoughts only. When you find that you are drifting towards negative thoughts or losing your focus, immediately pull back to positivity.

5) What we want is important but why we want is most important. Most of the time we don’t have right answer for WHY. If you analyse aspect of WHY, most of our wants will become useless and not worth pursuing.

Retreat to Leap Better

I just read Ms. Sukhada Chaudhary’s post on LinkedIn. “The French have a phrase : Reculer pour mieux sauter. It means to retreat in order to leap better.” While playing chess it’s a normal strategy to retreat and attack. In ancient days kings were not hesitant to retreat and attack again with more force. Last 2 years 2020 and 2021 (due to prevalence of COVID) almost all of us suffered economic and emotional losses but let us consider these two years as retreat and bounce back with double the force. Though COVID period is still not over but seems new variants are weakening, vaccination is on full drive and people are becoming fearless.

Now is the time to forget the past. Gone is gone. It is time to accept , what is; it is. It is time to set new goals and strive with double force and renewed hope. It is time to rebuild relationships. It is time to rebuild new world, better world. It is time for peace and prosperity.

Five tips for new leap:

1) Let the past don’t ruin present. Develop positive thinking and positive attitude. Set new goals. Form new strategies. Collect your all energy.

2) Accept the vaccination with positivity. Don’t compromise with safety such as mask, sanitisation and safe distance till corona is eliminated completely or majorly.

3) Problems and tough time always give room for new opportunities. Look around with new hope and you may find new opportunities in your area of expertise.

4) COVID has given big lesson that health must not be compromised at any cost. Pahala sukh nirogi kaya. Health first. Do yoga, walk, gym, swimming or any other outdoor sport whatever you like. Investing one hour everyday and reaping benefit for rest of 23 hours is not a bad idea. Eat healthy. Sleep well.

5) Tough time has also taught us the importance of relatives and friends. Develop and nurture relationships. For that love, trust and care work as adhesive. Money, power and fame is good to have but not at the cost of health and relationships. COVID has also taught us to be prepared for anything worst.

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Determination

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Try to be Judicious

“Leaders are always alert towards fairness”

Opening Case Study :

Henry Ford –AJudicious Leader

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was the American founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. He was a proliﬁc inventor and was awarded 161 U.S. patents. As owner of the Ford Motor Company he became one of the richest and best-known leader in the world. He is credited with “Fordism”, that is, the mass production of large numbers of inexpensive automobiles using the assembly line, coupled with high wages for his workers.

Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. Ford did not believe in accountants; he amassed one of the world’s largest fortunes without ever having his company audited under his administration. Henry Ford’s intense commitment to lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put a dealership in every city in North America, and in major cities on six continents. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford Foundation but arranged for his family to control the company permanently.

There are many values visible in the life of Henry Ford that enabled him to be a highly successful business leader. However, it seems that his judgement regarding value of employees, belief in equality and emotional intelligence truly set him apart from others. Henry Ford’s leadership quality of sound judgement enabled him to change the trajectory of workplace practices.

Ford set a terriﬁc example for valuing human capital. Though it was a shock to Wall Street, he increased worker’s wages to ﬁve dollars a day and instituted an eight-hour workday. He recognized that increasing wages and offering reasonable hours would serve to retain and motivate employees. “Because Ford had lowered his costs per car, the high wages didn’t matter – except for making it feasible for more people to buy cars”. Henry Ford even said “There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: make the best quality goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible”.

Henry Ford’s business decisions in the realm of diversity were a catalyst for the growth of equality in the workplace. He offered employment to women, African Americans, and disabled individuals long before most other businesses did so. In 1916, Ford employed individuals representing 62 different nationalities. At that time, the company also employed over 900 people with disabilities. Through the years, Ford went on to set standards of non-discrimination and equalize opportunities in many ways.

Before the term emotionally intelligent was even coined, Henry Ford appeared to embody this quality. His ability to understand that saving clients money made them feel more valued was a sure sign of emotional intelligence. He was sensitive to economic needs and took action to respond to customers in ways that showed he cared. Similarly, he was in-tune with the ﬁnancial and work life balance needs of employees. Because he hoped to show appreciation and understanding toward them, he implemented positive wage and shift changes. Ford even said “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle, as well as your own.”

Like many leaders, Henry Ford broke away from standards. He was the ﬁsh that ventured away from its school and tried something different. He was also keenly in touch with people’s needs, which enabled him to know how to help them and in turn run a successful business.

The judicious leader displays maturity and thoughtfulness in decision making. Judicious maturity of judgment is highly signiﬁcant for professionals making judgments in contexts of risk and uncertainty.One of the most difﬁcult but necessary skills we need to develop as leaders is learning how to be judicious without being judgmental. As a preliminary step to developing that skill, it’s good to reﬂect on the difference between the two.

Being judgmental is basically an effort to get rid of something we don’t understand and probably don’t want to understand. We see something we don’t like and we try to dismiss it, to stamp it out without taking the time to understand it. we’re impatient. Whatever we’re being judgmental about, we just want to get rid of it quickly.

Being judicious, however, requires patience together with understanding. A judicious choice is one you’ve made after understanding all the options, all the sides of a question. That way your choice is based on knowledge, not on greed, aversion, or delusion.

A leader’s most important role in any organization is making good judgments—well-informed, wise decisions that produce the desired outcomes. When a leader shows consistently good judgment, little else matters. When he or she shows poor judgment, nothing else matters. Of course, it isn’t humanly possible to make the right call every single time. But the most effective leaders make a high percentage of successful judgment calls, at the times when it counts the most.

Over the course of our lives, each one of us makes thousands of judgment calls. Some are trivial, such as what kind of cereal to buy; some are monumental, such as whom to marry. Our ability to make the right calls has an obvious impact on the quality of our own lives; for leaders, the signiﬁcance and consequences of judgment calls are magniﬁed exponentially, because they inﬂuence the lives and livelihoods of others. In the end, it is a leader’s judgment that determines an organization’s success or failure. On a more personal level, it is the sum of a leader’s judgment calls that will deliver the verdict on his or her career—and life.

As a leader, we just have to learn to make better judgments and ﬁlter them with experience and wisdom and then use that to make smarter and more thoughtful decisions. Here’s what to keep in mind:

Conduct decisions with an air of wonder. Ask yourself, “Do I have all the facts I’d like to have?” “Am I missing anything?”.Are there unconscious biases creeping in? Ask: “Have I thought of everything else?” and go back and reconsider.
Ask others for their opinions on what they would do if they were you. Make sure you are not insular—don’t think you always know better. Don’t be afraid of asking for help if you don’t know the answer and you have time. This doesn’t mean you will not make the decision, but gathering more input is often helpful. And the real mastery when is everyone else thinks they made the decision, but you did!
Determine if this is a decision that you have to make. If someone else can do it, that’s good; it’s an opportunity for them to hone their judgment. As a leader, you should always be working to enable that.
Understand the time constraints of the decision and proactively decide whether to make a decision or not. Does the situation require an answer now? If so, make it. Too many people delay making decisions, but that is, in essence, making a decision.
Learn how to keep honing your judgment so you keep getting better. If you make the wrong decision, learn from it. Judgment gets better with age, experience, practice and an open mind.

We all must realize that we are all judging everyone, every day. Do your best to have pure and transparent motives, which will help you make fair and better judgments and clear and correct decisions.

CONCLUSION:

Thus, a wise leader embraces the value of judiciousness and avoids the pitfalls that lead to becoming judgmental. As a leader, you can develop good judgement as you do the muscles of your body – by judicious, daily exercise.

Be Zealous

“Leaders have unending zeal.”

Opening Case Study :

ViratKohli –ALeader with Unbeatable Zeal!

From breaking and making records to becoming the Indian skipper, ViratKohli’s is one of the most popular cricketers, who journey started from bylanes of West Delhi and made him reach to the international cricket crease.

It goes without saying that this man’s journey is bound to evoke curiosity and inspire millions out there. ViratKohli- the cricket, the man comes with some extraordinary traits that make him an exceptional leader. He has zealthatis contagious and people look up to him to push their limits. Be it on-ﬁeld or off-ﬁeld, he is the perfect combination that one needs to rise and shine as a leader.

Leadership is nothing but making the right communication and Kohli understands it more than anything. He has the basic ability to stay cool under the most intense circumstances, an attitude to win every game and a vision for the Indian team, which gives him the upper hand than anyone else.

Be it his business, managing team or handling media, the man knows how to deal with everything. There is a strong element of maturity which makes him a better at what he does. The most accurate example here would be how his act towards Steve Smith. Despite Australia being one of our strong competitors, Kohli decided to do something that not many could. And the way he handled the press conferences proved that man comes with a class.

With time the way he reacts to things has changed. He has a plan for the team and even when things have gone haywire, he has worked towards achieving it. Over time, one has noticed the calmness in his demeanor.

Having said, he is the classic example of hard work turning into a success.Though every cricketer enjoys a fandom and popularity, very rarely have the ability to strike cord like Sachin Tendulkar. Analyzing his success graph and the way he is respected, he is the only cricketer who has managed to touch hearts and come as close to Sachin Tendulkar. When Tendulkar decided to bid his goodbye, many felt cricket would never be the same again.

However, there was another chapter in the making and Kohli rose like a force, making the best of every opportunity. He not only worked towards personal goals but pushed his team along, making Indian Cricket Team once again a star.

When success hits, we often move ahead forgetting what made us. But Kohli understands the importance of relationships, be it on-ﬁeld or off-ﬁeld. Till date, the man talks about his ﬁrst ever coach Rajkumar Sharma in his interviews. He still talks, in the same manner, a teenager in the making would do.

Kohli’s youthful appealand his sincere passion to cricket, is a source of inspirationfor not only the youth but for the entire nation. However, the lessons we can learn from him are as applicable in leadership as in cricket!All the way through his action-packed journey in cricket, Kohli has been able to effortlessly blend his managerial spirit and sporting ability — and it is important we analyze and take some cues from it, as we don’t want to miss out on how he does it all.

Zeal is the recognized secret of success. If you are considering two people side by side for a position of employment and both have similar intelligence, abilities and skills. You will almost always opt for the more zealous of the two.Infact, it is likely that you might choose a more enthusiastic individual over a more qualiﬁed and skilled but less enthusiastic individual.

Zealous leaders are able to make visions come alive. They do this by being inspirational, passionate and by breathing life into the vision via their enthusiasm and energy. Zeal is infectious and makes leaders more credible. It’s the exact opposite of being dull and boring. It’s the enthusiastic transmission of energy that brings a vision to life for the leader’s followers.

To tap into your own energy and zeal for a vision you have to determine what excites you most about the vision. What parts of it have the most meaning for yourself? What gives you a buzz? You need to have so much of a buzz that you can talk to people excitedly about it. Get excited and then get others excited so that you can breathe life into the vision.

Here are ﬁve Steps to Greater Zeal:

1. Spend time with zealous people.

It’s been proven that you become like the ﬁve people with whom you spend the most time. So, why would you spend your day with dull, boring (or even negative) people? Seek out energetic, creative, clever people, and spend as much time as possible with them.

2. Think positive, talk positive and act positive.

With a positive attitude we experience pleasant and happy feelings. This brings brightness to the eyes, more energy, and happiness. Our whole being broadcasts good will, happiness and success. Even our health is affected in a beneﬁcial way. We walk tall, our voice is more powerful, and our body language shows the way we feel.

3. Enjoy the present moments, the NOW.

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.Choosing to live in the past or the future not only robs you of enjoyment today, it robs you of truly living. The only important moment is the present moment.

4. Remain cheerful and encourage people to be cheerful.

People who are genuinely cheerful can light up a room, they inspire others to achieve their goals and bring a feeling of happiness and well-being wherever they go. Being cheerful involves a positive perspective on life, a sense that things happen for a reason and that things will work out for the best.

5. Treat problems as opportunities.

One of the most important attributes of a successful leader is the ability to turn problems into opportunities. Look at it this way: the very fact that something is a problem indicates that it has a signiﬁcant meaning for you. So, problems are accompanied by potential energy. Re-directing that energy away from exerting a negative inﬂuence and towards a more positive orientation makes all the difference. Problems become opportunities because of the way you approach them. You can allow problems to drain you or energize you.

CONCLUSION:

Successful leaders are zealous about what they’re doing and that excitement is contagious. They draw people to them because these people want to work with them, do business with them and just be around them.

Yes I Can!

“Leaders always have Yes I can and Yes I will attitude.”

Opening Case Study :
Henry Ford –ALeader who believed in the Power of Yes I Can!

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist and a business leader, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and the sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production.

Although Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line, he developed and manufactured the ﬁrst automobile that many middle-class Americans could afford. In doing so, Ford converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into a practical conveyance that would profoundly impact the landscape of the 20th century. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. As the owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with “Fordism”: mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers.

Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout most of North America and in major cities on six continents. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford Foundation and arranged for his family to control the company permanently.

There are many values visible in the life of Henry Ford that enabled him to be a highly successful business leader. However, it seems that his value of employees, belief in equality and emotional intelligence truly set him apart from others. Henry Ford’s leadership qualities enabled him to change the trajectory of workplace practices.

Ford set a terriﬁc example for valuing human capital. Though it was a shock to Wall Street, he increased worker’s wages to ﬁve dollars a day and instituted an eight-hour workday. He recognized that increasing wages and offering reasonable hours would serve to retain and motivate employees. “Because Ford had lowered his costs per car, the high wages didn’t matter – except for making it feasible for more people to buy cars” (Iacocca , Inc). Henry Ford even said “There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: make the best quality goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible”.

How often do you ﬁnd yourself saying yes? If it’s often, good for you. I’m almost certain that you’re in a great place in your life. But, if you ﬁnd yourself saying no often, which is where many people are, do you realize you’re limiting yourself and closing the doorway to your best life?

Now, I’m not talking about saying yes to things that are truly no good for you, or being a “people pleaser” and saying yes to everyone and everything until you are completely (emotionally, mentally and physically) drained. I’m referring to saying yes for YOU! Yes to opportunities, new experiences, fresh ideas and discoveries that get you out of your daily comfort zone and attain the growth your soul seeks. When you say yes more often to what feels good (and is for your highest good) you open up the ﬂood gates of opportunity. Here, you gain more beliefs in your abilities. This newfound conﬁdence will bring even more positive momentum on your journey to success.

Saying yes brings miracles and opportunities that exceed your expectations. Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt said it best during his commencement address at the University of California at Berkeley: “Find a way to say yes to things. Say yes to invitations to a new country. Say yes to meeting new friends. Say yes to learning a new language, picking up a new sport. Yes is how you get your ﬁrst job, and your next job. Yes is how you ﬁnd your spouse, and even your kids. Even if it’s a bit edgy, a bit out of your comfort zone, saying yes means you will do something new, meet someone new and make a difference in your life, and likely in others’ lives as well. Yes is a tiny word that can do big things.

Say it often.” Saying “Yes” requires work, commitment and accountability, and sometimes that scares people away, especially if they feel unprepared or unmotivated. But here’s the reality: a yes will always give you more than a no. A no is guaranteed failure. Nothing is ever stagnant, so a no is usually backward progress. Sure, there is no risk in a no… but there’s no fun in it either. Saying yes can be very fun. In the fun is where you ﬁnd success”

ACTION STEPS:

Practice saying “yes.” As soon as you wake up in the morning say, “YES, thank you for this day. YES, I know the universe will show me the way. YES, I am ready to receive. YES, I will move through this day with ease!”
Be mindful of your responses. Next time you say “no” when your heart is really saying “yes,” ask yourself: Am I saying “no” out of fear? What would happen if I said “yes”?
Take on the role. Do you want to be a better public speaker? Then, pretend you’re the best motivational speaker ever. Look in the mirror and then go over the top with animpression. Have fun. When it’s time for you to take the stage, remember this character.
Add spice to your life. If you’re used to eating bland food, go to an Indian restaurant. If you love the water, take a ferry ride. Every week, try something new. It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Seek joy and adventure.
Be supportive. If there is someone around you who is constantly saying, “No, I can’t,” then say, “Yes, you can!” Allow your afﬁrmative spirit to be contagious. Encourage others to take action and follow their dreams.

CONCLUSION:

The three magical words, “Yes, I can”, become so very crucial and vital, as a ﬁrst initial step towards any positive thought or action. We can actually experience the unique power and wonder of these words especially during times when we feel very low, when nothing at all is going right for us. Telling ourselves “Yes, I can”with a strong belief and resolution can actually infuse a sudden current of zeal, alacrity, energy and cheerfulness in us. In one magic moment, a rush of positive thoughts and energy can drive away all the negativity we were drowned in even minutes back, encouraging us to suddenly spring up from a hopeless passive to an entirely new high feeling of enthusiasm, dynamism, creativity and optimism.

Exceed eXpectations

“Leaders believe ing giving WOW feeling to their customers.”

Opening Case Study :

Barack Obama –ALeader who Exceeded Expectations

Barack Obama was the 44th President of the United States. Born to a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, he is the ﬁrst African-American to hold the ofﬁce. Prior to becoming the president, he served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate and received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate. A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, he was a successful civil rights attorney before he ventured into politics. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, he began his presidential campaign in 2007.

After winning sufﬁcient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination, he went on to defeat Republican nominee John McCain in the general election. He assumed ofﬁce as the President of the United States in January 2009, a time when the country was reeling under the global economic recession. Expectations were high from the new president and the responsibilities on his shoulders, tremendous. Within the ﬁrst few months he implemented several reforms in order to stabilize the economy and to boost its growth. He also completely overhauled America’s foreign policy. Obama was re-elected to a second term as president in November 2012.

He was born as Barack Hussein Obama II on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Obama, Sr. and his wife, Stanley Ann Dunham. His mother was a white American, of mostly English ancestry while his father was a black Kenyan. His parents separated when Barack was just an infant. His mother was still a student when she gave birth to Barack Obama and Obama lived with his maternal grandparents for a few years while his mother completed her education.

Barack Obama graduated from high school in 1979 and moved to Los Angeles to attend Occidental College. In 1981, he transferred to Columbia College, Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983.From June 1985 to May 1988, he worked as a community organizer for low- income residents in the Roseland and the Altgeld Gardens communities.

He entered Harvard Law School in the fall of 1988 and graduated with a J.D. magna cum laude in 1991. As a student, he served as the president of the Harvard Law Review, and his election as the ﬁrst black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention. He is the recipient of two Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards. He won the awards for the abridged audiobook versions of ‘Dreams from My Father’ (2006) and for ‘The Audacity of Hope’ (2008).In 2009, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Barack Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.The ‘Time’ magazine named Obama as its Person of the Year twice, in 2008 and in 2012.

In an increasingly dynamic and competitive world, organizations of all kinds are continually looking for leaders who can most effectively inspire others to improve productivity and performance. Yet, meeting goals and objectives is no longer enough. Leaders who exceed expectations will be in the best position to emerge as the superstars of their generation. The greatest leaders are those who not only “exceed expectations,” but also inspire others to do the same.

Whether you are leading military forces or a corporate entity, success is all about exceeding expectations.There is a dire need for effective leadership today. A good performance is one in which you exceed the expectations of others. A great performance is one in which you exceed what you thought possible. All of us know to set goals and strive for improvements. What differentiates those who muddle forward are those who truly break out to unexpected levels of performance.

Meeting or exceeding your job expectations is the best way to ensure job enrichment. To do so, you need to know what is expected from you in your position, and then meet those requirements as best you can. You also need to be determined and motivated to do your job well and committed to improving yourself as much as possible.

Whether you are a recent hire or a tenured employee, it’s important to continue to strive for success in the workplace. Distinguishing yourself as a valuable employee can not only assist in providing job security, but also help you take the next step in your career.

This applies to each and every role of your life. Give little extra than what is expected out of you and you will become extraordinary. Mostly extra does not cost anything extra. It requires only an innovative thinking. Try it from today and you will notice the positive difference immediately. Exceed the expectations and all will praise you.

Here are ﬁve tips to help you meet and exceed expectations as a leader:

Make a list of expectations that others expect according to your role.
Think creatively about what extra you can give compared to what is expected from you in your role.
Make it a habit to give something extra in whatever you are doing.
Give extra in a natural way rather than expecting something in return.
Consider this as your duty rather than an obligation.

CONCLUSION:

Businesses don’t look to promote employees who do only the minimum required to keep their jobs. Instead, workers who show initiative, offer to take on more responsibility and produce more value than expected are likely to advance within the company. Understanding how you can exceed your employer’s expectations will help you move up the ladder.

Think Win-Win

“Leaders are visionary; they can see forest in seed.”

Opening Case Study :

R.S.Sodhi –ALeader Creating Win-Win Job Opportunities

Mr. R.S. Sodhi is working as a managing director for Amul (also recognized as Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation). He joined the company in 2011. Prior to being promoted as an MD, Sodhi has also served as a CGM and GM to Amul Ltd. He is associated with one of the leading FMCG segments that enjoy a sales turnover of Rs.38 crore and consistent revenue of Rs.27 crore. Due to his excellent duties and services, Mr. Sodhi is enjoying an extension of 5 more years in the company. He gives credit to his mentor, Dr. VergheseKurein for all that he has learnt till date.

Talking about his personality, Sodhi is a calm headed person who loves to take challenges in an easy-going manner. His work and accomplishments never found a need to be in the limelight. It’s his generosity and hard work that has brought his success story to people. He is a man of substance who doesn’t believe in boasting about his dedication and achievements.

For those who dream of working in a huge ﬁrm like AMUL, it’s a pride moment for Sodhi to have worked for a truly deserving company. The company and Sodhicompliment each other well. Under his guidance and managerial skills, many people have learnt to become professional leaders in Amul and various other similar ﬁrms. Amul is proud to have him as their Managing Director.

In the recent board meeting by the directors of Amul, it was mutually decided to extend Sodhi’s services for another 5 years. This is a proof to know his sincere efforts and dedication towards work. Being the MD of Amul, Sodhi manages various sectors such as, sales and development, HR and recruitment, marketing and advertising, etc. Due to his key skills, the company has managed to deliver its products even to the remotest areas and towns. In return, the ﬁrm has enjoyed increased employment rate. As a result, there has been a tremendous change in the ﬁnancial growth of Amul.

Sodhi speaks good English, Hindi, and Punjabi. He belongs to a Sikh family. The last college he attended was Institute of Rural Management, Anand.

‘In a recent meet, Sodhi announced that there won’t be any major changes in the revenue of Amul after the practice of GST.’

He beautifully highlighted that the consumers will be beneﬁted on some products. For instance, on one side the company has increased the prices of Ghee, whereas on the other side due to GST, they have reduced the prices on milk products by 5%. It is so because the milk products are listed under a low tax slab. The prices are quite transparent and easy to understand.

The latest initiative that Sodhi took for Amul is the expansion plan of its chocolate production. Sodhi said in a meeting that Amul will be focusing on adding ﬁve more plants in different locations of India such as Gujarat, Pune, West Bengal, Mumbai, and Kerala. Many such initiatives taken by Sodhi have made the company go gaga over him.

In his best-seller The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey deﬁnes Win-Win as a frame of mind which constantly seeks mutual beneﬁt in all human interactions.Win- Win means that agreements or solutions are mutually beneﬁcial, mutually satisfying. With a Win-Win solution, all parties feel good about the decision and feel committed to the action plan.

Covey states that in order to manage our relationships with others effectively, we need to think “Win/Win”. Beyond being a technique, it is a philosophy. According to the author there are 6 paradigms of human interaction:

Win/Lose
Lose/Win
Lose/Lose
Win/Win

Win: people working in the Win paradigm wish to win at all costs, other people don’t matter. It’s an “every man for himself” mentality.

Win/Lose: The Win/Lose mentality is dysfunctional, often overly competitive and requires the use of power, position, possessions or personality to get one’s way, i.e. your boss uses his authority to impose a potentially stressful deadline on you.

Lose/Win : people prefer to keep the peace by giving in or giving up rather than disturbing the relationship. In the long run a build-up of resentment can easily lead to an eventual breakdown of the relationship.

Lose/Lose : is the philosophy of highly dependent people, and results from the encounter of two Win/Lose individuals. Covey illustrates this case by a divorce in which the husband is ordered by the judge to sell his assets and turn over half of the earnings tohis ex-wife. In compliance, he sells his car, worth $10.000, for$50 and gives $25 to his ex-wife.

Win-Win: sees life as a cooperative, not a competitive arena. Most people tend to think in terms of dichotomies: strong or weak, hardball or softball, win or lose. But that kind of thinking is fundamentally ﬂawed, because it is based on power and position rather than principle.

Win-Win is based on the paradigm that there is plenty for everybody, that one person’s success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others. Win-Win is a belief in the third alternative. It’s not your way or my way; it’s a better way, a higher way.

Think Win/Win is the habit of interpersonal leadership. It goes beyond transactional relationship, to transformational leadership, where the people and the relationship are transformed.

It’s the art of ﬁnding the 3rd alternative in action.

It starts by looking at the bigger picture, or creating one, and it ﬂows from an abundance mentality. You ask the question, “How can we both win?” To do this, means looking beyond your self- interest, and looking for mutual interests and shared goals. Integrity is the cornerstone that keeps you grounded in your values, and serves as a foundation for trust, and empathic listening helps you build the bridge of mutual understanding.

According to Stephen Covey, the ﬁve elements of a Win/Win agreement are:

Desired Results
Guidelines
Resources
Accountability
Consequences

Desired results are the what you want to achieve and when.
Guidelines are the parameters such as any principles or policies that guide how you achieve the results.
Resources include the people, budget, technical resources, and any organizational support to help achieve the results.
Accountability sets the time frame and the standards of performance to expect.
Consequences are the good and bad things that happen or will happen as a result of the evaluation.

CONCLUSION:

By using a Win/Win approach, you move from competition to cooperation and collaboration, and you can achieve better solutions. The downside is it takes longer and is more work. The upside is that the relationships, good will, and trust will serve you for the long run.

Build Vision

“Leaders are visionary; they can see forest in seed.”

Opening Case Study :

Shantanu Narayen –ALeader with Vision

Adobe is one of those ubiquitous software technologies that’s everywhere, running literally everything. From the Youtube videos to the simplest of mobile apps, everything needs a touch of Adobe. The brain behind Adobe, the man who runs the company, Shantanu Narayen is much like Adobe itself. Quiet, intelligent and everywhere.

Mr. Shantanu Narayen is CEO of Adobe systems and also a board member of Dell Inc. and university of California. In 2011 he was appointed as an advisory member of Former US President Barack Obama.

Shantanu Narayen has reshaped Adobe, helping to nearly double its stock price in two years, after a very public dispute with Apple’s Steve Jobs in 2010. Mr. Narayen was born (May 27, 1963) in Hyderabad into a well-settled family. Although he had grown up aspiring to be a journalist, he did his Bachelors in Science in Electronics Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, upon insistence from his parents. His aspirations to pursue higher education took him to the US where he completed his Master’s in Business Administration (Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, Evening & Weekend MBA Program in 1993) and a Master of Science from the Bowling Green State University (Ohio) to go with it.

The 47-year-old president and CEO of Adobe Systems Incorporated—the company that makes Photoshop, Flash video operating system and Acrobat programmes—seems the sort who would always be in between appointments. He also got who was to collect the Global Innovator Award at Nasscom’s 7th Annual Global Leadership Awards.

In less than a span of 9 years, he climbed the ladder quickly and became the CEO of Adobe. As the president and chief executive ofﬁcer of Adobe, Narayan’s leadership, technology insight and operational expertise have strengthened the company’s culture of innovation, expanded the company into new markets, and extended its product portfolio and global reach. In 2009, Narayen led the $1.8 billion acquisition of Omniture, a move that shocked many industry insiders.

Apart from all this, Narayen holds ﬁve patents and is a frequent speaker at industry and academic events. He also serves on the Board of Pﬁzer, Inc. and the Advisory Board of the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, and is president of the board of the Adobe Foundation, which funds philanthropic initiatives around the world. In 2009, Narayen was considered one of “The Top Gun CEOs” by Brendan Wood International, an advisory agency.

Mr. Narayen is a recipient of many awards such as:-

Global Innovator Award at Nasscom’s 7th Annual Global Leadership Awards, 2011.
Annual Leadership Award, 2010 by the International Imaging Industry Association
American India Foundation (AIF) Business and Philanthropic Leadership Award, 2009
The Haas School’s Business Leader of the Year Award (known as the Alumnus of the Year Award from 1970 to 1998) 2008.

Vision in business requires that you clearly see where you choose to be in future and formulate the necessary steps to get your organization there. Creating and sustaining a vision for an organization calls for discipline and creativity.

A business leader must have the passion, strength of will, and necessary knowledge to achieve long-term goals. A focused individual who can inspire his team to reach organizational goals is a visionary business leader.

Leaders have vision. They share a dream and direction that other people want to share and follow. The leadership vision goes beyond your written organizational mission statement and your vision statement.

The vision of leadership permeates the workplace and is manifested in the actions, beliefs, values, and goals of your organization’s leaders. This vision attracts and affects every employee who is engaged in living this set of actions, beliefs, values, and goals. They want to share your vision.

Visionary leaders are driven and inspired by what a company can become. They are not bogged down with technical details, but they are big picture people whose intent is to usher in new eras of innovation and development.

Here are ﬁve tips on how to develop Vision:

1. Knowledge widens Vision: To widen one’s vision, gaining as much knowledge as possible is important. Knowledge does not pertain to science and technology and the ﬁelds we study in books. Knowledge is important to shape our personality and perfect our behavior and dealings with people.Knowledge accounts for the success of people. The more knowledgeable you are, the more advantage you have over the other people. The better you are equipped to lead yourself and others, the easier your journey of life.

2. Thinking develops Vision: Actions are simply the reﬂection of thoughts. And your thoughts, they are the product of your thinking. Thinking allows us to make sense of, to interpret, to make decisions, to act, to know whether something is right or wrong… list is endless. Psychology says thinking is the human process of using knowledge and information to make plans, interpret and model the world, and constructively interact with and make predictions about the world in general.

3. Determination strengthens Vision: To make your vision a success in life you have to be determined and focused on what you want to achieve. Determination is being ﬁrm on the goal you want to accomplish. Adetermined person knows exactly where he or she is on the road to success, knows where he or she wants to go and has developed a strategy of how and when to reach his or her goal.Determination is a motivator. Determination or ﬁrmness of purpose will motivate you to move forward to success as you clearly know where you are going.

4. Dreaming Enhances Vision: A Dream is a Goal in life and is the ultimate motivation for the person.The life of your Dreams, everything you would love to be, do or have, has always been closer to you than you know because the power to everything you want is inside you.Hughes says “Hold fast to dreams, for If dreams die, life is the broken-winged bird that cannot ﬂy”. You can be delivered and strengthened, but if you do not have a dream you really have no life.When you dream, you have something to look forward to, and life begins to have to mean.

5. Meditative imagination is essential for Vision: Professional athletes do it before a big game. Political candidates do it before a debate. Broadway stars do it before going on stage, and people from many walks of life, religions and cultures have practiced it – and seen amazing results from it – for centuries. What’s their secret? Their ‘secret’ isn’t really a secret at all. It’s a common practice of using the imagination to attract the results you want, and it works every time. It’s visualizing the outcome you want from a game, a debate, a ceremony or performance. It’s focusing on a positive outcome, no matter what your past has dictated for your present. It’s imagining the object or scenario you want to have, as if it already exists

CONCLUSION:

As a leader, acting on your vision will provide you with the focus needed to accomplish your goals. Vision helps leaders work on what is important to achieve the end results and not get caught up in the mundane stuff. It helps leaders to focus on the 20% that is important instead of the remaining 80% that can be delegated and handled by others.

Develop Understanding

“Leaders are good Listener. They can hear even which is not yet uttered.

Opening Case Study :

Baba Amte –An Empathetic Leader

MurlidharDevidasAmte, best known as Baba Amte, was born on the 26th of December 1914 into a wealthy family in Hinganghat. His father worked for the British government in revenue collection and administration within the district and the children grew up in a privileged world. Despite his fortunate position, Amte never conformed to the caste expectations, playing with the children of the servants and not allowing the rules of who he could interact with to impact his behaviour.

After school Amte trained in law and grew a successful practice in Wardha that included representing underprivileged groups. Around this time his political feelings also started to emerge, joining the struggle for freedom from the British Raj and using his profession to defend leaders of the freedom movement from British authorities. Amte also spent time with Gandhi, getting to know the leader and becoming an avid follower of Gandhism for the remainder of this life.

With his wife Sadhana Tai, who also came from a wealthy background, he renounced his money and set up a small community in Warora where the couple lived with untouchables and low caste people. One of the cases that Amte took on was to represent the sweepers’ union in a ﬁght over salaries with the local municipality. Sweepers are a caste in India whose job is to clear the human waste that builds up overnight and to dispose of it. In order to understand his clients, Amte worked with them for several weeks, a role that meant carrying baskets of excrement on his head.

It was during this period of the 1940s that perhaps his greatest legacy began. One night when he was walking home from work Amte came across an emanciated man on the side of the road. The man, Tulshiram, had a very serious case of leprosy and was dying from the untreated wounds. Amte reacted by running away. At this time in history there was still no cure but the fear that he felt haunted Amte. However rational a reaction, he couldn’t sleep that night thinking about how he had responded. The next morning he went back and built a shelter for Tulshiram, nursing him for several days until he died. Amte recalled this moment as when he found his true calling.

Tai and Amte decided to dedicate their life to working with people with leprosy. Amte travelled to Kolkata and talked his way into the basic training given to doctors about treatment (though at this point it was only treatment of wounds not the disease itself). While there, he offered himself up as a guinea pig. Leprosy only impacts humans, and as such animal research to learn about the disease wasn’t possible. Amte was injected with the bacteria but it didn’t take, science would later learn that not everyone is susceptible but at the time Amte was exposing himself to huge risk.

Returning to Warora the pair initially began a mobile clinic but soon realised the needs of the population went far beyond wound treatment. In Indian society these people were outcasts at the brunt of society’s attitude towards them. The government granted them a plot of land and there they, along with their children and the ﬁrst six leprosy patients, started Anandwan, a community for those with leprosy, the marginalised, and the disabled. Starting as a hospital the grounds now include a huge infrastructure including a college, school for the blind and deaf, an orphanage, farmland, an old people’s home and factories. It is a self sufﬁcient community where individuals can come to live and work in return getting housing and food. Amte and Tai’s vision was of not simply helping but empowering people.

Today his sons continue to run the various operations Amte started. He died at 93 on the 9th of February 2008 in Anandwan..Baba Amte was a kind activist whose leadership has left a staggering legacy that continues to help and inspire people across India and beyond.

Great leaders intuitively know how to listen. They use empathy and mindfulness to be present during every interaction. Their focus and commitment to the goal let them shelve their egos and receive feedback with grace, inspiring innovation at every level. People who are seen as “born leaders” don’t judge others but learn and grow from what they hear.

Active listening is a critical part of being a successful leader. The FBI explains that “active listening involves six skills—paying attention, holding judgment, reﬂecting, clarifying, summarizing, and sharing.” Better understanding helps leaders communicate well and make good decisions. While listening and absorbing non-verbal communication, you learn so much more. If while someone is speaking your attention wanders, you miss valuable information.

The most inﬂuential leaders in history share two traits: conﬁdence and integrity. They do not need to be the center of attention. They often speak less and listen more. Some of them speak very little and when they do they talk slowly and deliberately, measuring every word. Personal integrity comes from a place of innate conﬁdence and the desire to be your best even when no one else is watching. Good leaders possess strong integrity.

5 Tips for developing good understanding & Empathy:

Leaders must be good listener: Listening is the most important skill a leader can master. It is the basis of so many other skills and traits that make up a leader. However, it is a tough skill to master as it requires us to be more present, attentive, engaged, open and ﬂexible.
Leaders must be Emotionally Intelligent: To be effective, leaders must have a solid understanding of how their emotions and actions affect the people around them. The better a leader relates to and works with others, the more successful he or she will be. Take the time to work on self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
Leaders must effectively communicate: Strong communication skills are a must for any leader, whether they are needed to manage employees, voice expectations and assign tasks, or to convince potential investors or partners to back an organization. A great leader must be able to properly communicate their thoughts and inspire people — to the point where the success and growth of their business hinges in large part on their communication skills.
4. Leaders must invest his time and resources for development of his team: Most leaders can agree that employee development is a critical part of creating a lasting business. If you’re not investing in your people, you’re not investing in the future of your business. Investing in your team is an important part of creating an engaged workforce and an effective way of reducing turnover for your business.
5. Leader must develop personal relationship with each individual: To be successful today, leaders must develop relationships based on openness and trust. Leaders can no longer rely on formal hierarchical structures and processes. Instead, the new era of leadership is based on service, on teamwork, and even on humility.

CONCLUSION:

Leadership is not a science but an art that you can learn to emulate. All you need to do is cultivate your listening and empathy skills and then start to motivate and inspire people to greatness.

Manage Time

“Time Is More Than Money For Leaders.”

Opening Case Study :

Jack Ma –ALeader with Great Time-Management

Jack Ma was born on September 10, 1964, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. He is a Chinese business magnate who is the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a family of successful Internet-based businesses. He is one of the world’s greatest living examples of entrepreneurship leaders today. Once a poor lad who survived by guiding tourists, Ma left no stone unturned to rise above his humble condition and achieve success. One of the ﬁrst steps he took in this regard was to improve his communication skills by learning English. Jack was one of the ﬁrst few individuals who saw Internet as a business opportunity even at a time when the rest of the world didn’t believe in his thoughts. After starting his ﬁrst venture using a mere $20000, the entrepreneur earned around $800,000 in a matter of just three years.

However, it is the e-commerce based venture, ‘Alibaba’, which he founded in the early 2000s that catapulted this entrepreneur to global fame. The revenue earned by the ﬁrm has helped him reach the zenith of success and made him the richest man in China. He even co-founded a few other similar ventures which were also successful to a great extent; one of these was the e-commerce website called ‘Taobao’. Jack has also been a recipient of many awards over the years; a few of these include featuring in world- renowned magazines such as ‘Forbes’, ‘Time’ and others.

Jack Ma founded Alibaba Group, together with his 17 friends in 1999. Jack Ma was just an English teacher when he developed the idea of establishing an e-commerce site that will help sellers and buyers alike, as a platform for them to communicate, advertise and make transactions. The Internet was still not at the peak of its popularity yet back then, but Jack Ma had a vision. With a fund of he knew that he could help businesses in China to develop and compete competitively in the local and international markets. Today, Alibaba Group has grown so much and has created multiple platforms for the business-to-business, business-to- customer, and customer-to-customer trading site and been one of the largest e-commerce sites that ever established.

One of its earliest and most successful trading sites is Alibaba.com, a business-to-business trading platform. Alibaba.com gathers sellers from all over the world, mainly from China, India, Pakistan, the United States, and Thailand and they are allowed to create listings of their products for free but have the options of upgrading the service with a fee to more acquire beneﬁts and exposure by the Alibaba.com site. One huge difference between Alibaba Group and Amazon is that Alibaba does not own any inventories and only act as the middleman between the seller and the buyer. Although Amazon’s revenue is about ten times higher than Alibaba, not having to hold inventories allows Alibaba Group to earn more proﬁts than Amazon because they do not have to spend anything on the warehouse or shipping costs.

In 2004, China Central Television and its viewers selected Mr. Ma as one of the “Top 10 Business Leaders of the Year”.In Sep 2005, World Economic Forum selected Mr. Ma as a “Young Global Leader”. Fortune Magazine also selected him as one of the “25 Most Powerful Businessperson in Asia”. Businessweek also selected him as a “Businessperson of the Year” in 2007, and Barron’s chose him as one of the 30 “World’s Best CEOs” in 2008.2009 was an eventful year in Jack’s life; he secured a spot in ‘Time’ magazine’s list of ‘World’s 100 Most Inﬂuential People’. The internet giant also received the ‘2009 CCTV Economic Person of the Year: Business Leader of the Decade Award’.In 2010, Ma was selected by Forbes Asia as one of Asia’s Heroes of Philanthropy for his contribution to disaster relief and poverty.

Leaders have a host of responsibilities that keep their schedules packed, and often overﬂowing. From managing a team of employees, to securing new vendors and looking for new marketing opportunities, leaders are tasked with juggling multiple projects at once. Effective leaders put their time management skills into play to ensure that they maximize their time and accomplish their goals.

The best leaders are proactive and purposeful about their day, every day. It enables them to use their best brain time, ensure interactions with team are positive and productive, and are energized knowing that they run their diary – not it runs them.

Good time management allows you to accomplish more in a shorter period of time, which leads to more free time, which lets you take advantage of learning opportunities, lowers your stress, and helps you focus, which leads to more career success. Each beneﬁt of time management improves another aspect of your life. All you have to do is get the cycle started.

Here are ﬁve handy tips for effective time management as a leader:

1. Be disciplined: There is perhaps no area of your life where self-discipline is more important than in the way you manage your time. Time management is a core discipline that largely determines the quality of your life. Peter Drucker says, “You cannot manage time; you can only manage yourself.”Time management is really life management, personal management, management of yourself, rather than of time or circumstances.

2. Delegate effectively: To delegate is to assign a speciﬁc task to someone else and give them the authority to complete that task. Delegation helps save time for management, and it allows more work to be completed faster. Managers must delegate tasks to employees because they often have to focus on higher-level work. A good manager does not take on all the work themselves but instead is able to assign work to employees so that he or she can oversee all employees. When delegating tasks, the manager must provide a clear picture of how the task should be completed, and what the desired result is. Delegating tasks allows management to concentrate on other things, such as overseeing employees or coming up with new ideas.

3. Introduce check lists: Check Lists are essential if you’re going to beat work overload. When you don’t use them effectively, you’ll appear unfocused and unreliable to the people around you. When you do use them effectively, you’ll be much better organized, and you’ll be much more reliable. You’ll experience less stress, safe in the knowledge that you haven’t forgotten anything important. More than this, if you prioritize intelligently, you’ll focus your time and energy on high-value activities, which will mean that you’re more productive, and more valuable to your team.

4. Make systems: Time management systems often include a time clock or web-based application used to track an employee’s work hours. Time management systems give employers insights into their workforce, allowing them to see, plan and manage employees’ time. Doing so allows employers to control labor costs and increase productivity. A time management system automates processes, which eliminates paper work and tedious tasks.

5. Important vs urgent: Urgent means that a task requires immediate attention. These are the to-do’s that shout “Now!” Urgent tasks put us in a reactive mode, one marked by a defensive, negative, hurried, and narrowly-focused mind set. Important tasks are things that contribute to our long-term mission, values, and goals. Sometimes important tasks are also urgent, but typically they’re not. When we focus on important activities we operate in a responsive mode, which helps us remain calm, rational, and open to new opportunities.

CONCLUSION:

Time in the organization is constant and irreversible. Nothing can be substituted for time. Worse, once wasted, it can never be regained. Leaders have numerous demands on their limited time
— time keeps getting away and they have trouble controlling it. No matter what their position or role is, they cannot stop time, they cannot slow it down, nor can they speed it up. Thus, time needs to be effectively managed to be effective.

Strive for Success

“Success Is Journey For Leaders.”

Opening Case Study :

Vladimir Putin –A Successful Leader

Ruling a country isn’t an easy thing to do. You have got to be extremely smart, wily, and stubborn and at times a wee bit violent. Just like Vladimir Putin, the man who has been leading Russia for years now and is responsible for the country’s economic, political and all-round success. If Russia is in the league of the ‘developed’ countries of the world for so long despite all its internal conﬂicts, it would all be thanks to Putin’s leadership.

Putin served as the prime minister and president of Russia from the year 1999 until today. And while he was in term, Russia’s economy grew signiﬁcantly from where it was. While Putin is constantly accused of some not-very- democratic principles that he imposed upon the people of Russia, he is also responsible for the decline in poverty and unemployment that was prevailing in Russia by then.

Putin was born to Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin and Maria Ivanovna in Leningrad. Senior Putin was in the Russian navy who retired at an early age after an injury. Putin had a very normal life as a kid, a life so simple that he often spoke of it later in his biographies. Not many might know of this, but he was a Judo champion. This probably explains Putin’s well-known aggressive nature.

Putin later went on to graduate in law from the Leningrad State University. He then got trained in the Soviet’s security, KGB, becoming a directorate and then a Lieutenant Colonel all in the span of ﬁfteen years. For a while, Putin was back at Leningrad State University and it was only in the year 1996 that his political career began.

Boris Yeltsin’s government took in Putin as the head of their Federal Security Service and a few years after that, in 1999 Putin became the prime minister only when he was 47 years old. Although he admitted to thinking that it was a “heavy load to bear”, he would not let go of the chance to serve his country. From 2000 until 2008, he was the president. A country that was robbed of its glory, was living in constant chaos and fear begin to see the light of the day under Putin’s rule. Things were freer, people happier and economic growth phenomenal.

Sometimes it is necessary to be lonely in order to prove that you are right – Vladimir Putin. It was not surprising that he was re-elected as a prime minister in the year 2008, a position which he continued with until 2012. And then in 2012, he was elected as the president againThe world and the Russians can’t deny that he is something of a savior for Russia.

He received the Bronze Medal for Faithful Service to the National People’s Army issued in the German Democratic Republic in the year 1989.In 2006, he was felicitated with the ‘Grand-Croix’ (Grand Cross) by the President of France, Jacques Chirac. The following year, he was named the ‘Person of the Year’ by ‘Time’ magazine.He was a recipient of the ‘King Abdul Aziz Award’ in 2007 by Saudi King Abdullah. The same year, he was awarded with the ‘Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan’ award by President of UAE.In2011, he was awarded with an honorary doctorate by the ‘University of Belgrade’.

Leaders must lead. This seems like an obsolete statement, however research in the USA and the Netherlands has shown that 70% of employees have the feeling that their leader has no idea what they are doing. So, leaders must lead. Leaders ﬁrst of all are to be facilitators; equipping employees with the tools and information they need to do their jobs fast and efﬁciently. Leaders are to help employees set targets in line with the purpose, the goals and the strategy of the organization, and to coach their employees towards success. Leaders also need to hire and ﬁre, and help poor performers improve. It is a lot of work, leadership, but it is the ﬁrst and most important key to success.

Successful leaders are the power and intellect behind their organizations. They are the visionaries charged with steering their brand around pitfalls. Theyknow when to seize opportunities and how to rally employees to work hard toward their company’s goals.

Effective leaders transcend the title of “manager” or “boss.” They ﬁnd a way to achieve the right combination of charisma, enthusiasm and self-assurance, probably with a healthy dose of luck and timing.

It may seem like some people are just gifted with these skills, but the truth is most leadership traits can be learned and sharpened with time and practice.

To become a successful leader, you must:

Clarity of Vision: Successful leaders have one trait in common: clarity about what they want out of their organization, what kind of team they want to work with and what they want to accomplish. It’s that laser focus that helps them determine what actions to take and where to spend their energy on a daily basis.
Adopting Effective Strategy: Great leaders develop winning strategies, drive innovation, implement change,
and create organizations that can succeed in complex markets. Strong leadership is equally important at the project-team or business-unit level to ensure that teams and individual employees make the strongest possible contribution to the success of the business.
Creating competent teams: The leader cannot possibly be competent in every area without being engaged in the team. The leader must know each member and the team as a whole in order to bring them all together and create a process that is open, productive, and promotes conﬁdence.
Installing Efﬁcient Systems: It is important to consider the efﬁciency and accuracy of the business systems. This way, the business’ principles and implementation become a lot clearer and easier. Systems also enable employers to monitor and manage their staff. It allows them to interact with each other and connect them to the operational strategies of the business.
Dedicated Actions: The universe doesn’t reward people for what they know, it rewards people for what they do and leaders are doers. Leaders are geared towards taking action and they realize that for a team to come together, it requires moving from potential to action. The decision is yours to make. While making a decision might lead towards failure, the act of failing to make a decision will absolutely guarantee failure.

CONCLUSION:

Whether you are a small business or startup, restaurateur or retailer, the difference between success and failure across industries stems from one word: leadership. Those in charge truly set the stage for success. Without the presence of a strong leader the landscape is weighed down by demotivated staff, undelivered promises and disappointed stakeholders.A successful leader is an inﬂuencer who can inspire, motivate and get the best out of their people.

Build Relationships

“Leaders treasure relationships.”

Opening Case Study :

MukeshAmbani –An Exceptional Leader

The face of new emerging India, MukeshDhirubhaiAmbani is the chairman and managing director (CMD) of Reliance Industries which has earned the reputation of being one of the largest private sector enterprises in India, a Fortune 500 company, and one of the largest private sector conglomerates in the world. He is the eldest son of late DhirubhaiAmbani, the founder of Reliance Industries. Mukesh’s personal stake in Reliance Industries is 48%.

Born on 19 April 1957 in Aden, Colony of Aden (now Yemen), Mukesh did his schooling from AbaayMorischa School in Mumbai and completed his graduation with a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the UDCT, now Institute of Chemical Technology, and Mumbai. He later enrolled for an MBA from Stanford University but dropped out in 1980.

An oracular thinker and optimist futurist at heart, Mukesh holds Indian economy in a salubrious thought; buoyant about its capabilities and prospect. He holds ‘inclusive’ growth and ‘value’ addition as the key propellers of India’s economic prosperity.

MukeshAmbani has been ranked as one of the world’s most respected business leaders and conferred various awards for his leadership skills. In 2010 he was awarded the School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean’s Medal by the University of Pennsylvania. He was awarded the United States-India Business Council Leadership Award by the United States-India Business Council in 2007. The same year he was awarded the Chitralekha Person of the Year Award by the government of Gujarat. Total Telecom awarded him the World Communication Award in 2004.

He was ranked 42nd among the World’s Most Respected Business Leaders and second among the four Indian CEOs featured in a survey conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers and published in Financial Times. He was Chosen Telecom Man of the Year 2004 by Voice and Data magazine. He is ranked 13th in Asia’s Power 25 list of The Most Powerful. In year 2010, the Forbes magazine named him among the most powerful people in the world in its list of “68 people who matter most.” As of 2011, he is the second richest man in Asia and the ninth richest man in the world with a personal wealth of USD 27 billion.

Apart from being the head of the conglomerate empire, Mukesh is a member of the board of directors of Bank of America Corporation and a present member of the international advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a former Chairman of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B). He is an Honorary Fellow of IChemE (the Institution of Chemical Engineers). He also owns the Indian Premier League team, the Mumbai Indians and grabbed headlines for his private 27 story building in Mumbai named ‘Antilia’. It is estimated to be valued at over USD1 billion to build and is claimed to be the most expensive home in history.

MukeshAmbani is the face of modern Indian business that stands to represent a bold image of Indian business sector that is urbane, evolving and revolutionary. He will always be the guru of business and the idol of every young Indian who aspires to match his capabilities and make a name for himself in the corporate world.

People are at the center of all leadership efforts. Leaders cannot lead unless they understand the people, they are leading. One way to look at leadership is that the function of a leader is to lead and guide people who will follow with the same values. An effective leader thus must be able to build relationships and create communities. We can deﬁne leadership as inspiring people and planning for the future with the motivating factors of relationship building.

Human beings are naturally social creatures – we crave friendship and positive interactions, just as we do food and water. So, i t makes sense that the leaders build betterrelationships at work. The happier employees are, the more productive they’re going to be.

Good working relationships give us several other beneﬁts: our work is more enjoyable when we have good relationships with those around us. Also, employees are more likely to go along with changes that we want to implement, and we’re more innovative and creative.

What’s more, good relationships give us freedom: instead of spending time and energy overcoming the problems associated with negative relationships, we can, instead, focus on opportunities.

Good relationships are also often necessary if we hope to develop our careers. After all, if your boss doesn’t trust you, it’s unlikely that he or she will consider you when a new position opens up. Overall, we all want to work with people we’re on good terms with.

We also need good working relationships with others in our professional circle. Customers, suppliers and key stakeholders are all essential to our success. So, it’s important to build and maintain good relations with these people.

So, what can a leader do to build better relationships at work?

Honesty of intention: Honesty is not just about telling the truth. It’s about being real with yourself and others about who you are, what you want and what you need to live your most authentic life. Honesty promote openness & empowers relationship.
Create emotional bank account: An emotional bank account is an account of trust between relationships with different individuals, be it with your family members, friends and coworkers. The account starts with a zero balance. When we make emotional deposits into someone’s bank account, the good will, trust and conﬁdence in us grows. If we can keep a positive reserve over time, there will be greater tolerance for our mistakes and occasional request for special favor.
Communicate frequently & candidly: First and foremost, leaders who speak candidly report higher levels of employee satisfaction, conﬁdence and results. By communicating clearly and openly about what’s on their mind, leaders can even be more effective and more productive. They won’t waste time and energy anticipating or dealing with negative reactions.

Visit regularly: Wander around, randomly connect with employees, ask them what they’re doing, and how they’re doing. Explain what you’re doing and what challenges you face. Often, they’ll come up with good ideas for how to overcome your obstacles in the process.
Empathize need of others: Empathy involves the ability to emotionally understand what another person is experiencing. Essentially, it is putting you in someone else’ s position and feeling what they must be feeling.Empathy allows us to understand others and, quite often, compels us to take action to relieve another person’s suffering.

CONCLUSION:

Building and maintaining good working relationships will not only make you more engaged and committed to your organization; it can also open doors to success.When the relationships with others – followers, key stakeholders, etc. – are healthy and successful, employees are motivated to work toward the goal. The goal becomes “our” goal rather than “my” goal.

Believe in Quality

“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.”

Opening Case Study :

Jeff Bezos –Leader with Quality Management

Born on the 12th of 1964, Jeff Bezos is the Founder, chairman and CEO of Amazon.com, the online merchant of everything that has played a signiﬁcant role in the upliftment of eCommerce as well. Are good leadership skills quantiﬁable? Well, in Jeff Bezos’ case, they are. Bezos grabbed the title of the “Richest man in the World” this year, but it took him a lot of work and passion to get there.

It was his love for engineering and computers drove him to start his own business, and his ﬁrst ofﬁce was his garage. In 1994, he founded Amazon, which is today the world’s largest online retail site. His idea was simple: providing everything to everyone anywhere in the world.

One of the best values that have been instilled by him at Amazon is customer care. Hence, his business strategies are customer-centric, not competition focused. As a leader, he believes ideas are birthed out of passion, not trends. He gave Amazon the following vision, back in 1999:

“Our vision is to use this platform to build Earth’s most customer-centric company, a place where customers can come to ﬁnd and discover anything and everything they might want to buy online.”

Having clarity of where you want to reach and being able to inspire people by that is one of the mandatory things for every successful leadership story. But it’s not the only thing, naturally.Hereare the three concepts that Jeff Bezos, as a leader, stands by:

Stay true to the vision of the organization:It’s very easy for a business person to say “I want to be very customer centric”. It’s even one of the trendy topics on business today, right? So what can a company do to walk its talk?

A very subtle but effective technique that Jeff Bezos uses in his boardroom meetings is the use of an empty chair. He does that to make his team conscious of their customer, who isn’t present but is the most important, the main motive, behind all that.

2. Having Backbone: The greatest risk of all is to not risk at all. One of the things that make Bezos memorable among the swarm of billionaires is his rebellion against the socially constructed norms.

Bezos is a leader who believes that instinct and intuition lead to creative innovations.

He is known for being stubborn enough not to give up, but also ﬂexible enough to be open minded when looking for solutions. He says, “one of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.”

3. Being Bold: “If you decide that you’re going to do only the things you know are going to work, you’re going to leave a lot of opportunities on the table.”This quote by Bezos sheds light on how he, as a leader, advocates thinking outside the box. He is not afraid of being different, as he believes taking risks to execute unique ideas lead to innovation.

Everyone wants quality; however, quality means different things to different people. Some people view it from a consumer’s point of view, while others view it from a suppliers. In essence, the perception of quality is one that meets the needs of the person seeking it. Once quality has been deﬁned, leaders needs to take three steps to ensure the successful implementation and maintenance of their quality process. Committing to, investing in, and maintaining a quality process directly involving the employees within an organization will assist in leading to a successful implementation.

The existence of your business or profession depends on quality of product and services you are offering to your customer and client. Quality depends upon quality of input material, process and quality check for ﬁnal output.Many people believe that in order to achieve quality, one needs to invest a lot of time, money, and effort. Although initially this theory holds some truth, in the long run, leadership within the organization plays a more important role in achieving and maintaining quality. Quality does not evolve overnight. People need to dedicate themselves and their companies to having quality practices and policies in order to gain a reputation of delivering quality.

The three main keys to attaining sustainable quality within the organization include: (1) motivating employees through empowerment to dedicate themselves to their work; (2) investing time and money in training and developing employees into leaders; and (3) reinforcing core values in employees to maintain quality practices. Quality can be achieved if management and workers believe in achieving successful leadership within the organization.

Educating employees on how to work efﬁciently to produce a quality product or service does not come without a cost. Signiﬁcant gains do not come without taking some losses. When leaders invest in training, employees work more knowledgeably and efﬁciently since they understand their job and can ﬁnd ways to improve. Management also needs to receive training, especially when it comes to quality. As long as everyone expands their knowledge, new discoveries for improvement will help enhance quality. This investing in training is the means of investing in quality.

Quality Management stands on 5 key pillars.

Focus on the Customer – Customers are the true North Star and barometer of a business. In the quality management approach, customer sentiments and feedback are closely monitored through call tracking and surveys.
Employee Involvement – Employees must understand why the obsession with improvement ultimately gives them the freedom to innovate on their jobs. Leaders try not only to boost the ﬁnancial health of a business, but also improve talent connectedness and communication.
Process Centeredness – There should be processes to collect and integrate customer and employee feedback. There should be distinct processes to course correct on the quality journey by adjusting strategy and tactics. And even a set of processes to measure the process centeredness of the implementation.
Integrated Structure – Though the concept advocates structure and processes, isolation is not favored. Different departments in the organization need to learn from each other and reﬁne their processes in collaboration.
Strategic Approach – Begin with the company vision and objectives to achieve. Set the processes according to this overarching strategy. Then let the quality management changes manifest as changes in culture, vision and objectives.

CONCLUSION:

Leaders needs to ensure they equip their workers with the appropriate tools, skills, and knowledge to eliminate as much rework and waste as possible. Investing in educating workers at the beginning of their employment or project will help alleviate hindrances to quality. The more knowledge an employee receives, the more empowered he or she will feel to speak up in their qualitybased organization.

Have Passion

Leaders know an inspired, passionate person can achieve great things.”

Opening Case Study :

Mother Teresa –A Truly Passionate Leader

Mother Teresa was born in 26 August 1910 in Uskub, Ottoman Empire. Her father was involved in Albanian politics but he died of illness when Teresa was only 8 years old.In her youth, she was very enthralled by stories of missionaries and ministers and she aspired to become like them when she grew up. At the age of 18, she left home to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary.

She ﬁrst went to Ireland to learn English before return to India to teach in a convent school. However, she was disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta.She felt the call to minister to the poor, and she left the comfort of her nunnery in 1948 and into the slums. She ﬁrst started a school, and then started tending to the needs of the poor. She sacriﬁced even the promise of the basic necessities in the nunnery and lived her life very much like the poor and destitute people in the streets.

Her work was noticed by many Indian ofﬁcials, and they appreciated her efforts.In 1950, she started the Missionaries of Charity, with a mission to care for those people that no one else cared for. After her initial opening of the Missionaries of Charity, she went on to start even more schools and as well as a Missionaries of Charity Brothers.

By 2007 the Missionaries of Charity numbered approximately 450 brothers and 5,000 nuns worldwide, operating 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries.Shesuffered her ﬁrst heart attack in 1983, and she would go on to have another health issues, all the way till March 1997 when she ﬁnally stepped down from her leadership position and she passed away in September 5, 1997.

Most leadership literature talks about having the big vision or big dream you want to achieve, but Mother Teresa focuses on faithfulness in the smallest things. While we think about loving the whole world, she urges us to love our neighbor. While we aspire to do great things, she focuses on doing small things with love.

Instead of focusing on what big things that your organization can accomplish tomorrow, it may be better to focus on the simple daily tasks that you and your team is tasked to do.Are you already doing the tasks given to you faithfully and with excellence? Ultimately, it is these small things that will determine if you will achieve anything big in your life.

Mother Teresa gave everything she had of herself and became a world changer and a history maker. At some point in her life, she decided that the needs of the poor people in India was far more important than her comfort level, and it launched her into her work of ministering to the poor, sick and destitute.

The more you are willing to sacriﬁce and give up of yourself, the greater fruits you will see in your life. This is the principle of sowing and reaping. The more you sow in terms of your effort, time and money, the more you will reap in your life. Mother Teresa gave herself fully to alleviate the poverty around her by touching one life at a time, and she accomplished so much by the end of her life.

Passion is a profound positive feeling for something that is deeply and personally meaningful.Passion is about vision, and also contains energy, excitement and enthusiasm.Passion inspires others to join and identify with your vision. No one has ever been inspired by a leader who is not passionate. Passion – and alternatively, the lack of passion! – is contagious. If you want to have a passionate, inspired workforce, it begins with you: the leader.

Turning vision into reality requires passion. Passion elevates productivity and ensures employee commitment to your vision. Passion is born out of something that is intensely meaningful to you. It is not a general hobby or a ﬂeeting interest; rather, it is core to who you are.

When you are passionate about something, you can’t help but think about it, work at it and be excited about it. Your passion inﬂuences your daily choices and activities. What you do and say centers on your passion. Passion eventually leads to mastery and success, in large part because you are always thinking and working on the thing you are passionate about. Most successful leaders don’t just have a job – they have a passion.

The desire of leaders and organizations to make a difference may not always be immediately apparent. But when you look closely, you can usually ﬁnd that aspiring to make a difference in the lives of others drives passion. To make a more useful product or to provide a better service, one must be passionate about making a difference.

True leaders have the innate ability to motivate staff to achieve better results. Leading with a passion is what separates great leaders from the “wannabees.”Some people come to work every day, do their job and then go home. Their heart isn’t really in it, but they need the money, so they see their job simply as a means to an end — money. As a result, they do the bare minimum to get by, and their work — and your customer service — suffers.

So how do you inspire your team to deliver superior results? Here are ﬁve ways to ignite the passion in your team.

Passion Starts With You: To inspire passion in others; you must ﬁrst be passionate yourself. People follow someone who is passionate versus someone who is just going through the motions. First, believe in what you’re doing and that conviction will spread. You can’t ignite passion with a wet match.
Understanding Your People: It’s impossible to know how to motivate people until you know what motivates them. You can’t expect that everybody is motivated by the same things. You can’t expect that the same things will always motivate the same people. So, learn about your staff as individuals so you can become a better leader. Ask them about special talents, hobbies, and goals. Then tailor your behaviors accordingly

Try to incorporate some of this extra talent into worthwhile projects in the ofﬁce. People who feel appreciated and acknowledged are happier and more likely to stay motivated. They will feel proud of what they do and work harder because their heart is fully committed.

A Positive Work Environment: Nobody likes to go to work and face an endless stream of tedious tasks, day in and day out, with no inspiration in sight. Most people want to do the best job they can and are practically begging for somebody to bring back the spark.

Creating a positive “buzz” in the ofﬁce radiates energy and makes people enjoy coming to work. Banish negativity and you’ll increase productivity and motivation at the same time.

If it’s appropriate, encourage your team to personalize their work environment to reﬂect the team personality. If you have a few teams, you may even encourage some friendly rivalry.

Having fun at work makes it a happier place to be and keeps the team motivated if they see that you care about their happiness as well. Taking your job seriously is not the same as taking yourself seriously. Have some fun in the way you deliver exceptional customer service. Customers like dealing with happy motivated people.

Ongoing Training & Coaching: The best leaders regularly provide their teams with opportunities to improve skills, maintain team spirit and provide input into aspects of training and the working environment where they see opportunities for improvement.

It’s very important that your team is fully prepared and able to deal with any issues that customers may have. If their training is insufﬁcient, they may feel inadequate. This can cause problems in the level of service and allow negativity to creep in. Encourage an open-door policy with the team so they feel that they can ask for training or coaching without feeling stupid or inadequate.

Encourage A Level Of Autonomy: Nobody likes the feeling that a boss is looking over their shoulder all the time. While you have the responsibility for the work that’s being done, allow people to do their job and don’t micromanage them all the time. Give them the opportunity to take ownership of a project and receive the accolades of doing a great job.

They will develop a better sense of self-worth and will work hard because they want you to know that they are reliable and will get the job done. People get a chance to shine if they can roll up their sleeves and work hard to achieve the assigned tasks — and receive the corresponding praise and recognition for a job well done.

CONCLUSION:

To inspire passion in employees, leaders need to be vocal and excited about why the organization matters, and employees need to see that their leaders are passionate about this. In turn, employees will become more passionate.

Be Optimistic

“No Amount Of Setbacks Pulls Down The Leaders.”

Opening Case Study :

Amitabh Bachchan –An Eternal Optimist

Before a tall, thin man became what we know today as Big B or as the ﬁrst Angry Young Man of Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan went through multiple phases of extreme physical and ﬁnancial challenges, which almost broke him to shatters. Here, we have a look at how he reacted to dire situations, we dissect his optimistic attitude towards mistakes and wrong doings, and the lessons he learned.

Every success story has its uniqueness, rarely you will get the way or ﬁnd your path in success stories, but for sure, you will be encouraged and inspired a lot by seeing others who was one of you and now ranking on the top positions. Amitabh Bachchan’s story from being Zero to Hero is not only inspiring Bollywood industry aspirants but also a positive vibration for ﬁghting against rough trots.

There is the combination of almost all big experiences in one personality and that is – Amitabh Bachchan. His life is all about troughs and crests.He faced near death experience, bankruptcy, career struggle, rejection, and over ﬂooded emotional stress at various stages of life. After being life- threatening injuries in one of his movies, and being bankruptcy after several years of slump and consecutive box ofﬁce failure, he gave a thought to leave the ﬁlm industry.

He fell again and again and riseup with the extra spirit. But the undying determination or believe in self, let him move ahead.Amitabh was rejected due to his voice and height. His baritone voice, striking face and commanding height make him rejected in All India Radio Station and earlier auditions.

Once not having a ‘camera conductive face’ is now the face of million aspirations. His Impeccable dialogue delivery has now acquired iconic status.We all face failure; we feel rejected at least once in life. Big B endured his rejection, his falls, and the next moment he got up. He turned his rejection into an extra motivation!

If we dwell in the past, we caught in the cycle of cribbing and being sad. The best lesson to take from Amitabh is constant practice and struggle without being sad.We all are grown up hearing, perseverance is the key to success, and the real example to retain perseverance is Amitabh Bachchan.Our weakest point can be our greatest forte. Once rejected for raucous voice, and gangly physic, later renowned for the same. If we try, we can make our weakest point, the strongest one.

Even in the toughest days of his life, he could abnegate, but he didn’t. Losing hope and being impatient are the main cause of failure in today’s generation. The biggest success is the results of toughest exams. Quite strange but true, we don’t want to appear in exams yet we want to top.

He mentioned, “Bad times either destroy you or make you stronger enough to be who you actually are”. Don’t think about the dark night as every night fade off with a new dawn.

He not only accepted failure but also took it as a challenge! Even after being successful, maintaining success is more difﬁcult. Some lose it in arrogance and other because of laziness. Amitabh is an inspiration for all generation because he made the balance among all phases of life even after falling many times.

It’s time to get inspired and start building your own success story. Remember, you have the same power to be the next Amitabh Bachchan.

What comes to your mind when you think ‘optimism’? An optimist would say ‘hope’ whereas a pessimist would say ‘wishful thinking’. But optimism in its true sense has a deeper meaning – it’s a quality of the mind. And the good news is that even if you don’t have an optimistic bent of mind, you can always cultivate it. But why would you make that effort? Well, optimism is an asset of successful leadership. Else how would leaders sail through all the storms and tides, and face the challenges of everyday work?

Optimism is about making intelligent choices. An optimistic leader acknowledges both good and bad in most situations, but chooses to focus on the good. An example is your own employees who have both, strengths and weaknesses. An optimistic leader perceives the strengths and helps employees build on them while simultaneously inspiring them to improve upon their weaknesses. That way, employees are inspired to give their individual best.

Optimism also has the power to propel people to take action. Rather than dwelling on obstacles, an optimistic leader focusses on solutions. He/she will typically ask, “What is the best that can be done in the given situation? What are the learnings that can help in the future?”

An optimistic leader might not be successful in all his/her endeavors. But he/she doesn’t give up without a ﬁght and will appraise events objectively. This banishes the fear of failure and drives a culture of conﬁdence and success among the workforce.

An optimistic leader is also open to new ideas and feedback. This helps to collaborate, build relationships and encourages creativity and innovation.

When you have a positive mindset on what’s ahead, it is easier to feel more enjoyment in the present, and you will probably live longer with far fewer health problems. There are ways to train yourself to become more positive, with the goal of feeling happier, content and calm each day — no matter what may be happening in your personal or professional life.

Here are 5 Easy Ways to Become an Optimistic Person:

Recognize and Reﬂect on a Positive Event Each Day: This can take the form of a simple mental acknowledgment, a journal entry, or can even be brought up during a conversation among friends. Once this act becomes more comfortable, a daily gratitude journal is also a great way to promote consistently positive thinking.
Identify a Personal Strength: Rather than focusing on all the ways you may be falling short, or where you’ve went wrong over the course of a day, try recalibrating to notice your unique personal strengths and how you use them. Maybe it’s a hidden talent, area of expertise, or special personality trait.
Set an Attainable Goal and Note Your Progress: Nothing can send a person into a negative tailspin quite like falling short of a goal. To start feeling more conﬁdent and happier, set attainable goals that you can achieve, celebrating each small increment of progress along the way.
Reframe Stressful Situations into Opportunities to be Positive: Perhaps you have heard the saying, “when one door closes a window opens.” It’s simple, but reappraising an event in a positive light can be an easy way to remember to ﬁnd the silver lining in difﬁcult situations. Maybe you missed your exit, for instance, but in taking the road less traveled, you are able to experience new places you would not have otherwise.
Practice Mindfulness: When you focus on the here and now rather than the past or future, you open yourself up to better enjoying each day and new experience. Focus on ﬁnding pleasure in all the small moments throughout your day and consciously choose to acknowledge them.

CONCLUSION

Employees want to follow a leader with a positive attitude. A leader with negative attitude can sap the energy of a workplace, give stress, kill productivity, and create a toxic work environment.Optimism can be contagious. So be an optimist and see positivity spread through your organization.

Learn to Say No

Leaders know when and how to say NO.

Opening Case Study :

SavitriBaiPhule –AStrong Female Leader

Savitribai was born on January 3, 1831, in Naigaon (presently in Satara district) in British India in a farming family to KhandojiNeveshePatil and Lakshmi as their eldest daughter. Girls in those days were married off early, so following the prevalent customs, the nine-year-old Savitribai was wedded to 12 years old JyotiraoPhule in 1840. Jyotirao went on to become a thinker, writer, social activist and anti-caste social reformer. He is counted among the leading ﬁgures of Maharashtra’s social reform movement. Savitribai’s education started after her marriage. It was her husband who taught her to read and write after he saw her eagerness to learn and educate herself. She cleared third- and fourth-year examination from a normal school and became passionate about teaching. She took training at MsFarar’s Institution in Ahmednagar. Jyotirao stood ﬁrmly by the side of Savitribai in all her social endeavors.

SavitribaiJyotiraoPhule was a prominent Indian social reformer, educationist and poet who played an instrumental role in women education and empowerment during the nineteenth century. Counted among few literate women of those times, Savitribai is credited for founding the ﬁrst girl’s school in Pune in Bhide Wada with her husband JyotiraoPhule. She took great effort towards educating and emancipating child widows, campaigned against child marriage and sati pratha, and advocated for widow remarriage. A leading ﬁgure of Maharashtra’s social reform movement, she is considered an icon of Dalit Mang caste along with likes of B. R. Ambedkar and AnnabhauSathe. She campaigned against untouchability and worked actively in abolishing caste and gender-based discrimination.

She worked in tandem with her husband in the latter’s efforts in eradicating the custom of untouchability and the caste system, garnering equal rights for people of lower castes, and reform of the Hindu family life. The couple opened a well in their house for the untouchables during an era when the shadow of an untouchable was regarded as impure and people were reluctant to even offer water to the thirsty untouchables.

In 1863, Jyotirao and Savitribai also started a care center called ‘BalhatyaPratibandhakGriha,’ possibly the ﬁrst ever infanticide prohibition home founded in India. It was set up so that pregnant Brahmin widows and rape victims can deliver their children in a safe and secure place thus preventing the killing of widows as well as reducing the rate of infanticide. In 1874, Jyotirao and Savitribai, who were otherwise issueless, went on to adopt a child from a Brahmin widow called Kashibai thus sending a strong message to the progressive people of the society. The adopted son, Yashavantrao, grew up to become a doctor.

The relentless efforts of Savitribai in curbing the age-old evils of society and the rich legacy of good reforms left behind by her continues to inspire generations. Her reformative works have been recognized over the years. A memorial was created in her honor by the Pune City Corporation in 1983. India Post released a stamp in her honor on March 10, 1998. The University of Pune was renamed after her in 2015 as SavitribaiPhule Pune University. Search engine Google commemorated her 186th birth anniversary on January 3, 2017, with a Google doodle.

Do you wish you could put your foot down sometimes and say no? Many of us feel compelled to agree to every request, and would rather juggle a million jobs than refuse to help, even if we are left with no time for ourselves. But learning to say no, as a leader can earn you respect from yourself as well those around you.

So why do we continue to say yes? It could be that we believe that saying no is uncaring, even selﬁsh, and we may have a fear of letting other people down. On top of this may be a fear of being disliked, criticized, or risking a friendship.

Interestingly, the ability to say no is closely linked to self- conﬁdence. People with low self-conﬁdence and self-esteem often feel nervous about antagonizing others and tend to rate others’ needs more highly than their own.

Being unable to say no can make you exhausted, stressed and irritable. It could be undermining any efforts you make to improve your quality of life if you spend hours worrying over how to get out of an already-promised commitment. Don’t wait until your energy runs out before you take a much-needed step back to assess the situation.

Knowing when to say “no” takes practice. Learning this skill can help keep you safe and allow you to build and maintain strong and healthy relationships. It can also help you learn to identify and take the best opportunities that come your way, and to ignore those that are a waste of your time and talents. In order to know when to say “no,” it is important to learn more about your personal limits as well as to understand how to identify opportunities that are too good to be true.

As a leader it requires time, but you can learn to hone your skills so that you are better able to recognize the situations where you can and should say no. Practice saying no clearly so that the person you are speaking to isn’t confused and thinks you will say yes later. Give a brief but clear reason for saying no, and be honest rather than using an excuse.

Decide whether you have the skills and abilities needed to say yes. If someone asks you to take on a task or a project you aren’t ready for, then you might not be able to do a good job. You might ﬁnd it very stressful to complete the task or project, and the person who asked you might not be happy with the result.

Top 5 Tips for Saying No

Keep your response simple. If you want to say no, be ﬁrm and direct. Use phrases such as “Thanks for coming to me but I’m afraid it’s not convenient right now” or “I’m sorry but I can’t help this evening.” Try to be strong in your body language and don’t over-apologize. Remember, you’re not asking permission to say no.
Buy yourself some time. Interrupt the ‘yes’ cycle, using phrases like “I’ll get back to you,” then consider your options. Having thought it through at your leisure, you’ll be able to say no with greater conﬁdence.
Consider a compromise. Only do so if you want to agree with the request, but have limited time or ability to do so. Suggest ways forward to suit both of you. Avoid compromising if you really want or need to say no.
Separate refusal from rejection. Remember you’re turning down a request, not a person. People usually will understand that it is your right to say no, just as it is their right to ask the favor.
Be true to yourself. Be clear and honest with yourself about what you truly want. Get to know yourself better and examine what you really want from life.

CONCLUSION

If saying yes means you have to lose sleep working late, or sacriﬁce time with your kids or your partner, or shufﬂe things around in your already crazy schedule – don’t do it. It’s just not worth it. Be honest with them, be honest with yourself, and just say no.

Stay Motivated

“The Secret of Staying Motivated Is To Keep Going”

Opening Case Study :

Sundar Pichai –A Truly Motivational Leader

Born on the 12th of July 1972, Sundararajan Pichai or better known as SundarPichai who has recently become the talk of literally every town, is the newly appointed CEO of Google Inc.His father’s name is Raghunatha Pichai, He was an electrical engineer at British Conglomerate General Electric Company (GEC), and his mother’s name is Laxmi Pichai, she is a stenographer. Sundar was more active and intelligent student in his school time. Sundar ﬁnished his schooling at JawarVidyalayaschool in Ashok Nagar, Chennai, and completed his class 12th at Vana Vani school in Chennai.

Sundar Pichai, the Chief Executive Ofﬁcer of Google, was born and bought up in a middle-class family in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. He spent most of his childhood living in a modest two-bedroom apartment with his parents and grew up living a restricted life. However, he has always been extremely appreciative of his parents’ devotion and sacriﬁces to always provide him with the best education and support. After completing his education from IIT Kharagpur and Stanford University, Pichai took the biggest leap of his life by joining Google in 2004. He shot to fame by becoming the youngest CEO of Google in 2015. Here, we take a look at lessons that can be learned from the life of SundarPichai as a motivational leader .

While he may have hailed from a middle-class background, Pichai pursued bigger dreams. Till date, he encourages all leaders to follow their passion, dream big and constantly reinvent themselves. In order to reach the top of the pyramid, you have to work really hard and have to be persistent in all your approaches.

Being ambitious helps in keeping your motivation levels high, but being different helps deliver out of the box solutions.Pichai led the company through one of their major changes, moving from just software related solutions to hardware and retail. Under his guidance, Google expanded in 2015 to restructure its sprawling business and created the parent company, Alphabet. Alphabet became the home for its more experimental projects such as space exploration and anti mortality.

Failure has been conditioned to sound like a bad thing. But not for Pichai. He has always championed a positive attitude to failure. “Wear your failure as a badge of honor and start again,” is one of his famous quotes. In 2013, the company came under immense scrutiny for invading the privacy of the users. This year, the company also faced allegations of increasing gender gap and discrimination. However, Pichai persevered in trying to rectify the past mistake, create a more stable work environment and build a better future for everyone.

Breaking all the stereotypes, SundarPichai is known for keeping a work life balance and not being a workaholic. He believes in working smart to boost efﬁciency and productivity levels. Chrome, the now ubiquitous web browser, was initially started as an experiment by his team of 10 engineers. When Microsoft made ‘Bing’ its default browser, it was assumed that Chrome would not work out in the market. However, with a few innovative approaches, Chrome secured its position in the search market.

Great leaders believe that their employees determine a company’s success or failure.It is not the size of the building, how cool the product is, or even having the best equipment or process that determines success. What propels and sustains a successful organization is its diverse team of talented, motivated employees.

Great leaders continually invest in their people and understand motivational rewards for employees. As a leader, one should keep an open perspective on human nature. Knowing different needs of subordinates will certainly make the decision-making process easier.

As much as people don’t want to admit it, there are lots of unmotivated employees in this world. Whether they aren’t driven to do their best or they simply have no motivation to move up in the company, this can be a tricky situation for a leader.

According to a recent study by Dale Carnegie, less than 25% of non-management employees are fully motivated and engaged. This is clearly an issue that must be dealt with. If employees feel no reason to work hard, why would they? Creating simple, yet effective motivating factors within your company culture is the answer.

Here are 5 simple ways to motivate your employees to do their best.

Set goals and recognize success: Your employees want a challenge, it’s human nature. If they show up every day with the same menial tasks to work on with no goal in sight, it’s easy to become unmotivated. Setting achievable goals for your employees allows them to work towards something concrete and will also give you as a manager something to measure their performance against.

If employees aren’t meeting goals, you will know it’s time to let them go or work on their performance. When goals are achieved, make sure they are celebrated or at least acknowledged. This doesn’t have to be extravagant, but a simple incentive like a team lunch or internal email recognizing the success will keep employees moving towards their next goals.
Listen : One of the biggest motivating factors for employees is the feeling that their wants and needs are heard at work. This doesn’t mean that every request is granted but listening to what employees have to say is key to motivation. Whether an employee has an idea for a new process or new ideas for their position, however unrealistic the ideas may be, just listen. People like their voices to be heard and if they are continuously blocked by managers unwilling to listen, they may reach a point where they don’t care about the organization and aren’t willing to work hard.
Pay them well: To keep your top employees, you’re going to have to pay them a competitive salary. This might be easier said than done in some organizations, but make sure you’re not skimping on salary. If their performance merits a raise, give them one, this will let them know they are valued and appreciated. If you can’t afford competitive salaries or raises, think about performance-based bonuses for individual employees or teams.
Care about their future: A leader that shows interest and involvement in the future of their employees does wonders for motivation. Creating opportunities for people to move up within your organization as well as encouraging continuous growth and education. Employees feel valued

and important when they feel their manager really cares about where they are headed within the company and in their career. Acting as a mentor and advocate will build trust and motivation about their future with your company.

5. Create a good culture: Make sure your company is a decent place to be. Not just offering a competitive salary and beneﬁts but people genuinely enjoy working there. If your culture is negative and stiff, why would employees want to work hard if they aren’t enjoying what they do? Just incorporating simple perks like lunches, team building activities and happy hours can be motivation enough.

CONCLUSION

Keeping your employees motivated to work hard and give their best efforts is key to a successful and healthy business. There are some employees that might need a little nudge to work harder and some that do it on their own but in the end, leaders play a pivotal role in motivation.

LoveYour Work

“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

Opening Case Study :

MS Dhoni –A Successful Leader

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the only captain in the world to have tasted success in all formats of the game! The manner in which he has gone about transforming the Indian cricket team into the best in the world offers valuable lessons in management and leadership.

His leadership style offers invaluable lessons to managers and leadership team at all levels across industries. His calm mind is the most dangerous and his ability to stay cool when the heat is on allows him to make the uncanny calls that others ﬁnd hard to fathom!

Hailing from a humble background, Dhoni never let this aspect hinder his style or behavior. Infact, he managed to channelize this raw rustic energy to his on-ﬁeld performance. He was never shy of expressing himself in any given situation. In a competitive corporate world, one is often judged by one’s past or stereotyped and it is important to maintain a positive ego at all times

In a hierarchized environment, Dhoni was catapulted to captaincy ahead of several established players in a team laden with stars and former captains. He took his time and didn’t interfere in their proven methods and managed to extract the best out of these stars at most times without rufﬂing feathers. Many young managers who inherit legacy organisations face this challenge at the workplace. You need to learn to handle every situation calmly and with maturity.

Dhoni did not rush through with change in personnel and team culture. He ﬁrst established credibility and over time dealt with these issues and managed the transition through the process of natural attrition and performance management. Similarly, when the leadership team at various corporates are confronted with change management issues at the workplace, they will do well if they do not handle it head on but instead take inspiration from Dhoni’s style of change management

He dealt with his early success with a lot of maturity with his feet ﬁrmly on the ground, which eventually led to his elevation. It requires a great degree of level headedness and humility to handle fame and money at an early age. In a corporate context, early success need not lead to brash behaviour towards colleagues and customers. There have been instances where young managers, who see success early lose their balance and face early career burnouts.

Dhoni is hands on, is versatile and can adapt to any situation. He plays all three formats of the game, can bat in any position, keep wickets and roll his arm if required. Versatility and adaptability is the key for long-term success in the corporate world.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is regarded as one of the best captains in India’s cricketing history. Be it his cool temperament or his ability to handle pressure. Dhoni has been a class in showcasing his arsenal at times of crisis and has been crucial in steering his team through in the toughest of times. His ability to extract results out of pressure situations tells a lot about his leadership abilities.

Steve Jobs stood in front of the 2005 Stanford graduating class and said, “the only way to do great work is to love what you do,” but how does enjoying your work really lead to success in the workplace?

Being happy at work and loving what you do is an overall productivity booster and enhances performance. Leaders who enjoy their jobs are more likely to be optimistic, motivated, learn faster, make fewer mistakes, and better business decisions.Being able to enjoy your work is the main factor in getting into a state of ﬂow. The experience you have when you are “in the zone”. You feel fully focused, creative, and ideas are ﬂowing freely.

Doing work, you love is energizing and creates a positive feedback loop that fuels productivity. Your passion for the work energizes you and vice versa, giving you more fuel to put towards success. The trick is ﬁguring out how to make yourself love your work – even the most tedious of tasks.

The ability to complete work you don’t enjoy with enthusiasm is hard enough, let alone being the best at it. Without the passion or drive it just doesn’t come naturally. Leaders are more conﬁdent at tasks that are more natural and seem to ﬂow. This pertains to anything from writing emails, speaking to large groups, or even creating a presentation. Use a positive mindset to ﬁnd your drive and build conﬁdence in yourself. If you feel conﬁdent and secure with the work you are producing, you will be able to complete it to your fullest potential. Without this overall positive mindset, conﬁdence is lacking and can lead to second-guessing yourself and becoming inefﬁcient.

Passion not only drives you to enjoy your work, but helps in overcoming obstacles in the workplace as well. Anytime you hit a bump in the road or begin to doubt your abilities, remember the positive effects of the work you are doing. This persistence will lead to quality work that elevates you and brings you that much closer to your next goal. Use that drive and motivation as fuel towards your next checkpoint to success.

An overall positive and passionate mindset can be difﬁcult to enact while completing tedious assignments. To change the way you think, you must also change the way you work. Find the signiﬁcance in your efforts, live the vision of your organization, work with your colleagues, and in turn you can encourage positive change and take one step closer to success.

So why should this be such a big deal? Work is work, after all. Do you really need to love what you do?

Yes. You do.

There are 5 important reasons to love your job:

At least a half of your waking arehours spent at work. If you’re upset about being at work because you don’t love what you do, you’re on average a sad person. That’s no way to live.
It will be very difﬁcult for you to invest in your career,if you’re not into love with what you do. How would you seek out extra training, certiﬁcations, conferences and the like? It’s hard to imagine spending extra time outside of work investing in something you don’t like.
You’ll never be truly great at what you do. If you don’t have any passion for your work, and you’re not spending time and energy upgrading your skills, how will you ever improve in your ﬁeld?
You won’t get promotions. This ties into points 2 and 3. It’s

Belief in Super Natural Power:

Compassion:

Detachment:

Enlightenment:

Forgiveness:

Give:

Humanity:

Judicious:

Kindness:

Love:

Meditation:

Nature:

Om:

Prayer:

Quality of Life:

Renunciation:

Secularism:

Thoughts:

Universe:

Visionary:

Wisdom:

Xplore within:

Yoga:

Zeal:

CONCLUSION:

1. Spend time with zealous people.

2. Think positive, talk positive and act positive.

3. Enjoy the present moments, the NOW.

4. Remain cheerful and encourage people to be cheerful.

5. Treat problems as opportunities.

ACTION STEPS:

CONCLUSION:

Here are ﬁve tips to help you meet and exceed expectations as a leader:

CONCLUSION:

Here are ﬁve tips on how to develop Vision:

CONCLUSION:

5 Tips for developing good understanding & Empathy:

Here are ﬁve handy tips for effective time management as a leader:

CONCLUSION:

To become a successful leader, you must:

CONCLUSION:

So, what can a leader do to build better relationships at work?

CONCLUSION:

Quality Management stands on 5 key pillars.

Here are 5 Easy Ways to Become an Optimistic Person:

CONCLUSION

Top 5 Tips for Saying No

Here are 5 simple ways to motivate your employees to do their best.

CONCLUSION

There are 5 important reasons to love your job:

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