Thoughts on Mindfulness

I would like to share my thoughts on Mindfulness basis my ideas which have developed in the last few years partly based on my study of Chinese Medicine.

I believe there is something between the life force energy that connects everything to the leadership of the Mind, Body and Intellect. That something is intention, which is part of the self. The self is the amassing of life force energy into a being when we incarnate. The life force energy becomes the mass (E = Mc2) of the body, with emotions and an intelligent brain. Intention is what allows the self to lead the Body, Mind and Intellect. Thus an important step in living a mindful life is having and using one’s intention.

Eating and drinking in the right way includes eating slowly, regularly, without arguing or watching TV, and with a thankful attitude to the plants and/or animals that sacrificed their life force energy for our benefit.

Mind, Body and Intellect are part of the same whole and affect each other in profound ways. Thus negative emotions can lead to negative thoughts and to disease in the body. Besides good decision making, leadership of the intellect also involves eliminating what Daniel Amen (famous brain researcher) calls ANTS (automatic negative thoughts) and using affirmations to reinforce positive thinking.

Cleansing of negative emotions is vitally important, as repressed emotions are the cause of much, if not most, disease. Sharing negative emotions can help release them, but one can also become addicted to empowering emotional wounds. If one shares pain in order to receive love, then when the sharing fails to elicit the desired response, a new wounding is experienced.

There are many ways to cleanse negative emotions, including spiritual practices (eg meditation); counselling; healing by others; nutrition, rest, and exercise. Personally, I have found QiGong* meditation, acupuncture (which balances Qi), homeopathy and ayurvedic medicine, medical QiGong (healing by a practitioner who balances Qi), and TaiQi (which moves and balances Qi) extremely helpful in releasing and resolving emotions.

*”Qi” is life force energy and “Gong” is “skill” so QiGong means skill in gathering, circulating and applying life force energy.

Contributed by - Patricia Evans, Faculty, SOIL

The World of Emptiness and Leadership

The title might sound interesting; indeed it is, for a reason. To help you understand this let me take you back to the times when one could really see a clearer picture of the things happening all around us. When there were no multiple personalities or ideologies. There used to be a single school of thought and one was recognized based on one’s single ideology and sticking to that for a lifetime. Those were really the moments when the world was empty. Cross cultural connections, internet, globalization, the way we know these concepts today were never really talked about then. Media was not very prevalent in those times and leadership was emerging from the grounds.

Some fine examples from which we can imbibe critical leadership lessons are Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa. They are the ones who recognized the missing link in the world and put their complete conscience to the cause.

Bhagat Singh, the man who believed in action defied the existing superstitious beliefs and atrocities happening on the people at that time and even took his stand by going against the beliefs on the Supreme Being i.e God. He was of the view that in order to find your freedom you really have to get up and revolt against the British Empire. How did he gain respect or how he rose in those times is the question I am seeking to address. The idea was simple. He sensed it first inside himself. That he was here for a higher cause greater than his own self was the feeling inside him. Then he went along with the people and supported the existing ideology like that of Mahatma Gandhi from which he found out that mere presence of non-violence is not going to get us freedom but we must fight for it, so he took to violent activities and became part of a revolutionary organization. He demonstrated clear leadership for the young blood in our country. He was not thinking about himself at all but he was thinking for the country! NOT everyone can do that. It needs a lot of courage to stand up and go against the existing tide. My contention is that someone HAS to rise and therefore someone will rise as part of nature or as a belief of a God wanting balance.

Likewise, the man called Mahatma Gandhi who demonstrated his leadership by sticking to non-violent means. The train incident at South Africa triggered the change inside him and he went on to support the higher cause. His leadership demonstrated the first step a human being takes towards leadership, he truly and clearly identified himself spiritually and that is when he went on to preach the same to the world. Many of our present day leaders like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar are doing the same in a way. Another example is that ofMother Teresa who again realized the purpose of living by giving to others. Her idea was simple: Loving the people from weaker sections of society and doing everything in service to these people.

Looking at these personalities two lines of thought emerge. One, that these people were not mere mortals but were sent by God to really look at and improve the existing state of affairs in those times, within that part of the world and second, that it is very natural that these people stood up for the cause, they took responsibility upon their shoulders. Both these thoughts are debatable as long as the world exists, because mere thoughts of human influence without God’s purpose seems slightly out of context to me.

Those were the times when the world was empty and leadership was visible for the deeds done by these souls. People were finding their ideals in these leaders and for many of them it was their first kind of experience of someone directing their souls with new ideologies. After independence, our country has seen leadership in the form of politics, business, sports, bollywood and rest of the country has followed in their footsteps. Some were the really enlightened ones to lead and the rest were following their footsteps generation after generation.

Now, the times are changing and demanding as well, not only in a single corner but around the world one is seeing and experiencing different things happening; internet has arrived, media has expanded itself in magnitude and reach and we are doused in so much information. Things are in abundance and the world is no longer empty. The presence of things around has made each one of us empowered to think of our own individuality. The questioning of Scott Adams in his book God’s Debris may find his answer today. His idea of avatar level interpreting “There is only one avatar at a time”, I think this is debatable. His understanding of avatar was merely limited to the knowledge at highest dimension. In fact, I would say there are many who could think of the world using multiple intelligences and are fully aware of the situation that the world is into. We now are well aware that there is no supreme power that is going to solve our problems. The statement made by U.S President Obama that “We are the change we have been waiting for” truly justifies this concern. Not so long ago, Mahatma Gandhi said the same when he wanted each one to realize the power of self. Times have changed. And, for a fact each one us can realize our power and world is going to get empowered with such knowledgeable people.

The questions that arise hence are: What’s the point of leadership in today’s context? Are those past day leaders not born today or are they lost in today’s labyrinth? Where is leadership and who are the people going to lead and what ideal should we live our lives on? These and many more such questions abound in the context of practicing leaders.

In conclusion, Leadership has to take a new stand in today’s times not relying on what was done earlier because problems are going to be different everywhere be it politics, organization, community level etc.. The leveling of the world has brought considerable changes all around. The world is filled now and will continue but likewise fundamentals never change, so are the fundamentals of leadership. The world is in need of self inspired leaders. Organizations and governments have been devising ways to empower people with technology and share information across borders. Now people can reasonably figure out what it means to be a person. This, demands of the human being, changes at the conscience level, changes within each and every human being. He/ She is not merely surviving alone but has to take care of the change (become more responsible) that is coming along his way. Leadership should mean creating balance and sustainability at our personal level, our society and country level and can’t just be left to chance. We have to recognize, that in this new religion of work, our society has to create coherence and respect the interests of each living being.

There were times when one could really find his ideal, role models in others. But today’s times where ideals have blemished; it is up to us to be self inspired and act as a role model and inspiration for others. As we progress towards each role of tomorrow, we need to stay committed, focused and contribute to maximum effect. To summarize, leadership of the future will mean accountability of living in this world. Accountability for and towards each and every human being!

Contributed by: Tejinder Singh, Student of Business Leadership Program, SOIL

Obligation vs Choice

“During a race, I never wear a wristwatch, and my bike doesn’t have a speedometer. They are distractions. All I work on is finding a rhythm that feels strong and sticking to it”, says Dave Scott, six time winner of the Hawaii Ironman triathlon.

What he means is that he rejects outside-in obligations, a way of saying he does what he feels like doing- ironically enough, inside-out goal setting blows the competition away!

Here is a hint for HR people grappling with decreased employee engagement at the workplace. You think you do everything right: wellness programs to boost employee well being and ensure that the employee is more productive, short term and long term incentives to boost engagement and a host of other creative initiatives. . Yet, at the end of the month, you find dwindling employee engagement scores across organizations. The situation, however, is quite different with people working in NGO’s or charitable organizations. The difference is that people in the former are driven by tasks and goals set by someone else and in the latter, they do what they love doing. They have found that inner “rhythm that feels strong” and have stuck to it.

The problem in fact, lies at the core of our business beliefs. We still believe the age old adage, “What gets measured, gets done”. But that was the industrial era, or at best the early information era. We are in the experience economy now. People are motivated by experience. And what is the experience they want? The answer lies in moving from the outside-in approach to the inside-out approach, so that employees are not bound by external obligations.

The focus of businesses worldwide has now drastically moved towards human capital. We are in the era of strategic convergence. Yesterday’s best practices are no longer the strategic advantage. Consultants can ferry them across the globe. The Information age has flattened the world. So you can rely on superior processes or practices only as much! Rely on your people.

Today, successful organizations have to be flexible and adaptable to respond to the rapidly changing market conditions or they risk becoming fossilized remnants of a bygone era. And since it is people who will drive the success of businesses, their needs are of prime importance. The motto is quite simple- free the people from externally driven goals, let them choose what they want to do. Easier said than done? What about Semco SA led by maverick leader Ricardo Semler? On his second day at work he fired two-thirds of his management (“Sometimes Change Management involves just that - change management”!) and built an organization based on the simple premise of giving people the freedom of choice. Of course such an “audacious” form of industrial democracy needs leaders, the likes of which are few. But there is no doubt, our age old motivational theories are either no good or wrongly implemented. If you want a world class organization, let freedom and innovation thrive. Because more often than not the former drives the latter.

As so succinctly put in the article “The Motivator’s Dilemma” by James Clawson and Douglas Newburg - “The difference between good enough and world class is the difference between obligation and choice.”

Contributed by - Anirban Chowdhury, Student of HR Leadership Program, SOIL

Placements at SOIL

Placements – the most awaited time of the year and for some of us, of our careers. This is the time that will decide which way our future moves. All of us are preparing hard. And of course, hats off to the Career Forward team - they are working tirelessly all day for all of us.

It is exciting and our nervousness gives us butterflies in our stomach. The excitement is about getting so many companies on campus and the nervousness is of which one is right for me!

Lots of questions come to mind. Where will I get placed? Where will my friends get placed? Will I be able to perform well in the interview? Do I have what my dream company is looking for? Are the interviews going to be hard to crack? Being the charter batch of SOIL, we have to set standards. We have the responsibility of creating SOIL’s brand. All these things have to be taken care of.

Every day, I see a few disappointments but much more happiness. Students are celebrating not only for themselves but also for their friends who are getting placed. I see some students helping others in preparing for interviews and others coordinating with the Career Forward team. Everyone is motivating each other towards achievement. An interesting scene is the one right outside the interview room – all a little worried about the interview and at the same time hopeful of being selected!

It is an amazing experience to see the President of SOIL being at work till the last interview ends, despite being busy with so many other responsibilities.

The past 2 weeks have seen many individual stories being created and one of them was mine. When I was selected, I felt that one can never know what makes you get selected and what brings you a rejection! I had thoroughly prepared the technical aspects of my HR subjects and my perception was that the behavioral interview cannot be tough. But that’s not true. It’s really tough to understand what goes right and what goes wrong. I had already given 5 interviews and this was my sixth. I was well able to figure out what I had lacked in my previous interview and overcoming these flaws was my single aim till I got selected. But now I am selected, and I still feel the need to improve and learn and grow. I had thought that I’ll be very happy once selected. But I am still puzzled. And I have plenty of questions within me about myself that I need to explore! I guess that’s what lifelong learning is about.

Contributed by – Ira Jha, Student of HR Leadership Program, SOIL

Six Dimensions of Leadership

“What distinguishes the students of SOIL from other B-Schools?” My answer to this question is “Leadership”. To explain my answer better, following are my experiences of Leadership, which I have encountered at SOIL.

My encounter with leadership started on the first day of a course conducted by Dr. Ramnath Narayanswamy. On the first day of our course we were given an assignment to make 12-slide presentation on “Who am I?” On the face of it, it looked simple, but it turned out to be the most challenging assignment. We struggled, but by the end of the course we knew ourselves better and had learnt that the journey of Leadership starts with self. That is where I learnt the first dimension, “Leadership of Self”.

The second learning came during our Theatre course. For the course, we had to put up a show for the entire school in two days, what followed was a powerful experience in teamwork. The entire class together wrote the script, dialogues, and together decided each scene. We discussed, we debated, and we decided. The end result was a flawless performance. What we achieved together in this class was no less than a miracle. I witnessed the power of working together towards a common objective. This was the second dimension, “Leadership by Togetherness”.

The third was learnt through Yoga. As part of the curriculum we were taught yoga by Susie Roy. We attended the first class with stiff bodies and reluctant minds. However, Susie, with her love for each student, created an environment of warmth and belongingness. Slowly we all started loving each moment that we spent with her. This is how I learnt the third dimension, “Leadership by Love”. The fourth learning has come from our NGO association, as part of our course. I am part of an NGO called SRF Foundation, which works in the field of rural education. We had a life changing experience when we made our first few visits to villages nearby. These villages just 50 KM from Gurgaon, seem 50 years away from Gurgaon in terms of development. Here we met real life heroes, who have done wonders with literally no means. They have had neither the resources, nor the support of people but have done wonder within their constraints. This is where I learnt the fourth dimension, “Leadership in Constraints”.

The fifth aspect was something that was told to us by one of our visiting faculty. Dr. Karl-Erik Sveiby, the father of Knowledge Management, during one of his lectures introduced us to the lives of the Nhunggabarra People of Australia. This unique tribe does not believe in having one single tribe leader! People here assume leadership in areas in which they are experts. For example, men who are experienced hunters, take lead during hunting expeditions, similarly women are in-charge of decisions pertaining to community and marriage. Their record keeping is better than any databases and spread-sheets of today. These people have led a sustainable, sophisticated and a happy life and even though they do not have a leader, they definitely have Leadership. This was the learning of the fifth dimension, “Situational Leadership”.

The final lesson in leadership is something which I saw from the founder of our institute, Mr. Anil Sachdev. This was when swine flu was at its peak. During that time we received news that one of our colleagues had been infected with H1N1. The moment the news came in Mr. Sachdev walked into our classroom and sat with us; rather than in the safe confines of his office. He exposed himself to the same risk which all students were exposed to. He also made arrangements for medicines for each student and their family. This type of leadership by the founder of SOIL left an indelible impression on most of us. And this was the sixth dimension, “Leadership by Example”.

In the time that I have spent at SOIL, these are some of the dimensions of Leadership that I have seen and learnt and am sure that by the time this course ends I would have experienced many many more.

Contributed by - Ankush Chopra - Student of Business Leadership Program, SOIL