Whilst resolutions and aims that are tangible, measured, and time-bound are absolutely necessary, often it is our ‘attitude’ that leads to the achievement of these, and possibly much more than what we specify. So this article is about attitude, and hopefully it is relevant for all, but more relevant for those who are succeeding at present. Even though the need to avoid personal complacence is so evidently essential in attaining lasting success, whilst it is spoken about by people sometimes, it is seldom taught in training, reading, and other forms of management learning. An easy way of avoiding complacence is by comparing ourselves not with our peers, or those who aren’t advanced as us, but to those who are superior. I was fortunate to hear from spiritual teacher, Bhakti Rasamrita Swami recently who provided three useful tools we can use in this regard by giving examples of three addresses of God, which when compared with ourselves, should help us keep our feet on the ground at all times.
I led the execution of a project that went well a few months back, and when people heard of the project, they immediately look to who was responsible for organizing it. Eventually you become associated with it, and it's success. A few months later, a similar project was to be executed again, and this time I was not in town to oversee it all. It was as successful, and in fact achieved some additional things that the first project didn’t. I wasn’t even there for the execution. In business, no matter how much one thinks that they are successful and the factor that holds things up, the environment is such that there will almost always be people likely to step up and make up. So we should never come under the illusion that we are irreplaceable, and are responsible for the success that comes. There are a number of benefits of this kind of awareness; an attitude where the leaders know they are not the all in all cause, will cultivate more respect for those contributing in every way they do. If we are aware we are not the all-in-all, we will likely be more giving with our knowledge to others, to ensure things can indeed continue at least as successfully, if not even more successfully when we are not there. One senior business leader in Hong Kong said to me recently that senior executives living in places where there is enormous avenue for personal recreational enjoyment, are reluctant to relocate back to their home countries as they don’t want to give up these luxuries. This leads to them ‘guarding’ their roles, and not developing an environment where succession is planned very well. An attitude of being aware that we are not the cause of all causes, that it is about others helping in success, will lead to a very mature way of leadership that will lead to far greater scale results in the long term. In this connection, Bhakti Rasamrita Swami explains how one of the names of God is ‘Akhil Karanaya’ or the ‘Cause of all Causes’. Any action or event has a number of causes that lead up to it. Perhaps the end action or event we may take the credit for, but we certainly cannot take credit for all actions and events leading to it. Such an approach that needs to be managed carefully, and not necessarily externally demonstrated, but should always be known inside to keep ourselves grounded at all times.
Robin van Persie, recent recruit at Manchester United, after scoring a record number of goals by any high profile signing who has moved from one big club to another said, he feels like he is in a team of champions. Clearly his own effort and ability are big, but he credits so much to the others around him to help him achieve the success he has so far. Books on achieving greatness always talk about learning from those who have been successful. People have idols, or others who provide inspiration to continue. This principle of learning from others and gaining inspiration from others is universal and clearly applies in world of arts, sport, and business. Therefore, is it just humility alone that leads to crediting these others when success is achieved? Not really. It is just honesty on the situation. The fact is that more often than not, our path and success has more causes external than us than just us on our own. We can certainly achieve more if we learn from others. If it seems our success is purely based on our hard work, we should question whether we are really accessing others as much as we could be to achieve more. Bhakti Rasamrita Swami in this connection says that God is the only Person with no cause, or ‘Nish Karanaya’, and that everything and everyone else has so many causes both immediately, and ‘behind the scenes.’ The result of this is awareness in the corporate and also personal context is that we acknowledge that our success has many causes, and that when this is attributed to these other sources, we become grounded, and also cultivate a mood of further learning.
We also often see that very successful people do not boast about their qualities and achievements. Rather, they sometimes look to their shortcomings. What better way to cultivate a mood of improvement, which is so important for success. There is a spiritual story where a personality called Dhruva Maharaj entailed in thousands of years of meditation in the previous ages on the Supreme Person, in order to attain rulership of opulent kingdoms upon pleasing the Supreme Person. After this many years of meditation, his attitude and his goals changed. He became self-realised, and did not have such a strong desire for these things, but ended up meditating on the Supreme Person with a pure motive, not for kingdoms etc. When the Supreme Person appeared before him, Dhruva Maharaj recalled his motive so many thousands of years ago, and said how unfortunate he was to have cultivated such a desire although having given up such an attitude thousands of years ago. In our own lives, Bhakti Rasamrita Swami cites that we may even be the cause of so many things, but not all of those things are wonderful, however God is the most wonderful cause – Adbhuta Karanaya. We will have done certain things that did not have wonderful outcomes, where there is learning to be taken away, and we should be aware of this as we succeed also. This has a number of benefits; if we note our shortcomings, we will tend to be more consultative in our style, and therefore attract more collaboration, joint wins rather than individual efforts. The above points are all concerned with attitude, and should be considered and implemented with great caution and awareness of the particular dynamics and individuals we work with.
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