“Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions” Harold S. Geneen
“Without initiative, leaders are simply workers in leadership positions” Bo Bennett
Our Self Leadership journey started with Anil Sir during our very first week at SOIL. The journey started with some beautiful exercises. We learnt some real new and interesting facts about empathy, unconditional love and above all self actualization. Knowing about the 6 layers that define an individual and how a better understanding of these layers can help one to live a better life, not just for himself but also for the people around him/her. Knowing about the 5 pillars of SOIL: Mindfulness, Diversity, Ethics, Compassion and Sustainability and there relevance in our lives was indeed a thought to inspire. We learned about Empathy by doing a very simple exercise in which we were taught that to get into someone else’s shoes we 1st have to get out of our own shoes.
Followed by the exercise on empathy we were asked about the one most important person in our life and to write a letter appreciating the person we love the most. We wrote the letter in the class and then Anil Sir asked us to read the letter to the person later that day. I had written about my father and initially was very apprehensive on reading it out to him. I have never done such a thing in my life before. I and my father share a very good bond and we acknowledge that as well, but writing on a piece of paper was something new. To add to it I was in two minds about reading it out to him. I called father in the evening and re-grouped what all I had written in the class. Suddenly I felt I do not need the paper, perhaps even 100 pages would not be sufficient to write about my father or even 1 was too much. My father picked up the phone and the only thing I could say was “Love you dad, will come home soon and we’ll have a drink” I have always appreciated the man but that day it was a bit different. Some things are beyond explanations.
The next exercise was something very unpredictable. We were asked to bring in candles and the whole day we were wondering what are we supposed to do with them. The session started and Anil Sir asked us to close our eyes and remember an event from the past that gave us a feeling of guilt and offer it to fire. We offered our disappointments to the fire and felt very relieved after that. We also learnt that the joy lies more in giving than receiving.
In our last self leadership class we learnt a lot of new good things, like how to conquer our fears, how not to let our ego drive our actions, and the opposite for fear is not courage but unconditional love. We also learnt about the fire walk and how difficult things can be achieved if you have love in your mind. Leadership is the ability to manage mind, heart and emotions and having all these qualities in oneself before asking others to follow. Unconditional love and no ego are the traits of a good leader. Self actualization is the foundation to a strong leader.
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