Month: August 2010

Who is your crisis counsellor..

This is a question I asked myself.

I realize there are while there might be many friends and loved ones, there are only a few I would turn to if I had a big emergency.

For example, let’s picture I desperately needed a million bucks for a few days for some weird disaster – who would I ask? (assuming everyone I knew had a million..)

I found I had a list of a few close loved ones whom I would not be ashamed to ask and who I felt wouldn’t say no.

What was amazing to me was that I was in close touch with everyone except the top person (and hence, the most reliable). I knew I could count on this person but never really made the effort to stay in close touch.

That was a big learning. This was the person I needed to stay closest in touch! And I thought it was a powerful exercise – to think of my crisis counsellor..

Avoiding momentum – Seth Godin

Some days, even the best dentist doesn’t feel like being a dentist.
And a lifeguard might not feel like being a lifeguard.

Fortunately, they have appointments, commitments and jobs. They have to show up. They have to start doing the work. And most of the time, this jump start is sufficient to get them over the hump, and then they go back to being in the zone and doing their best work.

Momentum is incredibly useful to someone who has to overcome fear, dig in deep and ship. Momentum gives you a reason to overcome your fear and do your art, because there are outside forces and obligations that keep you moving. Without them, you’d probably stumble and fall.

And yet…

And yet many of us fear too much momentum. We look at a project launch or a job or another new commitment as something that might get out of control. It’s one thing to be a folk singer playing to a hundred people a night in a coffeehouse, but what if the momentum builds and you become a star? A rock star? With an entourage and appearances and higher than high expectations for your next work. That’s a lot of momentum, no?

Deep down, this potential for an overwhelming response alerts the lizard brain and we hold back. We’re afraid of being part of something that feels like it might be too big for us.

Hint: it probably isn’t.

—

Brilliant.. absolutely brilliant!

Leadership by laughing a lot..

Over the past few years thanks to experiences in university, at Nineo and RealAcad, I’ve seen many a different leadership style thanks to various inspiring people I have encountered.

Of the many leadership styles I’ve seen, the common ones have been –

1) Lead from the front: This typifies the inspirational leader who inspires all with a great vision and is on the forefront of everything.

2) Lead from behind: This is the other big leadership where we have leaders in the background who push the team with great interpersonal relationships and gentle pushing and prodding..

3) Gofer delegation: Leaders who ‘delegate’ by micromanaging – ‘Go for this.. go for that’ etc i.e. those who love the control.

4) Keep the power: These are leaders who generally are good with people but withhold all information i.e. keep their cards close to their chest.

It’s been a nice experience with every kind of leader because you learn from their strengths. A new type of leadership I have been exposed to of late has been ‘Leadership by laughing a lot’.

I’ve spent 1 month of work and every day at the office has been an opportunity to laugh loud and laugh at myself thanks to a great boss! I never really thought of this as a leadership style in the first couple of weeks – I just thought of my boss as one of the nicest people I have met. But, of late, I’ve been feeling the power – It’s Sunday night and I’m already looking forward to the work week thanks to the office being such a fun and happy place. And I’ve realized that the biggest reason is the fact that my boss never hesitates to laugh at herself..

Two quotes that I really believe in come to my mind –

‘The biggest mistake adults make is that they forget what it is to be young’

and

‘Our first true moment of growth is when we laugh loud and hard at ourselves’

—

Here’s to laughing and growing!

‘You’ve told me this before..’

How many times have we heard people we love re-tell THAT story again and again with lots of passion and excitement..

Sometimes done out of passion, other times out of excitement and yet some others just out of context and a will to share..

And how many times have we laughed or pulled their legs about it and said ‘Yeah, you’ve told me this before‘

After making a mental note about this, today, for the first time, I resisted the urge to say so and just smiled and listened. It was hard but it was a small victory and a small effort that went a long way in not raining on a loved one’s parade..

I’m not sure how much of a difference it made to my listeners but it gave me that warm, fuzzy feeling on the inside..

Here’s to doing this more often..