The shift from “whom” to “what”

“Accept responsibility .Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else”.-- Les Brown

       Whenever we face any problem both family and professional environment, most of us  tend to blame the environment and cite the root cause of the problem as parents, friends, society, teachers, boss, colleagues, school, college or something else other than self. In this process, temporarily we may feel comfortable.The moment we blame and push the responsibility to others, the mind never attempts to find  alternatives  to overcome the problem.

       What is needed in that moment is a slight shift in mindset towards taking personal responsibility.When we accept personal responsibility for the outcome of the event, we tend to find out the solution. Moreover, we will not have the habit of blaming and complaining others. In addition, when we take personal responsibility, we take control of the situation. This mindset is one of the qualities of leadership. 

        For example, in an organization, when the problem comes in, most of the time, tendency to shift the focus on WHOM, the moment we shift the focus on people, we close our thinking process to solutions approach. Instead, when we shift the focus on “what,” mind cools down to think of solutions.

       It may be difficult for some people having this mindset naturally, but it is possible with AWARENESS and your life will be more rewarding as you are perceived  as a solution provider than problem creator.
        
        Hence, the key is to  accept the personal responsibility of life events, which is the first step towards achieving Growth!

Change @ Individual level

An interesting poem whose author is unknown, but thanks to his profound thought process

“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world, 
I found difficult to change the world, so I tried to change the nation
When I found, I could not change the nation, I began to focus on my town
I could not change the town, and as an older man, I tried to change my family 
I could not change my family, as an old man, I realized, I can change myself
And suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself,
I could have made an impact on  my family,
My family and I could have made an impact on our town,
My town impact could have changed the nation and in turn, the world”

This reflects our attitude towards change either in organizational or  in a family environment.We assume that the change has to happen first at organizational level or higher positional level  and feel that as individuals we do  not have much influence or control. Instead the change  can be initiated at individual level  or functional level, which will trigger changes at the organizational level.

For example, you could have noticed that one person with the good thought process, intention may change the quality of discussion or perspectives in meetings. He changed his thought process first and could able to trigger to the entire gathering. 

Small, continuous change in our practices at the individual level or functional level  will have a ripple effect on the organization’s culture. Others can able to realize the change and always you can be the influence of change wherever you are! .

Executing an Idea

“Ideas are easy. It's the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.” - Sue Grafton

      Have you ever come across an excellent idea which you believed would  transform you or your career or your business to the next level? But at the same time, you are inhibited with the laziness, fear of failure, fear of criticism from others, fear of success or exposure (some people have  fear of success or exposure!!!!), Skeptical about the idea worthiness etc..Later point of time, you became to know that the same idea or similar one  was implemented by someone  and you started  feeling guilty of not executing.

      The reason as stated above, most of the time, we are blocked with doubts, fear of any kind, more importance to other’s opinion etc..This is primarily due to a decision dilemma about the execution of ideas.

How to overcome this dilemma as from my personal experience  

1. Spiritual perspective:

Since you only get the idea initially, that means, it is with SOME PURPOSE. Believe it and start to execute the idea

2. Emotional perspective:

Visualize the pain you will be undergoing when someone is executing a similar idea at a later stage. To avoid the pain, start to execute the idea.

3. Rational perspective:

Think about best and worst things may happen if the idea is executed and your capacity to handle the consequence.

Once you evaluate from the above perspectives, either you come to conclusion to execute or not. In both cases, you would be happy, as you are free from guiltiness. Your peace of mind is important .
Happy living!

Environment Influences

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people are not used to an environment where excellence is expected”. Steve Jobs

    As you may aware that Koi fish is belonging to the ornamental fish category and generally used for decorative purposes in outdoor ponds. This fish has the ability to survive and adapt to any climate.The interesting characteristic is that it grows in accordance to where it lives. For example, if we keep the Koi fish in the bowl, it grows few centimeters length, and if it is in a larger tank, it grows to twice that length or in a pond, it grows to one foot or place it a large lake and it may grow over a meter long. To sum up, its growth depends on which environment it lives.**

     I think, this applies to human being as well. Our growth or ability to leverage the potential depends on which atmosphere or environment, we are living. The most influencing environments could be home and  professional environment. Home environment helps the child to pick up the right values and beliefs.
Especially in a professional environment, the learning ability and growth potential depends on the organization we work for and the leaders / managers we work with. The organizational environment enhances the person's potential and allows them to stretch. 

     To sum up, if leaders / managers create a learning environment wherein the individual learning experience, exposure can be maximized. Likewise, the parent is influencing the child to take on the values and beliefs from home environment. If it is so, is it not a responsibility for seniors to create a positive environment and facilitate the development of people?

**source: 50 stories &snippets for conference & workshop presentations by David Williams

Leadership Insight

You may be aware of E. Sreedharan, a man behind in modern metro rail transportation system in  India and popularly known as “Metro Man".His contribution as technocrats who modernized the country’s railway transportation to global standards. It could be Konkan rail lines which is known as one of the engineering excellence, or could be a modern metro rail  in Delhi. While most of us  were skeptical about metro solutions, the success of Delhi metro paved way for metro solutions in more than 20 cities in India.

Under his leadership, Delhi metro lines were completed before the due date and budget. His project management practices are  case studies  for aspiring project managers and business school students.

On understanding his background, now the leadership insight from him. 

Whenever a query asked about his lifetime achievement, everyone expects the answer could be some of his best work, like Konkan, Pamban bridge, or metro line etc. But he used to reply, “The important achievement in my life is I could able to instill the confidence to my engineers that enabled them to work competently”.

According to me, this is a very profound statement on leadership  and it is required in every organization that looks for transformation. As a leader of  an organization or our team, our primary  responsibility is showing the possibilities for the team, instill the confidence and backup them in any circumstances. People come from different background, level of competency  and confidence level and leader’s  job is to enhance the hope, positivity and confidence in them to deliver the best!.That is leadership.

Happy to see your comments on this leadership insight.

Prolonging Good times

In our life journey, everyone goes through good and tough times either in business and or in a professional environment. Most of us have a  tendency to enjoy too much during the good times and to get down too much during tough times. This mindset reflects our lack of maturity in understanding the nature of life, lack of clarity in dealing the life gift and uncertainties.

We may come across matured people who take any situation without much reaction and respond it in a positive way. According to them, all the situations are good time and they are good at the art of prolonging the good times or success forever.

The secret could be their mindset during good and tough times.

Mindset during good times:

• Not believing in permanence
• Looking for adversity soon and preparing themselves
• No overconfidence about their abilities and good times
• Surrendering all success to divine and free from self-pride
• Not arrogance with others 
• Continuously upgrading themselves

Mindset during tough times:

• Not believing in permanence and expecting turnaround soon
• Faith in divine  
• Continuously doing what they have been doing 

Getting into that level of mindset may not be easy for all. But striving for that level is all about maturity . The earlier we reach maturity; more it improves the quality  of life irrespective of good or bad times!

Infinite Vision (Book)

The inspiring book is all about the explaining the path of How Aravind Eye Care Hospital became the world’s greatest business case for compassion.

Authors: Pavithra K Mehta / Suchitra Shenoy

Context:

Dr.Govindappa Venkataswamy founded Aravind eye clinic with 11 beds  in 1976 after his retirement  in his hometown  in South India  .He had only one vision “To give sight for all” who has curable blind diseases with highest quality and affordable cost .Today Aravind eye care had treated more than 32 million patients and performed more than 4 million surgeries . In India, 5 % of the eye surgeries are being done by Aravind. 

Today Aravind eye care case study is mandatory reading for every MBA student at Harvard business school.

Started in a small way by a visionary person become the world greatest business case for compassion.

Excerpts from the book:

Aravind surgeons average 2000 cataract surgeries a year, against the Indian average of 400 surgeries and the US average of under 200.The efficiencies that enable to provide the lowest cost, highest quality eye care systems in the world.----

This is a model that demonstrates the power of integrating innovation with empathy, business principles with service and outer transformation with inner change. -----

To understand the Aravind model –one must look into the heart and the mind of the visionary surgeon who set it all into motion. ----

Recommend this book who would like to understand the power of vision and the leader’s compassion towards the humanity.It is inspiring to learn the process of how one person from the village made it happen in a span of 30 + years.

Also for manufacturing professionals, it is inspiring to learn how  they applied LEAN SYSTEM THINKING in their process to improve the efficiency  and made it  best cost in the world.

Overall, Inspiring book from an Indian background.