Karthick J_BLP032_Self_Leadership_October 2012

15^th October 2012

                The session started with Mr. Anil explaining a framework which could be used in decision making to understand the power of intellect and brain.

The framework is as follows,

• Define the frame
• Collect meaningful and reliable information
• Define several creative and doable alternatives
• Define logic for evaluation which includes your risk and returns
• Values and tradeoffs
• Implementation

    We used this framework to initiate our career choice. I learnt that the frame is a lever which should have the most important question that one has in their mind. Then the individual should collect some reliable data, create multiple options, set the evaluation criteria and then look at the values and trade off’s. Finally the decision has to be executed. As the class progressed Mr. Anil then explained how the creativity in a person is systematically reduced by conditioning the mind to think only in the conventional approach. This is a thought which needs to be explored further and debated upon.  We understood what Anil was trying to convey by using the activity to test how creative each person was.

                 Later we learnt about the 4 dimensions of creativity. On exploring what prevents the person from being creative we learnt that FEAR stops a person from being creative. The FEAR of failure, criticism, ambiguity, wilderness and lack of time and resources are some which hinders creativity.  Anil later explained the ladder of inference. I learnt that the seven steps in the ladder of inference explain the thinking process that a person might unknowingly experience to get from a fact to a decision or action. 

22^nd October 2012

                

                 The day started in a sober note as it marked the 50^th anniversary of the Sino-Indian War. Mr. Anil used the occasion to make the audience understand what courage is. I was moved when he shared how a few hundred Indian soldiers stood their ground and allowed themselves to be buried in the snow to defend our motherland from thousands of attacking Chinese troops. I felt the anniversary was apt occasion to explain how courage transforms an individual to rise to the occasion and be proactive in approach. We were asked to discuss the stories of courage among our groups. Courage is displayed by an individual to bail out the community from the crisis situation. The famous quote” Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear” aptly summed up what courage is all about.

                Later Mr. Anil showed a video of the world's happiest man; Mr. Matthieu Ricard. The essence of the video is that happiness is a skill to be learnt. He showed that meditation can cause an overwhelming change in levels of happiness. His mind control level was amazing the impulses he generated in his brain were off the scale. I learnt that our life can be transformed by even a small incremental change in way we manage our thoughts and perceive the surroundings. Happiness is a skill. We require some effort to develop this skill.

Some of the determinants of happiness are,

• Religion
• Good Relationship
• Thinking style
• Exercise

                Anil later introduced the concept of Immunity X ray to the class. This could be used to overcome the resistance to change and unlock the potential in a person.  We were asked to apply this framework to change something which we wanted. 

Karthick J_BLP032_Happiness_September 2012

Happiness is defined as the state of mind. Happiness is the outcome of one of the following experiences which could either be individual or combination of pleasure, engagement, relationship, meaning and accomplishment. The real meaning of happiness differs from individual to individual. I find connect between happiness and religions. Most of the religions guide people on the path to live a happy and satisfactory life. The teachings encourage people to do perform their duties with utmost sincerity and follow values while performing their duties. Values, forms an integral part of life. Values I think are an enabler for happiness. A person who leads life with values commands the respect from their peers. The peers respect the person not for his position, power, wealth or any other reasons. It is the values which enabled the person to gain the admiration and respect from their peers.  Happiness is derived out of values.  The question now is “what leads to happiness in this modern world? Is it values or the materialistic and luxury needs through corrupt means?” The religion stresses on the values, but what makes a person to seek out for materialistic and luxury needs by compromising on values? Maybe, the entire perception of a person on where happiness lies could be taking a dramatic shift from values to materialistic and luxury needs.  Who is to be blamed for this shift, should we blame the individual? Wait, the answer might lie not in the individual, it could lie in the environment the individual is in. The individual is conditioned to think on these lines. It is the people around this individual who should be blamed for corrupting the minds of the individual to do illegal activities to achieve the materialistic and luxury needs. I am not saying that a person shouldn’t aspire for the materialistic and luxury needs. The problem arises when a person compromises on values to achieve these needs. It is unfair and the person should surely be reprimanded for the act committed.

          Happiness can be achieved by values. Say, a person is aspiring to be a musician. The person should show the dedication to achieve this goal. The dedication is one of the products of the values. Then, the person should use the ethical means to achieve the stage to showcase the talent. This again is a part of values. When a person uses unacceptable means would be experiencing happiness only for a short duration of time. The person would ultimately be busted one day and would be subjected to humiliation in front of peers.

          Happiness is the outcome of one of the following experiences which could either be individual or combination of pleasure, engagement, relationship, meaning and accomplishment. Pleasure occurs when an individual derives from an activity which a person enjoys the most. Engagement occurs when a person is immersed in act which is enjoyable.  Relationship occurs due the social needs of a person. Meaning occurs when a person seeks a bigger purpose in life. Accomplishment occurs as a result of achievements experienced by the person.

          In order be happy one should look for the roadblocks which hinders them achieving happiness. Once, the roadblocks are identified solutions needs to be formulated to find alternative paths. Happiness is temporary. The mood of a person constantly changes. It is important for a person to be either intrinsically or externally motivated to continue doing the good things and adapt to new changes to achieve the happiness. The answers to happiness and the means to achieve happiness could possibly be found in our forgotten ancient Vedic scriptures as India happens to be a place where oldest civilizations existed.  

Karthick J_BLP_032_Self Leadership_September_2012

I had to miss Anil's session to attend a event. Hence, I am writing this with the help of the discussion I had with my fellow batch mates on this topic. 

The second semester started on a sour note with the news of sudden demise of our classmates Rahul and Gaurav. The spirits were low and there was a sense of gloominess around. Anil asked everyone to pen down our feelings about the incident that had occurred. He later asked the entire class to share the feelings. Anil shared a video on “Things to do before I die”. This video illustrated the desire of people around the world to do specific set of tasks and fulfil their dreams before death.  From this video everyone were able to imagine happiness a person derives by fulfilling their desires.

Anil later discussed about Emotional Intelligence, which is the ability to control and evaluate the emotions. Anil used examples to make the entire audience understand the importance of deep listening. Everyone learnt that a good listener would be able pick the body language one expresses. Later, Anil used two volunteers to make the audience  understand the difference between empathy and sympathy.

Post lunch, the topic was Appreciative Inquiry. Again, Anil used a exercise whereby the  students were paired and underwent the entire process of appreciative inquiry.  This exercise helped the students to understand that each individual has a hidden talent in them. The exercise further helped the students to understand the other person better.

The session ended with students sharing their experiences of the day. Overall, the session was a great learning experience for everyone. 

Karthick J_BLP032_Self Leadership_May 2012

Today was my first class at SOIL and I waited in the BLP class with lot of enthusiasm as Mr. Anil Sachdev, CEO of SOIL was the lead instructor for the Self Leadership session. I felt that I couldn’t have asked for a better start. In walked Anil and the noise in the class had subsided. He started the session saying that he would be sharing the presentations that he prepared to present it to the high level corporate staff. He said that he wouldn’t dwell on his past. He started sharing the teachings of Swami Chinmayanda. He further said that all the religious texts speak the same thoughts. 

The first exercise was to ask a question “If I had to lead myself better, what question should I ask to myself?” I thought for a while and my answer was “Am I doing justice to my talents? What stops you from using your talents? How do you want to overcome it?” Anil had asked us to discuss our views in our group and our views had a common theme “Self realization”. I learnt that one should be able to know oneself better; one must know the strengths and weaknesses to be a better leader because a person who doesn’t know themselves better cannot understand the views of the other person.

I learnt that only the soul of a person is a subject and rest all are objects. The SELF is made up of 6 layers. 

Anil emphasised on the power of “Communicating through eyes”. The next exercise was to express an incident that had impacted you. Through this I learnt that it is really difficult to express emotions through the eyes and I found that I was able to convey my thoughts when I was allowed to use gestures as part of my expressions.

Next Anil shared his views on how to understand the surroundings by using the “power of listening”. A person who is able to observe the surroundings better is in a better position to know the feelings of the people surrounding them.  There was a listening exercise and during this exercise I observed that the speaker was willing to share more thoughts when the speaker had the conscious that the audience was listening to them. When the audience were more attentive it encouraged the speaker and it discouraged the speaker when the audience were not attentive. One important thing to note here is that one should listen to the implied meaning the speaker is trying to say. We used an ego/alter ego exercise to understand this.

Anil ended the session with a lecture on the “power of touch”. I learnt that a person of highest integrity would be able channelize the positive vibes and heal the people. A touch could be used as powerful medium to express various emotions because one is able to express various emotions like caring, compassion, encouragement through a single touch.

To summarize my learning today, I would say that a leader is a person who knows oneself better. A leader should be able to observe the surroundings and people through senses. A leader should be true to the soul and must practice the values before preaching it.