Thought Leadership

The One Thing You May Be Missing in Your Problem Solving Abilities      Click the Link Below to Read 👇 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shahnawaz-qasim-ips-16583110_humanityleadershipseries-leadership-activity-6747860585221799936-wY8O   Photo by Dylan from Pexels

  The 7 Seven Signs of SPM Leadership You Must Know   Click the Link Below to Read 👇 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shahnawaz-qasim-ips-16583110_humanityleadershipseries-leadership-activity-6746416035857002496-RLOf Photo Credit by Oliver Sjöström from Pexels

  Are we Merely Numbers ?  Click the Link Below to Read 👇 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shahnawaz-qasim-ips-16583110_humanityleadershipseries-leadership-management-activity-6745917250936598528-gQWx Credit : Photo by Black ice from Pexels

You May Succeed If You Think This Way  Click the Link Below to Read 👇 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shahnawaz-qasim-ips-16583110_humanityleadershipseries-leadership-activity-6747488422371368960-1r08   Credit : Photo by Julia Kuzenkov from Pexels

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 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...

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...

Rene Descartes  Rene Descartes (17 Th Century, France) is often called the Father of Modern philosophy. He believed that we must always have skepticism about our own knowledge. Question your own knowledge.  Descartes two (2) philosophical concepts can be great lessons in leadership development. 1. ‘Cogito, Ergo Sum’ (I think, therefore I am) Descartes propounded that if a man thinks, then it means he exists. Thinking is the basis of existence & knowledge. Similarly a leader exists only when he thinks. A leader has to be a thinking man and not a deadwood. A leaders mind must think to plan, anticipate, strategize, innovate and create vision. Review your beliefs  2. Descartes says that always review your beliefs. To do so, analyze the source of your belief. If the source itself is unbelievable then you must discard that belief. Leadership & Descartes philosophy  leadership must also review their long held beliefs in strategy, tactics, methods etc by going into t...

The first book on leadership  The earliest known author is Ptah-Hotep from Egyptian Civilization(4000-3000 B.C).He wrote the first book in human history called “The Precepts of Ptah-Hotep. This  book was written on leadership matters & was meant to train & coach the royals in the art of leadership Some of the leadership lessons from the book is timeless. It shows that the basic principles of leadership have been universal from time immemorial. Sample few of the interesting advises on leadership Leadership lessons  1. If thou hast, as leader, to decide on the conduct of a great number of men, seek the most perfect manner of doing so that thy own conduct may be without reproach Lesson: A leader must be impartial & bias free. He must conduct his leadership in such methodological way that his own conduct is beyond criticism. That's professionalism in leadership 2. Be not arrogant because of that which thou knowest; deal with the ignorant as with the learned L...

Sometimes a single sentence or even a word can convey what pages cannot. The essence of knowledge lies in it's wisdom. That"s why Quotes are essential as it conveys the wisdom of the whole books To take out wisdom from knowledge, understand it and then implement it is one of the defining mark of any leadership Leaders who can distill wisdom from knowledge succeed.

Humbling Experience  Reading cosmology & space is a humbling experience. we realize that we are nothing in the scheme of things. In fact the concept of big or small ceases to exist in cosmology. our's is a measurable world. space is not. When you realize that the universe is a temporary phenomena, you suddenly turn philosophical. Then you further realize that another Universe may be created upon the destroyed one. This gives a feeling that nothing is created forever. In effect immortality of creation is false consciousness. Everyday is a new creation Everyday is a new creation. Everyday is a new learning. Every chapter is a new beginning. Every Discovery is a falsification of the earlier discoveries. Nothing is constant and nothing is truthful. Everything is in flux. So is our life. Which means we have to re-create ourselves everyday. We have to destroy the old redundant ideas. We have to defeat status quoism. We have to absorb the cosmos within ourselves. We have to die to liv...

The dialectics  Friedrich Hegel, German Philosopher who laid the foundations of Historical Materialism. He believed that truth can only be known through the process of "dialectic” Hegel explained Dialectic as the process of development of thought where 1. Our first thought is regarded as truth and this becomes our Thesis 2. Then contradiction starts appearing in our Thesis. Counter ideas starts challenging our Thesis. This counter thoughts are our Anti- Thesis 3. This Anti- Thesis also seems equally true 4. Now we are faced with two mutually incompatible or contradictory ideas...The Thesis & the Anti-Thesis 5. But the truth must belong somewhere in the two ideas. 6. Hence out of thesis & antithesis comes out the “Synthesis” 7. This Synthesis is now our Thesis-the accepted truth for time being 8. Again out of this thesis, the anti thesis will come out and then the synthesis and so on and so forth 9. In this way the progress of ideas and thoughts of civilization moves on con...

The performing leadership A leadership which never performed the during normal times will wither away during the turbulent days. A performing leadership essence is felt during the ordinary days in all its actions & processes. To the lesser mortal it may seen normal times. But for visionary leaders it symbolizes that change is highly overdue The legacy of successful leadership  Deliberate, well planned & structured changes are the legacy of successful leaders to any organisation. Status Quoism, such leadership believes - are the epitaphs of failure - To not make anticipatory changes to organisation is a crime against leadership - To not convert human resources into change agents is a monumental loss to organisation. The legacy  Successful leadership leaves behind visible trails to their works. some of them can be enumerated like below 1. They change things when nobody wants to change 2. They think when everybody wants to relax 3. They experiment when all wants to copy p...

My belief is that what we sow today we generally reap it tomorrow. We must sow the seeds of Humane leadership for our shared future.  We must start teaching more of Philosophy, History & Literature ( PHL )to our leadership. PHL will make a huge difference to the thinking & style If we cannot teach humanity in leadership to the humans, the time is not far when we have to teach it to the robots.

The coffin texts  The ancient Egyptian civilization (4000- 2000 B.C) had an interesting custom. The kings, nobles, wise men etc of those times, after their death, were buried with texts written over their coffins. These texts were philosophical messages left by the dead for the future generations. This came to be known as the Coffin Texts King Intef & the message  This particular message from the coffin Text of King Intef philosophizes that nothing is permanent in the world. Change is the only truth. Celebrate each day without attaching much to the material things. Happiness is everything "Those who built their tomb-temples, Their place is no more Their walls are dismantled As if they had never been Celebrate the glad day Be not weary therein Lo, no man taketh his goods with him Yea, none returneth again that is gone thither " Leadership & coffin text Each one of us is writing our own coffin texts every day. Our speech, actions,thoughts, ideas etc are our actual coffi...

What Not To Do is More Important Than What To Do We do many actions in life which seems like doing work. But they are not purposeful work. They are simply waste of time and energy. We do not achieve success out of those works Do purposeful work  Successful people concentrate on doing the purposeful works. They know the art of weeding out the non purposeful works from their activities. That is why they are focused and engaged. Smart leadership prioritize things to do  Great leadership are adept at prioritizing their actions in life. They chose works that are visionary and futuristic. They do works that provides productive values to the anticipated and desired goals. Be like the hairdresser who inspite of insistence from the rich man did not consider fit to do such purposeless work. The rich man offered to pay him more if he did that work. Still the hairdresser refused. In order to make the rich man realize the futility of the work he cut off his whole beard and asked him to pic...

Romancing the Destitution   The French called it the “ La Sensibilita ” which meant being very near to the emotions. Nowadays we may call it as Romanticism in intellectual thoughts. This trend started in the early 18th century among philosophers in France. It became famous after Rousseau, the philosopher, used it in his writings. Too much Romanticization is diversion  Some believe that Romanticization is akin to diversion of the problem. It is a euphemism for tokenism. The problems rather than being solved is actually loved and regarded as a virtue. This in turn becomes a vicious cycle and it circulates through ages. Poverty is an apt example Leadership is not Tokenism of emotion  Showing too much of emotions to any problems such that solutions itself becomes elusive is what Romanticization process is all about. We as humans must find solutions to problems rather than fantasize, glorify and romanticize distress. To satiate the hunger of our emotional senses we indulg...

Let's teach philosophy to children We teach history and literature in school. But one thing is missing. we do not teach philosophy in school. Why ? Some argue it is difficult for children to understand. But so is mathematics & science. Some say it is too abstract for children to grasp. But there are many concepts in science & mathematics which are deeply abstract Simplify it  we are simplifying others subjects to make it easy for the children to understand. Similarly we must simplify philosophy to make it understandable for the children In this age even school children are sharing quotes which are of philosophical nature. They enjoy doing it without even knowing that it is philosophy The children is the collective shared future  Our children are our future. We want them to question & speculate everything. They must be fearless to speak their mind. Our future leadership must be compassionate. They must understand that it is the diverse concepts of ideas, i...