Meditating Manager

What are the qualities of a successful leader? This is a very common question you may hear in the corridors of any organization. And, people may respond to it with a very common answer. A good leader should have good communication skills and influencing skills and assertiveness and bla bla bla.... The list is unending. However, one skill which many people miss to mention is 'Thinking Skill'. Many scholars in the field of management have argued that Thinking is a skill which differentiates a great leader from good leader, A wildly successful leader from a successful leader. Ironically, many leaders seldom spend time in sharpening their skills of thinking. Action is always engaging, activities impress people and on the contrary thinking appears to be very dull process. As a result many leaders are fascinated with the art of the execution rather than art of thinking. When these leaders are climbing the hierarchical ladder in the organizational, they are focused on their execution

  I always admired a concept of confession room! In the human history, we will possibly not find any other better way to deal with guilt, anger, envy, jealousy & inferiority complexes. A confession room or confession box is a very strong tool for any individual to take off the emotional burdens from his/her shoulders and start a whole new chapter in the life! It is a great relief when you get to know that someone is ‘listening’ you- without giving any suggestion, someone who would not take ‘advantage’ of your situation or even will not create opinion about you. 'Listening' is an emotional hunger of human beings. This is one of the best practices for psychologically deprived people who are carrying some kind of guilt! How about bringing this confession room in our offices? Every day, every minute, a manager keeps on going through a series of emotional swings. It is a possibility that s/he may keep on accumulating different emotions in his/her mind. Over a time pe

  If you belong to a society where people break rules, break queues, break traffic signals, break protocols then expecting them to follow rules & regulations, processes & procedures in the organization is an unrealistic expectation! Ultimately, people working in the organization emerge from the society around you. Hence, it is obvious that whatever your society practices that will be reflected in your organization. Organizations are mirrors of the society! If your society is disciplined, value driven; then your organization needs not to preach it to its employees. It will be an obvious nature of your employees to be disciplined and value driven. If people are particular about hygiene and cleanliness at their homes then no one is required to tell them to practice same at office. If people practice honesty & integrity in their personal lives then same will reflect in their professional lives as well! If people respect their family, elders & even juniors then the

  Yes! If you ask about the worst addiction in the world; then, answer may not be smoking or alcohol but it is ‘seeking sympathy’! Other addiction may impact your physical body but ‘seeking sympathy’ impacts your ‘inner-self’, your mind, your character & your existence! Ironically, you pay lot of attention to stay away from other forms of addictions; you educate yourselves and people about the worst impacts of alcohol or smoking or drugs but have you ever observed the condition of a person who is seeking sympathy? A person who is playing a victim’s role, in every situation of his/her life; a person who has compromised his/her self esteem. It is relatively easy to get rid of the other addictions. There are defined therapies to treat an addicted person and keep him/her away from the addictions. However, there is no therapy to treat a person who is addicted to sympathy. You will notice many people around you who are addicted to ‘seeking sympathy!’ it is wide-spread addiction.

Just like customer’s life cycle, even a manager has life cycle. First step of manager’s life cycle is ‘Acknowledgement’- Is your team accepting you? Do they at least acknowledge your existence in the team? Many managers struggle at this very first step and live a faceless professional life. Second step in manager’s life cycle is ‘Appreciation’- Those who have crossed the first step generally strive for this second step. Appreciation is a complement from your team, your manager and others for your work. Many managers professional journey is ends at this step only! Many managers end up thinking that 'Being appreciated' is the final achievement of the professional life. Wise managers know it is not! The third and most difficult step for any manager is ‘Influence’- You are going back to influencing your team upward and downward to agree to your points. Influencing involves changing your teams thought process, making their opinions, convincing them to change their

5th S of 5S for Meditating Manager is  'Samvedana' ! It means 'Being Sensitive'! 'Samvedana'  is living by keeping all your senses alive! Making your mind alert, attentive to every small thing happening around! Are you sensitive to your surrounding? Are your senses alive? Is your mind breathing fresh air every moment? When I am saying 'your surrounding' then it is not restricted to your home or your work place. Surrounding is everything and everybody who is around you! It could be your family, your colleague and even non-living things like your instruments and material. We have increased pace of our lives- unnecessary though- to such an extent that we have become ignorant about our surrounding. We have become self-centered, selfish to that extent that we are least bothered about our surrounding. You might have seen managers who are very particular about cleanliness at their home but throwing used paper napkins or water bottles on the r