About the Author :
Amit Dasgupta is the founder and President of Kaalp Consulting, specialising in senior leadership coaching and leadership consulting for business performance improvement. With over 35 years of experience in manufacturing, consulting, and IT services, he has held leadership roles with multinational companies like IBM, ITC Infotech, Tata Tea, and Philips across India, the USA, and Europe. As a Leadership Coach, Amit has coached board members, CEOs, and top management executives in leading Indian and multinational organisations. He has also successfully led large engagements for several Fortune 100 companies worldwide, focusing on IT services, operational excellence, and transformation management.
As I reflect back on my decades of corporate and entrepreneurial experience, several thoughts surface on the learnings, challenges, successes, failures, and relationships that accompanied me during the journey. Over time, business environments change; as a result, organisational cultures and societal practices also evolve. Trying to distil learnings from past experience that would be of interest to the current generation of leaders is thus an arduous task. However, there are time-tested concepts that have held good in the past and will hold good in the future too. I will share some insights on a few such practices to become respected leaders.
Universally, every professional aspires to do well; become effective leaders, achieve financial security, and lead a comfortable life. In my opinion, the best way to succeed in this quest is by laying emphasis on developing our intrinsic abilities – beginning with our inner ‘Self’.
All of us experience life in two spaces – internal and external. The illustration depicts the interconnection between an individual’s internal and external environment. The internal environment embodies our existence, the self, in which the mind functions. The external environment is the physical space in which we exist and cohabit with others.
Our being – the Self is conditioned both by internal factors such as – beliefs, thoughts and feelings and external factors such as – actions, outcomes, and experiences.
Our beliefs, values, goals, thoughts, feelings, capabilities, and strategies reside in the internal environment, which is largely within our control. By harnessing our energies in managing this environment well, we can improve our chances of succeeding in our endeavours.
Within this internal environment, there are two parts – ‘Resources’ and ‘Capabilities’. The resources that are in our command relate to the who and why in us, namely:
Self Beliefs and Values Purpose Thought Power
Linked to our resources are the capabilities we acquire, which are also in our control. They relate to the how:
Knowledge Listening Trust Empathy
In this article, I will cover only those elements that relate to Resources. Capabilities will be covered in another article.
Know Yourself
Our work and personal lives are inseparable parts of our Self – the driving force of our existence. Our self defines our identity, shapes our beliefs and values, helps us identify our uniqueness, and assists us in deciding how we wish to lead our lives. All good, but why is knowledge of our ‘Self’ important? Probably the best answer to this question can be found in Dr. Tasha Eurich’s article in the Harvard Business Review, on ‘What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It)’. An excerpt from this article reads as follows:
Yet, in management science, the subject ‘Self’ finds little mention. Daniel Goleman first popularized the term ‘self-awareness’ in his book on Emotional Intelligence (EI) in 1995. Since then, there is growing awareness on this subject, and self-awareness is one of the five elements of his EI model.
How do we go about knowing ourselves? It begins with deep contemplation to discover and gain a deeper understanding of who we are as a person, what is unique about us, what do we enjoy doing, what energizes us, and what are we good at. Knowledge of ourselves gives us a balanced and holistic view of how we define success, what we want to achieve, and how we can lead our professional and personal lives as best as we can. Knowing the Self is the starting point to be good in what we do – be it in professional growth, leadership capabilities, financial success, team performance, strength of relationships, or quality of personal life.
We must keep in mind that human life spans have increased significantly. This necessitates the need to include both our professional and personal lives whilst evaluating our life’s journey. Viewing life in its entirety prepares us to lead meaningful and enjoyable lives, even after retirement and at old age.
There are well established techniques on self-discovery and how we get to understand our ‘Self’. More on that later.
Beliefs and Values
Beliefs and Values are generally understood by professionals but do not receive the importance they deserve. Simply stated, they are the genesis of our thoughts and actions and have a significant bearing on how we think, what we do, and what we achieve in our lives.
Beliefs
Beliefs are formed early in childhood, influenced by the family and teachers, and later by friends and society. Beliefs are contextual and evolve from what we see, hear, read and experience. These experiences shape our opinions and beliefs, regardless of whether they are correct or incorrect based on evidence.
Beliefs determine our mindsets and the thought patterns that emerge from it. As we grow, become independent, and acquire new experiences, we may change our beliefs.
Values
Values are closely related to what we need and want to do. Whatever we need—whatever is dear to us or what is missing from our lives—is what we value. Over time as we grow, and situations and conditions in life change; our values also change. When our values are reflected in our decisions, we focus on what is good for us and our well-being.
Why are values important and why do we need to review our values periodically? Reevaluating our values is a process of self-discovery and reflection and helps us in leading purposeful and fulfilling lives. Our values signify what matters to us and guide our decisions, actions, and behaviour. They give us direction, motivation and a sense of meaning and purpose. When we are able to work and live a life that is in sync with our values, we feel motivated, energised and focused, and we are more productive, creative, and resilient to challenges. Therefore, we must actively ponder, reflect, and assess whether our values are serving our purpose and work/life goals.
Purpose
Purpose emerges for the understanding of knowing who we are, our beliefs and values. Like in business, without a direction, we may not be able to realize what we want to achieve. So, it is imperative to define our purpose with which we wish to live our lives.
Having a clear purpose gives us a sense of direction, guides our decisions, sets goals and provides clarity on how we should conduct our lives. Purpose promotes wellbeing, fulfillment, joy and happiness. It motivates us, helps build resilience to persevere through challenges, and allows us to live life in line with our values and contribute to something we care about. Having a higher sense of purpose energizes us to live life beyond the mundane.
Thought Power
Knowing our self, our values and purpose can just become an academic exercise, and will not be of much value unless put to use. The bridge between knowing and doing is thought. The power of thought is the most powerful resource we have at our disposal. Thoughts help us put our knowledge to work, which leads to action that culminates in results.
What sets us humans apart from all other living beings is that our cognitive mental abilities are significantly more evolved than any other life form on this planet. This special ability – the mind – is the principal architect of our lives. It has shaped our past, is shaping the present and will shape our future. Yet, how many of us really understand how it functions, how does it influence our thoughts, actions, and outcomes, and how we can nurture the mind to help us lead satisfying lives?
According to vedanta, mind is the ‘Antahkarana’ or the inner instrument. The Antahkarana or the mind connects with the external world through the ‘Bahya Karana’ the outer instrument or sense organs: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Since the mind cannot function without the senses, we must be careful in managing our sense perceptions, so that our mind stays in prime condition.
Let’s understand how we think or how thoughts surface in our minds. Thoughts are the inner dialogues we have within ourselves. Thoughts emerge from our beliefs, past actions and experiences. Thoughts trigger a process which cascades as mentioned below:
“Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do.” – Bertrand Russell.
The old adage ‘As we think, we become’, highlights the value of thinking right and thinking critically. What we achieve in life depends largely on the quality of our thoughts. Better quality of thoughts leads to better actions, and better actions produce better outcomes:
- ➤ Happy and positive thoughts release good chemicals.
- ➤ Stressful or negative thoughts release toxic chemicals.
- ➤ A controlled state of thoughts leads to calmness.
- ➤ Calmness improves performance.
- ➤ Better performance leads to success.
Pranayama and meditation are very effective practices to improve concentration, calm the mind, and regulate our thoughts. With focused and powerful thoughts, we can enhance our proficiency significantly. Visualization is another technique that helps to widen our thinking horizons and ignites our imagination to approach challenges with a fresh mindset.
During my tenure with IBM, I came across the very simple yet brilliant slogan ‘THINK’ coined by the CEO of IBM, Thomas J Watson Sr. This is how the slogan emerged.
Before joining CTR (later renamed IBM) in 1914, Watson worked with the National Cash Register Company (NCR). In a meeting of sales and advertising executives at NCR, Thomas J. Watson Sr. was frustrated with his colleagues for not generating solid ideas for a campaign to boost sales. In his outburst he said:
“The trouble with every one of us is that we don’t think enough. We don’t get paid for working with our feet – we get paid for working with our heads.”
“Knowledge is the result of thought, and thought is the keynote of success in this business or any business.”
To address this issue, he coined the slogan THINK. Later at IBM, he made the THINK slogan a cornerstone of IBM’s identity and culture, and explained “THINK” as meaning “take everything into consideration.” So profound was the impact, that the slogan appeared on signs, desk plaques and notebooks, and continues to be relevant even after a hundred years. Those of you who have used IBM laptops would have seen the ‘ThinkPad’ label.
I conclude here with a message.
Sow a thought and reap an action.
Sow an action and reap a habit.
Sow a habit and reap your destiny.
