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 6th 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!
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