What hat are you wearing now?

Leaders are aware of all their roles and what the responsibilities and goals attached with each role. They can clearly see what hat they need to wear in a given minute and act or communicate accordingly.

Let us say if I have four different roles (Hats) in a given project. It is my responsibility to understand the importance of each hat and responsibilities for that role and wear it as needed.

Life is confusing and challenging. But how do leaders make a difference? How do leaders get focus? How do they effectively get things done in 24 hours that everyone of us have?

Following are few things I experimented found to be working.

Answer the question "What roles are you playing?" (For example Project manager, Stakeholder manager, developer, Architect, Husband, Father etc)

Then focus on Top three goals in each role.

Now that you did your home work - live your role. In any given instance be aware of your role.

Now you are what your role is face the reality. Many distractions come in the form of other people, other roles of your own ( and of course from within) But stay focused on your current chosen role, no matter what. Impersonate someone who is best in that role.

Do a reasonable job, don't try to do the best job to please others. Do your job, just do and perfection will follow.

Tennis - Lessons:

Today while playing tennis I felt I was having lots of fun more than ever.

Playing Tennis just for the sake of winning is no FUN. I was fascinated by my own performance while playing tennis today.

Why is so much improvement in my performance today? I questioned.

Though I am the same person I realized I am enjoying the action. I realized I was not worrying much about victory. I guess I was not scared of losing.

Competition, mistakes, victories shots, cheer up, losing, winning, stress, relaxation, placing, hitting the right shot at right time, focus, concentration, anticipation, helping the team member, understanding the each other's strengths and covering each others weaknesses - what an excitement. I enjoyed every bit of this action.

Quick learners win. Players having fun win. Players who challenge their own ability win.

Having a dream is like watching someone else play in TV. Get out, why wait, get into the action. That is where fun lies, that is where win lies, that is where challenges lies.

If your goal is to win , You can never enjoy the game. Your goal must be "having fun", and winning is a bi-product.

Leadership lesson from Tennis : Get into the Action ! and have fun

Story of a Monkey Manager

Here I am going to share the story of a team who work hard really hard ( like Donkey's) to achieve success in their life without knowing what success really means.

Mr Min - very knoeledgeable person in the team, has a great deal of analytical and logical skills. He has a great memory. But his mind is like a Monkey. He cannot focus on onething. He wants every thing that exists in the world

Mr Sens - very good communicator - he is talkative, has very good listening skills and collect as much information as possible more information than required. Often Mr Sens gets attracted by /distracted by worldly pleasures and forgets his role and his purpose in the team. He likes watching TV.

Mr Bod - physically very strong person, he can keep himself stronger and healthy by doing regular exercise - but if not directed properly. Mr Bod can easily procrastinate, by nature he is lazy.

Now that the introduction is over let us see what has been happening in their world -

Mr Bod, Mr Sens and Mr Min are Part of one team. Mr Bod presumed to be the leader of this team. The definition of happiness changes from planet to planet, person to person, body part to body part. This team does not know what success really means. They don't have a sense of what are they supposed to accomplish, and they can never realize why we they should even struggle to achieve something.

Mr Bod slowly got used to taking rest, started to get lazy day by day. He is quite happy in this state, and he found no real reason to get out of the couch and do something different. Mr Bod is now the couch potato.

Mr Sens, being good at communication, got used to watching TV, talking over phone with friends, listening to music. Mr. Sens knows how to keep himself busy by wasting time.

Mr Min also kept himself busy with serious plans, and keeping his monkey mind at work. He was busy thinking about how others are good, Why he is born like the way he is now. He also started blaming his teammates for the lack of productivity. But back in his mind Mr Min was not sure what is the purpose of his existence.

Life seems to be very boring for these folks. Though they all have unique strengths, Though they are all friends, together they were not able to make a successful team. What is success? No one in this team defined what success is. They don't have any specific goal to achieve in their life. They don't have a goal as a team where they want to go? Then where else success comes into picture? Though they spent years like a Monkey mind, couch potato, and a TV beast happily, Now they all realized this way we will all waste time and produce nothing.

But the moment they all started thinking about this Mr Min's mind started responding like a Monkey. Mr Min started de-motivating his team. His monkey mind said, we are not good enough to work, our team is weak. Our team is not well structured.

Mr Min, Mr Bod and Mr Sens all decided they need help. They need someone to tell them what to do now, and next and to guide them forever. There appeared Miss Sou. Miss Sou seems to be very realistic leader. She quickly understood the strengths these three folks and started educating them on their own strengths and potential. All three could not believe that they were that strong.

Miss Sou - was assigned as the team lead position. She has infinite potential and She has the capability to drive the Team into right direction to manifest something otherwise perceived as impossible.

Miss Sou painted a picture ( vision ) of future to give them all a direction to go. Monkey in Mr Min said - impossible !!! This cannot be done. Mr Bod said - I rather take rest. Mr Sens said i better be back to my TV.

Miss Sou said ' let us try anyway'.

All cohesively have started working towards a common goal under the leadership of Miss Sou. They have all started enjoying the process of working together and having fun. They felt like they are all home. Together they felt complete - like a human body that has all the power and strength once all its senses, mind , body and soul have started working together... For a Marathon, For a Olympic gold medal, For

All of a sudden I woke up from my dream with my Mr Min(d), Mr Sens(es), Mr Bod(y) and my leader Miss Sou(l) - all in place on my body. I decided I should start using them before they get too old.

Bottomline : Leadership starts within. We all have enough resources within us to become a leader. Once you discover the leader within, you can redefine who you are.

Let your soul ( heart ) decide on what next - Soul will shape you, your values, your goals. let the soul direct your senses ( eyes, ears, speech, taste and touch ) let your soul explore the miracles of your mind to accomplish the

Five senses: Eyes, Ears, speech, Taste, touch

Body (Physical strength)

Mind (Mental strength)

Team of five can work just like a how a human body can make miracles - once each member understand his/her strengths, each member opens up their mind for a free flow of thoughts across the team, and keep the communication clear and direct can make miracles.

Story of a Monkey Manager : Don't let your monkey mind lead your path, instead let the real leader within you take charge.

Leaders are Warriors

"The basic difference between an ordadinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything either as a blessing or a curse."

Leader's frequency

I recently watched a two minute google video on a discussion on "Road to innovation.. by Charlie Rose w/ all great CEOs. ( Google, Intel, Verizon, Yahoo - all on the same stage)

I was thinking about this last night and was not clear on how can these great leaders can start thinking about shaping the world, together.

Is there a specific leadership frequency that all leaders can tune into and talk ? This is my quest for the day and I found the folowing information on the web

The Radical Edge by Stever Farber ( a book to add to my list of books )

...the first thing we have to do is find our frequency, find our station - the one that clearly expresses who we are at our core. And one of the characters goes on to confess: "It tooke me a while to find it, to tune in, as it were. There are a lot of values I hold dear: respect, integrity, honesty, love and family, to name a few. But for me, it all plays on the radio station called 'service'." ...Every value that I ...well...'value' rolls up into service: service is the way I show respect; integrity and honesty characterize the kind of service I give to others. And if I'm really serving from my heart, I see everyone as family - not just my genetic relatives. That's the way it works for me, and the moment I got clear on that -the moment I tuned in - I committed to it with all my being.


source : http://life.ducttapemarketing.com/2006/09/leadership_freq.html

Leadership - Valentine's day special

A true leader is not the one with the most students, but one who creates the most leaders
From Conversations with God - An uncommon dialogue

EGO

This morning I started thinking about the word EGO. I found the following from a website and found very interesting.



EGO is about me, mine, my
ECO is about us, our

WorldTalk : Teambuilding

Following is from a web site
http://www.technobility.com/docs/article010.htm

What is a team?
A useful definition is comprised of three parts. The first component is a well defined goal. The second is an identified group of people who wish to jointly achieve that goal. And the third part is a shared understanding of the roles of each individual as they work towards that goal.

Difference between impulse and intuition

following is from
http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/II/II_42.htm

Question: Could you please tell us about the difference between impulse and intuition?

Answer: The impulse of an intuitive person is often guided by intuition; but the impulse of a person who lacks intuition may come from another direction; it may come from the surface. Impulse directed by intuition is desirable.

Impulse is just like a little straw floating on the surface of the water. This straw becomes an impulse when it is pushed by a wave that is coming from behind. For a right impulse, man gets credit; for a wrong impulse, he is blamed. Yet, if one saw what was behind the impulse, one would be slow to express an opinion on the subject.

Never ignore a great feeling, but never believe that it's enough

Decision making is key for success of any organization. And decision making is the toughest activity for most human beings. Ideally one should know all the facts and data to make a decision to move forward. Ideally every decision you take would result in success. These ideal cases seldom happen and you might stuck like a tortoise hoping to win some day.

Leadership - Intuition:

Decision making transforms to an Art when combined with intuition. Intuition is knowing for sure without knowing for certain.

Math vs Art of decision: Having enough data to make a decision using logic is great - but it is time consuming. “The intuitive mind tells the logical mind where to look next.” - but it can be too risky to just rely on your intuition. A good balance between logic and intuition will result in a balanced decision to move forward.

Bottom line is leaders decision process considers intuition ( it feels like that , gut feel) w/ a balance of math and logic.

Listen to your heart when you are relaxed to master the intuitive decision making

Other notes :

What is intuition?

• “…knowing for sure without knowing for certain….”
• “The intuitive mind tells the logical mind where to look next.”

What is intuition to do with leadership?

• Bill Gates says, "Often you have to rely on intuition."
• Facts are the "math" of decision-making while intuition is the "art."
• People looking in from the outside might interpret these actions as impulsive or "flying by the seat of their pants," but in reality they are making quick decisions based on a lifetime of accumulated wisdom and understanding that their mind is processing -- just at a different level.
• Any leader can learn to be more intuitive. It is simply a matter of learning to trust your heart when it speaks to you

• There is a certain element of risk in intuitive leadership, but that is the nature of leadership. I love the motto of the British Special Air Service: "Who Dares Wins!"

Taking care of your intuition

• "Never ignore a great feeling, but never believe that it's enough."

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2003/05/05/smallb2.html

http://www.winstonbrill.com/bril001/html/article_index/articles/251-300/article286_body.html

what does it really mean to be organized?

I believe in discpline. I love to be organized.
But what does it really mean to be organized, to me ofcourse,

My thoughts on this subject have been changing over a period of years

Three years ago - I strictly believed in organiging, planning and executing my goals. I believed in monitoring my progress and gave lot of external boost to myself.

Last year - I was afraid that I would forget my tasks/committments and I started making a note of each and every piece of information. I failed to manage these overwhelming list. I looked at myself as a failure.

This year - I started enjoying the 'Let it go' attitude. If something is important it would come back to me. This is not to say that I am letting everything slip out of my hands. No. I am not forcing myself to be too much organized and I am not challenging myself not to forget everything that is happening in this world.

Being Organized now means to me as mental commit. If it is important to me someone above me ( you may call Him God) will send me a reminder. I don't need to hold onto that task/commit- instead I now believe that if it is important it will come back to me on the right time.

Our mind has a great organizer ... I just started using it instead of my paper organizer.

Happy weekend

Despite the appearance of being separate individuals, we are all connected to patterns of intelligence governing the cosmos. - Deepak Chopra...

Leadership miracles

Do Leaders believe in miracles?
Answer is YES :

Leaders have an insight into the power of collaboration and individual strengths.
Leaders have a clear personal vision
Leaders sense the opportunities floating around.
Leaders can visualize and connect the dots

With this leaders get infinite possibilities to pursue miracles.

Do Leaders believe in miracles?
Answer is NO :

Leaders know road ahead is rough
Leaders can sense the strange 'fear' within and do it anyway.
Leaders can anticipate what is coming and welcome change.

Leaders won't sit and wait for a miracle to happen, instead they move forward and manifest.

Leaders make dreams come into reality.
Everyone else wonder...

What a miracle?

Have a great weekend

Tip that I found useful:

Google search has a calculator in it. You can type 2^30

http://www.google.com.au/help/features.html#calculator


It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not.

Leadership is not always about winning

Leadership is not always about winning. It is also about having fun and enjoying the process. It is also about accepting the leaders limitations and to focus on the organization goals. Everyone accepts and trusts the integrity of leaders. Leaders are those who are brave enough to clearly state what their limitation are. It is not always easy to say I cannot lead or I don't know how to lead in this specific situation.

Leaders enjoy the process of achieving because they accept the obvious facts upfront. I have a great Vision - let us see what happens;
I know change is going to come;
I know It is going to be stressful to go in that direction;
I know management is not going to accept my proposal;
I know I am new to this organization;
I know it is not going to be easy;
I know I am too optimistic;

Leaders love the uncertainties and challenges in the process.

Leaders not only accept these challenges upfront but also mentally build alternatives for any of the roadblocks - so that the destination is always clear from far.

With that clear Vision leaders can motivate the team and lead organizations for success .

My Grandmother...Having fun

Here is my grandmother... She will do anything to keep her children, grand children and great grand kids happy...afterall wearing this mask is nothing...

Birthday special

Kruti, Samhitha and Charan - three little friends from our family had a fun time on their birthday party in Hyderabad, India.

What is leadership?

I am in search of the definition of leadership and what does it mean to be a leader?
I will post my understanding of leadership and refer to the link I found
Leaders use common sense
Leaders know their strengths and weaknesses.
Leaders know others strengths and weaknesses
Leaders know that they are human and that they have limitations
Leaders accept the reality
Leaders can impersonate - think like some body else
Leaders have set of values that they believe
Leaders can anticipate the situation and visualize the situation
Leaders anticipate and adopt change quickly
Leaders initiate change
Leaders ask basic questions
Leaders challenge basics
Leaders value others values
Leaders get motivation from within
Leaders share ideas with everyone
Leaders keep their eyes & ears open to look for opportunities
Leaders touch the heart
Leaders Walk their talk
Leaders believe in teamwork and collaboration
Leaders believe in continuous improvement
Leaders understand our human emotions and reactions
Leaders have detachment
Leaders believe in balance, Fun, creativity

I found the following web site very interesting
http://theleadershipcircle.com/site/main/profile.htm

Happy New Year

Hi all,

I wish you all a very happy new year. I am starting this blog just to evaluate where it takes me. Once I convince myself that this is useful to me as well as to you all I will continue to post my thoughts on this blog. Goal is to keep in touch and keep sharing my learnings with you all

Sekhar