Each individual determines his own fate and role in the milieu of life. That is true for organisations and countries too. We decide what our role should be in an organisation. We conclude what we want to do. Some of us make an impact; some help others to make an impact, while many leave no impression on the sands of time. An opportunity that is God-send is wasted. Those individuals, who venture to discover themselves, are the ones, who leave behind legacy, making history. Such people are examples of commanding themselves. They are not parasites clinging onto a thought or philosophy. They develop, their own ways and means, for being successful.
Each individual determines his own fate and role in the milieu of life. That is true for organisations and countries too. We decide what our role should be in an organisation. We conclude what we want to do. Some of us make an impact; some help others to make an impact, while many leave no impression on the sands of time. An opportunity that is God-send is wasted. Those individuals, who venture to discover themselves, are the ones, who leave behind legacy, making history. Such people are examples of commanding themselves. They are not parasites clinging onto a thought or philosophy. They develop, their own ways and means, for being successful.
Edith Hamilton once wrote: “There is something breathtaking in Alexander the Great. Like everything stupendous - the pyramids, the Grand Canyon, the Mount Everest - one can never get quite used to it. It drives us out beyond the everyday limits we set for ourselves of the people.”
Everything in relation to building traits in your personality relates to practice. Moral values too come as a consequence of practice. Aristotle wrote, “Just as builder gets better by building and lyre player by playing; so too we become first by doing just acts, temperate by temperate acts, brave by brave acts …” King Philips had entrusted Alexander to Aristotle; not everybody gets to have an Aristotle, as a teacher; hence there is no other Alexander!
Training for wisdom, is the initiation to distinguish between having a tunnel vision versus a broadened horizon of thought. Business managers today are expected to see beyond geographic frontiers, due to increasing internationalisation of business opportunities and threats.
An enabling organisation nurtures a healthy combination of skill-set within. We witness, those in marketing function, because they are revenue generators, feel that the organisation is surviving because of them, while contrastingly those in risk management feel, that it is they who save the company, from the aggressive marketing strategies. The key aspect here is that individual excellence takes over organisational excellence. The balance of self-discovery is lost.
On gaining knowledge about an individual’s self-potential, the best I read, is what Prince Siddhartha also known as Gautama Buddha, wrote, “If another drinks, does it quench your thirst? If another eats, does it appease your hunger? If another sleeps, does it rest you? Who then, shall develop your understanding?” Any manager who self-discovers achieves best results for himself and his team. To know yourself, check by asserting. If you know yourself then you know others. Discovering one’s true self and then self-confronting to amend, alter, and change behavior traits, is the sign of an enlightened manager. Knowing others is knowledge, knowing oneself is wisdom.
Self knowledge is so powerful that at worse it can make anybody insane. Napoleon-I, “The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and mind.” Seeking recognition is human weakness. Even small quantum of its desire leads to productivity, but if the desires gets unbridled to always seek center stage or spotlight, then it will lead up to self-centeredness. The self must be caged for positive harnessing.
You either work for today or you work for posterity. Leaders work for the future - while talking decisions today they have the ability to step out into the future and see how it will affect the organisation. They take decisions with full knowledge they cannot benefit from the success of their cause. Mr Jinnah and Mr Gandhi are a case in point -both met their Maker in less than eighteen months of having achieved their cherished objectives. A life of giving is superior to a life of just seeking everything for your person. Selflessness is a basic attribute of any good leader/manager.
Self knowledge is critical. “Sink in thyself! There, ask what ails thee, at that shrine” (Mathew Arnold). If as a manager you are a stranger to yourself how can you ever be close to your team. To be superior over others, you have to be superior over your own self. Those who know how to rule and control themselves shall have no difficulty in managing, directing, organising, controlling, and guiding men and their affairs.
Managers, who refuse to share skill and knowledge, leave no legacy behind. They, along with their skill and knowledge will remain entombed within themselves. While those who have developed successors better than they are, survive and live in the hearts of the people, organizations, and nations, post retirement or death, Steve Jobs is a good example, here.
To control yourselves shun selfishness, because it gives only temporary success; and that too which is seen negatively. Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher had aptly remarked, “If you tell me, I will listen. If you show me, I will see. But if you let me experience, I will learn”. No manager should suffer from either fear of the unknown or feelings of despondency arising out of ignorance. In spite of setbacks, the real leader never looks at the past. They use failures as stepping stones for future gains.
As a manager, ask yourself if everybody in the organisation is like you, will the organisation look any better or will it look worse! Discover, if you aren’t conscious of your obligations, because this would reflect on the team. If there is negativity in the persona then it will begin to show its ugly face, every time you converse all colleagues in the process are bound to adopt such stance.
Those who dread to discover themselves are the ones who would not wish to meet their colleagues. These are no Gautama Buddhas sitting in their glass cabins seeking enlightenment! This batch such managers recognise their weakness very well and position themselves not to get exposed through interaction. You may catch sight of such a species, if you find your supervisor filling in your annual appraisal in absolute obscurity. The confident will lay all the cards on the desk, nothing underhand or obscured - a good duel is better than abdication. As managers you cannot afford merely to share challenges, trials, tribulation, etc with the team; but also share equally the joys of achievement, of success, and of the happiness they bring.
“If wisdom were offered to me with the provision that I should keep it shut up and refrain from declaring it. I should refuse. There is no delight in owning anything unshared” (Phillips Barker in a letter). He, who requires much from himself and little from others, can never be a productive leader; contrastingly such become more an object of resentment. The premise of such thought is dependent upon your very self than on others. Trust yourself before you trust others.
Draw upon your inner goodness, for the best source for self-discovering of potentials and weaknesses. Don’t pledge your life to others, to circumstances and to events. Instead put all controls in your own self. The strength is within, not outside. The light is within, not outside. The best way to test life is to face it yourself. Internal help is inexhaustible, external is always limited and mostly at exorbitant cost, to self.
Freedom is not to indulge but a trait to control desire. The school of wisdom is about self-reflection.
The writer is a freelance columnist
