Vision & Values

I have often been posed this question by a variety of folks. Colleagues, Seniors, Team Members, Peers & even people I coach/ mentor offline time to time.

I thought a lot on it & decided to pen down my thoughts on the blog so that it helps everyone who wishes to understand this simply.  Vision in very simple terms would mean to “imagine the future in present even before it has happened for us”. Vision can be created by everyone from an individual to a leader to even an organization & a country as well.

Singapore for example is a perfect example of a Country with a Great Vision. The geographical size of Singapore FYI is lesser than the size of Today’s Expanded Mumbai city. They are a perfect example of a Country with a real solid vision for its citizens, its business associates & even the travellers & visitors.

Mind you, vision is also the reason that many very large organizations survived more than 100 years of business ups & downs & unlike so many other business behemoths who fell in one recession or the other, they actually beautifully grew even during the worst economic slowdowns & global recessions. 

Now before I expand on the above, let me first ask you a set of questions :-

What is your personal vision in life? Have you decided it yet? Many people I ask this question tell me “How would I know what I will be doing 5/ 10/ 15 years from now”?

I always state this line to them & I quote it here “Don’t worry; one day life will answer this question for you. People who don’t have a vision are merely passing their time. They have no clue where they want to go or reach. Such people will never rise above the ordinary.

Having a vision is like taking a life insurance for your career & personal life. It not only tells you in advance to decide what you want in life, career & finances. It also enables you to learn & grow according to the things you want in life. It also pushes you to work hard, take risks & be ready for everything”.

In short VISION means to see your dreams & final goals even before you have achieved them.

Every one of us can have a vision, irrespective of how small or big and junior or senior we are. Our Mind has the power to create & execute things while imagining them. It is so very powerful that you can’t even imagine what all you can do & see with it. We use only a small fraction of the actual capacity of our mind.

Globally the researches done on the capacity of brain have proven that the most successful people in the world are extremely competent at the ability to create a vision & then execute that vision themselves & with people whom they can inspire to share that vision. The best in business infact used their mind much more than the average people & that is why highly successful people are able to be spotted easily.

On the other hand, when we are young, our mind can be fickle several times. We do not really know what we really “really” want & we keep changing what we want. That is also the reason most of the time; we do not get what we wanted. It is because you never imagined what you wanted with that much power, passion & conviction.

Remember, you can only enjoy the taste of water when you are really “really” thirsty for it. Having a vision is like creating that thirst for things you want to do & achieve that in life every single time. If you do that, you will achieve your vision. Period!!!!

I must also insist that a Vision must always be positive. For example, even Osama Bin Laden had a very powerful vision but the problem was that it was a very wrong & a very negative vision. That is where values help.

Values are the scale you apply to decide whether what you want is “Right” or “Wrong”. Being young, the passion & energy as well as the desire to reach somewhere in life is very high but it doesn’t mean that you can even be corrupt to reach there.

Your values will determine whether you will land up on the top of a magazine cover or inside a jail. However, in today’s times values can also get tested. People can always throw mud at those they can’t touch. That is where your values & character comes to your rescue.

Even during difficult times, your vision & values will help you to stand the test of time & help you to stand your grounds.

People who have a great vision & a positive set of values are natural fighters. They don’t give up & they keep moving on & on. Nothing can stop them. They are on a self fuelled engine & when they get hit by roadblocks, they know how to rise above them.

Remember Vision can change, become bigger & grander & even expand but values must remain the same, no matter what happens to you. In short Vision can grow & expand & even change but values will always remain the same throughout your lifetime.

Lastly I wish to conclude by stating that in today’s times the only differentiation between great & mediocre is whether you have a vision & do you act with a set of values.

I wish you all life with a vision lead by demonstrating values. That is what you would need, that is what your companies too would need & that is what our dear country needs from all of us today.

Change Above Everything else &........................

I am going to share a dream for a new 2014 with you all today.

2014 must become the year of Passion, Performance & Loving Change. Especially Change of approach, style & thinking. CHANGE is here to stay & it will bother us more if we do not start loving it. Everyone loves to talk about CHANGE, till it does not impact them.

 

The moment change impacts us as individuals, we start reacting, complaining & finding faults. Learn to love change. It is the only thing that has survived & it is the only thing which remains the truth of life.

Within the times we are living in, I am expecting 2014 to bring a kind of change that is going to stare at our faces. The best of us will thrive, grow & get above the rest. Those of us who do not understand the need & are busy complaining can keep complaining because change will filter those who love it from the rest.

In the new world order, the best of us will thrive, grow & get above the rest. Those of us who do not understand the need & are busy complaining can keep complaining because change will filter those who love it from the rest.

When I was growing up, my first mentor in life (one of the Country’s Renowed HR Practitioner) taught me a lot of good things & he told me once that people who do not know when to change, can never grow because they are busy finding reasons - why they should not change?

He went on to state, not to take three things for granted – Our Job, Our Boss & Our Seat (Position & Role). I literally see this challenge in pockets of Corporate World of INDIA. We have grown to a phenomenally large size in the country today & we were not only a preferred business destination, we were also the preferred investment destination for the globe.

 

However, in 2014, we will not be able to sustain the past years of success & also find or promote talent from within if we do not change at the speed at which the world out there is changing as well.

 

I must reinforce here that when you look around the world & see the world’s best leaders, managers & professionals, you will find three skills common – Passion, Performance & Loving Change. These are the three things that have got all the best leaders ahead of the rest of the crowd in their lives.

Passion – It is the spirit & drive to keep becoming better & better. Fact is if you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.

 

Performance – It no longer is enough if you do you job well. Perhaps in 1950 you were called a TOP PERFORMER for doing your job well. Today that is mandatory & considered average performance. Performance simply stated means exceptional actions at exceptional speed with exceptional results.

Change – I remember in a workshop, a fellow participant said that I have worked for this company for 6 years & I am the best there & I am not happy with how the company treats me now. The Trainer replied – You are a frog in the well, jump outside & you will find there are thousand others much better than you & perhaps your company knows it too. Get real in life. Fact is “This is a new year. A new beginning. Things will change”. If any of us wants to be treated the best, we need to adapt & become the best & rise to the level where our company takes note that we are worthy of more. If we can’t change, perhaps there will not be many options too.

Change now. It is in our face, staring at us & telling us that 2013 will be soon dead & gone. Salute 2014 as the new year of passion, performance & change.

Here is to Loving Change!!!!

Cheers!!!!

Ashutosh..............................

 

 

What does Character mean today?

One of the things we don’t often talk about in LEADERSHIP Circles is “CHARACTER”.

We talk about ATTITUDE, BEHAVIOUR, ABILITY, TEAMWORK but we often forget where it all starts. Let me illustrate what a CHARACTER is all about.

When the eagles soar in the sky higher than any species, they show CHARACTER. Being BOUNDARYLESS is their CHARACTER. Let me state that CHARACTER can be a tool for reaching your PURPOSE of life. It can be your MESSIAH or your CURSE.

When we are born, we have nothing. While we live we act, we move & when we die we take nothing back. However people remember us not for anything else but our CHARACTER.

Character building starts from INFANCY & goes on until DEATH. CHARACTER does not need success to be built up. Infact the more tougher the circumstances, the more STRONGER can be the CHARACTER.

Under Adverse circumstances, some people break records & others break down. JFK said – “Mark of a Character is how well it behaves in Adverse Circumstances.”  Adversity reveals a person’s TRUE CHARACTER.

We don’t unfold or discover ourselves, we infact create & build ourselves into the kind of person we want to be. There is a RUSSIAN Saying a Hammer shatters glass but forges steel. Are we made of STEEL or GLASS? It is the same hammer. The hammer in this case can be our whole life.

CHARACTER – INDIVIDUAL FABRIC

CHARACTER takes shape in an individual’s life over years put together and it takes your parent’s guidance, your friends, your teachers to shape it up.

Character is the sum total of a person’s values, beliefs & personality. It is reflected in our behaviour & our actions. We demonstrate CHARACTER in everything we do or we don’t ever do. It is in every choice we make – RIGHT V/s WRONG.

Character is not absent when we decide the WRONG? It is infact a part of making that choice. Characters don’t have a religion or a caste or a creed unlike the way we decide in our SOCIETY nowadays.

We have so many labels, so many categories defined or un-defined, conscious or un-conscious. We have put these labels & associated them with a NEGATIVE/ POSITIVE CHARACTER based on highly subjective parameters of SOCIETY, which every individual gets affected with as well.

CHARACTER – RISING

There are CHARACTERS, which rise above everything. Infact, TRUE CHARACTERS rise above the SHACKLES of what forms our SOCIETY.

 

Still, I believe now, when we are in convenience & comfort, we can decide anything & everything, however, the real test of a man’s character is, where he stands in times of crisis & discomfort. Bapu did exactly what his CHARACTER was, whenever he was in CRISIS. He stood in Dis-Comfort when he could have chosen COMFORT & CONVENIENCE. The message is loud & clear; that an HONEST CHARACTER can determine the course of history even while it is in CREATION.

CHARACTER – INTEGRITY Vs SUCCESS or Both?

Today, people have started to resort to any means to getting work done. Somehow the philosophical bent has shifted from Being RIGHT to Being SUCCESSFUL. Being successful at what COST? That to me is a billion dollar question.

Honestly I believe to be a WINNER takes CHARACTER. George Washington said – “I hope I shall possess firmness & virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most valuable of all titles, - The character of an HONEST MAN”

If you go down the history of the most successful & the biggest individual failures you will see the pattern visibly coming up. We have Hitler, Mussolini, and Napoleon & Many of our own Royalty Rulers at one spectrum; Gandhi, Chanakya, Sardar Patel, Shivaji etc. on the other spectrum of facets of INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERS.

Both spectrums had strong CHARACTERS but both used it for different reasons & motives. Some of them deployed CHARACTER for an entire race i.e. their Nation & some of them for destroying an entire race i.e. the other Nation.

However do you know what really differentiated the Characters of these two spectrums of people?

Their INDIVIDUAL INTEGRITY; which we also knows as Personal ETHICS/ VALUES, was what they eventually used to make their INDIVIDUAL CHOICES.

Overall CHARACTER is a combination of INTERGRITY, EMPATHY, COURAGE, CONVICTION, LOYALTY and RESPECT.

The most important of all in Character is INTEGRITY. INTEGRITY infact in all of us relies on our own THOUGHTS & ACTIONS.  It is CHARACTER, which combines THOUGHTS with ACTION. A real test of Character therefore, is doing what's right when nobody's looking.

CHARACTER – CRITICISM

However there is another interesting facet which is a TEST of CHARACTER – We all know, that it is human for many people to love achievements & but hate/ envy ACHIEVERS.  Whenever one person rises to the top, there are plenty others who couldn’t reach there & they try to pull this person down by CRITICISM, CYNISISM & TACTICS.  Remember, the more you accomplish, the more you risk being criticized.

No one likes to be criticized but we learn & grow from honest criticism. Just as it takes CHARACTER not to be disheartened by CRITICS, it also takes CHARACTER to listen to CRITICS. It is very important to be able to distinguish honest criticism from jealously inspired criticism.

POSITIIVE CHARACTER instills confidence in SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE to ask for CRITICISM from those whose opinions they TRUST. They ask – How am I doing?

Remember, we can always fake ourselves in front of others by showing a different facet of our CHARACTER; you still can’t fake the person you see in the mirror.

CHARACTER – BEING SUCCESSFUL

You will seldom see a very SUCCESSFUL PERSON with no CHARACTER. Even the fact that you believe he/ she succeeded without CHARACTER, is wrong. Remember CHARACTER can be invisible to the naked eye and can be deeper than you can see into a person. 

However, more difficult than success itself is how we handle success. Many people know how to succeed but when they do so, they don’t know how to handle it & eventually they fail.

That is why comes one last facet in this piece i.e. ABILITY.  Your ABILITY will get you SUCCESS; but it is your CHARACTER which will keep you SUCCESSFUL.

Here's wishing you a life filled with Great Character. Amen!!!!