Leadership

Self Leadership is the price tag of our leadership

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My mentor John Maxwell says all the time that everything worthwhile in life is uphill. It’s uphill all the way. Our dreams, our relationships, our goals, and everything valuable in life are all uphill. That’s why you and I need to be super intentional because we only go uphill if we are intentional. The problem in today’s world is that people usually have uphill aspirations and downhill habits. You see, one can’t climb uphill with downhill habits. That is why most people don’t lead their lives; they accept life because they are not ready for an intentional upward journey, and they love to coast in their life.

The only way to go uphill is through self-leadership. Someone can’t have continuous success in life with downhill habits. It’s faster, easier, quicker downhill than it is uphill. If you have many uphill days and a few downhill days, they will cancel out all the uphill days. You will wipe out your 3 or 4 days of climbing with just one day of coasting. There is no such thing as accidental success in life. If I want to write a book, I should keep marching forward by writing one letter at a time.

Are you having uphill aspirations and downhill habits? It’s time for a reality check. You cannot become what you need by remaining who you are. It’s about time for you and me to stop waiting for the man or woman we want to become and start being the man or woman we want to be. No one ever improves by accident. Once you are done with your college education, you must take complete ownership of the personal development process since nobody else will do it for you.

Self-leadership is the bridge between intentions and actions. It makes habit your servant instead of your master. Let me tell you the strangest open secret of this world – either you pay now and play later or play now and pay later. No matter what life expects, you to pay. The question is whether you would like to pay on the front end or pay on the backend. The longer you wait to pay, the more you need to pay.

Uphill climbing Vs. Downhill sliding

  • Everything worthwhile is uphill climbing, and nothing worthwhile is downhill sliding. 
  • You get wins by uphill climbing, and you will get losses by downhill sliding.
  • You will be preparing by uphill climbing and repairing or fixing something by downhill sliding. 
  • High morale is uphill climbing, and low morale is downhill sliding. 
  • High self-respect is uphill climbing, and Low self-respect is downhill sliding. 
  • Self-improvement is uphill climbing, and no-improvement is downhill climbing. 
  • You are purposeful during uphill climbing, and you are aimless during downhill climbing. 
  • You are fulfilled during uphill climbing, and you are emptied during downhill climbing. 
  • You are making a difference during uphill climbing, and you are not making any difference during downhill climbing. 
  • Emotions without thinking are like downhill sliding, and emotions with right thinking are like uphill climbing. 

Consistency is the prerequisite of excellence. Therefore my first and foremost advice to you is never to underestimate the compounding impact of consistency. If we don’t grow, the most significant loss in life will be at the end because that’s when all the compounding takes place. Therefore our future, our growth, depends on what we do daily.

Fish that move in the same direction and speed as the river are the dead ones floating on top. Fish have a mission, and they swim in the direction necessary to achieve their goals. Life is like a river that always flows onward, and we must choose to either “go with the flow” or swim in the direction we decide to achieve our purpose and goal in life.

Before you go…

If you enjoyed this post, you would love my book, “Don’t Coast”

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Six Thinking Hats

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The Six Thinking Hats is a role-playing model presented by Edward de Bono. It serves as a team-based problem solving and brainstorming technique that can explore problems and solutions and uncover ideas and options that a homogeneously thinking group might otherwise overlook. It is a simple and effective parallel thinking process that helps teams to produce amazing results. It is a powerful toolset, which, once learned, can be applied immediately.

Evidence shows that the best decisions are made when we have mechanisms to counteract our natural blind spots. It means learning to think in ways that may feel uncomfortable or unnatural. The key to the effective use of this leadership tool is to Invite people into the discussion who represent a cross-section of these intuitive ways of thinking.  In addition to parallel thinking, it encourages full-spectrum thinking and separates ego from performance. The technique encourages a group to approach the issue at hand from all possible angles.

White Facts The White Hat focuses on facts and logic.
Yellow Positivity The Yellow Hat is the optimistic hat used to look for positive outcomes
Black Negativity The Black Hat is the hat of logic and critical judgment. It’s called the devil’s advocate hat.
Red Emotions The Red Hat signifies feelings, hunches, and intuition. Using this hat, you can express emotions and feelings, share fears, likes, dislikes, love, and hate.
Green Creativity The Green Hat focuses on creativity, possibilities, alternatives, and new ideas.
Blue Control The Blue Hat is used to manage the thinking process. It is the hat of control.

We are all capable of wearing all the above six hats. In other words, we are capable of thinking in all six ways. Unfortunately, most of us are habituated to wear one or two hats which we are comfortable wearing all the time. You may assign a hat to the entire group or a different hat to each person and then rotate the hats to encourage more ideas. Some claim better results from insisting that everyone wear the same color hat at the same time because it ensures everyone is looking in the same direction at the same time.

How to Use the Hats?

Green Hat:

  • It is used to think about creative alternatives we haven’t considered yet.
  • To identify the missing elements.
  • To express new concepts and new perceptions.

Red Hat:

  • It is used to check in on everyone’s instincts.
  • To integrate emotions into the thinking process.
  • To think about how others may react emotionally to a decision.

Blue Hat: 

  • To facilitate the meeting and keep the team on track.
  • To decide which types of thinking hats are needed at a specific time and directs people to wear a certain hat.
  • It is used to wrap up the session.
  • To synthesize the viewpoints into a collective decision or clear “next steps.”

Black Hat:

  • To look at things with a critical eye.
  • To identify the risks and potential pitfalls.
  • To determine why something may not work.
  • To consider and make the assumptions that are being made explicit.
  • Help decrease the chances of making poor decisions.

Yellow Hat: 

  • To look for positive outcomes.
  • To identify opportunities or benefits that could arise from your proposed course or courses of action.
  • To keep the team spirits up during stressful times.
  • To work with Black Hat thinkers and develop a project plan.

White Hat: 

  • To examine the data related to the problem and use it as a key input in the decision-making process.
  • To find the data which may support the solutions.

 Advantages of using Six Thinking Hats

  • Adds clear structure to the brainstorming or feedback process.
  • Productive and clear thinking processes.
  • Reduces conflict within a team.
  • Avoids potential future threats to the deliverables.
  • Inspires creative thinking.
  • Increases efficiency and effectiveness of thinking methods.
  • An extremely useful way to debate an issue, solve a problem or arrive at an important decision.

Many researchers have concluded that effective use of the six thinking hats approach has led to more effective meetings, building stronger project teams, and an overall sound approach to making decisions.

Call To Action: 

If you do not want to immediately embark on the journey of using Six Thinking Hats, then I would recommend you to feel the taste of it by using just one important hat. During your next team meeting, nominate one of the team members as a “Black Hat” aka the “Devil’s Advocate Hat” and ask him to play the role. The nominated employee should provide a critical viewpoint on the proposed idea or situation. I am sure it will help your team by decreasing the chances of making poor decisions. It helps encourage critical thinking and challenge the proposed ideas from multiple stakeholders’ points of view.

It is super important to empower employees to think critically and bravely voice their opinion. That is why as leaders, we need to create and foster a culture of bravery.  If you want to achieve better business decisions, then start using the Six Thinking Hats tool in your teams and organization.

Before you go…

If you enjoyed this post, you would love my book, “Don’t Coast: Accelerate Your Personal and Professional Growth.”

Grab your copy from the below links:

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Know Your Ducks & Eagles

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A leader achieves nothing by himself, but whenever the team wins leader gets the credit. Think of any popular cricket or football coach. We don’t see them inside the field. They neither play nor score a run or goal. However, everybody gives credit to them for winning.  Why? Because they select the players for the team and chooses their positions according to their strength. Later they motivate the team members daily and coach them. A coach achieves nothing by himself but achieves everything through the team. Therefore the number one job for any leader is to focus on the team and coach them according to their strengths.

There are two kinds of people on every team – the Ducks and the Eagles. Ducks are good, but they always wait for someone to teach them what to do. They are too comfortable, and they don’t show interest in learning new skills or upgrade themselves. They don’t have fire in their bellies to become high performers. They never mind doing the same thing repeatedly for any number of years. Suppose you put your foot down on the accelerator and ask them to produce more, then they fumble.

Now the question is, how can we identify a duck in our team? Very simple, ducks always have ready-made excuses.  They are complacent and not self-starters.  I am too busy, or I can’t do more, or this is not the right time, or I am not made for this, or I am not trained for this, or I’m not too fond of it list goes on. As a leader, you need to understand one thing once a duck is always a duck, and no matter what you do, a duck always likes to swim and not fly. As a young leader, I felt that I could turn any duck into an eagle. In no time, I realized that I am putting undue pressure on both myself and the ducks. I was forcing the ducks to become something that they don’t want to be.

Eagles are different. They love to learn, grow and fly high. They don’t wait for the boss to tell them what to do next. They get bored if they are stuck in the same place for too long. They enjoy helping other team members. They always try to find the big picture of what it is that they are doing. They constantly upgrade themselves and try to do different things. Often when working against recruitment deadlines, we make the mistake of hiring ducks though they quacked during the interview. Sometimes during the interview, it isn’t easy to notice a duck suit underneath their eagle clothes. Ducks are also important for the overall operations. However, we cannot depend on them for the outcome. Also, if you have a team full of eagles, things could get overly competitive and complicated within no time.

A leader needs to understand who the ducks are and who are the eagles in their team. Ducks Quack and Eagles Soar. Ducks keep complaining about everything – coffee, desk, laptop, task, etc. They don’t go the extra mile when needed. These people are mostly losers and attach themselves with the other losers in the company. On the other hand, Eagles have an attitude of gratitude. Another interesting observation I made over the years is that you don’t find ducks alone; they always get surrounded by other losers.

It’s eagles in your team who will help your team and organization to soar.  Once you identify the strengths of each of your team members, then invest quality time in training. Don’t send your ducks to eagles school. To have fewer ducks in your team, stop hiring out of desperation. Take time and hire the most skilled person you can for each position. For this to happen, you should start your recruitment process a little earlier than you need.  Also, keep an eye on the lack of creativity or initiative in your team members. Staff can do every job better. Do not hesitate to terminate a duck when needed. Always remember that no one was successful in converting ducks into eagles, so don’t try.

Before you go…

If you enjoyed this post, you would love my book, “Don’t Coast: Accelerate Your Personal and Professional Growth.”

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Make people feel important

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Today I remembered one of my primary school teachers who always made me feel like I am the most important person. All my classmates felt the same way. She used to manage multiple sections under a small thatched roof. She would compliment one student while helping the other. She would read lessons to one group while answering the other group. She would separate kids from fighting with each other and, at the same time, make them both feel good. Whenever she meets one of the parents, she would reassure them that their noisy and messy kid is the most precious one in the classroom. Therefore parents also loved her unconditionally.

Her ability to do this all day and throughout the year is quite amazing. Every time she made a child smile, she seemed to get more energized. She won many district and state-level best teacher awards. Today being part of the service industry, I realized that helping and making other people feel good somehow makes us stronger. Providing service to someone else gives us something back. It enriches our relationships and contributes to our success.

 

#leadtip #helpothers #feelstronger #success 

Before you go…

If you enjoyed this post, you would love my book, “Don’t Coast: Accelerate Your Personal and Professional Growth.”

Grab your copy from the below links:

You can subscribe to my social media channels:

 

Credibility Is the Foundation Of Leadership

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If you ask me to say one word which is indispensable to a leader’s success, then without any hesitation, I would choose the word credibility. Let me put some spotlight on this ward and help you understand better. When a person is credible, we call him trustworthy. Like any other skill, credibility is a practicable and learnable skill. You can’t achieve long-term success if you are not credible.

Imagine that you have a medical issue and you want to see your doctor. You asked a friend of yours to recommend a good urologist or a nephrologist in the city. Your friend recommends you a highly skilled doctor. At the same time, your friend tells you that the doctor is not an honest person. He has a private practice, and sometimes to make money, he will recommend you to go for surgery even when it is not required. In addition to this, there are some rumors that sometimes he has stolen the other kidney. Will you go to that doctor highly skilled but not honest? The answer is obvious “No.”

Then your friend went on to recommend you to you another doctor who is a very honest man. He may not charge you any money, but there’s only one issue, and the issue is that the doctor is not so competent. He doesn’t know his job well. The success rate is less than 50 percent, and a few people have died after the surgery. Do you go to the doctor who’s very honest but not competent? The obvious answer is “No.”

So the question is, what is missing? Why are you not comfortable going to the highly skilled doctor but not honest and the one who is honest but not highly skilled? The answer is simple, they both are not credible. Let’s look at this mathematical equation to understand it better.

Character X Competence = Credibility

It means you need to have both character and competence to become credible. In the first doctor’s case, he was competent but did not have integrity or character (0x1=0). The other doctor had character and integrity but lacked competence (1×0=0); therefore, he was not a credible doctor. The only viable way to earn credibility is to build both your character and your competence. Do as I say, not as I do attitude won’t take you any longer in our leadership journey. You should be a worthy example so that people will say someday; I would like to be just like my leader.

Why hesitation? Start working on your character and competence to grow better in your career. 

— Kishore Borra

 

Before you go…

If you enjoyed this post, you would love my book, “Don’t Coast: Accelerate Your Personal and Professional Growth.”

Grab your copy from the below links:

You can subscribe to my social media channels: