THINK LIKE A LEADER

 

A lot of times when we hear somebody say-“Think like a leader”, we make a remarkable mistake of interpreting it as- to run the organization like a CEO. With no doubt whatsoever, such an assumption is chaos!! It is true that we do need leaders who set the vision and then lead us to it, but the term “leader” is not just confined to those things or people. What really needs to be realized is that each and every member in the team should know its role and then act fully in that role like a leader would.

One of the most important characteristic of a leader is the sense of ownership, and when you start to think, feel and act like a leader with true sense of ownership towards your work, you are growing as a leader. The concept of ownership inspires us to be an entrepreneur of our functional areas. You are a software developer? Think that’s your business. Take personal responsibility for the success of your business. Design the software immaculately, inspire new ideas, implement maintainable code. You are a Painter? Think it’s your show. Show your imagination, show the quality of your work, ensure your creative satisfaction. Do whatever you can to make the business profitable as you would do if it’s your own business. By following such practices you will grow in your career and you will definitely grow as a leader.   

One other important trait of a leader is to build culture and build relationships. Like a true leader try to build a positive and enthusiastic atmosphere. Interact with people, pass a smile or wave your hand whenever you crossing them, make them feel comfortable to discuss their problems or to seek your suggestion. Instead of cribbing about the work environment, “be the change as you want to see” -as Mahatma Gandhi said. Share your ideas, discuss with people and implement them. Yet don’t be complacent and do what is right. “Being a leader isn’t about being popular, being a leader isn’t about being liked. It’s about doing the right”- as I read somewhere.

Few days ago, I saw a speech over the internet by the renowned author- Robin Sharma at the leadership forum in a business school. One thing that he said particularly impressed me- “Great leadership is tied to who you are as a person, rather than to your official position. Be a real leader, a leader without a title”. So, on that positive note let’s think like a leader to become “rock stars” at work, and finally to awaken the inner leader in ourselves. 


PS. This article was recently published for my firm's global news-letter.

QUOTE

"If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."

GO FOR IT !!!

 

GO SLOWLY BUT KEEP IT GOING

Pretty much all of us in our lives one day or the other face a situation where we want to do something, which we really want to do and we know it will make a big difference to our lives, but we are strangled into the unforeseen circumstances that stops us from doing it. This is the time where you ask the question- Why me? As a human being we are only aware of what happen to us, we hardly actually know what others are going through, we only see the golden picture around us and we continuously keep on cursing ourselves- Why I don't have that thing in my life?


It's a difficult question to answer why others are living a better life and I m sure you cannot be in a position always to understand everything about the others. Also, its almost impossible to answer- Why you? But what is easier to answer is- how you can transform to what you really want to do despite the hurdles and the unfavorable circumstances. 


At first, the only thought you will have in your mind will be- the escape. Yes, you will feel that you want to escape from the unforeseen circumstances, if you are able to do so then probably thats a good thing to get back to what you want to do, but if you are not then you have to go through it unwillingly. Doing something unwillingly hardly helps, but of course if you are doing it then certainly there is a strong reason behind it for e.g. it could be your job, after all your job is your bread and butter, and you cannot just call it quits and start doing other things. These are the real testing times when you are doing something unwillingly again and again, and every time there will be this question popping out in your mind- When will it get over? You cannot be certain of when it will get over, life is not simple et all but what you can be certain of is how along with this unforeseen circumstances you can make a way for what you really want to do. "Yes, tough, isn't it? But not impossible", this is what you have to say to yourself. Just try to visualize or get in connection to something that makes you realize the importance of that thing again. At that very moment, your heart should feel the importance of what you want, its the perfect catalyst to bring you back to what you probably would have been doing if there wasn't any unforeseen situation. You won't even start doing that thing the very next day initially despite the motivational volcano of thoughts but don't just let it go, stay there, stay connected to what you want and I m sure, you will do it. 


I must say that the situation might not even permit you to still do it, but do not just stop it and throw it away, instead keep pushing it, keep trying, may be in bits and pieces. This process never puts you out of that most important thing, but you will be there always trying to do it again and again, and finally you will notice that you have overcome the tornado and doing exactly what you want. I would want to say just one simple thing in the end that- "Do Not Fear Going Forward Slowly; Fear Only To Stand Still". 

BELIEF

Belief, its a strange word.

When you have it, you just have it.

You dont listen to others.

Your heart automatically favors it.

Good, bad or ugly,

Whatever it may be,

But you cant think beyond it.

For you its the only thing.

Its the only correct thing.

Yet, its so different,

Yet, its so relative. 

When you dont have it, you just dont have it.

It might be the thing,

But you see it futile.

Nothing else but only futile.

Belief could be anything,

Sometimes its on God,

Sometimes its on religion,

Sometime its on somebody,

Sometimes its on something.

Strange is the word in itself.

Yet taken positively, changes life,

But devastates otherwise.

They say it- You have it, You will do it,

But it's not always right.

What if the belief is not right?

It is significant,

But only when you get it right!!

      

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...... 

ECLIPSE

Eclipse, we hear this word

And a picture of Sun and Moon appears.

The black ring, blocking all the light.

The sudden darkness, a visible shadow.

The only moment of Earth deprived of all the light,

Scary, yet mesmerizing.

Mesmerizing of its beauty,

The visible relative motion’s of the celestial bodies. 

The dark ring covers the light first,

And then goes out of the way again.

The light flashes back.

Like the Earth coming back to life again.

Life has the same eclipses,

Sometimes deprived of Happiness,

Sometimes deprived of Success,

Sometimes deprived of Motivation.

Those are the scary moments of Life.

Like the eclipse, all scare ends.

The light comes back.

The light enlightens the life.

Success, Happiness and Motivation,

All comes back.

Remember, Eclipse ends.

Experience it bravely,

Persist it strongly and live it courageously.

You will come out shinning,

Like the light, a WINNER !!

THE PINNACLE OF LIFE

Life is amazing, Life is unpredictable,
For an instance it's like a stopped train, going no where.
But another, it's like a roller coaster, with new twisty turns.

Life comes in phases, one followed by another.
Sometimes its joy, sometimes its sad.
Sometimes its panic, sometimes its calm.
Sometimes its satisfaction, sometimes its greed.
Sometimes its success, sometimes its failure.
But that's Life, we accept it, we live it.

Never get clung to Life.
Let the old phase pass, Let the new phase enter.
The bad phase has to go, The good one has to takeover.
But nothing is permanent, not even life.
Success also fades away, only to make way for the future successes to come.
That's Life, we have to move on, we have to go on.

Don't get depressed,
Failures are like a slippery step of a stair to success,
You fall, you get up,
You again fall, you again get up,
But you will never get stuck, until you try again and again,
You will cross the step, you will reach to the pinnacle,
The pinnacle of success, the pinnacle of Life.

WHO IS REALLY INSPIRING?

I have this amazing widget on my blog, which keeps on flashing motivational quotes randomly and today it has something really interesting that triggered me to think about it. Well it says- “If what you're working for really matters, you'll give it all you've got” by Nido Qubein.

Nido Qubein is a motivational speaker and president of High Point University, an accredited undergraduate and graduate institution. What is more interesting about Mr.Qubein is the fact that he had been ranked 6th among the most motivational speaker world wide in 2008. He is chairman of the Great Harvest Bread Company. He is an active speaker and consultant addressing more than 100 business and professional groups around the world each year. His books and learning programs have been translated into three dozen languages and are sold across the globe.

You know what I think on knowing so much about Mr.Qubein that he is one really inspiring soul on this earth. Yet I still not convinced with his quote mentioned above. I understand this clearly that its very logical and basic for someone to give one’s best shot at something, which really interests him but this is a very simple thought or let me just say that it’s a very common aspect of one’s personality. It’s like when I like something and it really matters to me, I m going to give my best shot, this is kind of obvious isn’t it? With due respect to Mr.Qubein and with no offense to his opinion instead, I feel this is not at all motivating, probably if that quote, would have given me an advice or mantra through which I could have realized a thing that really matters to me in life would have been worth. I think, we all in our lives want to achieve what really matter but most of us throughout our lives are never clear about it so we keep on trying different things at all times by actually copying the people who have done well rather than doing what would really matter to us. It’s a proven fact that people who are clear about what they want are the one who are successful in their lives. The reason is very simple as they know what exactly they want and in which direction they have to apply themselves, with full force to achieve what they exactly want. So, what I m trying to say is it’s not about if I m doing a thing that really matters to me and I m giving my best in it but it’s about how I realize what thing really matters to me because once I know that it’s almost definite that I m going to give my all to it.

Au contraire, I have another observation, which I would want to share here. There are people with such a character who have a tendency of giving their best at whatever they do. Moreover, they do it despite their intention if it really matters to them but it’s more of their rare pure character. These are actually the people who are true winners because not only they feel satisfied with themselves as they do all the things with full passion but also do it with all they have. Beyond that it really doesn’t matter to them even if it doesn’t reap them any use. For instance, I know a person who works for a MNC. I know that this guy has not received any good hikes for last 2 years or so but yet his passion for his work and zealot at work is commendable. He himself knows that there is no use of working so hard but still he do it for himself. He says that’s his nature or character he feels satisfied in life only after performing something not by cheating himself. Now this is a truly inspiring character because if one knows what really matters to him in life, he would surely going to give his all but here is somebody who is not sure what matters to him and yet giving his all.

10 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR DREAMS ALIVE

Every human being who is living on this planet dreams but there are very few who live up to them. The one who have chased their dreams till the end are probably the most successful or the most satisfied people in their own lives. This feeling of success or satisfaction has come to them after achieving what they have been thinking about all the times before they actually got it. It’s their passion of what they dream and their honesty to cultivate a path to achieve has paid off. On the contrary, we have the others who started off with a similar dream to what they want to be or what they want to achieve but then they settled for a mediocre life as they were too scared to pursue their dreams any further.
Most people end there so called golden chase after they have faced failures multiple times in achieving it. They just suffice themselves by giving some vague justifications of not able to achieve what they actually wanted. A man gets so much frustrated or becomes so clueless of a situation when after trying again and again the dream of his life is not coming true. But the situation is justifiable to an extent, since there is no timeline or sure shot period in which all his dreams will come true. So, the million dollar question arises – “How can one still keep their dream alive? “.
It’s probably, the trickiest of the question to be answered but surely there is an answer to it and that’s the only reason why god has given us this unique and supreme power to dream, isn’t it? So, to live up to what we want, to what we want to be, to live up to our dreams, here are the 10 ways which will help us in achieving our Dream.

VISUALIZE: It’s of utmost importance for a person to visualize his dreams. By visualizing it, you get the clarity of your dream. This will help us analyze, what we will be once our dreams come true and how it will make us change to what I we are before achieving them. It will give us the glimpse of our dreams being achieved, which helps an individual to motivate and plan for them. It inspires us to take actions to fulfill our dreams.

MAKING A WISH LIST: It’s really important to pen down what we want, until we write down our dreams, how can we expect them to be fulfilled in reality. By maintaining a wish list of our dreams, we can keep a track of what we have achieved and what not. It helps us plan for our future in a better way. Be sure that you celebrate and acknowledge your success. If you take for granted any of your moment of success either big or small; chances are it will take you longer to continue reaching your milestones.

PLANNING: Each one of us should plan for how to achieve our dreams. It’s really necessary to plan in a proper manner, until and unless we don’t have a proper planning, it will lead us to diversion from the path of our dreams. Like for every task in our life- we plan, it’s in a same way we should have a master plan for our dreams.

PASSION: You need to be completely passionate about your dreams. Your dream should be such that – You think about it at least once in a day, it should be such that before going to sleep when you are in your bed you are thinking about it, it should be such that when you are talking to someone you at least divert once to bring it in the conversation. You should be so passionate about it that you just want to do all the things perfectly, to achieve it soon.

NEVER GIVE-UP: Seeking a dream is not a cake walk at all, it requires a true character. Even after trying for several times and for many years, if you are not able to achieve it. You are bound to go in a failure mode and giving up on the further attempts to get it filled is but obvious. So, at that moment of time when the chips are down and you don’t know what needs to be done then it’s always better to re-analyze your plan of action and act patiently, towards your dreams. It’s basically like bouncing back from the failure again and again with better preparation than earlier. You work it out without giving up and in spite of several attempt, you will surely get to what you dreamt.

TAKE ACTIONS: Only just by dreaming of better self and better life will never leads to actually achieving it. It requires for an individual to take actions to fulfill the dreams. It will never happen that you just dream a thing today and it gets to you by itself, it requires a strict action from thyself. Remember this fact that – “Dreaming Big Is Not Bad, But NOT WORKING FOR IT, IS THE BIGGEST DISGRACE!!”. So, take appropriate actions towards your dreams.

BE FLEXIBLE: It is a must that you need to be flexible with your approach of attaining your dreams. Sometimes, you are following certain fixed actions to achieve your goals but that is not working. So, it becomes the need of an hour for you to act differently. Make sure you are not following the old orthodox ways but applying your new innovative ideas. Sometimes, you reach to a situation you know that your dream cannot be filled in a way which you might have thought initially so it becomes essential to change your dream a bit to more practical form for achieving it. But that does not mean at all that you are changing them all the times at your will.

MAKING A DREAM BOOK: You can begin today to utilize the law of attraction to help you achieve your goals. Do you actually know what you desire? If you really know what you desire just make an Audio or a Video of the same, watch it. By doing this you are attracting those things towards you. Make a dream book, put the pictures or write about your dreams. It will attract what you want in your life, as if Universe is taking your order for a meal and you are ordering whatever you want to eat. The law of attraction works you can surely try it.

ALWAYS DREAM BIGGER THAN WHAT YOU ARE IN PRESENT: You will loose all the motivation or your dreams will become worthless, if they are lesser in nature to what you are currently. You have to evaluate your dreams on the scale of practicality and how it will change you once you achieve it. To always lighten the passion for your dreams, it is really needed you have significant well evaluated dreams to inspire you to work towards them.

READ ABOUT OTHERS WHO HAVE ACHIEVED THEIR DREAMS: It’s a motivating thing that we read about the people who have achieved their dreams. Not only we get to know how they reached to their dreams but also it let us compare our approach to them and help us fetching useful ideas for our further road towards our dreams. It sometimes helps to be better prepared for what we may be expecting.