Thought Leadership

The true leader  One may become leader by chance but to become true leader is different thing Leaders are tested through series of performances Five simple ways.. 5 Five Simple ways to Analyze leadership · A leader is known by his personality. Analyze him from personality traits whether he suits his role · A leader is supposed to create changes in an organisation to meet the desired goals. See if he has created those changes · A leader is supposed to have the relevant skillset suited for his job. Analyze him from the skills perspective · A leader has huge influence on his group members. Measure him from his influence angle · True leadership excels in crisis. Observe him during the crisis events and see if he performed ( Source: Leadership by Peter Northouse ) They create unity of purpose  A true leader will create “unity of purpose “for all in the organisation A true leader leaves behind Legacy“ which is continued by his successors long after him. The most important ...

The greatest orator  Demosthenes (4th century BC) is the greatest orator the western world has ever produced. His father, a rich man, died when he was just 7 years old. His guardian usurped his property. He could not get the high education he deserved At just 18 years he argued his own case against his guardian and won back his property. He wanted to become an orator of excellence. But he suffered from stammering and frail health At his first public speech he was ridiculed and laughed at by all. The same happened in his second public address also. He became dejected Try again  Demosthenes wanted to try again. He enforced on himself a two (2) month home isolation ( lockdown ) away from everyone to practice his oratory skills. To make sure he does not go out of his house, he shaved one part of his head. Now he could not go out of shame. Such was his determination to succeed. This was the turning point in his life No looking back  From there on it was no looking back. Demost...

Alexander & the siege  There is an interesting story from the life of Alexander, the Great. His army had laid siege to a rebel town in 4th Century B.C. The army could not break the protective wall around the town. The only way left was to scale the wall with the siege ladder. His Army and Generals were reluctant & afraid to scale the wall. It was too high a risk. The enemy was in advantageous position. Alexander tried to motivate his troops through talks but without success. There was almost a mini mutiny. The only option was to retreat back and accept defeat Will power  Alexander never accepted defeat in his life. He decided to lead from the front and started scaling the wall. Alexander scaled the wall and jumped inside. His troops got so motivated that they too joined. Alexander got an arrow injury to his chest while fighting. The town was won. But Alexander set an everlasting example in leadership. That’s why he was called “Sikander” by the Persians True leadership ...

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 Thinking  How often do you think about yourself? How much do you know about yourself? What are the extremities of your potential? And what exactly is your potential? The answers to these and many such questions seem easy at first but difficult to answer. Try asking these questions randomly to yourself. You will be surprised to know about yourself more than you had ever known. Asking questions to others is easy but not to oneself The moot question  The moot question then arises. Why do we know so less about our own selves than we know about the others? The one reason could be this. We do not delve into the matters which matters most to us. The one who dive the deepest has more chances of finding the pearl. That's right Philosophers are mere mortals like us. But they think, contemplate & ponder more. They dive into the deepest of the undiscovered seas. We have to dive deep inside our own selves. Then delve into our core. There you will find yourself The poet  Thus s...

Philosophy is as old as man  Philosophy is as old as the human’s age. The day we started thinking and contemplating we started philosophizing. This was a rudimentary step sans any coherence. Yet it was the start of the search for wisdom The earliest philosophy  Everybody knows that Philosophy began with the Greeks in 6th century B.C. But this is not the case. The oldest known philosophical treatise was written on a clay tablet by an unknown Babylonian king around 2500-2000 B.C. The writing is titled “The philosophy of an unknown King”. Sample one stanza of the philosophy below "The fruit of death may the man eat, and yet the fruit of life may he achieve" Nothing has changed  Humans have been engaged with the question of life and death since ages. We still ask the same questions as asked by the philosopher king above. It seems nothing has changed. We still remain unanswered on the philosophy of existence.  This is the only subject matter on which we remain a...

Einstein & Imagination  In 1929, Albert Einstein gave an interview to a newspaper where he famously said that “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited but Imagination encircles the world." He credits his success to his imagination than to his knowledge With Imagination comes creativity. With Creativity  comes innovation. Perhaps this is the reason why we must focus more on imagination aspect of Education than mere Knowledge based. That’s why we must allow school children to imagine. Any system with Knowledge can create 9 AM to 5 PM workforce in abundance. But those with imagination can create innovators, creators & leaders Leadership & imagination  Successful leaders have habit of imagination. They are not just a bundle of knowledge. When leaders have imagination, they create vision for the organization Leader with high imagination powers have more chances of being successful. But most of the ordinary leadership survives on...

The great shutdown  No history books records of situation where the whole world is in shutdown & lockdown. pandemic is not the correct word to describe it. It's time to call it by new name the “worldemic” Every catastrophic event has seeds of hidden messages for humanity. Every crisis warns us of our follies committed The wastage of resources  The wealth and resources of the world is to protect and progress humanity rather than to destroy it. But we find that most of world's wealth & resources are used for weapons, armaments, wars and for creating disorders born out of our hubris. Look at the world over. We are not short of weapons but we are short of basic survival materials like masks, testing kits, Personal protection kits PPEs, medicines etc. We are short of things that matters  We are not short of military, soldier’s, weapon experts etc but we have shortages of doctors, nurses, trained health care professionals etc. Our controlled mind hardly appreciates the ...

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.