Thought Leadership

The Aim  The aim of concepts are far more wider than what we think of. Somehow the concept of Thought Leadership wrongly became the field of winning & success only But it is way above & beyond this temporary destination Thought Leadership adds value The sole purpose of Thought Leadership is to provide "Value Addition" to the domain. It is a more philosophical framework of understanding There are many Thought Leaderships that seemingly failed to become famous J. C. Bose work on material radio signal made Marconi famous but is hardly acknowledged Ibn al-Haytham, the 10 th century Arab Mathematician no one knows. But his works on optics made Roger Bacon famous centuries later Jerome Cardano the unsung Italian genius who invented practically the Quantum Physics & Probality Theory but is hardly credited by any Can we deny.... Can we deny the value additions of such great minds though they are not famous & successful? The collectivity of failings in Thought Leadersh...

History is Not Only About History  Generally we read History to understand the society, culture, polity, economy, governance etc of that era. Often we compare those aspects with our present times & deduce learning inferences But how many of us read History from a geographical & topographical perspective to understand climate change ? The Imperceptible  When Alexander marched through Persia, his historians talk about greenery, fertile plains, flowing waters etc in one of the provinces. But in the 19th century another historian talks about the same province as arid & dry There are innumerable such geographical inferences from history Some climatologists study history to compare the climates of the two eras & deduce their findings Such climatologist offer one simple & effortless solutions to the study of climate change The above discussion highlights the importance of “Seeking & Perspective” Seek what you Seek  You get what you seek even from the most...

Mind Sparkle Series MSS How To Start Career in Academics.. An Engaging Session by Prof Afroz Alam, HoD, MANNU Welcome to Mind Sparkle Series MSS where I am conducting a series of motivational and theme based lectures, Panel Discussions, Workshops etc on online platforms with expert individuals from all walks of life.  The idea of the program is to prepare the students, professionals etc for the future career and progress. This Mind Sparkle Series MSS is concieved and planned by Shahnawaz Qasim, IPS  The aim of Mind Sparkle Series MSS  is to provide inspiration, motivation and encouragement to uplift your life to a new level. The ideas, concepts and knowledge we would discuss will act as a catalyst for your change. We believe that positive changes are foundation stones towards societal change. It is the drop that ultimately create the sea. About the Speaker Prof Afroz Alam is presently working as Professor and Head, Department of Political Science at Maulana Azad National...

The Great Imbalance  Have you ever realised the great imbalance we have created in our Self Communication System . Though inadvertently developed but it has a profound & lasting impact on your leadership attributes Speaking, listening & writing are the core  Self Communication System   which connects your personality to the outer world. It's like the visa by which you enter the other people’s mind  But to avail the visa one has to first get the passport    Picture credit : Thought Catalog from Pexels  The Passport to Success  Reading is the passport of your personality. Without it your entire  Self Communication System    is an exercise in self deception  We must have read upteem articles about personalities & their reading lists. Their list is not so important. But the fact that they read is some pointer towards their success  Now the basic question is what to read. The answer is a simple formula which I have ...

The Inter-Disciplinary & Cross Sectoral Knowledge Approach  The study of the history of knowledge reveals an interesting fact. It is the Inter-Disciplinary & Cross Sectoral Knowledge that propelled the advancement in human progressA mere glance at the history of knowledge reveals that great stalwarts did not belong to any particular field of study All the Greek thinkers were not domain experts but had inter disciplinary knowledge across mathematics, astronomy , medicine , philosophy etc They did not confine their intellect to a particular field of knowledge though they may have given more attention to a particular area History of Knowledge  is testimony to this fact  The same interdisciplinary approach is seen in the ancient Indian knowledge system The Arabic-Persian-Turkish knowledge world continued with the Greek system of Cross sectoral knowledge The modern world is obsessed with hardcore domain knowledge. But those who continued with the Inter-Disciplinary ...

Newtonian or Quantum Leaders  Some physicists say that there are two worlds. The World of Big Objects (WBO) & the World of Small Objects (WSO) The WBO is the Newtonian world. The WSO is the Quantum world. The WSO does not follow Newtonian laws The WBO is visible, observable & measurable The WSO is not Yet Both of them exists & are the real worlds But for many only WBO is the real world Mostly both the world do not follow each other’s laws, trajectory, motions, styles etc The Leadership Styles Similar is the case of the two distinct worlds of leadership One has a big aura, personality, is eloquent, has presence, always visible & seen in the action The other is quiet, recluse, non domineering, believes mostly in delegation & is non glamorous The first may be casually referred to as the "Leaders of the Newtonian world" The other are the "Leaders of the Quantum world" Both of them provide leadership to organisations they lead But just because WSO is ...

The talk on You tube  A talk on " How to reinvent yourself in the post pandemic world" The topic of the current times A thought process of what we need to do A perspective on what we can do Ideas to deliberate upon

Perspective is everything  When we talk about the Greek Civilization, we are generally talking about the Athenians. We are seeing history from the POV of the Athenians. We are not witnessing history from the perspective of the Corinthians, Spartans,Thebans or anyone else The celebrated intellectual E. H. Carr says that we must find the missing POVs of everybody to understand the real history behind any history Everybody's perspective is essential in understanding the completeness of any issue. Those who seemingly matter less actually matters more in the real facts The complete perspective  This is equally true for leadership. The completeness of the perspective is essential to the success of the leader. A leader must have eyes & ears to find & listen to all the unheard voices in the organisation Unrepresented, unheard & silenced voices are graveyards of leadership Those who represent more, shout more & have more access to leadership necessarily does not me...

He needs no introduction  Einstein needs no introduction. We expect everything new & fascinating from him. We hardly doubt him on his theories. In fact his every theory is regarded as "scientific gospel" Such is his reputation of imminence But he made the biggest mistake of his life  But he made the biggest mistake in astrophysics by telling the world that the universe is constant. He even introduced his now infamous “Cosmological Constant” into his equation in 1917 But when in 1929 Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is not static but expanding, the Astrophysics world was stunned The Brilliant Blunder  Einstein accepted his mistake & in 1931 disowned his own Cosmological Constant. A full 14 years after its creation Einstein himself is said to have observed that this was his Biggest Blunder. Some called it the “Brilliant Blunder” Ethical leadership  Here it shows the highest attribute of any leadership. That is to accept their mistakes & not th...

The Oldest Recorded Civilization Known To Man is The Sumerian Civilization The oldest recorded civilization known to man is the Sumerian civilization which existed in the present day area of Iraq starting from 4500 B.C. The Sumerians were the first to invent the Cuneiform Writing which later became the modern day Alphabet System. They were the first to advocate Individual Freedom and that’s why they started the first codification of laws to set the limits of the state. They were the first to ever record the concept of Democratic Assembly as mentioned in one of their poems. The concept of state started with the Sumerian. We are a civilization today because the basic foundations of it were laid in the Sumerian civilization. How We Are Still Following The Sumerian Schooling System There are many contributions and interesting facts about the Sumerians. In this article we will concentrate on one of its most interesting aspects- Education & Schooling System. The facts concerning Educatio...

The couplet  "Bas-ki dushvar hai har kaam ka aasan hona //  Aadmi ko bhi mayassar nahi insaan hona" It is difficult that every goal be easily complete // Even for Human it is not easy to be humane Ghalib  The above couplet of the great urdu poet Ghalib indicates that certain qualities are to be fulfilled before biological human becomes truly a human. There are four basic qualities which every human must possess to be called human. 1. A man must believe in the equality of all men 2. A man must be kind, compassionate and full of empathy in his behaviors 3. A man must be willing to repent on his mistakes 4. A man must be just, impartial and do justice What do you say ? 

Albert Camus & the plague period  One of the few good books to read during this period is " The Plague " written by Albert Camus. Albert Camus is one of the few brilliant philosophical minds of the 20th century.  The Plague  In the book " The Plague" , he philosophizes that the human's collective fight for existence against the common threat is an ongoing process. The book philosophizes about human destiny and freedom of choice. Through the book Albert Camus is also trying to refer to all forms of organised injustices via the metaphor of the plague.  The sample passage  Sample below a passage from the book.. Thus week by week the prisoners of plague put up what fight they could. Some, like Rambert, even contrived to fancy they were still behaving as free men and had the power of choice. But actually it would have been truer to say that by this time, mid-August, the plague had swallowed up everything and everyone. No longer were there individual destinies; on...

The earliest book on plague  One of the finest books to read on Pandemics or Epidemics is “ A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe”. This book is basically a journal which details about the bubonic plague which devastated London in the 17th century.  It is same today  Some of the incidents and social circumstances described in this book are no different from what is happening today in corona crisis worldwide. Sample one paragraph from the book. The sample Reading  “This was a very terrible and melancholy thing to see, and as it was a sight which I could not but look on from morning to night, for indeed there was nothing else of moment to be seen, it filled me with very serious thoughts of the misery that was coming upon the city, and the unhappy condition of those that would be left in it. This hurry of the people was such for some weeks that there was no getting at the Lord Mayor’s door without exceeding difficulty ; there template was such pressing and crowdi...

Father of History Nobody can claim to know history without knowing 𝓗𝓔𝓡𝓞𝓓𝓞𝓣𝓤𝓢. Herodotus is regarded as the father of history. The 9 volumes  He wrote his 9 volumes of books called Histories. This book deals extensively on the history of the Greco-Persian wars fought in the 5th century BC. Herodotus is believed to have written his voluminous book around 440 BC. Though the book is not what we know as academic history today. But definitely it is the first and most successful endeavor to write history comprehensively. Most of our knowledge about the Persian Empire of that time comes from this book.  The Greek POV The book is not impartial in its observations as it is written from the point of view POV of the Greeks. Nevertheless the Style, Geography, Events, Descriptions of war etc dealt in the books are matters worth going through. If you love history you will love Herodotus. The sample below is the history from his book. "My history hence proceeds to inquire who Cyrus w...

Leadership & Society  I𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗺𝗮𝗻, 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗺 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘁𝘆, 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 . COVID 19 & the society  With the grave threat of COVID19 , all societies have seen reduction in their social and economic powers. There is scarcity of capital, infrastructure, equipment, medicines, doctors, leadership etc. This is the loss of power of any society. Now is the time to see and observe which society shows unity, resilience, compassion and farsightedness in the fight against the pandemic.  The compassionate societies  Only those societies which have qualities bereft of hubris hubris in abundance would be able to cope with the aftermath. Those who lack those qualities would carry the scars much longer and may collapse one day. It is not only about material things that keeps any society away from t...

Truth too needs symbols  Truth, even though it is truth, still requires symbolism to highlight itself. One of the most iconic examples that can be cited is of Socrates, the Great Greek philosopher. Bertrand Russell writes " Oracle of Delphi was once asked if there were any man wiser than Socrates, and the oracle replied that there was not". Socrates the philosopher  Socrates was put to trial and condemned to death by the Athenian establishment. The charge against Socrates was that he was corrupting the minds of the people specially the young generations. Most of what we know about Socrates comes from the writing of his two pupils Plato and Xenophon. Plato, himself a great philosopher, was present in the court during the trial of Socrates and he wrote the entire dialogues of Socrates in the form of the book called “𝗔𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆" The Apology  At the end of the trial Socrates addresses the unjust court and remarks “ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶...

Rumi Jalaluddin Mohammad Rumi, popularly known as Rumi, is one of the greatest and most widely read mystic poet. He lived around the region of present day Turkey in the 13th century AD.  Shams Tabrez  He wrote mostly in Persian.. Shams –i- Tabrizi was the wandering Sufi who ignited the fire of mysticism and love in Rumi. It is said that Shams –i- Tabrizi shaped the entire intellectual consciousness of Rumi. Rumi says about him 𝙁𝙧𝙪𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙢𝙮 𝙚𝙭𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙚: 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙧𝙖𝙬, 𝙄 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙙, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄 𝙗𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙩 Maqalat –e- shams-i-Tabrizi Shams and Rumi had intellectual discussions and these were noted by Rumi’s students. The notes were compiled by an Iranian scholar into a book “Maqalat –e- shams-i-Tabrizi, The Discourses of Shams –i- Tabrizi. This book gives us the best insight into the mystic genius of both the great souls. Rumi’s Mathnawai is regarded as the one of greatest poetry book ever written. After translation into ...

Xenophanes  ‘If horses could draw, they would draw their Gods like horses’ Thus spoke Xenophanes, earliest Greek philosophers of 6 th century B.C. This statement of Xenophanes is actually against the dominant and aggressive Homerian culture of that time. Homerian view  He says that Homerian view their Gods and culture in human form and look down upon the other ways of life and culture. But if Horses could speak and draw they would view their Gods and culture in horses form and not in human form.  Cultural Relativism This was the beginning of the concept of Cultural Relativism(CR ) and Xenophanes is the first to talk about it. Due to his liberalism, free thinking and intellectualism Xenophanes was exiled by the authorities. “Cultural relativism is the ability to understand a culture on its own terms and not to make judgments using the standards of one’s own culture” · Every culture & way of life is relative and unique · No culture is good or bad per se · No cultur...

Ibn Khaldun-Father of sociology  𝐈𝐛𝐧 𝐊𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐝𝐮𝐧 was a towering intellectual figure of the 14th century AD and one of the few great minds of the world. A Historian cum philosopher who founded a new science in Humanities called "𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲(𝘈𝘭 𝘐𝘫𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢 𝘈𝘭 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘢𝘯).This branch of historical studies is also called 𝙃𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙎𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙊𝙧𝙜𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 which ultimately became what we call as "Sociology" today. That is the reason many regard Ibn Khaldun as the Father of Sociology. Historical Materialism  Scholars agree that his study of history through scientific methods was the first attempt at "𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐦. Before him history was a mere narrative and fiction exercise. He changed History writing forever. 𝐌𝐮𝐪𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐦𝐚"(𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐧) His most celebrated book is 𝐌𝐮𝐪𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐦𝐚"(𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐧). In this book he lists out reasons wh...

The father of philosophy  Many consider Thales, who lived around 6th century B.C in Miletus city, to be the father of philosophy. Philosopher & business  An interesting story about his business acumen is mentioned by Aristotle in his book the Politics. Thales knew astronomy. He studied the stars and predicted that there would be a great harvest of olives next year. He had little money. He gave deposits to all the oil pressing units in the town and booked it in advance for the next year. He got those bookings at a very low price because no one knew about the knowledge he had about the harvest. As predicted the coming year had great olive harvest. Everyone wanted the oil pressing units. But it was all booked by Thales. Thales earned a fortune out of it by lending it out at good prices. But Thales never considered business as his profession. For him Philosophy  was what excited him more. Knowledge is Success. Read Books to Succeed. Comments are welcome