LEADERSHIP - BY ROBIN SHARMA

 

What makes an effective leader? This is a very important question that we hear almost everyday in our life. Yet, the answers we get are mostly bookish and unrealistic as a result we keep on diverting ourselves from this very significant question.

I’ve have been reading a lot of stuff about Robin Sharma these days. Robin Sharma is a renowned writer of the famous book- ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’. Sharma was recently the guest speaker in one of the B-School in Switzerland where he explained his views about the leadership. For Robin Sharma- ‘leadership comes from an inner sense of who you really are’. Sharma pointed out that “our performance on the outside is a reflection of what is going inside”.

Sharma insists, the great essence of leadership is the quality of positively inspiring creativity in others, and that requires developing one’s inner self. “We can’t celebrate another human being unless we have first celebrated ourselves”. “We must have great ideas inside to have great ideas in our work.”

I was really impressed with one thing in particular that Sharma said- great leadership is tied to who you are as a person, rather than to your official position. He advised executives to become “rock stars” at work, and finally to awaken the inner leader in themselves.

As per Sharma, The best leaders share 7 basic characteristics:
- They are ridiculously good at what they do
- They are ferociously curious.
- They balance the artist with the engineer.
- They leave most other people better off.
- They prefer marathons to sprints.
- They edit and then amplify.
- And finally, their “video is in sync with their audio.” In other words, they don’t just talk a good line, they deliver on what they promise.

One other very interesting thing that Sharma said was- we should ideally wake up early in the morning to strategize and plan our day. Ben Franklin used to say it: “There is plenty of time to sleep when you are dead.” Superior performance invariably requires rehearsal. “How can you be the Madonna of manufacturing, or the Mozart of management, if you don’t practice ahead of time?“ Sharma asked.

I suggest everyone to follow what the great Robin Sharma has said and make a significant difference to your life.

PS- For those who missed my first audio post here is a better one. Hope you will enjoy the audio, do share your thoughts about it.  

CHASING THE DREAMS: FICTION PART ONE

When Rohan was in 4th grade, he saw his maternal uncle, who was a Major in the Indian Army in his uniform, and since then his la-affair with defense began. Though his father was also in the Indian Air Force, but his maternal uncle was among the higher rung of officers in the Indian Army and that fascinated him a lot. Rohan spoke to his parents about his feelings to get into the Army and it was warmly welcomed by his family. Finally, the family decided that Rohan should follow his maternal uncle's footstep and he should prepare for the entrance examination for one of the prestigious residential school in India called "The Sainik School" ( Sainik means the Soldier). Rohan's maternal uncle was a product of the Sainik School Kunjpura Karnal (in Haryana, India), which was one of the leading Sainik School of India out of the 18 such schools throughout the country.

The Sainik Schools are a group of schools in India established by the Sainik School Society, and conceived in 1961 by the then Defense Minister of India, to rectify the regional and class imbalance amongst the Officer cadre of the Indian Army, and to prepare students for entry into the National Defense Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla, Pune and Indian Navy Academy. Today there are over 24 such schools covering all the states of the country.The schools come under the purview of respective state governments and Ministry Of Defense India. The admissions start from the 6th Grade, and Rohan was very clear that he wants to get into it. Rohan did not want to leave any stone unturned for his preparation of the entrance examination to be held in next 3 months, so his family decided that Rohan should join the preparatory school for the entrance exam at his grandpa's (Rohan's mother's father) place. Rohan packed his bag and left for his grandpa's home. Rohan used to go to the classes early morning after the breakfast at 9.00am and come back in the evening at 5.30pm. After coming back, there would be two more sessions of studies before calling it a day. Pretty much for all three months Rohan had the same schedule, sometime he would feel tired and sick of studying but he used to visualize the uniform of Indian Army and that was like an energy tonic to him, he will be back to his studies in a flash. Finally, the day of entrance examination arrived, and Rohan did well to qualify for the personal interviews and the medical tests. 

Rohan was really happy to qualify the major hurdle i.e. the written test and now he was even more excited as he got the opportunity to go to the school for the personal interview and the medical test. Rohan left for the personal interview with his father to the Sainik School Kunjpura Karnal. It was a long journey by road from his hometown Gurgaon to  Karnal, somewhere around 5 hours but throughout the journey, he was just imagining all the dreams of him being an Army Officer. Rohan and his father reached the Sainik School before the time but it was such a pleasant site for Rohan to see the school's fort like building that he didn't mind waiting for his turn for the interview. The big playgrounds, the greenery and the huge school premises were simply mesmerizing. It was love at first site for Rohan. He gave the interviews and the medical tests, and came back late night with his father to the home. After 3 weeks, he received a letter from the Sainik School Kunjpura Karnal with the joining date and the list of items that he needs to pack for the school. It was one of the most cherished moment of Rohan's life. Finally, his dreams were changing into reality and he was about to reach the place where he wanted to be. His family was equally proud of its son, after all the kid had done what no one had done before in the whole residential colony.

(Will Be Continued).............

COMING BACK TO LIFE

Somebody said- "Life comes in parts and parcels"; yes, it certainly does. Everyday cannot be the same, everyday cannot be our day and everyday we cannot be happy. It happens with all of us, we all live a life, which is a never ending vicious circle consisting of happiness and of sadness one after the other, but the catch is- it's uncontrollable!!


What we want may not happen at the time when we want it the most, what we wish may not fulfill at the time when we want it to come true, and there might be complete uninvited devastation happen in our life at the time when everything is fine, but shall we become angry to life on this and start living life in depression? When we are in a negative frame of mind it feels like a doomsday, it feels if the world has reached to apocalypse. We almost visualize the Armageddon in which the evil has defeated all the good things of our lives. Our heart fills with sorrowful thoughts with no hope of happiness coming back to life. This is the real time, which draws the bifurcation between a warrior and a chickenhearted. I don't say that all those who try to fightback but not succeed are chickenhearted but it's the others who lose the courage and the hope to fightback, and accepts to live with what is happening. The fire to fightback is important to be what we want to be but it is easier said then done. Even the most powerful of soul fumbles in its road to coming back to life. Yet, the one who ignores the pain, the failure and the agony, makes an impact. 


IGNORANCE, yes that is what we need to show the monstrous things happening in our lives and we need to keep telling ourselves that- "It might have stopped everything in my life at this very moment of time, but I m going to plan and live the life the way I want it". Just remember when your parents at home and teachers at class used to say-"Pay Attention To Me", and you just wanted to ignore that thing, this is your time where you have to follow that very childish feeling, the big royal ignore to all the wrong things happening in life. Persist with what you want in your life, insist yourself to keep trying again and again, and assist your soul to your utmost important goal of life.

Slowly and steadily you will scale the new heights on the mountain of difficulties and soon you will realize that you are back in the plains again. Yes, you have crossed all the difficulties and the train of your life is back on the right track heading towards the correct destination of life, and this is when its coming back to life...... 

BE CAPABLE OF DOING THINGS AND THE SUCCESS WILL FOLLOW

Just a few days ago, I saw a wonderful Bollywood movie called "3-Idiots". I must say- well made movies always convey a useful message to the mankind and "3-Idiots" was certainly one of them. The movie had lots of interesting things in it, which if noticed can make a lot of difference to the one's life.

Among all the very special things in the movie, there was one message, which I thought had a lot of impact on me. The message was- "We Should Make Ourselves To Be Capable Of Doing Things And The Success Will Follow". I think this is one of the most amazing things if followed.

How many times in Life we have come across this question that- "M I Capable of Doing This Thing?". The question can actually be answered by no one but self. Probably the most important thing to answer that question is to understand that- "Do We Really Want To Do That Thing? Well, the thing I m talking about could be anything like a job or like a study program or may be some hobby etc. but the core to all this is- "Do We Really Wanna Do it?". If we know that we really want to do it then here you are all set to do things in the best possible way but if we aren't sure and we still start doing it because my family is forcing me or my friends are doing it then probably we have just started to live life on others terms i.e. exactly where the downfall has begun.

The point is one can only become capable of doing a thing in the best possible way when one really wants to do it. There is no denying to the fact that if one is fully capable of doing a thing in the best possible way then Success will follow. So, to be Successful in life its really important to be capable of doing your thing in the best possible way and to do the thing in the best possible way its important to understand what we really want to do in life, what really interests us and what we want to be in life by doing any specific things.

On a philosophical note, I would want to conclude here by saying that- We Human-Beings are probably the biggest mystery to ourselves, we raise questions and problems for ourselves, and the truth is only we can answer and solve them i.e. why we are so unique species, a complete unique creation of God.

Only Mantra to success -SELF MANAGEMENT

Today, when I see life, I can find two ways of looking into it. First one is a life which is free of worries, less of hard work, full of short term joys and filled with uncontrolled happenings. But the other one, which is the tougher of its kind in existent, is filled with dedication, full of hard work, ample of self control, a lot of sacrifices and demands a huge amount of planning and the most important factor called self management. On contrary, the second one which looks like a more dracunian side of life is actually the kind of life which brings more warmth of joy, long term success and most importantly, the feeling of immense satisfaction above which nothing counts.

I seriously have realized it that to be successful in one’s life it demands no less than a good amount of self criticism, a large self control, a strong self belief backed with strong will power for hard work and a well planned self managed life. The rule is simple and its universal, which says – “There is no short cut to success”. I remember while I was in my school, just outside the main building there was a big green lawn and a board was kept there with the words,“There is no short cut to success”, encrypted over it. At that time I use to understand it in an offensive way and use to think if that’s a trick by the gardener to not let everybody through the beautiful lawn. But with the growing age and maturity, and with a better vision and understanding, I have understood the meaning of that boarding completely.

Today when I see success, I only try to find the path what it took me or somebody who became successful to attain it and unanimously I found out that for none it was a cake walk and for all it was a sheer hard work, dedication, passion and their self implemented self managed life which took them not just a step but good 100’s of miles ahead of the competition. I think each individual is alike and unique in all aspects of life. Be it the nature or intelligence or anything, every human is so different that one cannot just copy the way other person in their lives have traced the golden path to success. Also, I believe only it’s the individual itself who can only chalk out its plan and go ahead with it. Yes, of course there is no harm in deriving the ideas of the most successful people in this world or of your role models but what is utmost important is how you can chalk out your best plan which suits you the best? Its only us who knows ourselves the best and only we can handle ourselves the most appropriate way so its require to plan accordingly and manage yourself best to the task you are up to.

I have a strong belief that all the B-schools in the world besides making all the B-school grads industry polished, most strongly work on inculcating the best Self Managing techniques within the individual so that an individual can attain an ability to everything in their life. Of course, the one who has done everything in life will be on the more happier side of life because the individual will have a feeling that he has not missed out on anythingJ. And logically, if an individual is not a good Self Manager then how can we expect the individual to grow as successful manager or a great leader.

One has to chalk out his or her plan of life better sooner than later if at all they want to be successful. It’s the Self Management which can only lead them to life which they dreamt of and an individual has to believe that “The Juice is worth a squeeze”.