Thought Leadership

The Epic of Gilgamesh "If you want a new idea, read an old book" said a wise man onceThe earliest recorded epic is from the Sumerian Civilization called the "Epic of Gilgamesh"(3000 BC ). It is in the form of five surviving poems Gilgamesh was the ruler of Uruk. He wanted to go to war with the kingdom of Kish Gilgamesh knew that Ego has no place in leadership matters First he consulted the council of elders who always opposed him. As expected they opposed his ideas & plans Next he deliberated with another council of elders who supported his course of actions Now it was Gilgamesh turn to take decisions based on the different advices What Gilgamesh did afterward is another matter of debate Hear all the Sides  Leadership means hearing all the sides of the arguements including the one opposed to your vision, strategy & tactics Those who are convinced & have faith in their own vision have the confidence to hear all shades of the arguements Those who desist fr...

Passion leads to Wisdom  Many say that passion for the domain leads to farsightedness in that field. Obviuosly it leads to leadership in that domain too. An outstanding example of anticipatory leadership comes to my mind from the field of Archaelogy. In the late 1840's one French archaelogist Victor Place was excavating Assyrian sites in Iraq. A great number of Assyrian historical antiquities were discovered which were priceless. The Anticipatory Leadership Everyone wanted the antiquities to be shipped immediately to Paris for further studies. But Victor wanted that the drawings, sketches & copies of every antiquity had to be done before shipping it. This obviously meant more delay in shipping it to Paris. Many objected and criticised his plans but Victor was adamant on following his protocol of business.  Victor requisitioned an artist who drew the sketches, drawings & made copies of all the artificats as per the protocol. It took many days & delayed the shippin...

The five (5) great books that lets you understand Leadership  The subject of leadership is a vast area which requires an even broader vision to understand it. One way to create that broader insight is to read some great books Such books are those which go beyond providing domain expertise. It opens up your intellect to the wide horizons of knowledge & creates thinking processes by which you can link it with your domain area.  There may be many great books on leadership. But according to my understanding there are five (5) books which provide your intellect with wider horizons to understand the area of leadership.  Though some of those books may not directly talk about leadership but their essence would provide the readers with the foresight needed to understand, learn & practice leadership 1. The instructions of Ptah-Hotep This is the oldest wisdom book to survive & is written by the Egyptian Vizier around 2000 B.C. This book talks about ethics, state, admini...

Our Conception of Success may be Outdated  The way we look at success is outdated. We are searching for it through tactics, strategy and concepts in proportions which is not even required We pass through so many little milestones of happiness even without realizing it each day & night. For the obsession of the so called big eventful & glorious success we are blind to the success which are intertwined with our lifestyles Not all dreams require you to sleep  Not all dreams require you to sleep to visualize it. Not every time a sun lit day is essential to feel the brightness of the light. Sometimes the night is brighter than the days with the stars We need to understand that everything is in motion. Even the galaxy & the cosmos. Nothing is fixed & permanent. All creations are designed to be in a journey. So are we Nothing shines permanently, not even the brightest of the stars. It too will collapse, burn & fade away into the Black Hole one day The journey of l...

How Thought Leadership makes the difference The Egyptian, Assyrian & Babylonian civilizations were almost contemporaneous at some point of time in history. All three were glorious chapters in human progress. But there is a stark differences between the Egyptian & the other two civilizations The legacies, memories & the visible representations of Egyptian civilization has survived till now. We can see the pyramids, mummies, tombs, texts etc etc .But the other two have almost faded away in history. It took lots of efforts to trace out & join the dots of Assyrian & Babylonian Civilization. But for the Egyptian it was available in all its splendor  & glory from the first day  Why was it so ?  The Egyptians built their entire civilization with rocks, stones, indestructible materials while the Assyrians & Babylonians entirely with the clay. Same material was available to both. But it was the matter of choice. One Civilization thought about the long t...

Obsessing over the order of the mind  Man's desire to regulate itself into order is exceptional. The sub-actions of religion, culture, traditions, rules, laws etc are ways of regulating humans into an orderly & regulated entity For humans the concept of freedom has always been the directed, ordered & monitored freedom This is the cardinal difference between the human & the animal world Even our Aesop's fable stories fantasize about the managed & controlled animal world Controlling societies & Leadership  In the earliest recorded history we find ample traces of regulations. It was more managed than what we have today. But still the theme remains the same though essence may have changed Those societies which regulated less the mind has prospered more. Those who obsessed over absolute control lost progress on the way Mind is a Nomad  Mind by its basic characteristic is a nomad. It is created to wander & lose itself in the process Those who never got l...

The Thought Leadership & the Quantum Jump  Human civilization progresses by their abilities to think forward & backward & to correlate it with their present. But there is a limit to which these backward & forward extensions in thinking can be conceived There is always a veil of ignorance beyond which everything seems dark If humans have to jump from one stage to another stage of civilization progress then our ability to think both backward & forward has to also take a quantum jump This simply means that we have to create Thought Leadership(TL) . Such civilization jumps occur only when TL creates Quantum Jumps in ideas & actions We jumped from Wheel stage to Engine stage by creating leadership of the minds The Leadership of the Minds & the Great Jump  The challenge is to create such minds & leaderships. Though Scientific & Technological (S&T) minds will be in abundance but the Social & Cultural (S&C) minds would lag in the “GREAT ...

The Genius who could have taken over leadership in science  He was a Mathematician during the Renaissance. Some credits him with invention of Probability Theory. Many cite his works on imaginary numbers. He is the first few to lay the foundations of Quantum Physics.  He was also a certified Doctor.  He could have provided effective leadership in science  He wrote a book “Consolation” lamenting the death of his son. Some even say that Shakespeare copied from his book for his Hamlet “To be or not to be” speech He was a genius whom the world has forgotten You may be wondering who he is ? The weakness of leadership  He is Jerome Cardano, the Italian Genius who displeased the authorities of his time by his free contrarian views & rebellious character He was a great gambler who discovered probability theory to win card games. His medical license was revoked due to his maverick actions He had all the intellectual capacity to become the household name. Some part du...