Want to see more super star citizens? Watch the high potential, success hungry kids, provide just enough support, and then deny them opportunities.

Then just watch them spring. And surpass the entitled and privileged:-)

Because once these kids overcome the push backs, and the humps, they would have seen everything working against them. They will be invincible: ready to take on any risk you can imagine!

Happy Roars!

… look at the candidates’ nails; not their cuffs.

For the occasional, sceptical patriot:

When the wolf stares you down, will you be the lamb that cowers in fear, or the sheepdog who stands tall and scares it back?

When 15th is over, will you still walk proud of who you are everyday? Will you still not take shit, just because of your heritage, everyday? Will you not hide stereotypes behind ‘hum to aise hi hain’ smirks, everyday?

Will you then look each other in the eye, and say “Happy Independence Day”,  everyday?

Lawrence Miller, in this article, draws a parallel between the life cycle of a civilization with that on a corporation. Arguably, both pursue creation, attainment and eventual destruction of wealth.

Timely and timebound presence of leaders of differing styles and personas is critical for a timely transition of an organization to a long sustainable fleet of balance and peace.

Edison for example, was a prophet: a great innovator, but a terrible communicator, and even worse as a people person. He is known to have used the hallway floors as a receptacle to tobacco spits. Gross as it may be, he classified the entire floor as a juice pan, stating that any other solution would be a distraction from his primary purpose of experimentation.

As is widely known, Steven Jobs returned back to Apple Computer as a barbarian – making decision without wide consensuses, committed to clear goals at any cost.

Magellan on the other hand, was an explorer – scaling newer heights and reaching farther distances with discipline and order.

Knowing where you are in your career, and society,

What is your decision making style?

What kind of leader are you?

More importantly, can you adapt your style when needed? To what extent?:-)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertsher/2014/04/12/the-worst-thing-any-leader-can-do-to-high-performers/

Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won’t suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when that person looks back – she will hear her heart saying, “What have you done? You buried yourself in a cave because you were fearful of losing those talents. So this is your heritage: the certainty that you wasted your life.”

Pitiful are the people who must realize this. Because when they are finally able to believe in miracles, their life’s magic moments will have already passed them by.

-From “By the river Piedra I sat down and wept”.

Engagement eclipses workplace incentives.

Gallup research shows that keeping employees happy or satisfied is a worthy goal that can help build a more positive workplace. But simply measuring workers’ satisfaction or happiness levels is insufficient to create sustainable change, retain top performers, and improve the bottom line. Satisfied or happy employees are not necessarily engaged. And engaged employees are the ones who work hardest, stay longest, and perform best.

“If you’re engaged, you know what’s expected of you at work, you feel connected to people you work with, and you want to be there,” says Jim Harter, Ph.D., Gallup’s chief scientist of workplace management and wellbeing. “You feel a part of something significant, so you’re more likely to want to be part of a solution, to be part of a bigger tribe. All that has positive performance consequences for teams and organizations.”

Original article: http://businessjournal.gallup.com/content/163316/don-pamper-employees-engage.aspx

Because the two words “ego” and “self” are loosely interchangeable, let me distinguish between them.

Ego motivations:

Getting as much as you can for yourself.
Looking good in the eyes of others.
Disguising and denying your weaknesses.
Regarding your co-workers as rivals and enemies.
Taking care of number one.
Winning even if others get hurt in the process.
External rewards.
Using power to dominate others.
Pushing your viewpoint forward against resistance and other people’s point of view.
Hatred of being seen as a loser.

We all have some of these ingredients, since everyone has an ego to defend. If taken to extremes, egoistic personalities verge on the psychopathic. There are areas of business, such as reckless trading houses on Wall St., where the worst traits of ego drive are hugely rewarded and almost never punished or even held in check. But the vast majority of people don’t let their egos completely run away with them. There is room to encourage the motivations of the self instead.

Self motivations:

The desire to be fulfilled.
Looking good in your own eyes.
Honestly facing your weaknesses in order to overcome them.
Taking the welfare of others into account.
Valuing and seeking other points of view.
Preserving your own integrity, speaking your own truth.
Forgiving yourself for not being perfect.
Keeping external rewards in perspective.
Using power to benefit as many people as possible.
Basing self-confidence on knowledge and insight.
Preferring excellence over winning, and enjoying those times when the two coincide.

When you consider which choice to make, whether to build a self or follow your ego drives, keep in mind that some things in life can’t be controlled. You can’t change the times you were born in, the family who shaped you, how gifted you might be, and many of the circumstances you find yourself in. Success depends on how you manage the things you have no control over. 

– Deepak Chopra.

“That was when it was all made painfully clear to me. When you are a child, there is joy. There is laughter. And most of all, there is trust. Trust in your fellows. When you are an adult…then comes suspicion, hatred, and fear. If children ran the world, it would be a place of eternal bliss and cheer. Adults run the world; and there is war, and enmity, and destruction unending. Adults who take charge of things muck them up, and then produce a new generation of children and say, “The children are the hope of the future.” And they are right. Children are the hope of the future. But adults are the damnation of the present, and children become adults as surely as adults become worm food.
Adults are the death of hope.”

― Peter David, Tigerheart.

Leaders have a unique ability to rally employees around a vision. Because their belief in the vision is so strong, employees will naturally want to follow them. Leaders also tend to be willing to take risks in pursuit of the vision.

Managers, on the other hand, are more adept at executing the vision in a very systemic way and directing employees on how to do so. They can see all of the intricate moving parts and understand how to make them harmonize. Managers are usually very risk-adverse.

– INC. Magazine.