Scale-up with PK!

Best outcomes happen   when we put our 'best versions' to work, when we strive to be our 'best   versions' while making the attempt, through the process.

A leader's priority   therefore is to get the 'best version' of every team member, every day.

How do we get there?

A man was traveling with his 25 year old son in a train.

The Son sitting by the window looked out and started calling out - ‘Dad, look at those trees, they are moving with us! Look at those clouds - they are yellow and white!’

The father smiled. Two people sitting next to them were at a loss; They murmured each other and then asked the father ‘have you taken him to a psychiatrist?’

The man smiled and said ‘We are coming from the hospital after an eye surgery - He was blind since birth, just got his eye sight now’.

Do we judge people and situations too soon? Assume things, and rush into conclusions in haste?

How’s it impacting our business situations? Our relationships, Our lives?

As a leader, What’s that I could do, going forward?

As leaders, we need to simplify. When we simplify, things get done.

Anything complex, clouds visibility; thrashes initiative; impairs motivation; and in effect, Complexity stymies action.

As a leader therefore, it’s essential to simplify; so that visibility improves, initiatives thrive, and motivation sustains. When we simplify, appropriate action happens, and things get done.

When we simplify, we are effective, more productive, less stressed, more efficient.

Steve Jobs once said - Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end, because once you get there you can move mountains. Unquote.

Leadership isn't about being comfortable; it's about being effective, even when you're uncomfortable - says Roger Schwarz.

Being effective even when you’re uncomfortable.

Doing what’s needed even when it’s personally uncomfortable.

Communication, effective communication, is an essential ingredient for enhancing one’s leadership presence.

Great Leaders standout. People   get inspired by their thoughts and presence. What makes Great Leaders tick? One   of the 4 Things Great Leaders Have In Common is:

Comfort zones make it difficult for one to forego the (false) sense of safety - though we know extra-ordinary things happen outside our comfort zones.

A ship in the harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for - said John Shedd.

What would move us from our comfort zones?

External forces do that at times - where we get pushed out of our comfort zones by (external) circumstances. Many success stories, extra-ordinary things have evolved out of such situations.

Alternatively, we could choose to play outside our comfort zone on our own; Going beyond the logical and rational limits that we put on ourselves; Gathering strong emotional urge, the wanting to do it, surpassing, over-powering the fear of failure; Moving beyond the logical limits and boundaries that we set for ourselves…

That's where extra-ordinary things happen. That's where we get to live our true potential.

Am I living my potential? Or am I stuck in my comfort zones?

As leaders we have different ways of looking at people when it comes to their roles and responsibilities — One way is to look at them based on what they’ve done so far. Another is to look at them based on what they’re capable of.

These two could be different — at times, vastly different.

The latter approach has helped me immensely over the years — even today it continues yielding highly positive outcomes!

When we are looking at people and their roles, what one has done so far is relatively easy to see, feel and figure out. A vast majority of decisions therefore are made on that basis. One can’t really find an issue with that approach though, as the leader weighs the risks, and knows that she is responsible for the decisions that they take.

Yet, from what I’ve seen and experienced, I need to share that when we enhance the frame of reference slightly wider, look at people more from what they’re capable of, the spectrum of possibilities enlarge significantly! It opens up whole new avenues and possibilities.

One may consider this to be an experiment — possibly it is; but, with high degrees of success stacked in its favour!

Extending it further, this needn’t be limited to people who’re internal — it could even be extended to people who’re external to the business. It works wonders.

Looking at people based on what they’re capable of, than what they’ve done so far — It’s a possibility that as leaders we could leverage!

When we get in to action, do we exercise enough diligence? Do we consciously resist the temptations to act in haste?

A professional photographer was told that a 2-seater plane would be waiting for him at noon at the local airport.

Arriving at the airport, he saw a 2-seater plane with its propellers on, warming-up just outside the hangar.

Greeting the pilot, he jumped-in with his bag, and said ‘Let’s go!’

The pilot took off. After a few minutes he requested the pilot - ‘Please fly low over the mountain’. The pilot asked ‘why?’. ‘So that I can take some good pictures’ he replied.

The pilot went silent for a moment - then retorted ‘So you are not my flying instructor?’.

While we get in to action, do we exercise adequate diligence?

Today we are exposed to a lot of noise all around. As Leaders we know we need to differentiate and pick the signals by filtering out the noise.

How do we do that?

Once a farmer noticed after a day’s work at the barn that he has lost his wrist-watch. He was disturbed as it was a priced possession and had sentimental value.

He had stacked hay all that day. Therefore spent a lot of time searching for it among the hay, without any avail.

He returned home distressed and shared the misfortune with his family. His daughter playing around heard this conversation and left to the barn. She returned after 10 minutes with the watch!

The farmer was elated and surprised, asked her how she got it?

She said ‘All I did was to sit quietly on the ground and listen. After a while, in the silence, I heard the ticking noise of your watch, just searched that area, and got it!’

At times, should we reduce the noise and listen?

Keeping focus is becoming increasingly challenging. We know our ability to focus on a goal or a task until it’s complete is critical for attaining desired outcomes.

In a world that is overflowing with distractions, notifications vying for our attention, how do we remain focused?

At one level, Focus is about managing distractions - When I manage my distractions, am able to focus better! As Steve Jobs once said,  Focus is not saying ‘Yes’ to one thing, it’s saying ‘No’ to hundred other things.

We might be seeing possibilities, opportunities and shiny objects floating around us all the time - in different types, shapes and sizes. Many of them might look tempting to go for. Saying yes to them may make us incredibly busy. Whether it would translate in to successful outcomes is the question.

If you want to persevere you need to pursue only the opportunities that move you the most, the possibilities that truly matters, and say no to the rest. It's difficult, but the results are worth it as Steve Jobs said on another occasion.

Focus - It’s about managing distractions. To enhance our ability to focus, we need to enhance our ability to manage our distractions.

Often we get troubled by the complexity of challenges we face; overwhelmed by the enormity, the size. Making us dumb-founded, shocked and feeling stuck; virtually making us incapable of taking any meaningful action.

Is there a practical way of handling challenges? Is there a constructive way of managing them?

River Ganga (Ganges) originates at the upper reaches of Himalayas at Gomukh - beyond Gangotri. What it sees all around is just tall mountains and tons of snow. Seemingly a challenging environment for flowing waters.

What it does there, is to find ways around the mountains. It doesn’t stay overwhelmed by the tall peaks and formidable mountains; neither it goes head-on to pulverize them. nor remains a high altitude lake. It just finds the ways around the challenges. Navigates its way around the peaks and ranges, reaching the plains, and then the sea, the destination. In the process becomes a source of life to countless flora, fauna and 500+ million people, bringing prosperity to many!

Does it hold some lessons for us?

Possibly yes - that we don’t necessarily need to face the challenges head-on. We can work our way around them!

We can think around the challenges, than thinking about them. We can work around the challenges than working on them.

The good news is that we can consciously practice this. When we do that, our focus, energy, and efforts shift to a constructive space, resulting in outcomes that are more meaningful. For all.

As leaders, do we assume things, and become unyielding with our ways? Especially as we acquire more experience, grow bigger, stronger?

A ship had been at sea in bad weather for days. As the visibility improved one night, Captain and crew were keeping an eye on all directions.

Suddenly the lookout sailor on the bridge called-out ‘I can see light far away’. The captain shouted back ‘Signal the other ship: We are on a collision course. Please you change your course 20 degrees’.

The signal that came back read ‘You are advised to change your course 20 degrees left’. The captain was beginning to get furious - he repeated to the crewman ‘Send him: This is the ship's Captain. Change your course 20 degrees immediately to avoid collision!’.

‘I'm a seaman second class’ came the reply - you change your course 20 degrees left immediately to avoid collision’. The captain became furious. He said to the signalman ‘This is a battleship, one of the largest at that. I demand that you immediately change your course!’

Then came the signal from the other - ‘This is a lighthouse! Your call’.

As leaders, do we assume things and become stubborn, unyielding with our ways?

An elderly Cherokee was on a stroll with his grandson. He was narrating about the battle that goes on all the time inside - the battle between two ‘wolves’.

He said the Wolf No 1 consists of anger, envy, jealousy, regret, greed, arrogance, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority.

And the Wolf No 2, that consists of joy, gratitude, love, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion.

And he paused. The grandson was thinking deep inside and asked: ‘Which wolf wins?’

The Cherokee replied: ‘The one you feed’.

Which one am I feeding?

We don’t see things as they are; but as we think they are!

As a leader, it’s very important that while taking decisions or making choices we see things as they are, not as what we think they are.

I would like to share an incident here. It was 2nd World war time.

Allies war planes were on a bombing spree. They were being met with heavy gun fire from the enemy side. Many planes were getting hit and going down. At one point in time the casualty rate rose as high as 45%; meaning only one in two planes had a chance of returning back to the base. This was alarming.

The teams sat down to find a solution. The idea of reinforcing the bullet receiving parts with additional metal gained support as a possible solution to improve the survival rate.

The investigations conducted on returning planes indicated bullet hole damages were (only) on the fuselage and tail-wing parts. Therefore it was obvious that these parts required reinforcement. It was almost decided to go ahead on that basis.

At this point a Hungarian war veteran pointed out that they were examining only the returning planes. The ones that were not returning were out of this study. And those planes were going down for a valid reason - they were getting hit on more critical parts!

The planes with bullet holes in their fuselage and tail parts were still making it back to the base, whereas those getting hit on key parts such as cock pit and engine areas, were not returning at all! Therefore those areas were more critical and dangerous.

Following this insight, the places chosen for reinforcement changed drastically!

And rightly so.