Manu Malhotra_BLP036_ConsultingSkills

After the first two sessions on consulting skills with Anil sir, upon reflecting as to what are the things I have learnt, I interestingly thought of questions that I can answer now. So in an unusual blog I would like to confess that I am a proud owner of answers to these following questions!

• How do you influence without authority?
• Is it the consultant who brings in the transformation in an organization?
• Can consultants empower organizations and clients?
• Why do consultants need to develop deep commitment for clients?
• Is consultancy only required and done when an organization is in trouble?
• Is it equally important to understand what is going on right in the company while analyzing what is going on wrong?
• How do you establish rapport with the client?
• What to do when you understand the problem, you know what these people in front of you require but they aren’t just listening to you?
• How important are the technical & functional skills as compared to the communication skills?
• Are communication skills only about how well you speak?
• How to arrive at a good contract?
• How to be an authentic leader?
• What is it that people remember about you, long after you have worked with them?
• How important is passion in the life of a consultant?
• Can we call any person providing support a consultant?
• How do you prepare yourself for the first contract meeting with the clients?
• Who are economic buyer, technical buyer, user buyer and Coach? What is their importance in getting the deal closed?
• What is the importance of hot buttons and how important is it to know the hot buttons of stake holders to the success of getting the deal home?

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_SIP8thVisit

This SIP visit as always gave me ample things to learn. How to be assertive and still influence people without being authoritative? I along with my team members carried forward the work of designing the test papers for students at Kalkaji centre of Adharshila trust. I also took up the task of registering Adharshila to Mahatma Gandhi peace walk in US on 2^nd October 2011. Moreover, I also promoted the cancer awareness program of adharshila trust on social media.

I can’t just imagine the kind of learning this SIP work is providing to me. But, I would also like to mention that it is also challenging at times. In this SIP framework, one can put his Consultancy skills, negotiation skills and communications skills to good use and through practice you can harness them!

Souvik Dey_BLP034_Self Leadership_Sep'11

Leadership to me, is an entity which makes the need of a person being in a position of leadership and “leading” superfluous. He creates a world where each and every person is a leader in their own right. This is attained by first being a Self Leader. A self leader is one who has attained a sense of “completeness”. He is in sync with his “self”. He does not travel a beaten path, he creates his own.

In our first class on Self Leadership during the Induction week, we learned about the six layers of one’s self and how we can bring out the best out of our self by focusing on them. We concentrated on the how this all relates to the pillars of SOIL. The most important of which according to me are “Ethics” and “Compassion”. Ethics in our world is the most loosely used word. In essence there is nothing called “ethics”, it is just a vague idea that we carry. “Ethics” is not just about being right or wrong, they are the actions that we carry out. They are the products of an elevated state of mind when we are confident and have the power and courage to carry out what is necessary, just and morally balanced. Another aspect of self leadership is “compassion”. Compassion according to me is the ability of sensing the world around us and being able to feel the way is “works”. Compassion is the way one reacts when it feels the pain that plagues the Earth.

In our second session with Mr, Anil Sachdev after a gap of around 3 months, we took up this subject again. A day before the session, I was not sure about what would have happen during the session. Incidentally, I was reading this novel which I had heard a lot about. It is called “Siddhartha” by the German author Herman Hesse. Siddhartha is the story of an Indian boy named such who is in pursuit of the meaning of life and his reason for being. He is born to a Brahmin family and has grown reading the Upanishads and Vedas. However, he does not feel that is where the answer to life’s questions can be found. He is adamant about leaving his family behind and after much disagreement with his father leaves his house to follow the life of a “Samana” with his dear friend and companion Govinda. Samanas do not have anything to do with the world, live in the woods and thwart worldly pleasures and fast for days without end to experience the pain. They believe that is the only way one can attain “Nirvana”. Both friends lead the life of a “Samana” for several years. Siddhartha who has begun to get restless, not still being able to find the answers he desired, starts questioning the “Samana way”. He eventually hears about a monk “Gautama” (Gautam Buddha) who everyone refers to as the “Enlightened One”. He persuades Govinda to tag along with him in his search to find Gautama. They do find him eventually. While Govinda finally seems to have found his answers from Gautama, Siddhartha while appreciating that Gautama is truly enlightened feels that staying as a student of Gautama will not get him his answers. He wanders off and reaches a village where he finds “Kamala”, who teaches him the art of love and “Kamaswamy” who teaches him how to operate a business. He stays in this village for a long time and one day realizes he has strayed far off from his goal. Hastily he leaves the village and while trolling on deserted roads comes across a river, a boat and a ferryman. He takes shelter with this ferryman. The ferryman teaches him how to converse with the river. Siddhartha sees his reflection in the flowing river and asks the river for help. He finds a lot of answers from the river. He eventually finds that all the answer of life is present in life itself. Being a Samana and experiencing only the pain is not how you learn about life, but he also learnt about dealing with pain from them. Neither do you find it in the Vedas, but you do learn valuable words of wisdom from it. Although he believes that Gautama and his preaching as very “interesting”, he finally learns that he has found answers in life itself. He understands how life always comes around. He learns that when he discovers he has a child, borne out of Kamala and she dies leaving the child with him. However, the child never accepts him as his and dad and flees the shelter of his father, just like he did during his youth. He learns that the answers of life can be found from experience. That there is meaning in every human being and there is pleasure in all work. The novel in itself is vividly written with a sense of raw emotion and directness rarely displayed by any author.

So when I attended the class on Self Leadership that day, it clearly explained a lot that I read about in the book. The idea of Self Leadership is finding one’s self by being aware of one’s surroundings and showing unconditional love towards all living beings in this world, people, trees and animals alike. In these sessions we learned how we can discard our inner fears, apprehensions and assumptions which serve as hindrances towards finding the “self”. We also learned about the exercise of “walking on fire” which is the process of eliminating the pain by not paying importance to it. We also learnt about Immunity X-ray which entails that the immunity system is ever changing and we are all developing our mental strength no matter which stage of life we are at.

One might ask what use or purpose these lessons serve. The answer is that these are words which if imbibed with our “way of life” can shatter the mask of selfishness and corrupted sense of achievement and enable us to truly pursue the happiness and satisfaction we all deserve by empowering our “self”.

Monika Sahni_HRLP022_Self Leadership_Sep’11

During the last Self Leadership session, Anil Sir asked us to identify where we feel the need to change and what we are actually doing to carry out that change within us.

In order to bring out the change, action shall be taken at three levels:

1. At intellectual level

To bring about a change, is one of the most difficult tasks. One should first understand why he needs to bring about a change in oneself.

2. At heart level

Once realizing why a person needs to change himself, he should have the willingness and zeal to bring about the change.

3. At body level

After realizing the need and bringing in the willingness to change, one should actually do the things required to bring out that change.

Then we talked about immunity X- ray in which we were asked to think on the following:

·         What we think we need to change/develop within us?

·         What are we doing or what do we not do instead to bring about that change?

·         What are my hidden competing commitments (i.e. an underlying root cause, that competes and conflicts with a stated commitment to change)?

·         What are my mental assumptions behind that hidden competing commitment?

In the book: "Immunity to Change. How To Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization", Robert Kegan (Professor in Adult Learning and Professional Development at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education) and Lisa Laskow Lahey (Associate Director of Harvard’s Change Leadership Group) address the question: "Why is personal change so difficult?"

They begin by noting that leaders who view capacity as a fixed resource will fall behind those who work to enable the growth of capacity in their organization.

The "knowing doing gap"

This book and the tools and techniques outlined within it tackle what is often referred to as the "knowing doing gap", or as Kegan puts it:

"...how to close the gap between our intentions, things we actually want to carry out, and what we are actually able to do".

The authors then make three premises about overcoming the kind of immunity.

First, that overcoming it does not mean needing to get rid of all our anxiety management systems. Second, that anxiety is produced not merely from the onset of change, but from feeling defenceless in the face of it.

Third, that the immunity systems we have developed can actually be changed.

They draw on the distinction by Ronald Heifetz (1994) between technical and adaptive challenges to show that most of the challenges leaders face today is adaptive rather than simple application of technical solutions. The scale and pace of change that is impacting organisations now is such that it cannot often be planned for and thus it pushes leaders and followers into positions that require adaptive solutions - and that can only happen when leaders and followers interact with their environment and change their behaviour in response to that environment.

This is only possible when those being impacted by change have either the personal developmental capacities to do this, or have resources such as the immunity to change model and process to help them.

There are many developmental models that attempt to map and model the stages of complexity associated with mental development.

It has been assumed that adults don't change - can't change - beyond early adult-hood, that a level of development is reached and remains static.

Kegan & Lahey challenge this and assert that based on their research, adults are capable of continuing development throughout their lives. They identify three qualitatively different dimensions of mental complexity what they call —the socialised mind, the self-authoring mind, and self-transforming mind, each of which interpret the world in different ways.

And above all is the need of driving this change…From within..which is the concept of self leadership..

Pratibha Sangwan_HRLP012_Self Leadership_Sep’11

This journey of discovering the leader within ourselves began the day I joined SOIL..Lead by a magnamatic  leader himself.. Working his day in and out to create leaders..Leaders with a difference..  When generally talking about leaders we mistake it as someone who has power to dictate people.. Someone who has an has authority.. Someone who works as a head.. And here we all miss the essence of leading by ‘SELF’.. So here comes the concept of ‘Self Leadership’.. Lead by our own self..

And with the highest and purest form of leadership comes the immunity to change.. Which is the first step to transforming consciousness, until and unless self transformation is done transformation of the organizations or the surroundings is not possible. This self transformation is wherein the leader is implicitly being asked to have a self transformation (of 5^th order) mind. Today there is a gap between mental demand on leadership and the capacity generally available. When trying to reduce the gap, leaders generally tend to adapt the mind complexity rather than simply apply technical solutions. Also there is a common notion of showing the same immunity even if particular issue or challenge is different. Well here comes the question than how to figure out, what to be done and when.. so here once again would come the concept of self leadership.. leaders who are led by intrinsic motivation and strength would not work according to what they have learnt or what they have known but what is happening around them at that moment and time for that particular given situation, it is prevention systems, feeling systems and knowing systems. Also looking at things systematically and organizationally is required which helps them to view the emotional life of the organization. After all this moving from individual to group is required, the additional complexity of the dynamics involved becomes clear. The tendency to avoid bringing personal issues to the group setting because of tendencies to pathologize individual problems is nicely dealt with through the use of framing and processes that enable each team member to see the strengths that are one end of a continuum related to those weaknesses. The coordination of the various tools used to support the process, the timing of the work and the importance of the leader setting the tone and acting as an example are all well illustrated.

So after enough of analysation here again the concentration again on slef.. Unlocking potential and this describes three necessary ingredients to successfully take on the work of unlocking your immunity to change: a vital energy source of motivation for change, both cognitive and emotional aspects working together and action or behavioral work, and engaging our thinking with our feeling is required as no amount of thinking about the work will get it done, as alos no amount of emotional effort by itself either. Finally action must be taken so that it speaks the experiments and experiences that can test our assumptions and mover our insights into reality. Now applying this immunity individually and collectively is required, taking each individual through each process is required and then taking the group through the same process. Above all there needs to be sufficient safety and support for facing the risks in this depth of change of mindset.

The above seems to be very process centric approach, but if studied closely and reflected upon is very aspect of what is mentioned initially ‘Self Leadership’.. Everything is ‘self’ driven.. Also means empowering not only self but others involved in the process so that there is s sense of not only belongingness but accountability  

                                             

                                                             

Supraneet Khanna_MLP012_Self Leadership_Sep'11

Leadership class of Mr Anil Sachdev is always inspiring and enthusiastic because he speaks from his heart and desire to accomplish the same quality of his, to every individual listener.

The session was about the “Immunity to change”.
This session was all about realizing the need to change and activities which which will bring this change easier.

I believe if an individual realize his/her point of error where he/she is lacking then it is very important for him/her to change and rectify his/her point of error.

If an person is unable to focus and trust on himself only,  then it is not expected that he/she could trust others.

Mr Anil Sachdev started the session with the discussion based on the emphasis on knowing, focusing and building the SELF.

It had actually given me a thought about my self and lead me deep into the mystrey of knowing myself better, that need to be solved within me.

Realising one's own strenghts and weaknesses will actually help him/her to improve as a person and also help us to grow, So Mr Sachdev highlighted the key points of strengths and weaknesses and its importance.

 As the discussion moved further, we were taught about the significance of setting a purpose in life. Setting a higher purpose in life always helps us grow better. There has to be deep sense of love and commitment towards our goal, which will add an extra mile, the extraordinary courage to accomplish the assumed impossible task.
Understanding of the lecture had also enlightened us to start appreciating even petty things in life, Inculcate an habit of taking innitiatives, comitments are the priorities, and start intorspecting rather being circumspect.

We were then made to learn something what is called as “Immunity X-Ray”.

It was based on an exersize where we had to think about any habit of ours which is need to be changed.

Then we need to realize the potential of change in habit towards our accomplished goal, secondly the comitments that we need to promise by ourself, Lastly being positive towards your entire exersize and challange it till endeavour.
This exercise made us really give a deep thought on what we set for ourselves and what we actually do.

Entire session was about "Lead to introspecton". 

Ritu Bhatnagar_BLP028_Self Leadership_Sep'11

Attending the second leadership class taken by Mr. Anil Sachdev was even more enlightening.
The session was about the “Immunity to change”. To change a habit is something easier said than done. Sometimes we are not even in the position to identify the need to change. This session was all about realizing the need to change and things which would make the journey to bring about this change easier.
I strongly believed in the philosophy that – “A person always wins if he manages to keep all his focus and trust on himself in every situation.” Anil sir started the session with the discussion based on the emphasis on knowing, focusing and building the SELF. This all the more helped me in strengthening my belief and working on it. There were many exercises done in the class which helped us introspect and know ourselves better. Understanding our own strengths and weaknesses, people who matter to us and utilizing our gifts in best ways possible to see them happy will what make us successful.
As the discussion moved further, we were sensitized about the significance of setting a purpose in life. Setting a higher purpose in life always helps us grow better. There has to be deep sense of love and commitment towards our goal, which will give us that extra mile, the additive bit, the extraordinary courage to accomplish the assumed impossible task.
“Life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,
And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,
And all work is empty save when there is love. Work is Love made visible” – a famous quote by Khalil Gibran (“The Prophet”) clearly signifies the importance of work and working with passion and love towards the achievement of our goals. We do take many initiatives in our lives but how many we really finish - is something we need to ponder. Today, there is a high value of appreciation added to an attitude which initiates something and is able to finish it to completion, what is termed as a “finitiative” attitude.
Many a times there are some of our own habits which stop us working towards our goals. Some hidden competing commitments which make us deviate from the focus centric path of working towards our goal. We were then made to learn something what is called as “Immunity X-Ray”.
The exercise of Immunity X-Ray was basically divided into five steps.
In the first step we had to identify a habit which we wanted to inculcate in us which inturn will help us working towards our preset goal.
Second step was that we needed to identify the action we did (which was just opposite to the habit we wanted to inculcate)
Thirdly we had to identify the hidden competing commitment which was actually playing the dare devil and not letting us follow the correct path.
Fourthly we had to identify the assumptions which were fuelling the hidden competing commitments and were making them larger than the positives in us.
After identifying all the above stated things, we were asked to revisit our positive sets of values and strengths which will help fighting off the focus deviating assumptions and will bring us back to the path which will ultimately lead us to the achievement of our preset goal.
This exercise made us really give a deep thought on what we set for ourselves and what we actually do.
If I were asked to sum this session up in one word I would just say –“introspective”.  This is what we really need to do to exactly know ourself and when we would know ourselves then only we would really be able to do well and inspire others and that will in true sense mean – inspired leadership.

Mohit Kakar_BLP014_Self Leadership_Sep'11

After reading the report “ Immunity to change” by Jonathan Reams , I got answers for my failure to follow my sincerely made New year’s resolutions and some of the promises I keep making to myself.
I understood that people and organizations want to change but often fail because they get in their own way and the same applies to me.
The assumption that adults don’t change or cannot change beyond a particular time is not true; In fact everyone is capable of changing and continuing development all their lives. According to Kethan and Lahey there are three dimensions of mental complexity: socialized mind, self authoring mind and self transforming mind. These minds are different from each other in the way they understand process and give meaning to external information.
We don’t change because of our invisible immunity to change or to keep it simple; I would say we don’t change because of our resistance to change. Our mindset is responsible for creating an immunity to change.
I tried applying the framework to my commitment, so that my commitment becomes achievable and no more regrets and excuses of not achieving my commitment.  So let me start by listing my commitment (Improvement goal), I want to excel at each and everything I do which requires completely understanding the task and creating action plan. I am trying my best to achieve my commitment but still I am not able to achieve it. Now, I move to next step of the framework and list down the things I am doing/not doing instead. I only focus on the tasks which are of my interests and other tasks and assignments which don’t excite me suffer.  Sometimes due to too many things on my to-do list my tasks are affected because of I don’t prioritise my work. Another factor which prevents me in achieving my improvement goal is my intension to finish of the tasks as soon as possible. So, sometimes the quality of my work suffers because of my desire to quickly move on to the next assignment. After listing down the things I am doing which are preventing me to excel at each and every assignment I do has given me a clear understanding of the path I am following and I have a fair idea about the problem now. Now I move to the next step and list down my hidden competing commitments. I always feel that I can only excel and do exceptionally well on the tasks I like doing and new things which excites me. I feel that if I try spending my time on other tasks which are not of my interest can never be of the quality of the things which I love doing. Its a productivity loss if spend more time on assignments which does not excite me instead I can spend that time on other tasks and excel in them. Now, I move on the final step of the framework my big assumptions. I assume that we can only do an excellent job when we are completely aware of the subject and if that task excites a person.
I got a direction to my commitment by following this framework and I hope I will achieve my goal this time without any excuses.

Waebhav Yadav_MLP021_Self Leadership_Sep’11

I believe that for someone who is a leader, the force comes from within. Having established that, as someone who started his career earlier in life, I know, somewhere during the course of life I have exhibited Self Leadership and have always been aware of the fact that Self Leadership is important to excel further in one’s professional as well as personal life. It’s a concept that I unknowingly exercised and was able to make sense out of until after the day’s session.
I don’t believe in things unless I hear it from the horse’s mouth i.e. experience it for myself, and being the cynic that I am I analyse everything that I do & feel. Before the start of the session I was sceptical about the ‘real benefits’ from the session, benefits for which I would be willing to invest my time and attention in an activity. I wasn’t sure how Yoga, stress management exercises or relaxation techniques would help me as an individual. But as the day progressed all my inhibitions and doubts were cleared. I found out that I wasn’t alone in my concerns, to have everyone talk about their stress handling techniques was definitely a learning experience for me and I know it’s something that would help me handle stress more easily. I don’t remember the last time I felt as light as I did after the laughter yoga session. The forced laughter turned into real without me even realizing and left me free of all burdens for that period of time.
After a relatively lighter fun filled first half, the second half of the session was about introspection and the first step towards recognizing the leader within us.
In the second session I learnt that given our individual strengths and weaknesses, we have the power to excel in whatever we choose to do but what becomes an impediment in our quest is our ‘hidden competing commitment’. We all somewhere know the change that we need to bring within ourselves, but we never bring about that change. There is something within us that is stopping us to change that quality as we might enjoy it and it’s something that we don’t want to give up. That’s the hidden competing commitment to change. This session put me on the path to realize and begin amending that particular lifestyle/habit to be a success in whatever I do. This exercise not only made me realize the things that needed to be changed but also helped me chalk a plan to start the process of change. At the end of this day I was left feeling strong about myself. I figured that it is never too late to change. Now that I have realized how stress can be handled I am aware of the things I want to change to be a Self Inspired Leader.

Monami Patel_HRLP006_Self Leadership_Sep'11

I wasn’t  able to be a part of the Self –Leadership session due to my illness but the conversations and discussions that followed amongst my friends and flat-mates inspired me to share my views via blog. My friends who came to meet me in the breaks told me about the first session which was conducted by Snehal and Sussie mam on different types of stress and its ill effect on our health. My fellow-mates were made to chalk out their stress map which was subdivided into four columns : 1.Physical 2. Emotional 3.Behavioral  4. Cognitive. Sussie mam had taken a laughter yoga session and since I have attended her laughter yoga session in HRLP yoga classes I absolutely know how impactful it can be as a stress buster.
The second session was facilitated by Anil Sir where he discussed about leadership and immunity to change. True Leadership comes from within rather than any external sources.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
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Mahatma Gandhi said that “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”. I believe that real change is real slow but it can only take place when one wants it to happen. As human most of us don’t like to get out of our comfort zone to bring in the change even if it’s for our better self. A Rober Kegan Immunity map was explained in the class by Anil sir which was then explained to me by my friends. The immunity map consist of 4 stages:
1.      Stage 1:  A person needs to identify his/her purpose or goal of life. One should know what he wants form his life
2.      Stage 2: Identify obstacles or roadblocks in the way of the purpose or achievements of goals
3.      Stage 3: To understand the reasons behind the actions/behaviors that prevent form achieving goals
4.      Stage 4 : to discard every assumption the person might be making that could be an obstacle in achievement of the goals.

The immunity x-ray made me realize the times I have assumed such obstacles which has stopped me achieving mu goals. Also I could recall times when I have given up on my goal without even identifying the roadblocks.

It’ s very important to have and internal point of locus than depending on the external point of locus so as to bring in the right change in ourselves as well as to lead ourselves.

Suchitra Ravichander_BLP030_Self Leadership_Sep'11

 Self Leadership is a more powerful word than what it sounds. It means different things to different people. To me it is the beginning of realizing the inner self  within YOU. This article is not yet another normal article on leadership; instead it is something more fundamental & powerful.  It is the learning of the Self, the spirit & the source which makes it; the path leading you to personal excellence. Indeed, I felt most lucky to know what Self leadership is, through the words of Mr.Anil Sachdev, one of the greatest experts to have mastered this area. It is one of the most complex natures of leadership as it involves dealing with the most intricate things of inner self- the conditioning of the mind, ego & attitude. It expands the inner capacity to learn. When you have the willingness to learn combined with the right attitude & efforts along with talent (God’s given gift) you are sure to succeed.

Self leadership is about being fully present in a state where all the three, the mind – the intellect, the heart – the conscience & the body synergizes together enabling one to cherish the internal bliss in the form of happiness/ joy / peace. One of the integral parts of Self Leadership is appreciative enquiry, the capacity to listen like a child with the open heart & mind. It brings in the inner joy & helps to retain the insights effortlessly. When we are at the best, it is the time when maximum learning takes place. Appreciative enquiry is basically the authentic conditioning/ expression, which brings in the openness to ideas. It also involves the appreciation responses made.

Getting back to the topic of Self Leadership, it is important that one focuses on the bigger purpose in life- the ‘purpose calling’. To discover this one needs to introspect and get answers to the following questions-

1)      Who are the people most important in your life?

2)      What are their needs that you are moved to serve?

3)      How can I leverage my valuable gifts to serve unconditionally?

4)      What are my goals?

The goal normally comes out of the purpose. The concept of self leadership can also be extended to great places to work. How are some companies preferred by employees as one of the great places to work? The answer lies with the employees itself. When employees are able to build trust, & take pride & enjoyment in their work those companies become great places to work.

To accentuate further, the following lines of wisdom on Self Leadership were quoted by Anil sir,

“The most profound knowledge is the self knowledge” – it implies that on the path to self leadership, one should study by learning to observe our action & our thoughts. He also emphasized further that a “Best leader is the one who is the best follower and a true leader must plan to connect & act”. According to him, a leader is a one who always tries to find out what difference does he makes to others and all leaders in one way or the other does sewa for a bigger cause. He fondly recollected & recited the words of Mr. Muthuraman, Managing director of Tata steel on leadership- “When we are inspired for a higher purpose in life, even without knowing the great abilities & leader residing within us, strange things will start happening to us.”

Everyone one of us have habits & every one wishes to change or develop one of these, but in the process we actually struggle to do so. Why? The answer to the question lies within our own selves. There are basically 3 layers of change,

·         The mind which is nothing but the intellect that deals with the Need to Change

·         The Heart   which deals with the Want to change

·         The Body which does not allow the change

One can overcome all these inhibitions to change when the ego which prevails within us called inner ego(igo) ( which prevents/ stops the change) can be surmounted with the true unconditional love for our self & love for the purpose of our life.

Self Leadership is basically empowering oneself for excellence & it requires an in-depth knowledge about oneself. Generally people are resistant to habits/behavior changes and find it extremely difficult to change. The reasons for the resistance to change can be analyzed through the immunity x-ray exercise. One first needs to identify the need & the want to change. Secondly one should introspect as to what he/she does exactly 180 degree opposite to that need (what should I not do?). Finally identify the hidden competing commitments & the underlying assumptions. Analyzing the answers to these questions through in-depth introspection helps to one to overcome the resistance & brings in the change positively influencing their own self.

In short, Self leadership involves "leading oneself". At the behavioral level self-leadership involves learning through self-observation and identifying the hidden competing commitments which brings in the resistance to change. At the mental level, self-leadership involves overcoming the inner ego through the strength of unconditional love and identifying the bigger purpose in life and working towards it by setting goals to achieve them.

Sanjay Agarwal_MLP010_ Self Leadership_Sep'11

Snehal Shah Ma’am and Susie ma’am took the first session. It was regarding stress and how to manage it. The session started with breathing exercises and few other exercises, which we can practice in our daily routine.
So there are basically 4 different types of symptoms to stress:
    * Cognitive symptoms
    * Emotional symptoms
    * Behavioral Symptoms
    * Physical symptoms
Snehal Ma’am pointed out various forms of stress in our daily life, which are mostly like to be physical, cognitive, behavioral and other forms. She encouraged us to know ourselves better and how our body and mind might be react to different levels of stress. It was an eye opener for me, as I never thought that I’m going through was symptoms of stress Snehal Ma’am then gave an insight on how one can combat the different facets of stress more effectively and get the better of stress instead of vice-versa. . In the latter half of the first session we had experienced the power of laughter as a major de-stressor and had a hand on experience on how laughter therapy can work and moreover its necessary to laugh at least 10-15 min at stretch everyday.
I’m very sorry that I couldn’t attend post lunch session by Anil sir as I was not well.

Ankita Kulshreshtha_HRLP030_Self Leadership_Sep'11

Ankita_Kulshreshtha_2012HRLP030_SELF LEADERSHIP_Sep’11

The thought provoking session on ‘Self Leadership’ by our inspired leader Mr. Anil Sachdev was quite awaited. I am somehow able to connect immensely to things that are preached by him.it is like the moment he sees into your eyes and speaks, your soul is elevated to the zenith.

The session started with the insightful session on ‘Stress Management’ by Snehal ma’am and Susie ma’am. The analogy of an Inspired Leader with an aeroplane that is taking off by Snehal ma’am was just fantastic. We talked about the causes of stress and the fatal consequences with the cognitive system, emotional symptoms, physical symptoms and behavioural systems that start eroding you without your permission. I literally realised the way I was destroying myself through constantly stressing myself. Probably I would not have realised had this session not been there. We then talked about my learning goals at SOIL.I realized that I had a very clear learning goal to come to SOIL….at the end of one year I just want to go with the content that at least I had attempted to leverage my gifts to be a better human being and worked on my weaknesses, which I am quite confident achieve.

Yes of course the foundation to inculcate zeal to change ourselves was already laid when Anil sir paced up with the session. I was truly amazed with my self-exploration that my ‘Want’ to change and my ‘Need’ to change were not in perfect harmony. There was absolute imbalance between my heart (soul) and my body. We as human beings just desire to change ourselves realizing our weaknesses but do we really strive to make that change happen. My actual behaviour is definitely opposed to my intentions to change.

We were all been examined with the ‘IMMUNITY XRAY’ just to answer do we really need to make a difference to ourselves. We really develop a ‘resistance to change’ at the innermost level where pitches the concept of ‘Hidden competing commitment’.

I was proud to state myself flexible in maintaining relationships with others, but was quite taken aback when I explored that I was totally inflexible in managing relationship with my inner self. Unconsciously I had developed the resistance at the innermost level to the change I ‘want’ to make.

Things really happen when there is complete harmony between your ‘Need to change’ at the intellect level, ’Need to change’ at the heart level and ‘Need to change’ at the body level. At many instances we want to change because our mind(intellect) directs us , but our soul (heart) sojourns us and we end up failing in our attempt to change ourselves(body level).

Root causes for hidden competing commitments are the mental assumptions that we make that should ideally be surmounted with logics.

I sometimes react to people on discussions where I feel my set of values are been violated. I really want to change myself for it. I have been making sincere attempts to work on it through suggestions from my mentor, but could not really succeed to an extent .I started rating the happenings on a scale of 1 to 10 and decided to ‘let it go’ if it scored less than 5.Today I truly envisaged from this session that I have a hidden competing commitment that I feel my set of values are always right .I am proud to state my hidden aspect through this blog that probably I had denied myself ever. I believe that a successful man dies at his best. I am largely indebted to Anil sir for such an insightful session and hope this journey to introspect through his sessions is never ending…

Raj Shekhar_BLP032_Self Leadership_Sep’11

Self Leadership:

We live in a world of unprecedented opportunity.  To bang on the opportunity one need to manage self & be the self leader to find out the purpose of life. The 1^st week at SOIL started with Self Leadership series with Anil Sir. The 1^st day started with essence of inspired Leadership where we discussed about the five essential pillars of Leadership which includes Mindfulness, Ethics, Sustainability, Diversity & Compassion.

Leadership is all about leading one’s body and actions, heart, emotions, intellect and thought. It’s about being led by one’s consciousness, spirit making conscious choices and enabling others to be leaders.

One needs to:

Feed the Mind Good Stuff: to learn how to identify and filter out the negativity that surrounds us. 

Move the Conversation Forward: learn to break free from the negative thought cycle and communicate positivity and confidence

Exercise the Gratitude Muscle: learn to practice thankfulness to build a positive outlook

Give to Be Rich: learn how generosity of self can combat feelings of inadequacy

 Prepare Your Self: learn how to fully commit yourself to your goals and be ready for anything

Balance Your Confidence: learn to temper your self-confidence by trusting in others and believing in something greater than yourself

Promise Made, Promise Kept: learn the value of integrity by being accountable for your promises

Also, we discussed about the multiple intelligence and always tried to concentrate on the positives through appreciative enquiry rather than wasting time on finding out the negative things. I also liked the one liner “DISAPPOINTMENT COMES TO THOSE, WHO FIX THEIR APPOINTMENT WITH FUTURE”.

During the course we also discussed selecting some cases such as Delency Foundation and various other examples from Industries such as Kyocera, TATA, Mahindra etc.  and the great story about  the TAJ GM Mr. Karambir Singh who received the award for Corporate Citizen of the Year because of his bravery during Mumbai Terror attacks. He was an exceptional Leader who inspires many others in becoming the Leader. The Karma by Mr. Karambir Singh shows the power of SEVA (an ultimate example of Leadership & Compassion). When one serves with the compassion & zeal, he/she discovers the capabilities and talent which never existed and great things start happening to him which enable them to achieve the higher purpose.

We burnt all our gilt, worries and negative feelings which we haven’t shared with anyone and were feeling bad about it always on the 2^nd day. The process helped in relaxing the mind and then we did meditation to further relax our whole body. This was the first time I realized the power of spirituality, meditation and positive thinking.

In the recent past we discussed about how to change our bad HABIT, by removing the I-ness (the ego of I) from us. If you remove ‘H’ from the habit ‘a bit’ remains, when you remove the second letter ‘a’ then also ‘bit’ remains, when one removes ‘b’ then ‘it’ remains but when one removes the ‘I’ the ego of I & I-ness, then we left with ‘t’ which is transformation and then only we get rid of the bad habits.   

The previous conditioning creates the ego within us. The selfishness, the ‘I’, the ego is friend of fear and the opposite for fear is extraordinarily courage & unconditional Love. If one practice the unconditional love in their day to day life it gives great amount of joy by making others happy. By the practice of unconditional love we again mean “Give to be Rich”. 

Then we learnt about the Capital ‘S’ & small‘s’ where the ‘S’ belongs to the outside world of selfishness which belong to ‘s’. The ‘S’ is about solitude, spirit, source of energy, positive attitude, efforts, self sacrifice, consciousness and to analyze am I using the gifts given to me by god.  The ‘s’ is about health, emotions, choices, mind and the way I choose my perception, body, the way I think, ego and past conditioning of results. The ‘S’ helps us build the attitude & trust in our self and helps us in taking the right decision. We also learnt that where there is trust in each other, where the people take pride in whatever they do & in others success and enjoy the company of people, all these translates in to best working environment. Hence we can conclude that the ability to receive source from universe is leadership.

We also learnt about the Immunity X-ray which shook most of us and we were quite for long time enquiring within and thinking how can we use our own strength to overcome the assumptions of hidden competing commitment of the needs of change.

We also talked about the initiative which finishes and discussed about the “finishiative” as coined from a leader from Fevicol.

The take away of the series was that the work is “Love made Visible” & the best leader is the biggest follower, who defines the cause & follows it.

Last but not the least - be MAD to Make A Difference.

VikramB_BLP010_SelfLeadership_Sep'11

I could not attend Self leadership class taken by Anil sir, since I had prior compelling personal commitments. I regret that I could not use this wonderful and rare  opportunity of self learning. In this blog I will reflect upon on the learning’s article of “Immunity to Change: A Report from the Field” and first self leadership class.

This article “A report from the Field” concentrates on subject of adult development is well proven in theoretical sense, but shows the way how it can be applied for practical purposes. Here Jonathan describes how he tried to implement his learning’s from the book of “Immunity to change” to organization and individual development. In the first half of the article he tells us the key learning from the book in a very short and conscience manner so that people who are not familiar can have a overview  on this.

In 2009, he tried his hand in practical application of Robert Kegan’s work at a master’s program in organization leadership. It was his phase one implementation he did meet success in 50-60% of cases. The main problem in this phase was the language, since many students could not implement it properly. Four column works could not be done in an effective manner since participants were from varied industry which did not lead to common consensus of the problem identification.

In  his phase two, he did correct the short comings of phase 1.He did start with an analysis why this four column work only worked for 60-70% of people .Since people did not start with really core issues in column 1 ending with non important work. By starting with change in organization which they consider really important a consensus was reached and four columns was identified and implemented. He did not start personally with people’s problem since humans really don’t open up for change. He gave an explanation on general things and showed it can also be implemented individually.

Four column works was done initially in four different papers and was finally combined in a single page to avoid confusion. Individuals were surprised by the result of the findings. Final process of how these individual learning’s can be sustained was devised. First members shared it with partners and finally with whole class so that it made an impact to the individual and organization development. One individual comment was “Now i have answers  to the questions I did not even  know existed before”

Article concludes by saying that since the field testing of the article is a success, the work of Kegan and Lehlay should enable any competent facilitator to bring in a self understanding inside the individuals which will facilitate the immunity to change. Thus the question of bringing change in adults with this framework should bring in higher consciousness for the individuals.

In the first self leadership class, nil sir described about the six layers  of self  and its connection with five pillars of SOIL. He concentrated on the role of leadership where person should be able to lead his own body, actions, heart and emotions and intellect and thoughts. It is also making others realizing their leadership potential.Corelation of positive and negative energy based on our emotions and fears will in a long way help in maintaining the physical and spiritual energy in harmony. Ability to capitalize on the intellect capacities will help us in identifying good and bad circumstances around us.

I would like to finish the blog by saying that all our decisions are based on the clarity of thought which will arise only from stable and peaceful mind. Without consciously understanding and knowing the position at which we currently in we cannot move in any direction or lead others. Thus we need to fully understand our strengths, weakness and keep improving on these.

Sansad Panigrahi_BLP006_Self Leadership_Sep'11

Self Leadership

Self leadership is an enabling process where by a person learns  to know himself  better and through this better self understanding is his/her life better.

Leadership is commonly used to refer to activities such as..

  Directing people

  Guiding / Conducting

  Initiating activity

Leadership is also used to refer to someone who is a

  Leader in the field

  Leading contender

  Community / Business leader

How then can leadership be applied in so many different ways and moreover what constitutes a leader in all of these situations?

The answer is contained in the most fundamental characteristic of leadership that is Personal Leadership. Personal Leadership can be viewed as the ability to lead yourself and others; it’s the ability to define what you want from life and how you intend to get it.

The Essence of Personal Leadership means;

  Taking action

  Living each day to the fullest

  Knowing what success looks like to you

  Knowing what your goal

The session covered the various  Layers of Learning, Taking the control of the senses which  was followed by Appreciative Inquiry  which I feel is one of the most powerful tools enabling a person to know his real self, understand his greater purpose in life and strike out how he with his existing knowledge & strengths have the capability in achieving it. It tells you that you have all what you NEED! Then we did the exercise, discuss getting rid of Ego, how to bring the Mind and the Heart parallel, the Fears we live with and how to make smart decisions, smartly.

During the 3  months  the  journey of SOIL we  had the chance to interact with Anil Sachdev  a lot and he has highlighted the following things:-

       Reveal your  passion and start building yourself towards it.

      Try to figure out what you are good at and back your strengths driving that activity.

when I look back and think about those two things which he mentioned , a gentle smile runs  across my face as  I followed his instructions to actually do the things he suggested , I am  a successful and happy person right now. I can tell you the methodologies Anil Sir followed were simple and systematic that made me a cheerful and contented person which I am? His emotional connect with me has been mesmerizing, helping me out in difficult times.

“I have realized that there are only 2 things in life that can help you attain the escape velocity to break out of an existing paradigm. One is PAIN and the other is ASPIRATION. It is as true of organizations as it is for individuals that the desire to change is really triggered by one of the two.”

Thus I went through a complete transformation in last four months. I am able to rediscover and rejuvenate myself. I used to be a firm believer that being an “emotional fool” whom I used to call myself and thought it is one of the major weaknesses that I have carried which have hindered my path to success in many ways. Guess what? After the time that has passed in SOIL I am still an emotional person but not a fool. I am an emotionally balanced person who utilizes and channelizes his emotions in the right manner. I am a people’s man and love to emotionally connect with them.

Natasha Mitra_HRLP008_Self Leadership_Sep'11

The first session was taken by Snehal Shah Ma’am and Susie ma’am. It was regarding stress and how it takes various forms, most of which we don’t even realize! The session started with breathing exercises as breathing is the best way of letting go and purifies our body and mind.

Stress can be in the form of emotional stress, cognitive stress, physical stress and behavioral stress. Each of us was asked to jot down points under these four headers which we usually face. There were few who were of the opinion that they don’t experience any physical or cognitive effects. This is when Snehal Ma’am rightly pointed out that it is here where we fail to know ourselves and how our body and mind might be reacting to our levels of stress. It was an eye opener for many who confessed that they never thought that what they were going through were symptoms of stress. In the latter half of the first session we had experienced the power of laughter as a major de-stressor and had fun with laughter yoga conducted by Susie Ma’am!

We also learnt about few coping mechanisms, namely:  1) Avoid stressors 2) Adaptability 3) Alter (express instead of bottling them up) 4) Accept

The second session was taken by Anil Sir on Self leadership. The session on stress was a part of self reflection – How we react, how we let the external stimuli affect us internally. Leadership starts with self. The more aware we are about our self, the better leader we become. As rightly pointed out by Anil sir – Ability comes later, Attitude is the first step.

The most crucial aspect in life is to be able to unearth one’s purpose in life and once that is done – to continuously work towards it. The career track should be such which would lead to that purpose or its attainment. In doing so, one must chalk out necessary learning goals which can be achieved only through self discipline.

Purpose in life à Career track à learning goals à Self discipline

For self discipline there are certain attributes we long to change. There are three types of change:

Need to change: This is governed by the intellect. This forms the very basis as the person himself/herself goes through a self realization and acknowledges the need for change.

Want to change: This is governed by the heart. It is most crucial as usually one finds the heart is in conflict with the mind. The mind might realize that there needs to be a change, however many a times the heart keeps one from committing towards that change.

Actual Change: This is putting the commitment into practice in the long run till it becomes a habit. This is governed by the body through our actions.

Anil Sir talked about how many a times our interests are in conflict with each other and we tend to prioritize one over the other when the latter also is of equal significance. He suggested that instead of going for a trade off, one must put in extra efforts to be able to manage both the interests if they are of importance. He emphasized on being ‘balanced’. He also pointed to one very important aspect which keeps us from changing – it is nothing but our own Hidden competing commitment.  It is the discovery and realization of this competing commitment which can help us overcome the obstacles we face in our attempt to change. One needs to challenge that competing commitment. Anil Sir gave the example of his habit of smoking. His intellect reminded him time and again that there was a need to change the habit and stop smoking but the addiction kept his heart from committing to it. After self reflection, he found that the reason why he wasn’t able to was simply because he didn’t want to quit. But one fine day when his heart complied, he could actually stop it.

We were asked three questions:

Qs: One thing that I wish to change or develop in myself – I want to learn to let go and not to get tensed and over worked with issues- be it studies/work or people related. I sometimes tend to think a lot. The tension resulting out of studies and work sometimes makes me work harder and give better results while sometimes makes me go blank and transforms into inability to grasp or perform anything. People related stress comes when I make a practical decision which might not be to the liking of the person or any sort of misunderstanding. I tend to bother myself beyond limit on how people would feel or perceive me.

Qs: What do I do instead or not do - I tend to panic and get anxious

Qs: Hidden competing commitments - I realize that for me balancing is very important. The study/ work related stress till a point gives me a sense of urgency and bring out the best in me. Therefore, I yearn for some sort of challenge in my daily activities, which gives me a platform to prove myself and give me a sense of satisfaction. When it comes to people related issues, when there is a misunderstanding the stress and tension makes me see it from their perspective and therefore I usually find faults in self. It gives me a sense of urgency to quickly resolve the matter, even at the cost of listening. It does give me a sense of satisfaction once I have resolved. But again I tend to overdo it and then with my inability to let go, these things continue to bother.

I do realize that the above analysis of my hidden commitment is still superficial and I would require more time to understand and reflect but I am glad that I have made my first step towards it! Thus the self leadership class was yet another enlightening experience which helped me get a deeper insight about self and therefore proved to be my initial step in my journey of self discovery and continuous improvement. I look forward for more self leadership sessions for my overall growth.

Aarshiya Nirula_HRLP002_Self Leadership_Sep'11

It was a refereshing day wihich started with classes taken by Snehal mam abd suzie mam over Stress management. They told us that how to relieve ourselves from stress. They helped us to analyse our stress level by telling us various symptoms of stress and helped us by giving various remedies to remove stress. We had a good laughter session with suzie mam under which she made us first do some breathing exercizes and then made us laugh like crazy. It was a very fun filled session and the entire auditorium was filled with positive energy.We all felt so relaxed and relieved from stress.

Through this session i came to know a lot about stress as in What is stress ? what leads to stress ? what are the various stress points - they can be cognitive,emotional,physical or behavioural. So everyone came to know what area of stress they fall into and then they told us various methods to remove stress.

Then the second session was followed by Mr.Anil sir in which he told about Self- Leadership. This session was filled with thinking about our own self and introspecting. He spoke about 'immunity to change'. He made us think about the things that we want to change about ourselves but we dont do that. This exercize was extremely helpful for me as it made me work towards the change that i wanted to see in me. We came to know that we are not willing to change ourselves is our competing commitment. Realizing and working upon the main cause being this competing committment will actually help us bringing those necessary changes.

This session was extremely fruitful and it actually helped me to work towards by bad habits and working towards it. I am extremely thankful to soil for putting this effort in each one of us which help us in becoming a better human being each day.

Aarshiya nirula
HRLP 002

Ram Sundaresa Kumar_MLP011_Self Leadership_Sep'11

Self Leadership – A road to self discovery!

Every person dreams to become a leader at some point in life – the leader of an organization, of a conglomerate, of a community or even the country! Many of them are driven to turn their dreams to reality but many still struggle to make a beginning. Most of them believe that one has to be a born leader to become a leader. But the truth is every individual is a born leader indeed! Having said that, we begin thinking in the lines of how we realize and tap the potential of this true leader within each of us. This road to self discovery and becoming the leader of our dreams results in ‘self-leadership’.

I could go back in time to recollect the two day workshop taken by Anil sir during our induction week, which gave an overview of Self-leadership and its importance to evolve as a perfect leader. We learnt that a true leader in us transpires when we look into ourselves and create a much-needed bridge between the mind and the heart. An inspired leader is one who not only leads the group but also sets an example by virtue and by values. By recognizing the leader inside him/her, one makes the most of this hidden potential as his/her ‘mantra for success’!

When we reflect upon ourselves the first thing that results is our strengths and weaknesses. Every individual is proud of his/her strengths and strives to sustain it. However, the major problem arises in identifying and accepting one’s weaknesses. The common man’s ego refuses to own up to these weaknesses thus creating a roadblock to becoming an inspired leader. It is at this juncture when the human mind develops an ‘immunity to change’!

This journey of self-discovery and self-leadership continued on 6^th September 2011. The bright morning began with Snehal ma’am giving us an insight into identifying the factors that attribute to our day-to-day stresses and categorizing our stresses under the 4 categories namely, cognitive, emotional, physical and behavioral. This helped us understanding the reasons behind the myriad stresses that we go through in our daily rat race. Following this, we had a revitalizing de-stressing session with Susie ma’am who helped us understand in literal sense that, ‘Laughter is the best therapy’. Through various laughter and relaxation exercises, we learnt simple methods to distress on a daily basis and keep ourselves healthy.

The powerful afternoon session with Anil sir threw light on our immunity to change. Anil sir began by highlighting the need for change and its role in becoming a true leader both of our lives and our career. By quoting examples, Anil sir emphasized that the roadblocks to recognizing our areas of improving and changing ourselves for our betterment is created by us within us!

To help us understand this better, he helped us identify one commitment or area for improvement. I identified my inability to balance perfection and time in every job undertaken. Following this, we were asked to make note of the action taken and not taken towards improving this aspect. To me, I had consciously promised myself to keep up my deadlines for submission. However, I’m still struggling to give up on my methodology towards approaching any given task. Understanding the importance of time management in any given task, I’m still striving to strike the right chord between perfection and time.

What followed was something very interesting towards this analysis. We were asked to make note of hidden competing commitments that hindered our progress in improving on these aspects. I could identify my inability to change my approach or thinking process and my inability to compromise on quality and persistence in gaining knowledge from every aspect. Finally he helped us acknowledge the assumptions that were made by our own vicious mind that aide in our “Immunity to Change”!

On the whole, we went through an immunity X-Ray that helped us identify and analyze the various roadblocks which we’ve created that is hindering our growth to become a potential inspired leader. The day ended with Anil sir’s addressing us on identifying anxieties, the need for ethics to lead as an example and with the thought that Change is inevitable – Its up to us to accept it and undergo these changes to become the leader of our dreams and achieve the ultimate purpose of our lives.

Through these thought provoking and inspiring self-leadership sessions, I look to become a holistic leader at the end of this year with the right blend of ethics, mindfulness, and adaptability to various situations and of course the right skill sets to become the inspired leader of tomorrow!