Emotional Intelligence: All about the Person

I keep the person. I forget everything about football, and I keep the person. That’s what Jose Mourinho, arguably one of the most successful football coaches to have moved across clubs and sustained success said regarding his experience learning from Sir Bobby Robson, one of the legends in the world of football and football coaching. Both the impersonal and personal aspects of God are true, but I just love Him. This is what Bhishmadeva, the old and wise guardian of the Kuru dynasty replied to King Yuddhistira when asked which is true of the impersonal and personal aspects of God. This basic principle, is the very foundation of what has been hailed the 21^st century leadership quality; Emotional Intelligence (EI). Above and beyond everything else, we are people and will remain people. We will be shocked to see how important this factor is in our dealings and those around us. It is critical we understand this if our success is really to be pervasive and bring great people along the way.

What did you think of the game?

When I first started working, I was working on a project whose goal was to meet critical regulatory deadlines in the aftermath of the Enron crisis, the Programme Director was an exceptionally busy and in-demand individual; everyone wanted to get some of his time, and at any opportunity they would try their best to do it. His Secretary was therefore extremely selective over who gets into his diary, and had broken his time into 10 minute slots. I was very new and junior in the team, and was intrigued to see the dynamics and how they were at play. Being fresh out of University, I would follow the football very eagerly every weekend, and just wanted to find someone I could exchange thoughts on about it. I happened to find out the Programme Director was an extremely enthusiastic supporter of the same football team as me. When he found out I supported the team also, he came over to my desk. Those around me, who were far more senior than I was, were curious as to why the Programme Director was coming to my desk, when I had 5 people in my reporting line to him. He enthusiastically asked me if it was true that I support the particular football team. I said yes. He then started talking about the result on the weekend, the way the team played, the team selection, where he has a seat at the ground, what his outlook was on the season, transfer speculation, and many other related things. For about 30 minutes we spoke. His Secretary came over, and politely asked if she could interrupt us, and said he had a meeting now. He said, Tell them I will be 15 minutes late. We continued to speak. He then said, We’ll catch up tomorrow morning ok? The people around couldn’t believe it; some of them even came afterwards and asked me what we always talk about. They had very legitimate “formal” reasons to meet with him, and just needed five minutes to get a decision, or escalate something of importance, and they had meeting slots allocated far later in the week than my impromptu “30 minutes football slot” with him, and am sure what totaled to many hours in the weeks that ensued. The Programme Director, whilst able to deal with the formal side of the role very competently, gained a different kind of value from the personal interaction, which had the power o supersede the formal dealings.

Work hard, play harder

To work hard, and play hard is a phrase connected with the workplace. If people had a choice whether to work harder or play harder, which would they choose? A senior ranking officer in the business was discussing business relocation packages and in particular, locations. After exploring a number of options, it was clear that the country of choice was one which made for the nicest personal experience, not necessarily the most growth opportunity purely from an economic perspective. People, no matter how senior, want personal experiences. They of course are interested, and extremely competent in the formal aspects of the role, but often times, especially as one becomes more senior, it comes down to the quality of personal experiences. Recently, it was the appearance anniversary of Lord Krishna, known in the Vedic teachings as the Supreme Lord. The speaker in the Temple during the festivities was explaining that the Lord has two purposes in His descent. In the ‘formal’ context, the Lord cites two reasons for His descent to Earth; i) to protect the pious, and to ii) annihilate those who cause harm to the pious. Interestingly, the speaker went on say that these are just the formal reasons cited, but that actually, the Lord has personal reasons to descend also. The personal reasons are quite simple; to share enjoyable experiences with those who are dear to Him.

It is interesting how once a person becomes very senior in the corporate world, their accepting arduous or austere locations becomes much more rare, but they become more inclined to places where the quality of life, of personal experiences, be they with family or friends or both, are a much higher priority. We are people, who seek experiences, and will continue to be so. Being continually conscious of this, can lead to powerful interactions that leave impressions on peoples' minds, and these impressions are some of the most important keys to success in any field.

Back to the Future: Power of Empowerment

What kind of mark do we want to make in the leadership paths that we tread? How do we want to be remembered? How much do we care about the future verses the here and now? A lot of this can be acted on no matter how large or small our role is. This is because it is something that comes with practise and gets better the more we practise and the more we increase our consciousness of its importance. As we shall see, the effect our leadership largely comes down to successorship and our choices in who we empower and how we go about it.

Character & Competence

In Hong Kong, the high humidity levels commonly in the 80-90% band mean that a lot of maintenance is needed in the home just to keep things in basic order. I’ve heard many stories of people who go on vacation and return to find their ceilings and floors are covered with a green or black layer of mould, their clothes have holes in them from moulding, and there have been cases of contamination through leaving food outside. People therefore often ask others to check up and maintain the house whilst away. If you had valuables in the home, what would you consider when handing the keys to someone else for this task? They would need to be ‘trustworthy’ and dependable; and they would need to be ‘able’ to perform whatever maintenance is needed. There are many parallels to choosing worthy people to empower in the workplace as both i) character and ii) competence are important. One without the other will not be optimal and there is a greater ‘long-term risk’ in not making a good choice in regard to the persons character. The general trend will be that a person with character, but who is incompetent will not fare well in the short run as mistakes will not lead results and will be highlighted immediately. On the contrary, competence without good character may not be highlighted immediately as the results continue to flow, however such a person without good character will not attract others to make for a sustainable model, and therefore success will likely be short lived. The ideal combination therefore, is to empower those who are, or can be highly competent, and not only that, but have noble or virtuous character traits. There are a number of examples of such people choices in contemporary world, and ancient world, and we will study some of these to help us i) become better choices for our leaders, and ii) make better choices ourselves.

Back to the Future

One high-ranking executive of a Fortune 100 company, when briefing the new round of newly promoted leaders and owners said, “You should not think that you’ve made it and now you’re entering the elite circle of leaders. But you should think that you are borrowing time from the future leaders.” This statement, whilst short, has profound implications on the mentality leaders should have in nurturing others and not just being self-centered thinking about only the here and now, but how well things can continue once the next generation comes in. There are many speculations about how the great Roman Empire crumbled, but one of the reasons was that there were incredible leaders, who were bold, powerful, and even noble, but they lacked the ability to cultivate and over time hand over to a worthy successor. The Roman Empire had conquered most of the European world, and completely shaped the culture in many countries. The Romans were not easily displacable. It would take some imperfection in themselves as well as outside pressure to make a change. Within a few generations, the Empire was finished off as the external forces were strong, and demanded the best continued leadership from the Romans, which was fading. In a similar way, the corporate environment is sometimes ruthless and always changing, and places a demand on how well we manage succession and the empowerment of others. Research has found that the majority of leaders are not so conscious of succession; it is not in the top tier of priorities at least. Why is this so? It comes down to human nature, and if we are conscious of it, it can be managed in such a way that can increase the depth and breadth of our success.

Choose Wisely

There are many controversial parts in the ancient story of the Ramayana; one of them being Lord Rama’s going to the house of a person in the common working community, and killing this person with an arrow. The reasoning behind this was that this person was extremely determined in performing various rituals etc to become highly empowered, and he did not have the personal good qualities such as benevolence towards others that would make for a responsible person in a position of power, so it was better for the people and society that he was stopped. Lord Rama, as a righteous King who cared for his people, therefore stopped the problem before it manifested. In a separate story, Vrkasura, a demon who was worshipping Lord Shiva, asked Lord Shiva for a boon, or a wish. He wished that if he touched anyone’s head that person would die. Lord Shiva being extremely pure and innocent, thinking that the demon may have a benevolent motive, and being pleased with the demons worship, granted him the boon. The demon then came to kill Lord Shiva himself. Radhanath Swami speaks about the story of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff, where there is a scientist who wanted to created life from a dead person. It was the goal of his career. He eventually bought a dead person back to life, and he realised he had created a monster; violent person, who then came to kill his creator. Therefore, if we are not careful, and are taken off our feet by the razzle and dazzle of immediate results, and do not pay heed to the importance of character, we will encourage and empower people that will not be good for the team, not be good for us, and not be good for the future. This is a lesson that has been learnt through harsh consequences by many.

In conclusion, there are very few people with the determination, track-record and competence, as well as an exceptional set of character qualities that make for an outstanding hire or person to empower; given the dynamics of the environments we are in, it is exceptionally rare. Therefore, we should firstly aspire to provide such a combination of qualities ourselves, because if we do, we will be very attractive and valuable to our leaders. Secondly we should aim to increase our sensitivity to these factors when empowering others, and managing the two factors of ‘competence’ and ‘character’ through the right kinds of mindsets, dialogues, and techniques. We should be seeking opportunities to empower others in the right way all the time, with a broad mind; this will certainly increase our likelihood of having a very powerful and inspiring impact as a leader, which will also lead to growth that is exponentially quicker than we can ever imagine doing on our own.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

The direction of our careers and our lives, are determined quite simply by an ongoing set of decisions. There are essentially two categories of decisions; i) What do we want?, and ii) How do we react to circumstance that we create or come upon us? These two things determine our experience and success in life. How can we make the right decisions? How can we be more sure about the decisions we make? How can we make quicker decisions? What follows is a set of experiences and recent history that aim to help us address these questions effectively.

The door handle

In the final semester, I had got the marks needed to complete my Management MSc with a Distinction and had a job offer lined up. I had an extra module I could choose and had had enough of the technical and financial modules, so decided to go with something more philosophical to help expand my thinking. In the first class of this philosophical module, we all rummaged through the doors in typical University fashion shuffling from one lecture to the next. Gradually the noise level dropped, and students became attentive. The Professor looked up, and asked, “Who in this room remembers the shape of the door handle for this room?” Everyone looked at each other in surprise. What was the relevance of this? He then asked, “Who here came through the door to get in this room, raise your hands.” Everybody raised their hands. “Who saw the door as they came through?” Everybody raised their hands. “Who would have therefore, somewhere in their field of vision, seen the door handle, if not have touched it?” Everybody put their hands up. He quickly repeated his initial question, “So who remembers the shape of the door handle?” Not a single hand stayed up. The professor fell silent for a few moments. “I want you to think for yourselves what this means, you’re all smart people” he said. It was very thought provoking indeed. It was clear that we don’t register all of the information coming into our field of vision. We have programmed ourselves, somehow, to ignore certain information as we don’t find it valuable. We then make decisions based on what we register alone. We may miss certain things, until someone like the Professor tells us. We expand our ability to make better decisions by consulting with others to get a clearer and bigger picture from others who are well positioned to. A very senior Partner in our firm was recently asked what the best piece of advice he was given was. He replied, “Taking advice from a diverse group of people that I trust, who can see things I can’t.”

Chop, Chop

It was a rainy day on Friday 12 September 2008, when Hank Paulson, US Treasury Secretary, the ex CEO of Goldman Sachs summoned Wall Streets CEO’s, referred to by some as the Masters of the Universe, to a crisis meeting at the Federal Reserve in Nassau Street, New York with an hours notice at 1800hrs just before the weekend. Lehman Brothers stock was loosing over $8 million a minute. They had right-downs of $2.5 billion of home loans for the second consecutive quarter.  Other Banks were not giving them credit. Should Hank Paulson fund Lehmans to keep life flowing, or allow the forces of the free market to swarm around and devour one of Wall Streets oldest Banks? One of the Executives at the table said, “No-one around that table did not understand the stakes they were talking about.” This was to be the last straw, and Hank Paulson decided to let Lehman Brothers fall. As other participants fell, there was a series of unparalled acquisitions in world banking history. The global economy continues to suffer, 4 years on, from Lehman Brothers, and the set of decisions made that evening, shaped events to follow. Other Banks and Financial Institutions that wrote off similar losses were later saved by the Governments all over the world, and the consistency of the decisions in Wall Street was questioned by many. Perhaps this situation does not illustrate the accuracy of decisions as it is hard to see what would have ensued if Paulson had chosen to save Lehmans, however, it does teach a lesson around volatility and how we are at times pressed to make a decision under pressure, with only a limited degree of foresight being possible. In such circumstance, it is critical that we keep a very clear and objective focus, that can quickly connect cause-effect relationships, learn from the past, and articulate this to others in a way they can quickly get involved. Paulson may have been right or wrong, but we must be on our toes, ready and able to make tough decisions, objectively and fairly.

Shall I, or shan’t I?

 In the episode from the ancient literature the Srimad Bhagawatam, the wife of Lord Shiva, called Sati is persistent that she would like to attend a function held at her Father, Prajapati Daksha’s palace. In normal circumstance, it would be expected for daughter Sati to attend, but at the previous function, her Father had insulted her husband Lord Shiva very seriously calling him many bad things, and that too, publically in an assembly of the demigods and sages. Lord Shiva was hurt by Daksha's words, but had calmly gone back to his quarters in this instance. Sati, seeing many demigods, and other heavenly residents dressed nicely, and in great excitement, in couples, going towards her Fathers palace, she too was eager to go. She brushed aside the previous bad experience in her and her husbands public encounter with her Father. Being so excited and very eager to go, she calmed herself and came before Lord Shiva and asked him if they could go also. She cited all of the great things associated with the function and how much she absoultely could not miss going to this with her husband. Lord Shiva on hearing this recalled his experience with Daksha and felt hurt. But he smiled as he loved his wife. He said however that he would not recommend going as they would be insulted once again by her Father for sure. Lord Shiva concluded that Sati may go if she wanted to, but her future would not be good if she did. Sati did not know what to do; here was one of the most trustworthy personalities in the Universe, and her husband giving her advice not to go, and on the other side were her intense desires to attend a buoyant occasion with her family. Sati was torn in two, confused, and became indecisive. She charted from one side of the room to the other in a state of almost helplessness. Delaying her thinking about the consequences, she left for the function. Once she entered, her Father, publically criticised her husband Lord Shiva, and this pierced Sati’s heart. She loved Lord Shiva, knowing he was the most respectable personality, and in her distraught state, she ended up leaving her body. What can we learn from this incident; many things. Make sure that substantial advice from great people, is not missed like the door handle. Emotion acts as a veil that covers us from seeing what is so clearly in front of us. We can also flip the example and derive a lesson; if we become so siloed in what we’re doing, with a kind of tunnel vision, and fail to understand the organisational priorities, strategies, people dynamics, our efforts will be in vain as the alignment won’t be there. Lord Shiva being a very elevated personality, could see the bigger picture, the people dynamics and his advice was completely considerate of this.

To summarise, we need to begin with understanding the importance of decisions in our lives and careers. We then need to appreciate that we will have varying degrees of pressure on us to make different decisions, and appropriately orient ourselves and consult appropriately given these constraints and knowledge of the stakes. Finally, we need to be very aware of the effect of these decisions, and being bold enough to accept the consequences of our decisions whether they are successful or not. When a strong leader is successful, they are quick not to hold the credit, but to pass it to the people around them who have served them, guided them, and helped them. When a strong leader is not successful, they do not blame those around them, but they accept responsibility, and work to learn and improve.

Handling Success

In reflection of the London Olympic games, the most successful for Great Britain in history, and that too on home turf, it is timely to look at different ways of handling success and the effect they have on the longevity of this success. The extent to how well success is received and built upon is largely determined by what our success is attributed to. The steps one takes after receiving success determine the sustainability of our success. If one attributes success to their own inherent greatness, the reaction may be one of arrogance and potentially slackening of practise, and therefore less longevity. If one attributes their success to hard work and the help of others, it will likely result in gratitude and persistent and concentrated effort. Successful people are looked up to by others, and the example they set in handling success is often followed by others. It is a responsibility for leaders to set an ethical and noble example in handling success as this will be embodied in future generations, and therefore has the ability to create not only success that lasts a lifetime, but a legacy spanning generations. We shall see through a number of examples that the successful handling of success comes down to clarity of thought, and staying firmly grounded.

People try to emulate success

How the British athletes performed is to be commended. How these young idols for many young people who were engaged in violent crimes during the UK riots, can have a large scale and long term effect on the country. Many of the athletes have been very gracious in their victories, dedicating wins to their teams, coaches, children, and families. Time will tell how they maintain such an attitude. The gym in the apartment I stay in doesn’t have a large dedicated area where one can practise martial arts type of training. In absence of this, I often go near the children’s area to do such a warming up. As I was practising some punches and kicks, I failed to notice a small boy and girl were copying me standing behind me. They had very serious and aggressive looks on their little faces with their brows raised as they tried to copy my expression also. Seeing them doing this, with their pink and blue shorts and toys near them I smiled. They became totally confused seeing my reaction; they must have been thinking that I was so serious, in such a fixed position, moving fast and hard, to suddenly being completely loose, relaxing and smiling. Within a moment, they loosed up also and we all began to laugh together. It is our nature to emulate certain things we find attractive. In the world today, people try to emulate those who are successful. However, peoples’ minds sometimes fail to distinguish between what are the real causes of success verses what are not. Negative characterstics, habits, mannerisms, ethos, beliefs, etc are not the causes of success, however are easily emulated by weaker people. Whereas the real causes of success, which are often a hard working ethic, and inclination to learn good techniques, and strategies from others, are not so easy to take on for people who have a weak nature that easily succumbs to a temptation to give up and not be sincere in purpose.

Why So Serious?

 After the premiere of most recent Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, Tom Hardy, who played the villain ‘Bane’ was asked about his experience in working with Christian Bale, who starred as Bruce Wayne. Hardy commented that “We’re both very serious about what we do, but don’t take ourselves so seriously.” This was a very interesting attitude, and one that had interestingly been encouraged by spiritualist Bhakti Tirtha Maharaj also in his stating how remaining jovial at times helps in keeping grounded. Christian Bale was in a very strong position as he was in demand being requested by many in Hollywood to star in the next Batman. He commented in a gracious manner, that it had been a real honour for him to play the role. He could have adopted an attitude of arrogance if he wanted to, but chose to be gracious. This kind of attitude can help separate whatever may come from our efforts, from who we are in essence; it's eye-opening how easily sometimes the two are mixed; when people purchase very opulent things, become successful, they sometimes begin to think that they are those things, or are that success. But did they simply not exist before the success and things came along? We can take our work very seriously, but if we are detached at a deeper level, then we won’t be so affected either in success or failure. What a win-win situation that is; if we lose, we don’t mind and we take responsibility, and if we win, we just continue to work hard and attract more success.

Vishwamitra Muni goes back to the Mountains

In the days of Lord Rama, several millennia ago, on the extremely long awaited occasion of Lord Rama’s marriage, the great sage Vishwamitra Muni had been called to perform the ceremony as the priest. After a long celebration that lasted for weeks, Lord Rama’s Father, Dasarath, explained to Vishwamitra Muni that due to his holy presence, there was such positive energy and auspiciousness in the land of Ayodhya. The King politely requested that Vishwamitra Muni not leave, and extend his stay. Vishwamitra Muni however politely declined. He said that one must be vigilant, especially in success. In a humble manner, he cited a time where he had gathered great power through meditation, and had lost this all just in a few moments due to being distracted. The great sage replied that therefore, it is infact more important now than ever, in the midst of such success and opulence that he return to his simple Ashram in the mountains, and return to his meditational and devotional practices with great determination. He explained that actually these things are the foundations of any auspiciousness that may exist which King Dasarath spoke of. If we handle success with such a grounded, fixed, and determined manner, then surely we will create a mindset that is very favourable to endured success.

Inquire & apply: A master combination

Ask Mummy how you do it

One of my friends in Hong Kong just got back from safari in Tanzania. He had got a rare sighting of a family of cheetahs on a hunting trip. The mother cheetah was teaching the two cubs how to hunt. In their initial attempts, the cubs carelessly wondered through the grass, and then picked pace as they saw a small gazelle beginning to run away. They then ran, and with their tiny bodies tried to jump on top of the gazelle. Each time they would try, they would fall and the gazelle would begin to run further away. They would try the same, or similar technique, many times, slowly learning that they had to use their paws to get at the legs of the gazelle. After watching the frustrated attempts of the cubs, the mother thought it fit to show them how to do it. Picking a bigger gazelle as prey, the cheetah tip-toed through the grass silently and elegantly, positioning itself a comfortable distance away from the gazelle. All of a sudden, the chase began. The gazelle was quick, and extremely agile, perhaps more so than the cheetah. The cheetah used its paws expertly to catch the gazelles legs, and eventually after two or three such attempts, the cheetah went straight for the neck, holding it there for some time, and within moments, the gazelle was motionless. The mother cheetah had completed the feat within a couple of minutes, whereas the cubs were not successful after spending much longer. What was the difference? Their size, their experience both certainly counted for a lot. But ultimately it was their predatorial technique and efficiency. There was almost not a single redundant movement from the mother cheetah, whereas the cubs would run when not necessary, and use so much of their energy by trying to jump on the gazelle when it didn’t get them much closer to making the kill.

Arigato Gosaimasu

In martial arts, power is certainly important, but one needs to loosen up, not keep their body excessively tense, otherwise one will tire easily. Our Muay Thai master a few weeks back in the ring explained the importance of exerting energy at the point of contact alone. When the penny dropped on this tip, hits were cleaner, the impact was greater, and most of all, we could last much longer. It was very clear seeing the experienced practitioners, that they were extremely relaxed, ready to move when required, very conscious, and the only moment they would really exert themselves was during impact. They preserved their energies this way and were efficient; if they weren’t they would not fare so well. Once in a meeting in Japan, I was trying to study the dynamics. There was a person at the head of the table, leading the discussions and directing contributions, etc; clearly the leader. Next to him were two people both very quiet, and didn’t make any contribution at all throughout the meeting. The remainder of the table would engage when requested or needed. At the end, the person on the right of the person who was leading, turned out to be most senior. His only contributions were to signal the beginning and the end of the meeting saying ‘arigato gosaimsu,’ or thank you. He was the CEO of the business, and was very successful, even amidst the difficulties in Japan of late. He was clearly aware of what was happening, and needed to know this also, but he only spoke a few words at the beginning and the end. He was aware, and saved his energy.

Inquire & serve

The same principle was in operation with the mother cheetah, the experienced Muay Thai practitioner, and the successful Japanese CEO – they knew the technique and were conscious of when to apply their energy and when to preserve it. This point should not be taken in isolation however, just pertaining to preserving and exerting; the success of its application is intricately connected with techniques specific to the respective field. If we are new to a field, time needs to be invested in learning from the best in that field. They know when to exert their energies and when to preserve them in that particular context. The principle of inquiry from the master, and consequently following or serving; which was being followed in some form by the cubs’ learning from the mother, the masters guidance in the Thai boxing, and am sure Japanese business man learning from other great examples he may have seen, is not something new. Nor is it a coincidence that it continually seems to works. According to the Vedic philosophy, it is an eternal principle, and ‘the’ advocated method of learning, which is so powerful that Lord Krishna, even though He is God Himself, accepted a guru Sandipani Muni, His spiritual master to learn the spiritual science from through submissive enquiry and the rendering of devotional service. If we tune in to this principle of inquiry and service or application in what we’re doing, we will undoubtedly meet with success.

The Art of Zooming

As the number of areas one has to manage increase, the need for perspective also increases. The degree to which we can handle multiple important and urgent tasks successfully will have a big effect on our success and the speed of our progression. Handling multiple responsibilities requires discipline, the ability to differentiate, and most importantly the ability to take perspective; the ability to take a step back and zoom in and zoom out regularly. If one takes a deeper and broader perspective in life at large, it is far easier to practice this discipline and manage multiple areas; this is because outside is in, and inside is out; what we do at work has a baring on how we are outside work, and what we do outside of work, has a baring on how we are at work; it is inevitable. So what does taking perspective mean?

The Daily Tsuen Wan line Stampede

As you come off the Tsuen Wan MTR train at Admiralty station, there is a distance of about 20 to 30 meters to the train connecting Hong Kong Island Line train. As the train arrives, this distance separates the commuters from their connecting train. Sometimes, just when the doors open, the opposite trains’ doors are closing and it leaves, without taking the connecting commuters; they were late. More often than not however, there is a small window for commuters to transfer and get on. Knowing of this regular small window, passengers alight in a great rush, sometimes almost like a panic, banging into each other, sometimes even dropping their shopping on the way, and run the 20 to 30 meter distance in order to get onto the soon departing train. Now, before the train arrives, the platform is usually quiet and stable with only the sound of the large TV speakers being heard. As soon as the train arrives, there is mayhem for a few minutes. As soon as the connecting train leaves, it is quiet again. This is on-going for hours. On the Tsuen Wan line, I have never in 5 months waited more than 3 minutes for a train. Yet people, often elderly people are running, pushing others, to get onto the train just incase they need to wait for 3 minutes. There is always a small percentile of people however who wait for everyone to leave, and then walk in peace, and often times still make the train. Perhaps it is understandable if there is a tight meeting, or one is running late, but I wonder how many of the hundreds of people alighting each time, are in such a hurry every time; the importance, and scarcity of perspective.

The Way of the Wise

Sometimes we have so much on our minds that we cannot zoom out in order to select our next task or action. This has many implications, which have varying degrees of severity in the way they damage our route to success. In the best case, a clouded mind will lead to inability to act swiftly. It may lead to a lack of conviction as in our minds we’re still evaluating so many other alternatives, but the time to act has come. And in the worst case, it may lead to us choosing the wrong action. If our mind is clouded, we will find it more difficult to focus. When we lack focus, it may degrade our ability to evaluate situations and activities objectively. When we cannot evaluate objectively, we may choose unwisely. How do we facilitate the process of zooming out and getting perspective? Through remembrance. If we recall a very serious incident in our lives, the fact we often need to make an effort to recall it means that, whilst it may be very significant, its prominence fades over time. Time takes away all things no matter how great they may be, and remembrance of this can help us put things into perspective. As a catalyst to this process of gaining perspective, other people can help. Asking experienced people at work or elsewhere can add great value. Certainly this has been the way of Vedic thought. When King Yuddhistira was banished from the kingdom of Hastinapur unrighteously, often times he and his brothers would speak with great wise sages like Agastya Muni; to get perspective. When the younger brother of Lord Rama, Bharata was in a moral dilemma about what his duty was when his Father passed away and Lord Rama could not be crowned King due to being banished to the forest, he sought the advice of Guru Vasishta Muni; to gain perspective. When Vyasa Muni’s mind was perturbed after completing his authoring of the Mahabharata, he sought the counsel of Guru Narada Muni; to gain perspective. Training our minds and getting the help of our seniors, we can gain perspective.

Ultimately Perspective is Down to Us

Keshava Bharati Goswami said “You may have the greatest Guru in the Universe, but you have to do it yourself.” This is very relevant for us in the workplace and in life also; whilst guidance and the help and advice of so many very experienced and high caliber people may be there, and may be a huge help in our endeavours, ultimately our ability to handle multiple responsibilities well comes down to our own clarity of thought, decisiveness, and regularly taking perspective. Perspective, by its very nature can lead to great level of strategic position and taking advantage of big opportunities, and this is important. The greatest people however, don’t just apply it in the workplace; they apply it in life. This is why you will find the greatest leaders like the Warren Buffet’s, the Bill Gate’s of this world, whilst unparalleled in their success, do things that embody a broader, and deeper meaning. Whilst perspective is a journey and an on-going challenge, like all great things, it all begins with our thoughts.

With Great Responsibility comes Great Power

The Concorde Club

After returning from a two day trip to India the primary topic of conversation amongst the team was work, with a close runner up being luxuries. It made for a very interesting set of observations. The discussions started with the quality of lounges in Hong Kong, then in India, then the rest of Asia, and then the Middle East, and then the rest of the world. We then moved onto airlines, and airline clubs, and then to the tiers of membership within those clubs. We then went to many of the additional benefits one gets as they progress, namely having a couple of square feet extra space, a personal member of staff to serve you and bring you what you want, and a number of prestigious credit cards. As one becomes more senior, they will tend to have better facility available should they choose; and most do, and it does not by default mean the people are bad people at all - values has nothing to do with whether a person is rich or poor, in first class or economy - in fact there are some very humble people in my experience in luxurious lounges, who are often far more considerate than some at the other end of the plane – it is all to do with how we view and use the things at our disposal. The problem arises when people with opulence and power misuse it and become absorbed in their own apparent greatness; this is a problem because it very likely an inaccurate view of reality in the bigger context, and secondly it will very likely bring disappointment as not everyone in the Universe will recognise such self-recognised greatness. Groundedness, and alignment with good values will help us to be in touch with reality, will help us be very strong; and this is not just a nice to have – in an environment where groundedness and values, whilst not non-existent, are often rare and easily compromised- we should be very bold, strong and determined so that these values can prevail. What follows are some related accounts in what the lack of values and self-centerdness can lead to, verses what values can lead to.

Excuse me???

The Vedic teachings tell of one of the original progenitors of human civilisation called Prajapati Daksha. Praja means the people, and Pati means Lord. He was therefore a very esteemed person, respected by even the demigods. His daughter had married Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva is a very unique personality, and increasingly even today photos of him are in yoga studios all over the world in deep meditation wearing very simple items of clothing and covered in ash, and he is seen as an embodiment of devotion, deep detachment and focus. The daughter of Prajapati Daksha, called Sati, married Lord Shiva. She was extremely beautiful and amongst her description it is described that she had eyes like those of a deer cub. Once there was a large sacrifice taking place, to which all of the demigods were invited. Lord Shiva and his wife were also present. When Prajapati Daksha entered the arena, he was offered complete respects by all of those in the arena except by Lord Brahma, and Lord Shiva. Lord Brahma was his father, and therefore etiquette had it that Prajapati Daksha offer his respects unto his father. Withstanding that, Lord Shiva did not pay his respects; this was completely unintentional as Lord Shiva offers respect to everyone being completely transcendentally situated, but was more by accident, and by higher arrangement. Prajapati Daksha became furious. Here were the most powerful personalities in the Universe, paying their respects, and his son-in-law, did not. Radhanath Swami explains in this connection that ‘For one who is accustomed to being honoured, dishonour is worst than death.’ In the infamous gang cultures today, in interviews, gang leaders and drug lords more often than any other answer, cite “respect” as the cause of murders. Prajapati Daksha, who was otherwise a highly evolved and cultured being, began to unload countless insults unto Lord Shiva in the presence of everyone. The story continues, and this ended up to be the cause of his eventual downfall to a very very humbling material position in which he returned to Lord Shiva with folded palms. The Srimad Bhagawatam concludes on this that “Although the six qualities of education, austerity, wealth, beauty, youth and heritage are for the highly elevated, one who is proud of possessing them becomes blind, and thus he loses his good sense and cannot appreciate the glories of great personalities.” It is therefore so important that no matter what our material circumstances and success may be, that we remain firmly grounded and keep reminding ourselves that each time any success comes.

With great responsibility comes great power

Here we argue that whilst Spiderman had the great saying that ‘With great power comes great responsibility’, and whilst this is certainly true, the converse is also often true. If we take responsibility, i.e. being able to respond positively and responsibly, we will actually attract great power. Arjuna was one such example, who at one time had everything at his disposal, he was highly esteemed loyalty, with great palaces, and even large chambers just for thinking. But there was a substantial difference between his possessing this, and President Mugabe for example, who today possesses a very luxurious residence. Some of the essential differences lie in values and mindset. Arjuna was noble, truthful, benevolent towards others, he did not think he owned these things, rather that he had been given them by the grace of God to be used in the service of God and others. It certainly may be questioned whether such values exist in many people with opulence today. Arjuna’s values bought him power. Lord Krishna even declares in this regard that wherever Arjuna is and wherever He is, there will certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power and morality. So these values and devotion in Arjuna actually attracted opulence, and power. We should therefore certainly aspire to i) be successful , ii) with a higher consciousness, and not give up in either regard. In fact, if we are inclined towards higher values, and decide to give up, what will this make for? Those with less regard for values will come to power. We are influenced by our leaders, and often times in the workplace we subconsciously take on the mood of our leaders to some extent, and sometimes even need to in order to progress. If therefore, as people aspiring towards values driven leadership, we are not successful, we are actually paving way for a landslide in the other direction in the years to come. Whilst we may not align in every way with the rock band, Manic Street Preachers, their lyrics "If you tolerate this, then your children will be next," may be very useful when remaining determined to uphold essential in our workplaces and communities.

The Chain of Habit

We cannot improve what we don’t measure

To measure, is is to be conscious of our actions and their resultant outcomes over time. It is often said that to make a new mistake is more forgivable than repeating the same mistake again. Every time there is a major soccer tournament, the number of hospital admissions in the Far East resulting from exhaustion increase phenomenally as soccer crazy fans stay up into the late hours to tune into the games; one person in China died during Euro 2012 after staying up 24 hours for 11 days whilst going to work during the day, and engaging in an unhealthy routine. People often tend to repeat the same, known mistakes, again and again. The English national football team has lost 6 of the last 7 penalty shootouts in major tournaments. It is not a new problem, and has not been addressed from the root. Many experienced people have said that Englands problem with penalties comes down to not learning to maintain a very strong mental equilibrium amidst extremely high pressure, and then learning to executing what all of the players are more than capable of doing; to get the ball into the back of the net, where they have a surface area of 17² meters to aim for, of which the a goalkeeper at any one time can cover less than 15% of. Germany on the other hand, have not lost a penalty since with Uli Hoeneß missed and Germany lost to Czechoslovakia at the European Championships in 1976. The importance of repetition is key; repeating the good habits, like the German football team do, leads to success, and repeating mistakes, like the England football team do with regard to penalties, often leads to successive failure that is very difficult to turn around. If we understand the nature of repetition, we will better be able to situate ourselves.

Recognising the need to improve

It is said that generally bad habits are difficult to give up, and good habits are difficult to take on. This is made worse as one is often influenced by a sense of ego or pride. Why? Because often times, the strengths are ‘strong enough’ to lead to some success, and life is so busy, that one may not be really incentivized to understand their weaknesses and do something about them, unless and until forced by circumstance. Andy Murray, when in the very early stages of his career showed signs of technical class, however compare to others in the game, he lacked physical power and presence on the court. His camp acknowledged this quickly, and within a few months, Murrays physical strength was enhanced through more gym work and a change of diet. Within no time, Andy Murray looked and felt more like a player capable of breaking into the top tier of tennis and now appears to be such a player. Andy Murray and team became conscious of what they needed to do in order to rectify a repeating theme, which in his case happened to be a lack of strength.

The chain of habit

The Vedic teachings emphasise the significance of repetition of favourable and unfavourable actions. They explain in regard to favourable actions, that continued and consistent practice leads to two outcomes; i) a deeper sense of convinction around engaging in favourable actions, and ii) of course the resultant manifestation of positive results. On the contrary, in regard to repeating negative actions, Radhanath Swami explains from the Padma Purana that when one engages in unfavourable actions, not only of course do we i) experience the negative direct outcome from this, which in the working context may involve getting behind on work tasks, losing track of time, and so on, which can hinder one’s progress, but ii) our inclination to repeat the activity grows, and this becomes a vicious cycle of repeated actions; it becomes an addiction, which is very difficult to come out of. Warren Buffet once said, the chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. Lakshmi Mittal explained that he regularly drives past a golf course en route to work, and plays some rounds of golf before work. One day, as his driver was about to pass the golf course, Lakshmi Mittal told him, Take me straight to work today please. His driver, being close to him, asked why he didn’t want to play golf, especially as he did it every day. He said, Today I felt an urge, and a I don’t like addictions. An impulse to engage in an activity that is potentially unfavourable, can become the cause of our downfall- great leaders are very conscious of this and impose disciplined in regard to it.

Success and failure are intricately linked with the continued repetition of favourable and unfavourable activities respectively. Setting and maintaining good habits begins with an awareness of whether an activity is favourable or unfavourable. Once that is understood, one can chart through their day engaging in the right things by differentiating, and in turn reaffirming their belief in doing the right thing through doing it more and more. Through this way, one can become more conscious of the lure of the bad habits, and minimizing, or not doing them all together. No doubt it is very difficult to practice this consistently, but it all starts with building awareness; if we are not aware of this dynamic, there is very little chance we will stumble across it and get it right. And as one does it more and more, it becomes easier.