Monday, October 8, 2012

Leadership Secret Number One -- Pure Energy!

I am reproducing this blog article from Anthony Robbins. Great read. After watching yesterday's World Cup T 20 Final you can relate to this even better!

Leadership Secret Number One -- Pure Energy!


October 03, 2012

The Seven Core Qualities is not a complete and perfect list, but rather designed to show you the common qualities of successful leaders that I’ve worked with over the years. How many of these qualities do your favorite leaders embody? How can you strengthen these qualities within yourself to enhance your ability to lead?

The first quality we’ll look at is PURE ENERGY.

Change, transformation, and results all require enormous energy. Many people fail to achieve what they want simply because the mind is willing but the body is weak. Their mind says, “let’s go get ‘em” and their body says, “I can’t get out of bed.” Whenever you think of someone who has charisma or impact, isn’t it true that they also have a significant amount of psychological, emotional, or physical energy? Of course, there are many different styles of energy. Some are external in their style of communication and intensity, but everyone who is successful somehow brings energy—a physical, emotional and spiritual energy—into their environment. Being able to tap into that energy even when you are exhausted, even when things aren't going your way, often separates those who achieve and lead at the highest level versus those who fall short.

There are certain fundamental things that people do to increase their energy regardless of how much sleep they’ve had or where their blood sugar is. We’ve all had tough days where in spite of the circumstances something inside snapped us into a state where we took off and made something extraordinary happen.

What was it that shifted? Our energy and our psychology, because they are tied together. Virtually everyone knows someone whose psychology is so poor that they can walk into a room and suck the energy out of the building. And, we also know there are others who do the complete opposite: they bring energy to any environment they live in. People gravitate towards them.

The scary part is when the person in the position of leadership has no energy. We all know what that does to the momentum of an organization. Look, it’s no secret that we’re living in tough economic times. Your ability to find a competitive edge—to tap your capacity and the true capacity of your team—often will be based on your ability to shift your energy and the emotions of those around you. I’m not talking about some naive approach to life where you delude yourself through positive thinking that everything will be just fine. I’m not talking about BS’ing yourself. The type of person I’m talking about is someone who can make the tough decisions and take the necessary action to turn things around in spite of the challenge. In other words, a real leader…someone who can talk about the real issues, get everyone to face the challenges, and have enough energy to find the solutions necessary, even in the most dire of circumstances.

Without energy, nothing moves—nothing changes. But with energy, anything can be expanded or transformed. It is important to remember that there are multiple ways to expand your energy. One is to physically take care of yourself—to train your body so that you have that expanded sense of energy and endurance. But you can also find energy (even when you’re exhausted) by tapping into a vision, a sense of purpose, which brings energy not only to yourself but to your team as well. Often, people feel exhausted not because they’re not in great physical shape or don’t have a vision, but because they have inner conflicts. They are trying to meet two different “masters” that don’t support each other, so their energy becomes divided. Finding and unifying vision and purpose is what has given power to so many great leaders. Steve Jobs was famous, or in some cases “infamous,” for his relentless intensity. It came from his undivided focus to create the greatest products and the greatest company in the world. Similarly, the standard that Steve Wynn holds for himself and for every member of his team creates an energetic momentum that not only affects him personally but everyone he has the privilege to lead.


The important distinction here is you can’t manage what you don’t measure. How would you rate your level of energy on a consistent basis (especially when things are not going your way)? What would you give yourself on a scale from 0 to 10? If the number is not high enough for you to be an effective leader, what could you do to improve it? On a scale of 0 to 10 where would you rate your energy? We’ll touch on some of the simplest and most powerful ways to increase your energy in a future blog and video.

Feel free to share your thoughts or feedback on this posting under the comments column

Friday, October 5, 2012

Peddling down the road less travelled


Recently I peddled from Colombo (from Parliament grounds) to Hiru Villas Maggona which I am told is 57 KM . It took me almost 5 hours for the journey. If not for my new found riding mates Dirk and Gareth I would have never made the journey. During my peddling journey I passed some of the beautiful scenaries inclduing paddy fileds, large ponds etc.

The route we took was not the main road but one that was suitable for mountain biking. Hence the route was unfamiliar and I have not personally travelled on that route before.
To make matters worse, iOS 6 upgrade had made sure we were without any form of reliable mapping help that we were so use to!

However I had a general sense of direction and that was all that was required. We started pedding around 5.15 in the morning and yard by yard, kilometer by kilometer we moved in the direction we were suppose to go. By sunrise we had reached a decent distance (10+ KM, I was the weakest and holding the other two guys back). Junction after junction, we peddled past without knowing much about the territory. Our focus was on the immediate few meters ahead of us.

The terrain was indeed challenging. There were puddles of water, pot-holes etc, but we navigated our way thorugh all of that. Our focus was on what was lying ahead of us. That's it. Then there were plenty of 'hilly' areas. The general view is that, when you climb a mountainous stretch you have a nice down hill. It wasn't the case in this ride. When you give all what you've got to ascend, you come to a flatter stretch and then you have another ascend to conquer!!

Despite all of that, we did make it thorugh to Maggona!

The important lesson over here is the fact that I did not know the complete route till the end. All that I was focusing on was the immediate few meters ahead of me. In the end, I still reached the destination!

I beleive it was Jack Cranfiled who said in life you don't need to have clarity of the entire path that it takes to reach your destination. As long as you know you are in that direction all what you need to know is to how to navigate the immediate steps just ahead of you.

If you do that, like me, you'll rech your final destination may be even after 5 hours! Trust me, when you reach there, the feeling is worth every drop of sweat!