Trust: The Foundation

Usually, these entries are written in Hong Kong, however, this particular peice was written in Vrindavana, India, a place of great historic and spiritual significance. Being there has helped to reflect more on the principles of purity of mind and heart. The purity of our mind and heart has a direct effect on how others feel when they interact with us. Given that much of our progress in the corporate world is dependent on the quality of our relationships, the topic of the purity of heart and mind is certainly worth reflection.

Real Sincerity is Unmotivated

In the workplace, we look for so many things in the people around us. From our seniors, we want to know they will be fair in our promotions and rewards, that they will give us work that enriches our personal portfolios, that they will treat us with respect and dignity, and help in our career development in the long term. In our peers, we would like them to share experiences and learnings with us, to be there for us when we need support, to help air a collective voice in sharing or escalating concerns to our seniors. From our juniors, we look for commitment, a good attitude, hard working ethic, and technical ability supplemented with a desire to learn. Let us take for granted that the people who enter the increasingly competitive corporate environment are competent; a high standard of educational requirements and high calibre background is a minimum. Moreover, as one progresses in this environment, if they do not have substance they will more often than not be shown up due to the reluctance of profit-making business to sustain such a liability. So aside of technical competence, all of the key attributes we look for in those around us, come down to one key question; how much can we trust the other person? Many in the corporate world are let down by trust issues. If we’re trustworthy, we will certainly stand out; it is a much sought after attribute. In order to be trustworthy, we must be sincere. Sincerity and trustworthiness are inseparable. A sincere person, however, is not sincere because it will differentiate them; this would be a contradiction; sincerity is unmotivated.

Loyalty to Values Strengthens Us

In Hong Kong, there are many billboards with advertisements of the jewelers Chow Tai Fook, with the slogan of “Sincerity and Eternity. A Partner in our business whose behaviour I view as quite exemplary, once said “Always do the right thing, even if others don’t behave that way; the value will show through in the long run.” If we are sincere, that value will last. Even though experiences where sincerity is not reciprocated with may cut us and chop us, and we may duly need to reduce our exposure to such a lack of reciprocation where possible, we should not give up these values; because it is the right thing to do and its effects are too important to give up. Eventually, the values will prevail, and they will be stronger than ever after each experience we go through. When we know we are doing the right thing, when we have consulted with those people with experience and wisdom, we should feel all the more confident in what we’re doing inspite of all the challenges.

Lord Shiva: Epitome of Sincerity

There is a plethora of lessons to be learned from the one story of Lord Shiva and his wife Sati Devi leaving her body in the presence of her Father. To recap, Sati Devi had attended a function at her Fathers residence inspite of him being enimical towards her husband. After she could not tolerate insult towards her beloved husband, she left her body. On hearing this news, Lord Shiva became furious, and created a demon, called Virabadra, who was the embodiment of the anger of the Supreme Lord. Virabadra went to the residence of Daksha, to the sacrificial arena, and beheaded him. He destroyed the entire sacrifice that was taking place. In fear, the demigods scattered, and requested the counsel of Lord Brahma, the personality governing the creation of the Universe. Lord Brahma, knew of the nature of Lord Shiva, and how he is a perfected being. So he suggested they approach Lord Shiva and beg his forgiveness for their partaking in the events that led to his dear wife leaving her body. So the demigods along with Lord Brahma journeyed to Kailash, the beautiful abode of Lord Shiva, seeing many beautiful lakes, trees, and wildlife on the way. They saw Lord Shiva sitting under a very tall tree in a peaceful meditational posture with his many associates, being free of all anger. He was forgiving and gracious. One of the names of Lord Shiva is Asutosha. Asu means "very soon," and tosa means "to become satisfied." The sincerity and purity of Lord Shiva is beyond compare, and such a reaction is only fitting. Anything he does is driven by his sincerity. His anger, which was driven by his love for his wife, and his refute of a punishable act combined, was not just some act of irrational madness in perusal of his own selfish purpose; it was also driven by his sincerity. As always, the magnitude and context is entirely different in the corporate setting, however, when sincerity and purity in purpose is there, our desire to correct the wrong situations, in the appropriate way, following the cultural and workplace etiquette, will be a natural symptom in our care for others.

In essence, trust between individuals is the underlying basis for any environment that is to operate with higher values. Trust and a benevolent attitude towards others are the opposites of exploitation. If as leaders we cultivate this atmosphere, we will be surprised how much more fulfilled people are around us from seniors through to juniors. Since sincerity is the driver for trust, the change begins with introspection of our own motivations. To be sincere can happen in a moment; we only have to do one thing; be conscious.

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.

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 Relationship Factor

Whilst technical ability is critical to excellence and success, if we look around, most people can reach a certain level of technical expertise, and it then often comes down to personal factors, or relationship that determine success. The strength and nature of relationship one has with those around, below and above them certainly has a bearing on success in the workplace. We will be better equipped to succeed in this field if we understand why the personal factor is important, and how we should manage it in a deep way that addresses it from its roots rather than symptomatically when we are forced to react.

Ask John what he thinks

I developed a strong working relationship with the person leading a particular transaction. I reported to him on a particular technical matter that he had mentioned was key to the deal. I was seeking his views on the relevance, and leveragability of this piece of analysis. At the very sound of the topic, without hesitation, he referred me to the person who was leading that area. The area was intimately interwoven with the deal success, and required a person very close to it to be able to see if a particular piece of analysis was relevant. After thinking about the situation some more, I realized that the individual looking after the area, would often help the leader on weekends taking care of DIY, and join in on social occasions, etc. The leader had an exceptional relationship with this individual, which was built on personal trust.  The certainty and assurance that he referred me to him with was exceptional. It was clear that the success of my analysis would be entirely down to the areas owners view, which would entirely inform the leaders view, and in turn, determine my success. When leaders find people they can trust, they often become entirely dependent on these individuals, and therefore these individuals become more pivotal to our success as those above them. This may appear bewildering, but once again follows a simple logic when the reasons are broken down.

Personal factor always comes through

What is it about the ‘relationship’ factor that makes it so important? Above and beyond functional, objective ‘operational units’ if you like, which are part of the many cogs in the corporate world, we are human beings; we are personal, we are not entirely robotic all of the time. Even the most robotic of people, will have a less robotic side at home with their family and children for example. This personal factor is so interconnected with who we are, it is what we essentially live for, that it can seldom be completely switched off. Therefore, whilst people try to remain objective in the workplace, the personal factor, in situations pumped with stress, pressure and volatility, will inevitably come into play in various ways. On one hand, we should try to build positive relationships through being genuine well-wishers for others, whist protecting ourselves from negative behaviours where these may exist as the often do. On the other hand, we should be very conscious of the influence of relationship in our own paths as these can often be very strong, and sometimes not necessarily objectives- this situation is called politics; where personal gain outweighs objectivity. Being conscious of these two dynamics will help us as we aim to progress both in technical and personal domains.

Power of relationship

The power of relationship can often outweight all other factors; which may seem illogical or impossible at times. We can take the example of the great King Ambrisha, of ancient India. King Ambrisha was a great devotee of the Lord, who never viewed himself as anything but an instrument of the Lord in giving protection to his people and helping them progress. The great sage Durvasa, an incarnation of Lord Shiva, once came to the King’s palace, and somehow uttered some offensive words to King Ambrisha speaking of his absorption in material activities. The King, being humble, did not take any offense at all, however, the Lord took offence at the untrue criticism of His devotee. The sage Durvasa was chased by the Lord’s powerful weapon, the Sudarshana disc. In fear, Durvasa muni tried to take shelter of many powerful demigods begging their protection, however, none were powerful enough to provide such protection. Finally Durvasa Muni came to the Supreme Lord, and begged His protection. Although He is unlimitedly powerful, the Lord explained that even He is actually completely helpless to protect him, and that unless he receives the forgiveness of King Ambrisha, he could not be protected by any force in the Universe. King Ambrisha had a powerful and deep relationship with the Lord. Durvasa muni humbly begged forgiveness, and of course, King Ambrisha who was not even offended, excused him of anything that may have been caused, and the situation was resolved.

Relationships are the essence of our being; they are essentially what we work and live for. If the dynamic of relationship has played a part in such monumental historical events, what to speak of in our dynamics today; of course they feature, and always will. Therefore, whilst we may be consumed becoming technically expert, and managing workloads efficiently, it is critical to success, that the dynamic of relationship is deeply understood and factored in to all our decisions.