Amit SIngh_BLP025_Self leadership_October 2012

The third session on self leadership concentrated on understanding the power of intellect. This was in continuation of the last 2 sessions in which we understood the about the outer body and emotion. The session started with the discussion on the decision making framework i.e. understanding the nuances (steps) of making decision. Following is the process one usually follows for making any decision in life (based on research)

First asking as to what is the most important question. Then look for meaningful and reliable information in the context of the question. After that, look for creative and doable alternative. Then, find out logic for evaluation i.e. considers the risk and return associated with the decisions. After that look for value & trade-off one needs to take into consideration to come to a conclusion. And finally look at the implementation of the decision

After understanding the decision framework we were encouraged to think about our career goals individually and based on the decision framework identify the best career objective for oneself. This certainly helped oneself to at least dig deep into oneself.

Then there was discussion on the aspect of creativity which is mainly the power of ideation fluency, originality of thinking and associational fluency. Also there was discussion on wonderful book called “The Fourth Eye” by Pradip Khandwallla. Following this we were encouraged to introspect and understand the fear within by scaling oneself on the figure of 1 to 10 to different questions (which certainly gives us the fear quotient). The reason behind this exercise was to understand one’s own fear and through that comprehension overcome the fear as awareness is key to overcoming any difficulty.

Then in continuation, we were encouraged to think about the value and mission of life through various pertinent questions that certainly helped us to clarify a bit about our future goal (career options)

Finally in the last hour of the 3^rd session a very wonderful concept was discussed which created more understanding of the way one thinks perception one creates around that thinking. It was called “Ladder of Inference” based on Peter Sengi’s work. This was certainly a tool to be more aware of the how one’s action has many sub layers that determine the cause of the action.

The 4^th session on Self Leadership was culmination of the past 3 sessions where the session started with discussing the incidence of courage (either displayed individually or being inspired from) in a group and then some of our colleagues were encouraged to share their personal mission statement. Then we watched Mathew Ricard view on happiness. In this video he talked about attaining happiness which is nothing but at mental peace (for which certainly the mind has to be trained)

Then the value of happiness in the present world was talked about and how economist can learn from psychologists so that the happiness can find a place in economic thinking. Finally a very powerful tool called “immunity to X ray” was taught to us which is a scientific way to get rid of one’s habit (which is nothing but understanding one’s own thought and action which one aspires to have).