Ask, Seek, Knock

I’ve written before about the importance of networking and moving from wallflower to evangelist. Closed mouths don’t get fed. If you want something, you have to either ask for it or walk up and take it.“Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to those who knock.” Matthew 7:7.

Just as Jesus taught his disciples to persist in prayer as a way to improve their communication skills, global leaders must also be in constant pursuit of, and proficient in, cross-cultural communication skills if they are to succeed in today’s global environment. Global leaders must be persistent in asking for ways to gain more cultural knowledge, seeking ways to understand rather than to be understood by people of different cultures, and knocking on the door of wisdom toward unlocking hidden meaning to better communicate across cultures. Without the proper meaning, misunderstandings and misinterpretations often prevail because what is appropriate behavior for one culture can be inappropriate in another.

Global leaders often use their own meaning to make sense of someone else’s reality or lack cultural awareness of their own behavioral rules and apply them to others. Global leaders must strongly consider the cultural factors of the languages of context, time and space because they impact the language we speak, be it verbal or nonverbal.

Always remember, closed mouths don't get fed!

Remembering my father

My father was the noblest person I have ever come across in my life. He was true to himself and others and lived a life of purity and innocence. He never missed a single day’s prayer and uttered a single bad word ever. He was a great husband and my parents had the best relationship. They were married over 55 years until my father’s death. My mother stayed with him in his ups and downs and took care of him during his ill health. Their mutual warmth was very deep till the last day of my father. My mother is missing him every moment now. I have always wondered the reason for such a great chemistry between spouses.

I remember an incident when I was child, studying in 6^th grade. One day I fell ill and suddenly collapsed. My father, who had a small stature, carried me and ran to the local doctor’s office, which was quite far away. Even today I can feel his heavy breath, fear, and anguish when he made that run. It awakens my spirit and moist my eyes whenever I think of this noble, selfless man.

My father influenced me in many ways. The most important part was the trust he had on me. That was the highest motivating factor in my life. Even today, every time I make a mistake, which I do several times, the biggest influence of course correction is remembering my dad. Through him I learned that positive emotions have profound impact in our life compared to negativism which may take you down. My dad was always very proud of me. I do recall him introducing me to his friends as a high achiever with a twinkle in his eyes. Dad, I won’t let you down.

God has been kind enough to give me a wonderful wife, lovely children, and a great life. When I think of my dad, I do reflect on my role as a father and husband. How good am I at my role? Do my wife and kids give me a failing, passing, or excelling grade? Only time can tell. But my father reminds me from heaven every time I mess up to do the course correction. Yes, he is up there blessing me and guiding me to follow the right path in my life.

Declutter (and de-stress) your life

"Your home should be your sanctuary," says Phoenix-based organizational pro Donna Smallin, author of The One-Minute Organizer Plain & Simple (Storey, 2004). "When it's cluttered, it's overwhelming. Plus, you can't find anything." Your life and even your mind can also become overcrowded with too much junk.

Excessive clutter is often a symptom and a cause of stress and can affect every facet of your life, from the time it takes you to do things to your finances and your overall enjoyment of life. Clutter can distract you, weigh you down, and in general it invites chaos into your life. Often times, however, tackling the clutter can seem an insurmountable task if you don’t know where or how to start. By devoting a little of your time to getting rid of the clutter in your life and maintaining things relatively clutter-free , you’ll reap the rewards of pleasing living areas, reduced stress, and a more organized and productive existence.

Mayo clinic offers several valuable tips on decluttering and simplyfing your life. The best way to tackle the decluttering of your home, your work space, and your life is to take things one small step at a time. Combined, small steps will lead to big improvements that will be easier to maintain over the long-run. You've probably noticed the word "simplify" popping up in magazine articles and talk show discussions about how to deal with the chaos and complexity of modern life. The resurgence of an old idea — living a simpler life — isn't surprising at a time when many people feel overwhelmed by their busy, complicated lives. The voluntary simplicity movement, as it's sometimes called, preaches the value of living a more balanced, less stressful, deliberate and thoughtful life. You don't have to be a fanatic, though, to want to simplify your life.

When you're surrounded by more things than you can manage, it sends a visual message that your life is out of control. And it can become a vicious circle, where disorder brings about procrastination, which only perpetuates the chaos. To make matters worse, when you're under stress, cortisol, the stress hormone, short-circuits your brain leading to forgetfulness, irritation and plain old meltdowns.

The following are ideas to help you simplify your life and reduce stress. Give it a try.

Clear the clutter: Pick one area to tackle, such as the junk drawer in the kitchen or the piles of clothes in the bedroom. Take a hard look at what you've accumulated. Clear out any items you're not using.

Switch off the media: TVs, radios, smart phones, laptops, video games — they all contribute to audiovisual clutter. Being flooded with stimuli, even entertaining stimuli, is a tremendous source of stress. Unplug and unhook yourself.

Clear your calendar: How often have you complained that there aren't enough hours in the day? It's not the clock that's the problem. It's the number of activities you're trying to pack in. Being too busy can become a habit so entrenched that it leads you to postpone or cut short what really matters to you, making you a slave to a lifestyle you don't even like. What can you do? Only say yes to activities you really care about. In other words, learn to say no.

Stop multitasking: Your mind can also be cluttered, your attention spread too thin among too many tasks. Long touted as the mark of the highly efficient, multitasking has recently been revealed to be less of a boon than once thought. In fact, recent research shows that people who multitask tend to be less able to concentrate and more easily distracted than people who rarely multitask. Perhaps more importantly, multitasking doesn't let you get into the flow — a state of being so absorbed in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. When you're in the flow, also called in the zone, things seem to happen effortlessly. You're totally absorbed by what you're doing. There's no room in your awareness for conflicts or contradictions. Flow creates a sense of fulfillment and engagement, and even contentment. So, try for more flow and less multitasking. Start by turning off the electronic distractions and focusing on one task. Only when you've completed that task can you go on to the next. Focusing on one task is also a good way to learn to be present — or totally engaged — in the moment. This is mindfulness. It doesn't get any simpler than that.

Good luck!

The spirituality of Running

           
          My son jokes that I may have to add up all my driving miles to achieve the ambitious running target I set for 2012. Am I crazy to do this? I think I am not. Why? Running’s difficulty is part of its value. It is allowing me to sleep better, feel stronger, have more energy, be more confident, think more clearly, and make more friends. Running builds character because it is difficult, and because many of the virtues can neither be exhibited nor developed in the absence of hardship. Regular running helps bring a sense of order in my life. The activity is restorative for the body and spirit, and contributes to a sense of self-realization.

Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. Running is nothing but suffering. And suffering provides an occasion for exemplifying and developing positive character traits such as compassion, generosity, and courage. Hence, suffering can become an occasion for “soul making” which eventually will lead to happiness, fulfillment and inner peace. Running also gives me opportunity to self evaluate. Most of us are capable of achieving far more than we think we can. Only by setting high, demanding goals can we maximize our full potential. There is no value of temperance unless there is some pleasure one must forgo. One of the aptitudes of the wise is the ability to put off present pleasure or overcome present pain for greater reward down the road. Socrates tells us to make right choices and see the real value independent of present appearances or immediate sufferings.

“Our life”, said the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius (AD121-80), “is what our thought make it”. This is a point on which philosophers, running coaches, and successful people in all walks of life agree: Winners believe in themselves. We all love to take credit for our successes while blaming external, uncontrollable factors for our failures. Here is some words of wisdom. World famous runner and physician-philosopher, George Sheehan says, “to succeed anything, you need passion”. Sheehan found running to be “a path to maturity, a growth process” that continually challenged him “to go further, to grow more, and to become a more complete human being”.

Failing Forward

What differentiates between average people and successful people?  The findings are against our conventional wisdom. Successful people have failed more often than average people. Why? Several management leaders and thinkers have a common answer for this. According to them, successful people treat failure as a learning curve and use it as a stepping stone for future success. Average people are risk averse which limit them in their growth path. If someone has not made any mistake, we can say that (s)he has not tried enough to explore full potential. These safe players are like ship in a harbor, they are not exploring the deep sea!

Leadership expert, bestselling author and speaker, John Maxwell who coined the term ‘failing forward’ says, “I know of only one factor that separates those who consistently shine from those who don’t: The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.”  Many successful individuals and organizations have experienced failures at different stages in their life cycle.  They made use of the lessons to improve their performance, rather than dropping the ball.

Thinking failure is mostly a mindset. Many people look at isolated instances of failure and miss the big picture. Today, several leading organizations start realizing the value of failing forward and encourage teams to share their failure stories and even reward ‘successful failures’! So, next time before you blame yourselves or your colleagues on any failure, think twice. The victory is round the corner and march ‘fail forward to success’!!

Note: This is the first of the series of blogs planned for the current year in vide ranging topics. Your comments are welcome.

Goal Setting: 5 Tips for Setting Effective New Years Resolutions

Here are 5 tips you can use to set better New Years resolutions.

1. Put your goal in writing. Here is how you need to think about it - if your goal is not in writing, then you do not have a goal. When we keep a goal in our heads, the goal gets crowded out by all the other pieces of information running around in our heads. Putting your goal in writing makes it real and much more likely to be accomplished. This is because you can now put your written goal somewhere that you will see it several times a day. This is a powerful reminder and keeps you on course.

2. Choose the top 1-3 of the resolutions you find both exciting & achievable in a 12 month period. Having one successful resolution is better than having 20 unsuccessful resolutions.

3. Break down the plan into small and manageable chuncks. You have a full 12 months to get it done, what small things in January do you have to do to stay on track to make it to February and then to March and so on?

4. Tell lots of people about your goal. Tell others about your goal. Make sure you tell one or two people that will hold you accountable to your commitment. We all need encouragement from time to time. This is because no matter how motivated we are, there are times when we need a good swift kick in the pants. If you really want to hold you feet to the fire on this one, tell so many people about your goal that you will be embarrassed if you do not achieve it.

5. Give it all you got. Very few people have had the privilege of giving all they have toward a goal. It is a great feeling.

Business Ethics and Leadership

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How does one link between business ethics and leadership? American Heritage Dictionary (2006) defines ethics as the moral quality of a course of action; any set of moral principles or values; the study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral choices to be made by the individual in his [or her] relationship with others. Business ethics is a subset of the study of ethics and is defined as the study of what makes up good and bad business conduct, (Bowen, 2003). This conduct occurs when the firm acts as an organization, as well as when individual managers make decisions inside the organization.

Examining what comprises the organizational culture should reveal some key attributes that encourage ethical behavior. Scholars who studied organizational reputation (Dutton and Dukerich, 1991) maintained that a positive reputation, such as one for ethical behavior, had a beneficial effect in the marketplace. Stormer (2003) credited neoclassical economic theory with the idea that ethical corporate behavior enhanced profitability, but called for a theory that encouraged ethical behavior from a philosophical standpoint of benefit to society. The sum total of individual employees’ ethical values influences corporate conduct, especially in a corporation’s early years. The activities during these years, in turn, form the basis of what constitutes a corporate culture, or an environment for doing business. In a free-market society, values of productivity, efficiency, and profits become part of the culture of all companies, (Small, 2002).

Theories of ethical thought

Consequential theories

Ethicists, business people, and workers who adhere to a consequential theory of ethics judge acts as ethically good or bad based on whether the acts have achieved their desired results. The actions of a business or any other societal unit are looked at as right or wrong only in terms of whether the results can be rationalized. This theory is best exemplified by the utilitarian school of thought, which is divided into two sub-schools: act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism, Kubasek, Brennan & Browne (2003). In general, adherents of this school judge all conduct of individuals or businesses on whether it brings net happiness or pleasure to a society. They judge an act ethically correct after adding up the risks (unhappiness) and the benefits (happiness) to society and obtaining a net outcome.

Act utilitarians determine if an action is right or wrong on the basis of whether that individual act (the payment of a bribe) alone brings net happiness to the society as opposed to whether other alternatives (e.g., not paying the bribe or allowing others to pay the bribe) would bring more or less net happiness, Kubasek, Brennan & Browne (2003).

Rule utilitarians argue that an act (the payment of the bribe) is ethically right if the performance of similar acts by all similar agents (other contractors) would produce the best results in society or has done so in the past. Rule utilitarians hold the position that whatever applicable rule has been established by political representatives must be followed and should serve as a standard in the evaluation of similar acts, Kubasek, Brennan & Browne (2003).

Deontological theories

Deontology is derived from a Greek word meaning “duty.” For advocates of deontology, rules and principles determine whether actions are ethically good or bad. The consequences of individual actions are not considered. The Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” is the hallmark of the theory. Absolute deontology claims that actions can be judged ethically good or bad on the basis of absolute moral principles arrived at by human reason regardless of the consequences of an action; that is, regardless of whether there is net happiness. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) provided an example of an absolute moral principle in his widely studied “categorical imperative.” He stated that a person ought to engage only in acts that he or she could see becoming a universal standard.

Humanist theories

A third school of thought, the humanist school, evaluates actions as ethically good or bad depending on what they contribute to improving inherent human capacities such as intelligence, wisdom, and self-restraint, Kubasek, Brennan & Browne (2003).

Profit-oriented theory

The profit-oriented theory of social responsibility begins with a market-oriented concept of the firm that most readers were exposed to in their first or second course in economics, Kubasek, Brennan & Browne (2003). Holders of this theory argue that business entities are distinct organizations in our society and that their sole purpose is to increase profits for shareholders. Businesses are to be judged solely on criteria of economic efficiency and how well they contribute to growth in productivity and technology. Corporate social responsibility is shown by managers who maximize profits for their shareholders, who, in turn, are able to reinvest such profits, providing for increased productivity, new employment opportunities, and increased consumption of goods, Rost (1995).

Managerial theory

Advocates of the managerial theory of social responsibility argue that businesses, particularly large institutions, have a number of interest groups or constituents both internally and externally that they must deal with regularly, not just stockholders and a board of directors, Kubasek, Brennan & Browne (2003). A business has employees, customers, suppliers, consumers, activist groups, government regulators, and others that influence decision making and the ability of the entity to make profits.

References

American Heritage Dictionary (2006) Retrieved March 25, 2006, from http://www.bartleby.com/

Bowen, S. A., (2004). Organizational Factors Encouraging Ethical Decision Making: An exploration into the Case of an Exemplar. Journal of Business Ethics, Part 2, Vol. 52 Issue 4, p311-324, Retrieved March 25, 2006, from EBSCOhost

Dutton, J. E. & J. M. Dukerich: (1991). Keeping an Eye in the Mirror: Image and identity in Organizational Adaptation, Academy of Management Journal 34(3)

Kubasek, N.K., Brennan, B.A., & Browne, M.N. (2003). The legal environment of business: A critical thinking approach (3rd. ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Rost, J.C. (1995). Leadership: A discussion about ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly. 5(01), 129-142. Retrieved March 16, 2006, from University of Phoenix rEsource database.

Small, M. W.,(2002). Practical Problems and Moral Values: Things We Tend to Ignore
Revisited. Journal of Business Ethics, Part 2, Vol. 39 Issue 4, p401-407, 7p. Retrieved on March 16, 2006 from EBSCOhost

Stormer, F.(2003). Making the Shift: Moving from ‘‘Ethics Pays’’ to an Inter-Systems Model of Business’, Journal of Business Ethics. Retrieved on March 16, 2006 from EBSCOhost