Dr. Shailesh Thaker - Best Management Training Blog - Top Management Consultants

Posts Tagged ‘Leadership Guru’

And almost certainly could be, even though I’m 58 years old. Until recently, I never believed that was possible. For most of my adult life, I’ve accepted the incredibly durable myth that some people are born with special talents and gifts, and that the potential to truly excel in any given pursuit is largely determined by our genetic inheritance.

During the past year, I’ve read no fewer than five books — and a raft of scientific research — which powerfully challenge that assumption (see below for a list). I’ve also written one, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, which lays out a guide, grounded in the science of high performance, to systematically building your capacity physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

We’ve found, in our work with executives at dozens of organizations, that it’s possible to build any given skill or capacity in the same systematic way we do a muscle: push past your comfort zone, and then rest. Aristotle Will Durant*, commenting on Aristotle, pointed out that the philosopher had it exactly right 2000 years ago: “We are what we repeatedly do.” By relying on highly specific practices, we’ve seen our clients dramatically improve skills ranging from empathy, to focus, to creativity, to summoning positive emotions, to deeply relaxing.

Like everyone who studies performance, I’m indebted to the extraordinary Anders Ericsson, arguably the world’s leading researcher into high performance. For more than two decades, Ericsson has been making the case that it’s not inherited talent which determines how good we become at something, but rather how hard we’re willing to work — something he calls “deliberate practice.” Numerous researchers now agree that 10,000 hours of such practice as the minimum necessary to achieve expertise in any complex domain.

There is something wonderfully empowering about this. It suggests we have remarkable capacity to influence our own outcomes. But that’s also daunting. One of Ericsson’s central findings is that practice is not only the most important ingredient in achieving excellence, but also the most difficult and the least intrinsically enjoyable.

If you want to be really good at something, it’s going to involve relentlessly pushing past your comfort zone, along with frustration, struggle, setbacks and failures. That’s true as long as you want to continue to improve, or even maintain a high level of excellence. The reward is that being really good at something you’ve earned through your own hard work can be immensely satisfying.

Here, then, are the six keys to achieving excellence we’ve found are most effective for our clients:

1. Pursue what you love. Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.
2. Do the hardest work first. We all move instinctively toward pleasure and away from pain. Most great performers, Ericsson and others have found, delay gratification and take on the difficult work of practice in the mornings, before they do anything else. That’s when most of us have the most energy and the fewest distractions.
3. Practice intensely, without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90 minutes and then take a break. Ninety minutes appears to be the maximum amount of time that we can bring the highest level of focus to any given activity. The evidence is equally strong that great performers practice no more than 4 ½ hours a day.
4. Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses. The simpler and more precise the feedback, the more equipped you are to make adjustments. Too much feedback, too continuously, however, can create cognitive overload, increase anxiety, and interfere with learning.
5. Take regular renewal breaks. Relaxing after intense effort not only provides an opportunity to rejuvenate, but also to metabolize and embed learning. It’s also during rest that the right hemisphere becomes more dominant, which can lead to creative breakthroughs.
6. Ritualize practice. Will and discipline are wildly overrated. As the researcher Roy Baumeister has found, none of us have very much of it. The best way to insure you’ll take on difficult tasks is to ritualize them — build specific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time you do them without having to squander energy thinking about them.

I have practiced tennis deliberately over the years, but never for the several hours a day required to achieve a truly high level of excellence. What’s changed is that I don’t berate myself any longer for falling short. I know exactly what it would take to get to that level.

I’ve got too many other higher priorities to give tennis that attention right now. But I find it incredibly exciting to know that I’m still capable of getting far better at tennis — or at anything else — and so are you.

Listen your people immediately (no hearing).We usually says to people, ‘talk to me later’. Even, we hardly look up to them (eye contact) and communicate as we are occupying in technology. I found people are busier in electronic gadgets and missing charm of meeting live people. Most of the time we give importance to technology, instead of live people. Isn’t it? Listen people completely. Do not cut their thoughts before they actually finished. (People do cut the thoughts of the people as if they know it). To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection .Listen intently till the people are exhausted.
Life is “now “or never.  Do it now have impact in the life. Leaders always respect the power of ‘now’ and listen them. This moment is the truth of the life. This truth is very well understood by leader, that’s why leader listen his executives, managers and team members.
Once we listen our people we have the following advantages.
1/ People down the line believe that they have a person to share their emotions.
2/ as a leader we come to know the actual status of the situation.
3/ indirectly, leader give the confidence to the people and power to communicate.
4/ People down the line feel that they have a shoulder to cry or spine support to stand tall.
5/ Leader offer solutions or decisions to the matter.

“The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said. “
Peter F. Drucker

LEADERS PURSUE PASSION WITH WILLINGNESS TO DIE FOR IT.
Loving what you do is the key source of accomplishment.
Find something you like to do so much that you had gladly done it of nothing, and if you learn to do it well, someday people will be happy to pay you for it.”
These are a true case in the life of most of the performers and achievers. A man without passion is merely impossible. Every individual have passion but most of them are unable to discover it.
How to discover passion? It took me only moment to autograph it on the paper.
1/ Act only those actions create pleasure, joy and fun in the life.
2/ Love to do it even though you are not paid money for it.
3/ Never give away from the life.
4/ Never feel tired while doing it for years and years. I feel most alive.
5/ While doing it you thing using potentiality at fullest.
Excellence is followed by passion. Things done in the life without passionate involvement hardly produces great results. Leaders never reached to the accomplishment level.
Martin Luther King said, “If a man did not discover something that he will die for, he is not fit to live.” We need to meet our purpose of aliveness. Why am I on the planet? What difference I can make to the world?
Focus on what you have instead of what is not available. Never stray away from your passion. Always learn to protect your passion. Remember, the golden rule,” People around you will always stop you when you are enlighten, with fire and going more innovative things.” You can apply it and feel it by one simple experience.
Today, when you seat with your family members on dining table, declare that, from tomorrow morning, you are going to start learning healing techniques to clean the soul. See what happened?
Leaders have passion for work and life. Let us starts living beyond limitations and trigger out the passion .Leaders need internal energizers and passion is the ultimate secret of aliveness.
“DEATH IS NOT THE GREATEST LOSS IN THE LIFE. THE GREATEST LOSS IS WHAT DIES INSIDE  OF US WHILE WE ALIVE.”
Norman Cousins.

A  R Rahman, Oscar winner award musician says, “Prayer coming from a pure heart can actually change the destiny. I have seen it happen. There are instances that make me believe in the power of universe. And when the right things happen at the right time, is when your faith in something is reinforces many times more. It’s you also need to put you sincerity and hard work, but it’s meaningless if there is hatred and contempt in heart for your fellow beings. “
Clean soul can create wonders. Clean soul bless you sound and deep sleep of 8 hours. Prayer, Music, Meditation and creation are the tools to make soul more clean and clear. Holly wood actress learns prayer and meditation to live distress life. Recently, Angelina Jolly committed that she love spiritual life and she understand the importance of it in the life.
Leader does spend net 40 minutes for meditation and prayer every day, irrespective of anything and any place. In prayer you travel to God and share your pure emotions (not intelligence) this lesson is very well understand experience by leader.
The good wishes that leaders earn in the lifetime are true victory and real awards. “Leadership is based on a spiritual quality; the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow.” asserted by Vince Lombard.
True leaders know the true value of prayer and meditation. They also know that there is no pint in value the water after finding out dry well.

It was an experiment. I was returning an item to the store from which I had bought it. The item was well within the return period, but there would be a 20% restocking fee. Could I evade that fee? What would I have to do or say to persuade them not to charge it to me?

Last week I suggested that the best way to handle a situation in which you have no power is to give up the illusion of power and appeal to the generosity of the person in power. That’s a hard thing to do and worth practicing.

I thought about telling the store that my item didn’t work properly or it didn’t perform as expected or it didn’t do what I needed — in other words, subtle ways of getting the upper-hand, of being in the right, of gaining power. But the product was fine, and lying always backfires and feels even worse than yelling. Also, trying to assert power would miss the point and violate the rules of the experiment: I was trying to see if I could get what I wanted by appealing to a powerful person’s generosity. I was trying to practice. So I ruled those out.

What I had left, I realized, was nothing. Which was the exact strategy I was practicing.

“I’d like to return this,” I said to the sales person behind the cash register, “and I know you charge a restocking fee — which you have every right to do — but I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t.”

“Sorry sir, but we have to charge the fee. We always charge the fee. It’s company policy.”

“I understand but is there someone in the store who could make the decision to waive the fee?”

I waited for the manager, who came out and repeated the policy.

“I completely understand, and truth is, there’s nothing wrong with the device, it just didn’t work for me. I know you have every right to charge me the fee. And that there’s no reason not to in this situation. It’s just that I was really hoping you might make an exception in this case.”

Now, pause for a moment and notice that I am making no attempt to exert any power in the situation — it would be absurd to try because I have no power — but I am acknowledging my powerlessness and appealing to his generosity, asking him to use his power with compassion.

“I’m sorry, but, you know, we can’t sell this product as new anymore. That’s why we have the restocking fee policy.”

He was right, of course. And he made complete sense. At this point I was actually embarrassed to continue. Not only didn’t I have the power, but he was using his power appropriately. Still, it was an experiment, and I was practicing and learning, which made it OK to persist. I knew I might fail but I committed to continuing.

“Yeah, that makes sense actually. I mean, you can’t sell this again as new. So I would of course understand if you said no. But maybe in this situation you could make an exception? I would be really appreciative if you didn’t charge me the fee.”

He paused for a second before responding: “We don’t normally waive the fee.”

Did you catch that? Normally. Which means it is something they occasionally do.

My next move was not to make a move. I just looked at him and waited in the silence. Which of course is actually a move, one that feels very awkward. But it was an experiment so I continued.

He finally spoke: “Well, I’ll make an exception this one time — but only this once.”

I was effusive in thanking him — and I wasn’t faking it. I was really so thankful that he was willing to make this exception. In fact, by our banter afterward, I think we both left the transaction feeling good about the other, a much better result than would have been accomplished by trying to force power.

The experience reinforced, for me, that people, quite predictably, will be generous if you respectfully appeal to their generosity. It feels better to them — and to you — than trying to exert power. And if the answer still turns out to be no, I’d bet using threats wouldn’t fare any better in the situation.

What I learned went well beyond the confirmation of an idea. What I learned is the power of framing, of thinking about life as an experiment.

Because when we live life as an experiment, we are far more willing to take risks, to acknowledge failure, to learn and develop. That’s what experiments are all about: discovery and growth. There is no real failure in an experiment because it’s all data. If something doesn’t work, that’s simply data that leads to changing behavior to see if something else does work.

When we’re experimenting, we’re willing to do all sorts of things we might be embarrassed to do otherwise. Like ask for something when we don’t particularly “deserve” it. Or say something in a conversation that might create a breakthrough (or might appear dumb). If it’s an experiment, then taking a risk is the win — whether it pans out or not.

And in those situations when it does pan out, we might just walk away with more than a good education. We might walk away with an extra 20% in our pockets.