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 ...

  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...

  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 addicti...

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...

Sahakarya  means cooperation in Sanskrit language! This is another universal law- If you do ‘good’ to others, ‘good’ will happen to you! If you help others then you will receive help in your critical time! It is not a matter of belief; it’s a matter of experience! Universe functions in this way! Whatever goes around comes around. It is that simple! But, it is seen that many managers miss out on this important virtue. What stops us from practicing cooperation? More than cooperation, competition plays on manager’s mind. An average manager looks at work as a F1 race. His/ Her definition of success is being ahead of others! Definition of success is beating everyone else in the race. An average manager thinks only about him or her survival. However, a meditating manager- who is practicing  Sakakarya  (i.e. Cooperation) - thinks about surviving together, not only about surviving together but also about growing together. An average manager misinterpret...

Sanvaad  means communication in Sanskrit language. A lot has been discussed and written on this virtue. Yes, instead of naming it as a skill, it is more of a virtue! What to communicate; when to  communicate  & How to  communicate  are important questions every manager should ask himself/herself before initiating any conversation. When this equation of What, When & How goes wrong, we end up with mess. Miscommunication is more of ‘Missed Communication’- either content is missed or context is missed or timing is missed or approach is missed! The biggest problem with communication is that we talk a lot but we seldom communicate. Frequently, we end up assuming things. ‘I guess he has understood!’, ‘I hope she will understand!’, ‘I know what he is going to say!’, ‘Do I need to tell you these basic things?’- are the assumptions which create barriers in the effective communication. Clarity in communication, ensuring t...

Sayyam (Patience) 2 nd S of 5 S for Meditating Manager Sayyam  is a sanskrit word for ‘practicing patience’! To a great extent, it’s linked to  Shanti  (i.e. Mental Peace). Without practicing  Sayyam ,  Shanti  is achievable. Ironically,  Sayyam  is the most discussed but less practiced virtue in the corporate world. Frequently, Patience is being misinterpreted as ‘No Action’ in the corporate world. In today’s world, each & every manager wants to win and wants to win immediately! Each & every manager wants to prove himself or herself, quickly! An urge of I want everything right now, right here is creating impatience and resulting into tremendous stress on today’s managers! This urge is so strong that thousands of books on ‘Law of Attraction’ are being sold every day, every moment! Young managers are attempting law of attraction- a universal law- to achieve their life’s goals. However, they forge...

Shanti (Peace) 1 st S of 5 S for Meditating Manager Let’s discuss first ‘S’ of 5S! First ‘S’ in ‘5S for meditating managers’ is  Shanti . It simply means ‘Mental Peace’. The main reason for less productivity or low performance of most of the managers is lack of mental peace. What kills mental peace? Is it restlessness, anxiety, insecurities! If yes then where do these things come from? If we dig into ourselves then we’ll realize that it comes from our unrealistic expectations- from self and others; it comes from lack of visibility of future and it comes from our fears & worries! Let’s make an attempt to understand it! We end up worrying about something which is imaginary in nature, something which has not happened yet! Our mind plays these tricks with us. It creates virtual world around us which projects possible failures, disappointments, loses and it manifests into tensions and stress in real life. You must be recollecting a strory from our child...

As we know that 5 S is a quality tool which talks about improving the quality of the workplace; These 5S are derived from Japanese Language and those are: Seiri (To Sort); Seiton (To Set in order); Seiso (To Shine); Seoketsu (To Standardize); Shitsuke  (To sustain) These 5S toosl keep workplace in order but what about worklife? To put worklife in order, to improve quality of worklife, we need to see another set of 5S for meditating managers. These 5S for better worklife are derived from Sanskrit Language and those are: Shanti (Mental peace); Sayyam (Patience); Sanvaad (Conversation); Sahakarya (Cooperation) and Sanvedana (Sensitivity) There are managers who are good at managing others or their surrounding but when it comes to managing self, they struggle a lot! What goes wrong with these managers? Why do they struggle to manage self?  people who are good in managing external environment do not attention to their internal environment. 5S for meditating mana...

What is a purpose of Meditating Manager? A manager is not a person who is running merely for appreciations, complements, increments & designations. His/her expectations might be much different than these things. His/her vision for life or for the organization may be much broader and bigger. Possibly, a sense of fulfillment, happiness, ecstasy derived from the work is equally important for him or her. A manager is not a sheer faceless resource who is working as a ball bearing in the machine named as the company nor s/he is a brick in the foundation which is important but not being noticed. A manager is an essential and integral part of the organization. A person who lives with huge possibilities. A person who can shape up the future of any organization. This blog is dedicated to such managers who work with great commitment, contribute to the fullest and have a capacity to think about the betterment of them & their organizations. This blog is not a ‘How To’ gui...