Personal Mastery

The Rabbit & Tortoise Story

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# Fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady: 

As soon as you read this statement, our childhood version of the race between rabbit & tortoise will flash into your mind. The story with which we’ve all grown up. A tortoise and a rabbit argued about who was faster. They both decided to settle the argument with a race. The rabbit was complacent and fell asleep, and the tortoise won the race. The moral of the story is that slow-and-steady wins the race.  

But we were not taught that the rabbit was disappointed at losing the race and did some thinking. Rabbit again challenged the tortoise for another race. This time the rabbit remained focused and finished the race way ahead of the tortoise. The moral of the story is fast and consistent will beat the slow-and-steady. 

# Focus on your core competencies: 

The tortoise was upset and thought there was no way he could beat the rabbit in this race; hence after careful consideration tortoise challenged the rabbit to another race. But this time, the tortoise gets to design the race route. The rabbit sped off just as focused as the last race but arrived at a broad river. The turtle arrived later, swam across the river, and reached the finishing line. The moral of the story is to identify your strengths and change the playing field to suit your core competence.

# Teamwork first

By this time, the rabbit and the tortoise had become pretty good friends, and they had done some thinking together. Both realized that they could have run the last race much better. So they decided to run the race again, but this time as a team. The rabbit carried the tortoise for the first part of the route, then the tortoise swam across the river with the rabbit on its back and finally finished the race together. The moral of the story is that pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers. Also, working in a team helps harness each other’s core competencies. 

The story of a Pencil

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A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter and asked, “Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me??”

His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson, “I am writing about you…actually, I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.”

Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special. “But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!” he said.

“That depends on how you look at things,” the grandmother replied.

“This pencil has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.

First quality: You are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps.
We call that hand. God, and He always guides us according to His will.

Second quality: Now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpener. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterward, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows because they will make you a better person.

Third quality: The pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily bad; it helps keep us on the road to justice.

Fourth quality: What really matters in pencil is not its wooden exterior but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.

Fifth quality: It always leaves a mark. In the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action.

Note: The story is an extract from the book “Like the flowing River” by Paulo Coelho, published by Harper Collins.

Stay True to Your Values

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Qualifications, certifications, test scores, gold medals, internships do not define your career. What will make or break your career is who you are and what values define you because your values are the ones that define and differentiate you over time. They define what is unique and consistent about you.

There is no quick fix or magic formula to become a great leader. Leadership comes from how you think, act, and treat others but not from your title or position. You become a leader by empowering others and creating conditions for your teams to achieve important business goals. You become a leader by rallying people around a common mission and creating a sense of shared purpose, a sense of succeeding or failing together as a team.

You are allowed to take pride in your leadership title only if you are empowering others due to your presence and creating an environment for them to bring their whole selves into the office not because they have to but because they want to. They feel empowered, enjoy their work, and want to be around their leader.

#leadership #borra #bluebird #makeitbetter #getleaderized #dontcoast #values

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If you enjoyed this post, you would love my books, “Don’t Coast” & “GET LEADERized” which are available on Amazon, Flipkart & Notion Press

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Make this new year your best year!

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Today morning I wrote to my EnergyTech colleagues and shared one of my secrets which served me well over the last few years. I am posting some of it here so that my wider tribe can also benefit from this. I request you stay for a few more minutes on this post and complete reading it until the end. I am now forty-five years old, and I am more certain about a few things in life than I was at thirty. I am now getting a better handle on my growth and what matters the most for the rest of my life. I am now more excited and focused on my current trajectory than my current results, so should you be too.

A few years ago, I learned from my mentor to set aside some time to reflect on my last year and evaluate it. Since then, it has helped me position myself better and make the most of the opportunities and commitments in the following year. Every year during the last week, I answer the below questions without fail. So take your notebook and pen, and I encourage each of you to think of the below questions and try to answer them for yourself.

1) What wins, achievements, and special moments do you need to celebrate from the last 12 months.
2) What are the three best life lessons you learned from the last 12 months?
3) What outcomes did your choices produce during the last 12 months?
4) Which relationships have helped you grow, and which ones haven’t during the last 12 months?
5) What activities deserve more of your time and energy, and what deserves less during the next 12 months?
6) What are your top 5 goals for the next 12 months?
7) What are your top 5 values for the next 12 months?
8) What is your detailed plan to achieve your top 5 goals identified for the next 12 months?’
9) What books should you read during the next 12 months?
10) What tools and systems can you think of to achieve your top 5 goals during the next 12 months?

Personally, the last year has felt more like a roller coaster ride for many of us than a walk in the park! COVID-19 was and is still one of such testing times for me as it is for most leaders worldwide. Despite that, I could list more than 25 personal wins, achievements, and special moments in 2021, which I am truly excited about and thankful to the Almighty. I am sure each of you can think of such things and be grateful for them.

Today, we are writing the first page of our 365 pages book called 2022. It is absolutely in our hands to make each page better than the previous page. With better awareness, we can make better choices; with better choices, we are bound to see better results. So let’s just get started.
I’m excited for you as you begin this review process, and I guarantee you’ll make 2022 a better year in your life!

Regards,

Kishore Borra

Before you go…

If you enjoyed this post, you would love my books, “Don’t Coast” & “GET LEADERized” which are available on Amazon, Flipkart & Notion Press

Please subscribe to my social media channels:

Credibility is the new leadership currency

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Do as I say, not as I do attitude won’t take you much farther in your leadership journey. You should be a worthy example so that people will say someday; I would like to be just like my leader. Your credibility depends on your track record of making a difference in people’s lives and people’s belief in you that you will do what you say. If you want to be a leader who wants to be followed or listened to, you should lead by example. By leading the way, you are creating confidence in the people around you. Always remember that when the leader lacks confidence, the team lacks commitment.

 

Once upon a time, a young boy was addicted to eating sugar. His mother warned him several times not to eat sugar as it is not good for his health. But the boy didn’t listen to his mother. Finally, the mother decided to get help from Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Indian nation. So, she took her son to the Ashram and requested Gandhiji to tell her son to stop eating sugar, as it is not good for his health. Gandhiji replied, “I cannot tell him that right now, but you can bring him back after a month, and then I will talk to him.” Hearing this, the mother was confused and upset that Gandhiji didn’t give any solution. So, she and her son went back home. After a month, they met Gandhiji again in the Ashram. This time Gandhiji looked at the boy and said, “Young boy, you should stop eating sugar as it’s not good for your health. Listen to your mother and follow her”. The boy promised that he would not do that again. The boy’s mother, out of curiosity, asked Gandhiji, “Why didn’t you tell him last time when I bought him here?” Gandhiji smiled and said, “Mother, last time when you came, I had the habit of eating a lot of sugar myself.”

A credible leader should always be a worthy example. Never ask your subordinates to do anything that you would not do yourself. Take every possible opportunity to show your team that you are willing to perform whatever is necessary for them to succeed.

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