Notes
from the book: 18 Leadership Sutras from The Bhagavad Gita (http://www.amazon.com/Timeless-Leadership-Sutras-Bhagavad-Gita/dp/0470824271/)
This
blog entry is rather longer than most of my posts. This is not material that
you just read when you want an easy read. I would recommend reading at a time
when you are able to reflect on things.
As
always the blog entry does not claim any ownership of the content. This is
merely plagiarizing notes that I think are useful for me to remember.
Quotes
from the book:
·
“Death is very likely best invention of life. It is life’s change
agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you,
you will gradually become the old and cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic,
but it is quite true” – Steve Jobs
Sutra 1: The warrior’s
journey
Leading
an organization of the twenty-first century requires more than just a
firefighter’s skill of putting out fires as and when they reach alarming
proportions.
The
true warrior does not deplete his energy in emotional drama that binds him to
self-defeating patterns of fear and guilt. He pierces through his self-created
enemies with the sword self-awareness and the shield of sharp discrimination.
ü All wars are first fought in
the mind
·
All wars are first fought in the mind. Therefore, it is in the mind
that all wars must first be won.
·
We have the boon of choosing and the curse of the conflicts that we
must face when we have many choices. Whenever there is conflict in the world,
human beings have to realize that there is no such thing as a conflict in
reality. All conflicts reside in the content of our own mind.
·
Conflict arises when a mind is reluctant to get out its entrenchment in
a familiar way of life.
ü The mind is a mob
·
The agitated mind is a mob of thoughts and emotions.
·
What happens when the mind behaves like an unruly mob? It loses power
to act wisely. When the mind is unruly and indecisive, the body follows through
non-action.
·
When the mind behaves like a mob there are countless mutinies going on
within it.
·
When a leader confronts turbulence in an organization his will to take
decisive action is seriously impaired by the irresolute mind.
·
A leader whose will is crippled wonders, “What will people think about
me in my organization if I act this way instead of that” He becomes a victim of
self doubt.
·
A mob is an unruly capricious crowd. In a mob the individual loses the
power to think deeply and act out of individual will. A mob is unsteady and its
actions are no longer governed by rationality or a steady flow of individual
will.
·
What most leaders do when they are caught in crisis an organization.
They express their own inadequacy through worry, impulsive behavior, and
unsteady will. They hold onto their own restless minds like a drowning man
holding onto a straw.
·
To lead any organization, objectively in dealing with own’s mind is a
crucial virtue. Leaders can acquire this objectivity only when they know how to
bypass their ego when they are dealing with their own mind.
ü Ego is a disposable idea
·
An idea is like mental tissue paper that must be disposed of when it
outlives it utility. Yet we hang on to ideas as though they were inseparable
from us.
·
The wise grieve neither for the dead nor for the living form.
·
Have you ever thought of war as a clash of ideas and ideals? Very often
that’s how most wars begin. When old ideas are sought to be replaced by new
ideas, war becomes inevitable.
·
It is also about transformation: a change of mind and heart. Very often
the transformation of leaders happens during a crisis.
·
The ego cannot deal with threats to its own continuity; it cannot
embrace discontinuity in its habitual storyline.
ü Leaders embrace
discontinuity by dispossessing the ego
·
To look beyond the ego is to embrace discontinuity. Life moves on
discontinuously; the ego struggles to hold back. Life is multidimensional. Ego
is personality centered and one-dimensional. Life is timeless and free flowing.
The ego is conditioned by time, space and personality.
·
The wise person is the one who does not grieve for finite and fleeting
forms. A leader who is established in this wisdom is sustained by the timeless
order of life.
·
By embracing discontinuity leaders reinvent the future. The future is
often discontinuous with the past. Past forms perish; old relationships fade
away.
·
Old habit die-hard. A leader has to destabilize existing forms of
thought and action. A leader has to learn to deal with discontinuity.
Discontinuity comes with an obvious sense of loss. How do leaders deal with it?
They do so by embracing the deeper continuity of the spirit underlying the
fragmentation of forms. This is done through the power of internalization of one’s
energies.
·
While looking inward, the leader is able to retrace the energy from the
diversifying sensory apparatus to the unity of soul within. His outgoing,
differentiating, and fragmenting tendencies are balanced by his internalizing
and integrating and meditative mind.
ü The secret of invincibility:
The conquest of binary mind
·
The real duty of a warrior is not just to fight a righteous war. The
warrior’s aspiration is to enhance his own evolutionary capacity while his is
involved in the fight. He needs to engage his entire physical and mental energy
while fighting. To keep his mind steady in the fight, he needs to stop wasting
the energy that his conflicting mind consumes. He needs to overcome his
emotional turmoil rather than be overwhelmed by it.
·
He knows that he cannot always determine whether he will win or lose –
that will depend on multiple factors over which he may or may not have control.
However, he can decide to go to battle with utmost intensity. He will not die
in his mind many times before his death. This will make him invincible.
·
A mind that harbors dejection loses the battle even before it is
fought.
·
The warrior becomes invincible when his work and his goal become one.
ü Self is the cause; self is
the effect
·
A loser is self-made, and so is a winner. The raw material for all our
actions and all our achievements comes from our self.
·
In the ultimate analysis, leadership is Self-situated: you are the
cause and you are also the effect.
ü Hunting for the I
·
The warrior’s primary hunt is for the I that is whole and
all-embracing. It is the ultimate quest in all forms of human conflict. The
human identity is fragmented in many ways; us-versus-them; me versus-you;
intellect-versus-emotion; old-versus-new; right-versus-wrong. War is merely a
symptom that we are attempting to heal this disintegration. To heal is to find
our “wholesome” identity in the journey.
Sutra 2: Invincible wisdom
Timeless
leaders do: They reframe reality in a way that gives hope to their followers,
often in the most hopeless of circumstances.
ü Grief, Pity and Shame: The
Mind’s GPS system
·
Thoughts are like brick and feelings are like cement. Together they
create the illusion of a concrete structure of reality. This concrete structure
can be described as a mental model. When those shifting moods of grief guide a
mental model, pity and shame the world looks like a hopeless place.
·
Timeless leaders learn to discriminate between the real and the unreal.
Such leaders rise above the flood of emotions at work by means of this kind of
discrimination.
ü Creating alternative reality
·
Leadership is the art of creating alternative reality. Leaders always
bring a refreshing perspective that reframes current reality.
·
To change your reality changes the mental filters through which you
look – your own perspective.
·
Do not get stuck in the duality of pleasure or pain or in the though of
losing or winning.
·
When one is stuck either in pain or pleasure, suffering is the result.
There is a way out of this suffering. This is the way of mental equipoise or
shitapragnya. In this state of mind one is not affected by circumstances of
pain or pleasure or victory or defeat. One just continues to work with
equanimity of mind beyond one’s immediate gain or loss. In this state of
consciousness a leader begins to glimpse a whole new world beyond one’s narrow
ego-slot.
ü Motivation and the monkey
mind
·
Desire is limiting perception to focus on an object or a person we
desire. Desire is a process of narrowing of perception.
·
When we narrow our perception often enough, desire becomes restless
obsession. Restlessness is a symptom of the monkey mind.
·
Timeless leaders do not motivate followers; they just enable their
followers so that they can inspire themselves.
ü The leaders inspiration
comes from unselfish work.
·
The timeless secret of work, called nishkama karma or unselfish work.
The four facets of nishkama karma are:
o One has to be fully devoted
to the work on hand to get the results.
o Worrying over results cannot
help, as the doer’s ego does not determine the results.
o The cause of the results is
not just the selfish motive of the doer but the sum of many contributions.
Therefore one needs to be detached from selfish motives.
o Work is inevitable and no
one can choose to be inactive.
·
Timeless leaders realize that the results are not separate from the
process of action. When all the processes of action are right and timely,
results are bound to follow.
·
Timeless leaders realize that work itself is inevitable. One cannot
avoid work because even as one is lying in bed, the organs of the body and mind
are still in work-mode: The heart is beating; the brain is thinking thoughts,
and so on. But work that comes from the highest intent of contribution becomes
an irresistible force of transformation in the organization and society.
ü Unselfish work leads to
evenness of mind.
·
The mind is carried away by the senses as a boat unanchored can be
tossed by the wind.
·
Timeless leaders realize that great work happens when there are
simultaneously fluidity and steadiness in the thought process. While physical
work is visible external movement of energy, mental work is invisible internal
movement of the same energy.
ü Applying invincible wisdom:
Powered by the intellect and driven by Unselfishness.
·
Timeless leaders know the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge
is like a library; a storehouse of valuable information. Wisdom is the ability
to process this knowledge and apply it at the right time and the right place.
·
All the knowledge of the world – that which belongs to the past,
present, or future – comes from the sensing, feeling and thinking mind. The
mind is the largest library of the universe. To a leader the world outside is
merely the field of application.
·
The faculty in the human constitution that helps us apply knowledge
wisely is called the intellect. The result of cultivating the intellect is
concentration and steadiness of the mind. Concentration is the integrating
capacity of the mind to a focal point of thought or action. Integration is
power; disintegration is weakness.
·
The human mind is the executive assistant to the CEO called the
intellect. The mind receives data and perceptions from its inbox tray called
the senses. Then the mind classifies this information, files, it, and sends it
to its CEO, the intellect, for its decision. The intellect, based on its own
past experiences and its powers of judgment, make a final decision and conveys
it to the mind for implementation. The mind then sends this decision to the
outbox tray from where the organs of action pick up the final decision and
implement it.
·
If the intellect is weak, the quality of decision-making will be poor
and therefore implementation will be poor, too.
·
Work unselfishly with an inspired heart and a steady mind that is
guided by the intellect.
Sutra 3: Karma yoga
ü The warrior as Worrier
·
There are different strokes for different folks, as they say.
Temperamentally, leaders may be classified: the contemplative and the active.
·
For a warrior it is a matter of shame to be unable to follow a decisive
line of action.
ü Work and its secret: action,
inaction and effortless action
·
By not performing work you will never find freedom. By giving up action
no one attains perfection.
·
Merely by being inactive, by restraining the organs of action, one
cannot prevent action from happening. Inaction is nothing but hypocrisy.
So-called inaction in also a negative action against the dharma of the warrior
whose duty is to act in the battlefield.
·
By energetic and cheerful performance of one’s duty one can move toward
true Self-knowledge. Intense and conscious action unleashes the productive
potential that is latent in our muscles and in our minds.
·
By diligently performing one’s obligator actions, a leader moves to the
next stage of evolution at work – the stage of effortless action. As the leader
begins to work with deep attention, work becomes more engaging. Attention makes
any work engaging. Work we love to do never tires us.
·
In the state of effortless action, we still work very hard and yet we
do not feel the drudgery as our being transcends our physical nature and we
reclaim the experience of the higher dimension that is inside us.
ü Work as worship
·
It is not the action itself but the spirit behind the action that makes
the action effortless.
·
Workship literally means, “work as worship”. More explicitly, this
phrase signifies that when work is done in the spirit of worship, the quality
of the work undergoes a metamorphosis.
·
Workers are fundamentally spiritual beings involved in a human
experience; they are more than human resources looking for a paycheck and a pat
on the back. There is an autonomous self-existent spiritual dimension to the
human constitution. Our body-mind-senses frameworkis but a partial expression
of our spiritual wholeness.
·
The measure of individuals – and hence of corporations – is the extent
to which we struggle to complete ourselves. Our value, then, can be described
as the energy we devote to living up to our complete potential.
ü Discovering the timeless
cycle of work
·
Timeless leaders do not see their work as mere activity but rather as a
calling. For them work is a means of transformation of consciousness.
·
Timeless leaders have a clear comprehension of the spirit – they give
before they take. By giving without expectation they spontaneously create space
for receiving from a bountiful and interconnected universe.
·
By forgetting their own narrow concerns and in being of service to
others, leaders begin to live in their consciousness the timeless cycle of
work,
·
The sacrifice that we are talking about in the context of leadership
work does not diminish the self but extends the boundary of the self by giving
up the lower for the cause of the higher.
·
Character and credibility acquired through sacrifice do not diminish
over time like material resources. They obey the law of abundance by growing in
time and spreading in space.
·
Have great purpose to work for, a purpose larger than your personal
agenda. This is the way to make life significant. When you work in the spirit
of yajna your contribution will overflow the span of a lifetime and survive
even your physical death.
ü The case for righteous
action work as a means of realizing who we are
·
The privilege of leadership comes with enormous responsibility. Leaders
have to live not only for themselves but also for others who choose to follow
them.
·
You are what your deepest nature is. As your nature, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny. –
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.
ü Work as a means of realizing
who we are.
·
Dedicate the results of all your actions to a higher consciousness.
·
The immortal self is nothing but our soul. The mind is subtler than the
body, and the intellect is subtler than the mind, but the soul is the most
subtle aspect of our identify.
·
When we are able to dedicate our work to a higher cause we get the strength
to work with peace and calmness.
Sutra 4: Timeless leaders
pursue purpose as source of supreme power
ü The leader as a sage
·
Timeless leadership tells us that exercise of power that is not in
harmony with the greater purpose of life is fraught with danger.
·
Power devoid of purpose inebriates the holder as well as the beholder.
The leader who holds power often forgets that this power is help only as a
trust on behalf of the followers.
ü The many faces of the
supreme power
·
The supreme power therefore makes itself available to a leader in a
measure that is in keeping with the temperament of the leader. Power is not
just a function of the position that a leader holds but also a function of his
mental disposition.
ü Twenty-four-hour leadership
·
Timeless leadership is a lifelong journey, not toward power but toward
perfection. In this journey a leader must ceaselessly deal with the rigors of
self-conquest.
·
Leadership is an evolving process that embraces the whole of life. An
office boss is a static portfolio of competencies; a leader is a dynamo of
evolving life. A leader is like magnetism or gravity, which works 24 hours a
day without fail.
·
When a leader is humble he does not think any less of himself. He just
thinks of himself less. He annihilates his egocentric actions in the perennial
fire of self-awakening.
ü The return of the rishi
·
Organizations often fall prey to their own inertia and become
directionless. In these hard times we have seen a rishi leader come forth and
transform such an organization into a vibrant entity. It is the leaders
characteristic humility despite high performance that underlines the rishi
consciousness.
Sutra 5: Leadership is the
art of undoing
Be
totally engaged in whatever you have to do but detach your ego from the
illusion of doer-ship. The ultimate goal of detached engagement: a state of
being in the zone of equanimity and unshakable equilibrium even in middle of
hectic activity.
ü How anchors of past hinder
performance
·
Past performance, past glory, past habits – all of them have the potential
to destroy our work. While we are help captive by our past we are not able to
move on and be fully engaged with the work at hand.
·
If one needs to take a step forward, one must lift one’s foot. One can
do that only when one is awake and liberated from one’s location in the past.
ü The art of detached
involvement
·
Our sense has a tendency to be easily attached to the most trivial of
things. But that is not really the problem; the real problem begins when we are
not able to detach our senses with equal ease. When leaders are able to govern
their sense by withdrawing the needy acquisitive mind from sensory engagement,
they practice detached involvement. Leaders achieve this through the regular
practice of reflections. Reflection brings about equality of vision.
ü Evolving to the equality of
vision
·
Timeless leaders strive constantly to equalize their vision. This is
crucial if one wishes to succeed in leading people. When leaders do not have
equality of vision they end up promoting partiality, prejudice, and cliques,
which ruins organizations. Followers expect their leaders to be fair and just
in their treatment of them. Each time a leader betrays a bias toward someone or
a certain class of people, he violates the trust that people have placed in
him.
·
Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu – we are people through other people.
ü The art of undoing
·
As change agent leaders have to embrace the constant tug-of-war between
the past and the future. When a leader’s personality is programmed by his past
actions, his energy is trapped in time. His future becomes only a recycled
past.
·
A timeless leader refuses to get bogged down by mental chatter that is
corroding his vitality.
·
Most leaders in organizations are evaluated by the quantity of their
actions, whereas they should be measured rather by the quality of they do.
·
When leaders move up in the hierarchy of their organization most of
their problems turn out to be not technical but behavioral. The source of all
behavioral problems that leaders face can be traced back to the ego, which
conditions and clouds their awareness by giving to it the false notion of being
the doer. Timeless leadership is the reversal of the journey of the doer. This
can be achieved only by the progressive elimination of ego-centered activity
and the practice of selfless and dedicated awareness-centered actions.
Sutra 6: Leaders are masters
of their mind
ü Separating the self image
from the real self
·
Many of our problems are self-created. The source of self-created
problems is the fact that we mistake the self image for our real self.
·
He should elevate himself by the power of the real self, not degrade
himself; For the self is its won friend and its won worst foe.
·
Timeless leaders know that self image is nothing but the projection of
ego, which is subject to endorsement by the world outside. Thus the ego’s
position constantly changes in order for it to adjust to the world’s opinion.
The ego projects many fanciful notions of the real Self. The ego-self is bound
by those emotions that make leaders feel insecure and separate: Fear, Jealousy,
hatred, and false pride are the accompaniments of Self -image that the ego
tried to defend. Self image is guided primarily by the instinct of
psychological survival
ü Mastery of the mind
·
Just as an expert learns to master his craft, a leader learns to master
his mind. A leader has to work with many minds. Before he can command others,
he has to know how to command his own mental forces.
·
The only way to harness the mind is through practice and dispassion.
The practice of meditation results in dispassion. Dispassion creates a space
between you and your though flow. Your perception of though flow affects and
regulates it like a traffic cop regulates the flow traffic. A dispassionate
mind is aware of diversity and differences of forms without getting overtly
judgmental about them. Such a mind does not get caught in the external
appearance of forms and is capable of seeing the intrinsic value of each form.
·
Action is the means for a learner who seeks to mature in discipline;
tranquility is the means for the one who is mature in discipline.
ü Disciplines of mastery:
concentration, detachment, and transcendence
·
Concentration
o Concentration is the process
through which the leader can access the subtle ability of the mind to remain
focused on an object or a thought for a sustained length of time.
·
Detachment
o From whatever cause the
restless and unsteady mind wanders away, from that let him restrain it, and
bring it back under the control of the self.
·
Transcendence
o Transcendence is the final
step when the mind and its movements are completely interiorized. At this point
the body and the mind are united in one state, free from the fluctuations of
thought waves. Transcendence is the ultimate disciple of the mind. It is the
realization of the minds inherent unity with its conscious source and its
environment.
ü The power of stillness
·
Stillness is strength. Stillness is the power-point behind the intense
action. The eye of the cyclone is an intense stillness at the center of the
storm.
·
Timeless leaders succeed only by the application of stillness. A mind
that is restless, anxious, and nervous always missed the mark. Only a steady,
controlled, almost machinelike hand can shoot the arrow that hits the bull’s
eye.
·
The journey toward self-realization involves the disciplines of silence
and solitude. Silence frees us from the noise of externalized consciousness and
allows us to probe our inner voice. Solitude enables one to be intimate with
oneself.
Sutra 7: Leaders are
integrators
ü Journey from ignorance to
wisdom
·
Timeless leaders realize that knowledge is required to make a living
while wisdom is necessary to live a fully functional and evolving life.
ü Time leaders integrate
people and process
·
One of the fundamental tasks of leadership is the task of integration.
Leaders do not take sides in the case of a conflict; they often bring the two
sides together. Leaders integrate the world of diversity and differences into a
unity of purpose. Leadership is the search of synergy, symphony, and symmetry
in a world of conflict and disorder.
·
Leaders with integrity attract followers spontaneously, even beyond
their lifetimes. For such leaders life becomes one song-a universe-of though,
feeling, and action. Integrity is another expression for this one song.
Integrity is more than just socially sanctioned, conditioned behavior. It is a
spontaneous life force that connects all our life’s experiences in a unique
wholeness.
ü The leaders world: A
reflection of unmanifest dharma
·
In human form everyone can experience the manifestation of our dharma
in three observable states: inertia, dynamism, and illumination.
·
Those leaders who live dharma rather than speak about it understand
that the power of dharma comes only when you practice it.
·
Action has no power in itself. It draws its power from the unmanifest
purpose or dharma behind it. That’s why action backed by the right cause is
important. A leaders action bears the signature of the justness of a great
cause.
ü From ego-centered to
spirit-centered leadership
·
The ego is like a tragic hero. It is delusional. A leader caught in the
whirlpool of the ego fails to see a world beyond power, privilege, and petty
perquisites that come from occupying a position. An egocentric leader
experiences the feelings of victor or victim. When success comes, such leaders
act like the victor. When failure stares them in the face, they hide behind the
façade of the victim.
·
Very often, egocentric leaders fail to recognize the real intent of the
people they are leading They get caught in the trap of flattery and suspect the
motives of those with dissenting views. When established in the spirit centera
timeless leader begins to develop greater empathy and insight into human
nature. Timeless leaders are quick to discover the unchanging core of spirit
that is deepest and highest human aspiration.
ü Leader liberate themselves
and others from suffering
Timeless leaders liberate themselves and others from
suffering of the following types:
·
Those in distress
·
Those looking for fulfillment of their personal desires
·
Those yearning for knowledge
·
Those seeking wisdom
Sutra 8: Timeless leadership
ü Timeless leaders explore the
meaning of life
·
If business becomes merely the means of living then it loses meaning
for us. Work becomes a chore – a means of making a living at the expense of the
meaning of life. Such a business eventually becomes demeaning. The real
question we must ask while we are in business is: What is the meaning of this
work for me? If we find an answer to this question, the business and business
of life become one and the same.
ü The multidimensional meaning
of life
·
This is the world of the physical nature of objects and events that we
all can touch, taste, see, hear and feel. Krishna describes this as Adhibhuta.
Second, there is the inner psychological world of experiences know and Adhiyagna.
This is the world of thoughts and emotions – human actions and interactions.
Third, the ultimate governing principle is like transcendental being who
regulates the relationship between the physical and psychological world with
being part of either.
·
To know the imperishable reality the leader must learn to convert the
energy of thought into the energy of understanding. While thought results in
neural noise, true understanding happens when this noise dissolves in the depth
of silence.
·
When our work is tied to the selfish motive of gaining advantages for
ourselves we lose the perfect understanding of our real nature and succumb to
our apparent reality. When you put a fence around human being you get sheep.
The fence of selfish work makes us prisoners of our herd instincts.
ü Creation is sacrificing the
smaller for the sake of the greater
·
Our life, on the contrary, is an organization of energies moving from
the higher to the lower; from the macrocosm to the microcosm; from the subtle
to the gross. A leader must understand the science of life and live according
to this organizing principle of life: the subtle and higher energy drives the
gross and lower energy.
·
Leaders caught in the trap of ambition become vulnerable to flattery by
their subordinates. They squander energy by being too possessive about their
position and power. Ambitious leaders often use people as steppingstones up to
their own pedestals. Ambition binds them to lower-order emotions such as fear,
jealousy and passiveness. The arc of ambition takes us upward in a misleading
curve and then brings us down with a thud.
·
Aspiration makes leaders dream of a better organization, country, or
world. In our psychological universe aspiration creates greater energy than
ambition does. Ambition is gross; aspiration is subtle. The most successful
leader of this world, such as Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, gave up personal
ambition for a higher aspiration. They created a nuclear explosion of
consciousness that continues to influence the world of our thoughts and actions
today real meaning of life is contained in life itself.
ü The real meaning in life is
contained in life itself.
·
The real meaning of life is contained in just being the whole of who we
are. What are those attributes of being that together give meaning to life?
Being has three attributes:
o Truth, which gives meaning
to our existence
o Consciousness, which gives
meaning to our experiences
o Bliss, which gives meaning
to our action in the pursuit of happiness
·
When a timeless leader relentlessly pursues the path of truth, she is
able to realize that all that she needs to know already exists in herself.
·
Consciousness is the knowledge that we become. When a leader is fully
conscious he steers clear of secondhand knowledge and third-party opinions and
makes decisions from the authenticity of his being.
·
It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible
to find it anywhere else! A timeless leader, despite all his materialistic
hunger, places immense value on the intrinsic nature of happiness. However
difficult the journey, the source of happiness has to be found inside. Timeless
leaders lead people to their inner source of happiness rather than to external
rewards.
ü Meaningful work: A synthesis
of reflection and action
·
One fundamental role of a leader is the ability to see patterns and
detect relationships between events and activities within and outside the
organization. In this role a leader is a pattern seeker and meaning maker. The
greatest asset to a leader as he seeks to control the variables that confront
him in globalized world is his flexibility of mind. A leader needs an open mind
that is not conditioned by repetitive thought and predictable action. Such a
mind will be capable of making sense of fast-paced socioeconomic changes that
affect his organization. The opposite of an open mind is closed mind, in which
thinking and action are limited to the immediate local and temporal condition.
A leader with such a closed mind is bound to fall prey to myopic decision-making
and short-term activities that will ruin the organization in a long term.
·
Timeless leaders solve problems by placing them in wider context. When
we widen the context the problem gets resolved at its source.
·
Most of our work in our organization is reflexive rather than
reflective. When leaders engage in reflexive action the context of their work
is narrowed down to habitual patterns and meaningless chores. Sooner or later
such work becomes tedious and wears us out. Timeless leaders like Krishna
rescue us from the mental rut and bring us into the infinite cosmic source from
which our work derives deep meaning and significance. Krishna thus enables us
to synthesize reflection and action in pursuit of work. Such becomes truly
evolutionary.
Sutra 9: The sovereign
secret
ü Sovereign self and the path
of unity
·
Timeless leader use expanded consciousness to see the world in
themselves rather than seeing them in the world.
·
A timeless leader resides in the organization of form and phenomena as
an unseen intelligence that both includes and transcends the structure of the
organization.
·
The real presence of a leader is often determined by his absence. The
value of a leader in an organization can be experienced in the unseen dimension
of intelligence that he leaves behind when he is not there.
·
The leader who is able to devote himself to the pursuit of this
intelligence discovers the capacity of Self-rule.
ü The governance of the ego:
the path of disintegration
·
The governance of the ego breeds the need to grasp rather than to give.
The tyrants that ruled the world over the ages were all obsessed with personal
acquisition at the expense of the common good.
·
The ego is the central organizing principle around which we grab clutch
onto experiences that bring us fleeting pleasures and momentary sensations.
ü Self-organization: when
organization becomes community
·
What exhausts us at work is not the work itself but the worry and
anxiety that we associate with our work. These cause psychological wear and
tear and drain our energy. Our horizontal relationships produce friction in the
form of role conflict and lack of role clarity. In the absence if vertical
relationship with an ideal to which can offer both our failures and our
successes, we become emotional wrecks.
·
An organization achieves both horizontal and vertical unity through a
community. However, the horizontal relationship between members derives their
value from a vertical relationship with the leader. The leader is therefore
vested with the responsibility not only of leading the organization but also of
being completely integrated with the principles on which the organization is
founded.
·
Timeless leaders hold communities together on the basis of trust.
ü The law of giving: being and
becoming
·
Timeless leaders are defined not so much by what they do but by who they
are.
·
This give-and-take between being and becoming, between the unmanifest
and the manifest, is the very basis of our Self-organizing universe. Everything
in our universe follows the law and logic of an open system. An open system
continuously exchanges energy with the environment outside its physical
boundaries.
·
“Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into earth and
dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
(John 12:24)
Sutra 10: Leadership is an
adventure of consciousness
ü Leading consciously
·
A timeless leader does not deflect his energy by making the present
moment a steppingstone to an imagined future. He lives completely in the moment
in the moment. His thoughts, feelings, and actions are synchronized to the one
point of attention. This kind of living in the moment has the power the potency
of a seed that contains the mystery of a whole forest.
ü Silence: The language of
timeless leadership
·
The state of silence is not merely emptiness of sound; it is fullness
of unspoken intelligence. Silence is the pure potentiality of language.
·
Silence can be harnessed when we learn to be observers rather than
interpreters. When a leader observes without the urge to judge or interpret, he
is bringing his whole attention to whatever he observes. This whole attention
is silence.
·
Timeless leaders apply the discipline of silence by learning to be
observers. Observation is the art of seeing without judging, naming or
measuring.
·
Freedom of expression has two dimensions: freedom of speech and freedom
of silence. Freedom of silence enables us to explore the deeper voices within
us that speak to us without inhibition.
·
In speech, energy fragments into verbal silence, energy is integrated
into noiseless awareness. If one holds back the urge to talk from time to time,
one will experience a surge of energy in the nervous system. Silence is energy
conserving. Therefore, a timeless leader consciously cultivates the discipline
of silence.
ü The dynamism of
indivisibility
·
The ethos is the collective script of the organization. It signifies
the values that the organization stands for. Ethos gives meaning and wholeness
to the organization even while dealing with various parts of the organization a
timeless leader has his conscious attention attuned to the ethos.
·
Timeless leaders have an intuitive grasp of the ecology of the
organization. They view the organization not as a totality of commercial assets
but rather in the wholeness of its connection with the larger society,
community, and environment that it chooses to inhabit.
ü The pursuit of excellence
·
You shouldn’t be looking for people slipping up, you should be looking
for all the good things people do and praising those.
·
A timeless leader must examine with the eye of excellence everywhere he
looks and everything he perceives. Excellence is a result of developing quality
of mind through constant awareness.
Sutra 11: Timeless leaders
have integral vision
ü Integral Vision
·
Integral vision kind of sight involves foresight – the gift of being
able to see something before its time. Foresight gives us the power to
creatively reconstruct our universe by connecting the dots that are visible in
the present.
·
One of the virtues of timeless leadership is the ability to recognize
patterns based on inadequate or insufficient data points. The minds of these
leaders work like radar screens scanning the environment for data and constructing
patterns of intelligible information.
·
Timeless leaders have an integral vision of the changing faces of
reality. They are able to sense a turning of the tide and to transmit this
sense to their followers.
·
When timeless leaders see the big picture, their thoughts and actions
become synchronized in a manner that serves the larger purpose of their work.
ü Sight and Insight
·
The fighter fights with his sight; the warrior fights with insight.
Insight comes not from memory but from unconditioned awareness. Insight comes
not from programmed thoughts but from the underlying source of all thought,
which is consciousness.
ü The pangs of plurality
·
When leaders are able to discriminate between the real and the apparent
they are free of emotional turmoil.
·
When leaders get caught in the illusion of their own separateness in
the battle of life they suffer the pangs of plurality. They cannot fight without
vengeance, fear, and attachment to their turf. When leaders perceive only
plurality without the underlying unity in plurality they become unnecessarily
combative. The real test of an evolving leader is the ability to function in a
fiercely competitive field and yet nurture the cooperative and compassionate
nature within him.
ü The Leader as servant: being
an instrument of the whole
·
The timeless leaders have to conquer the army of thoughts and emotions
commanded by their ego.
·
Gandhi wrote in his autobiography, “the best way to find your self is
to lose yourself in the service of others” A timeless leader can discover his
sovereign and essential Self when he is able to let go of his preoccupations
with his own body and mind. He can then be an instrument of the whole.
·
A perfect instrument makes no claims to glory and takes no credit for
the best of accomplishments.
·
Timeless leadership comes not from control of material resources but
from serving the very human source that creates those resources. Leaders who demand
authority in return for favours done or who rent out their power to
subordinates in exchange of subservience cannot lead for long.
·
Servant-leaders do not start with the intent of charming of influencing
people. Instead, they start with the intent of being as perfect an instrument
of the whole as possible. In the process they become integral part of the very
source of what it means to be human. This is the basis of their influence.
Sutra 12: Love is leader’s
essence; Love is leader’s presence
Do
not try to manipulate the result of your work in the direction if what you
alone would like the work to be. Do not dedicate your attention the urges of
your ego. When you renounce your need for censure or praise from the outside
world, you will acquire a silence and steadiness of devotion to your work.
ü Leadership is love made
visible
·
A true devotee works independently of the world outside and draws his
inspiration, equanimity, and ecstasy from the source within himself.
· Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only
with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit on the gate
of the temple and take alms of those who work only with joy – Gibran Kahil
·
Timeless leaders know that if work is creation, then love is the
creative impulse behind it. Such leaders trace the mysterious source of love
not in the world of approval and disapproval but within their own hearts.
·
Timeless leaders realize that while work is external to our state of
being, love is an intrinsic state of our deepest human nature. One can be truly
devoted to work on a sustainable basis only when one can do so from the state
of love.
·
The greatness of the effort actually comes from the intensity of love,
which is the spirit behind the action. Timeless leadership is the manifestation
of the invisible energy of love expressed through the visible medium of action.
·
Love is not merely about recognizing the objective value of a given
task. Rather, it is the process of creating value from the inside out in any
work we do. Paying attention to detail, giving greater energy to process rather
than the output, and being fully present in the work are foundations of love in
action.
ü Devotion: Art and practice
of leadership
·
Ordinarily, our minds are fixed on our likes and dislikes. Whatever we
like engages us and what we dislike repels us. Most leaders spend time doing
what they like to do rather than what should be done.
·
A three-step way out of messy mind-state:
o Surrender to the highest
intelligence that controls your mind and intellect.
o Dedicate all that you do to
the intelligence that governs the universe and keeps the might planets whirling
in their orbits.
o Trust this might
intelligence to guide your mind and intellect in the most effective and
efficient way.
·
Timeless leaders see love as the common value present in both
competitive and cooperative frames of reference. In competition, love becomes
merely the means to achieving an end, as when we love our work because it will
fetch us greater rewards than our colleagues. In cooperation, love becomes an
end in itself, as when we love doing work for our families for no other reason
than the sheer joy of sharing our lives with others.
ü Attributes of leader as
devotee
·
The path of devotion is not about emotional excess. It is rather about
dropping the emotional baggage of the mind toward a singularity of purpose.
Devotion means discovering that creative source in our heart rather than
acquiring the approval of the world.
Sutra 13: Leaders command
their field with eye of wisdom
ü The leader as a knower in
the field of knowledge
·
It is not a great CEO but it is actually a great fit between a CEO and
a company’s contextual needs that builds great organizations.
·
Leadership is an integral feature of an organizations social system.
Leaders are influence by and in turn exert an influence on the social and
organizational contexts that they command. A leader not only grows within a
culture but also carries a culture within himself.
·
A leader pursuing true knowledge has to learn to be an observer not
only of “the world out there” but also of all that happens “in here,” inside
his own mind.
·
In course of a day a business leader has to go through a dizzying array
of situations and an unimaginable variety of contexts. Given the dynamic nature
of his business setting, a leader needs the conceptual depth that will help him
understand and deal with ambiguities and inconsistencies.
·
The knower, with pure and limitless awareness, is thus able to
comprehend ambiguities and reconcile contradictions in the field
ü The dimension of the field
and the knower of the field
·
A timeless leader achieves this detached engagement through the power
of empathy. Empathy is not a mushy emotional state where the leader gets lost
in pleasing everybody. Rather, empathy is a detached and objective appraisal of
how another person is feeling. Through empathy, a leader is able to rise above
his own emotional isolation and connect with a follower.
·
The timeless leader as the knower is perennially alive and alert to
whatever physical modifications and psychological distortions happen in his
universe. Such a leader remains humble and rarely seeks the spotlight.
ü Seeing with the eye of
wisdom
·
Timeless leaders have the ability to see the invisible. Behind visible
universe of objects and events there is the invisible universe of beliefs,
perceptions and emotions.
·
12 qualities of a leader who has truly integrated the head and the
heart:
o Humility
o Non-injury
o Unpretentiousness
o Forgiveness
o Uprightness
o Service to one’s teacher
o Purity
o Steadfastness
o Self-regulation
o Absence of egoism
o Even-mindedness
o Seeking periodic solitude
and silence
These qualities give the leader those subtle eyes
that reflect reality without mental distortions and biases.
Sutra 14: Leaders harness
the dynamic force of nature
ü Nature’s Manuscript: The
three forces
·
Inertia, dynamism and illumination – these three qualities of nature
bind and embody the indestructible soul in us.
·
Inertia is the state of passivity; it is the seed form of physical or
psychological action.
·
Dynamism, the second process is the movement from non-action to action
and from passivity to passion
·
Illumination, the third process, represents another dimension of
evolution – the evolution of consciousness.
ü How leaders harness the
three forces of nature
·
A conscious CEO allows some problems to remain undecided because he is
conscious that a certain amount of inertia is more useful in solving a problem
than premature and aggressive action.
·
Leaders discover that the secret of right action is to allow the action
to unfold at the right time rather than to force it ahead of its time.
·
His solution to problems will be based on a correct appraisal of
reality.
o A mind guided by the force
of inertia obscures reality and veils it.
o A mind guided by the force
of dynamism projects reality through the ego and distorts its.
o A mind guided by the force
of illumination discriminates and perceives reality correctly.
ü Transcending the dynamics of
nature
·
Those who transcend their own nature are not disturbed by the actions
of the forces of nature. They know that is these forces of nature that act and
that the soul self within is a mere witness to those actions. They therefore
remain unshaken and abide within themselves.
Sutra 15: Timeless leaders
discover their invisible source
ü The tree of life
·
The imperishable tree of life has its rots above, its branches are
below, and its leaves are its expressions of knowledge. Those who know this
know the whole truth. Our sensory work is a topsy-turvy world like the tree of
life where we are so obsessed with the effect that we do not investigate the
cause.
·
The tree of life has no stability. It changes its patterns and
appearances faster than the human mind can grasp. The leaves of this tree
multiply like many desires. These desires chase sense objects and indulge in
repeated actions. Actions repeated from habits that bind a human being to his
world. When the life in a human being is driven by personal will and habits of
self-aggrandizement, he isolates himself by his petty desires and forfeits his
access to the wholeness of life.
·
A timeless leader has to cut asunder and detach him from the roots of
addictive material attachments. Only then can he reclaim the magnificence of
his invisible Self.
ü The invisible leader
·
The most significant role of a leader is to make the invisible clearly
visible. Inspiration is invisible but inspired action is visible. Trust is
invisible but trustworthy behavior is visible. A leader has to constantly cross
the bridge between what is unseen and that which is seen in order to connect
with his followers.
·
Electricity is not designed for the bulb. Rather, the bulb is designed
to obey laws of electricity. When a narcissistic leader obsessively things
about his physical appearance and his image in the organization, he becomes
like a bulb devoid of the power of electricity. He is cut off from the unseen
self and the divine source that has created him. A wit once said that the
difference between a god and a narcissist is only this: The god does not
believe that he is a narcissist!
·
Timeless leaders, however, derive their power from unselfish service
rather than servility to their ego’s demands. Unselfish service frees the hold
of the ego on the Self.
ü From the perishable to
imperishable: quest for the supreme self
·
Timeless leaders see that behind the perishable forms of nature there
is the imperishable unity of life that sustains nature.
·
When leaders behave like demigods, when they grandstand and intimidate
others through fear and exclusion, they are just like caricatures of life’s
real face. When the same leaders see their actions in the mirror of the
timeless they understand their follies. Such leaders see through their
illusions. To be completely disillusioned with the illusions of the senses is
the first step towards returning to the unit of life.
Sutra 16: Leaders negotiate
the crossroads
ü The crossroads of
leadership: the devine and the devilish
·
The divine qualities in a human being lead to freedom; the devilish to
bondage.
·
Being forgiving or being truthful is valuable to these leaders not
because someone told them that these virtues are valuable, but because they
have realized in practice the value of these two virtues.
ü Toxic leadership
·
There are seven types of bad leadership. The first three types
represent ineffective leadership:
o Incompetent
o Rigid
o Intemperate
A leader and his
followers who lack the will or skill to sustain effective action characterize
incompetence. In rigidity, the leader and his followers are unwilling to accept
any new ideas or adapt to change. Intemperate represents leaders and his follower’s
lack of self-control.
·
The next four types represent unethical leadership:
o Callous
o Corrupt
o Insular
o Evil
Callousness comes from an uncaring or an unkind
attitude toward people. Corrupt leaders and their followers are given to
deception, stealing, or cheating. Insular leaders disregard the welfare of
their followers.
Sutra 17: Leaders follow
their faith
ü Faith: The deep structure of
leadership
·
Faith is the deepest driving force that shapes human beings values and
beliefs. It is faith that shapes one’s destiny. When he has deep faith in some
ideal or course of work, the leader becomes fairly autonomous. He rarely needs
an endorsement from the outside world when his faith has become truly abiding.
ü Three kinds of faith
·
Serenity, good-hearted silence, self-control, purity of nature – these
together are called austerities of mind.
·
“In working out any plan or idea, I use what you might call the
intermittent method. I hit the problem hard, then leave it for a while, and
later come back. This method permits me to bring to the particular problem many
ideas that come from mature reflection” – Julie Fenster.
·
Austerity of speech:
o The least evolved way of
speaking is speak lies.
o The second kind of speech is
dynamic
o The third and the most
evolved kind of speech is the one in which the leader is illumined.
Speaking words that are truthful, pleasing and
beneficial – this is austerity of speech.
Before he acquires the gift of his illumined speech,
the leader has to go through three kinds of mental austerities, in a manner
similar to security checks that the air traveller has to undergo. The first
check comes from the security officer, who says: “You can go ahead with your
speech provided it is truthful.” If it is not truthful, the speech is best not
allowed to go. The second security officer says, “It is truthful al right, but
is it pleasant? If it is truthful but unpleasant, its best you go back!” The
third and final security question is, “It is both truthful and pleasant, but is
it beneficial to the one you are speaking to. If it is not beneficial, you
cannot let it go.”
ü The art and science of
self-giving
·
Whatever is done without faith, whether it is sacrifice, austerity, or
gift, is unreal. Such actions have no real significance either here or
hereafter.
·
Three kinds of gifts:
o The first comes from an
illumined mind. It is a gift given without thought or return on investment.
o The second kind comes from a
mind that is dynamic – passionate but not illumined. This gift is given with an
expectation of the results it will produce for the giver – whether it is name
or fame or material benefits.
o Third kind of gift comes
from an ignorant mind dominated by inertia. This giving happens at an
appropriate time, under unsuitable circumstances, and to an unworthy person.
This gift of ignorance is often given with disrespect or contempt.
·
The leader who gives something to a follower, whether praise, power or
promotion, has to be sensitive to the context in which such gifts are given.
Praise or promotion given when they are not deserved creates a swollen ego in
the receiver as well as loss of morale in the ranks of others who are denied
such privileges.
·
The purest gift that a leader can give to a follower is the gift of
self-reliance. Self-reliance is nothing but faith in the larger self beyond
one’s physical body and ego.
Sutra 18: Leadership is
transcendence
The
fighter seeks success; the warrior pursues perfection that sustains success.
Success is a temporary state, whereas the quest for perfection is timeless
ü The source and resource
·
Leadership is about setting the right direction.
·
Timeless leaders understand that whereas the spirit of the source, al
of matter is the resource.
·
When you are source the world exists in you. When you are a resource
you exists in the world.
·
When the leader thinks, acts or feels from a true source, whatever he
sends out into world comes back multiplied. This is the creative and
transformational potential of the source: it can transform a resource.
·
When a leader expresses him from the source of pure potential he is able
to transform his followers. The followers are released from their restrictive
neural chemistry of fear and guilt, which makes them feel like small and
isolated entities. A timeless leader enables followers to get out of their own
restrictive though processes and emotional maps.
ü The algebra of attachment
·
Appropriating to the ego what belongs to the larger reality of nature
is the entire game of attachment.
·
When we are not attached to the source, our mind becomes addicted to
whatever makes the ego perpetuate its story.
·
Timeless leaders help followers detach their minds from egotistic
pursuits and go about their business in pursuing a purpose beyond their own
personal cravings. This is how great wars are won and great organizations take
shape.
ü Renunciation and
regeneration of the leader
·
You cannot hold onto anything for too long without suffering the
consequences.
·
Timeless leaders realize that the renunciation is not merely about
letting go; it is just as much about the regeneration of energy in a decaying system.
Three ways of doing this are
o Renouncing old habits:
Conscious restraint of the habitual flow of the mind toward sense objects –
taking a break from the Internet, for instance.
o Renouncing emotional
outbursts: To be patient and forgiving even when perceiving a small injustice
done to yourself by another person. This means not cursing when another driver
cuts you off in violation of traffic laws.
o Renouncing personal
aggrandizement: Not appropriating credit for what one has not actually done.
Many corporate leaders are tempted to steal the limelight for what others have
collectively accomplished. To give to other credit where it is due is the
renunciation of doership.
ü The path of transcendence
·
Transcendence is the art and science of being real. How does one access
reality? Reality unveils itself through the following steps: Facts à Truth à Reality
·
Timeless leaders lead followers to ultimate reality of the source self.
Then they lead followers to strike at follower’s organized mental defenses
against engaging in the war. The leader leads followers from their delusional
thoughts to tranquility of wisdom. He inspires followers to rise from
non-action to the freedom of spontaneous action. The leader instills in the
follower the power to awaken from fantasy to deep devotion to real goal of all
wars: the realization of our larger identity – our source Self.
ü The unity of two wills: the
fighter and the warrior
·
An organization is not just an assembly of systems and structures but
alchemy of the collective wills of its people. When people within and
organization perceive the system and structures – both social and psychological
– as barriers to realizing their potential as source Self they become fighters.
This goes on until a leader comes along and makes them evolve from mundane fighters
to true warriors.
·
Fighters fight with their swords and shields. They become victims of
their binary minds: fight of flight; offence or defense. Hey see organizational
structures and systems as physical barriers that they must overcome. Fighters
depend on their limited physical and mental effort and their ego-propelled
will. Fighters are doomed to fail like a fragile twig in raging storm.
·
The true warrior does not travel the path of the divided binary mind.
Before he takes up the fight, the warrior first surrenders his will to the will
of the source, which is ultimate reality. He draws his arrows from the focal
point of his source Self. Just as the fighter cannot win, the warrior cannot
lose.
·
The unenlightened leader binds the follower in the vicious cycle of
insecurity, expectation and dependence. The timeless leader gives the follower
the freedom to choose.
If
you have made it so far on my longest blogpost ever, you probably agree with me
that this was time well spent reading the 18 sutras of timeless management from
the Bhagavad Gita.
On
the search for next great read now…
