If you have watched The House of Cards (A series on Netfix), you are not new the word ruthless. Being a true leader needs you to be ruthless, ruthlessness to the core in focusing what you want to achieve.
Frank Underwood might be a wrong illustration for depicting this quality in a leader, but surely there are few things we can learn from him – Unmatched devotion to his vision. The vision of being at the center of Power.
All of us love having the power, be it at home, office or in the society. Power gives a sense of satisfaction and ability to shape our surroundings the way we wish to. According to the dictionary, the word ruthless means – showing no pity. This can be read in different ways and all we need to understand is how we can build this quality in us in a positive way.
Building the quality of ruthlessness requires us to work on developing ourselves in various contexts. First, we need to understand the work what we do, second, we need to have a complete understanding of the environment we live in, third, the most important of all, we need to have a very good clarity of what we wish to achieve.
If you look at how FU (these are the alphabets on his cufflinks) operates, he has a complete and deep understanding of how the political parties work and operate. He exactly knows whom he needs to approach for a certain task and how to get through their mind to get his work done. This plays a very important role in building your strength.
While trying to understand the environment we live in, it requires a deep understanding of the work we deliver and how we deliver. This gives the sense of confidence and also allows us to think of various options to get things done identifying the most optimal path.
The third point is where we all get lost and confused. We need to have absolute clarity of what our end goal is, be it power, money, satisfaction or sense of accomplishment. What ever it is, we need to be very clear as to where to get to. Else, the journey is about confusion and chaos. If you look at any successful leader around us, you can clearly identify the clarity in their mind, if you spend some time understanding what they do and how they do.
It is ok to have confusion, most of us cannot identify what we want until we really spend some time in understanding what our strength is. So, as you traverse along, identify where your strength lies, understand the work and environment and be sure to build the right character to reach your goal.
Be ruthless in the right way, and you will reach your destination.
There are 7 kinds of leadership styles and we went into the details of each one in my last post.
The next question is what kind of leadership style should I adopt in which scenario?
Even though there is no set rules for any company to follow a certain leadership style, here is how from a big picture stand point can you identify when you can change your leadership style.
Well, am sure you have questions by now and wanting to debate or discuss as to why I proposed the way I am proposing. There are various other ways you can categorise, but this is a basic though on how to start identifying where you as an Entrepreneur or Leader is wanting to take your company.
Leadership styles can change when you are a one person company, with 10 employees, 100 or 1000 or 10000 or even 100000. Companies evolve over a period of time and what are you trying to achieve.
For instance, you can start a Pharma research company where you focus on finding better medications. When you start, you have a small team and you want to bring out the best in each one, that’s when you adopt to Democratic style and over the period of time, combine with Transformational and Coaching as the company grows.
You can be a one hotel establishment and you can adopt to an Autocratic style, but as time goes and you expand your operations, you will need to adopt to Laissez-Faire, Transactional and Servant styles. Why? Because it is important to go hands off when you have put the right people in the right place and also you will need to focus on enhancing your business and your service levels. e
You can be a technology company and you might be a handful of people when you start. But as a founder, you will need to be as thorough as possible to build the best product. You start with a combination of Democratic and Transformational styles. It is very important because you already have the right set of people in the right places. You will need to give the confidence to your team that you know what you want and also be open to listen to them because they come with a certain set of skills. Over the period of time, you will have to adopt to Transformation style because as the company is growing, it requires you to start thinking ahead on how to build and enhance your product offering. It’s a continuous cycle.
Services
Typically, service companies focus on providing end user service. When a person starts this kind of company, they already have in mind what kind of service levels you need to achieve. You start with a Democratic style and mature into transactional style to ensure you reward the people who are achieving their goals and providing you with the results. However, as the company grows, they should also consider adopting Transformational leadership style.
Product Companies / Manufacturing
Can be soft (Technology) or hard products (Water bottle to a car). These companies are designing, developing and bringing out products which can add vale to the user. To begin with founders of Product companies can follow Autocratic style, but set the milestones to migrate to Democratic or Servant styles based on the future of the organisation. As the company grows, the founders should identify appropriate teams to adopt to Transformational and Coaching styles.
Manufacturing is a very clear set. Companies manufacture a product and focus on increasing sales. At a ground level, it will be Autocratic and Transactional style because tasks are clearly set and employees are rewarded for achieving them.
As the sales increase and production increases, at the mid and higher levels, organisations can adopt to Transformational, Democratic or coaching style.
NGO
NGO’s focus on providing services to uplift the quality of life (in which ever way). They work with funds and also need to manager people to help execute ideas, come out with innovative projects to create the impact and measure the outcomes.
NGO’s need to adopt Transformational style leadership and over a period of time focus on inculcating Coaching style for the maximum impact.
Let us be honest, NGO’s (quite a few) work with limited budgets and do not have excess funds to hire the best. Hence, they compromise (not on quality, but on skills or domain understanding). For this, transactional model does not work and hence Coaching style needs to be adopted. It becomes the key to a successful outcome.
Government
I am not talking about politics here, but any Government (especially in Democratic Countries) focus’s on providing governance to people – taking care of amenities for living – Roads, Lighting, Water, Schools etc.
In any country, governance starts at the lowest body which handles a population of 1000 – 5000 (depending on the population density). In India, for instance, the ground level governance happens at the Panchayat level. At this level, citizens elect the leader of the Panchayat board. Since the number of people he or she would represent is in hundreds or maximum few thoughts, the understanding of ground level problems is important and also should be able to bridge the communication from the Government to the citizens also should be managed. This should be a combination of Autocratic and Democratic leadership styles.
At the next level, it should be transformational and Democratic.
At the state level, it should be a combination of Transformational and Servant stles. Why? Because the local and District levels are already adopting Democratic, Transformational and Autocratic (bringing the State or Country level policies to the ground level).
At the country level, it should definitely be Transformational, Coaching and Democratic style.
Closing notes
These are just my thoughts based on the outcomes I see for any organisation. There is no set formulae to follow. It totally depends on what the outcomes the organisation is looking for and what is the impact they wish to create.
If you have watched The House of Cards, you are not new the word ruthless. Being a true leader needs you to be ruthless, ruthlessness to the core in focusing what you want to achieve.
Frank Underwood might be a wrong illustration for depicting this quality in a leader, but surely there are few things we can learn from him – Unmatched devotion to his vision. The vision of being at the center of Power.
All of us love having the power, be it at home, office or in the society. Power gives a sense of satisfaction and ability to shape our surroundings the way we wish to. According to the dictionary, the word ruthless means – showing no pity. This can be read in different ways and all we need to understand is how we can build this quality in us in a positive way.
Building the quality of ruthlessness requires us to work on developing ourselves in various contexts. First, we need to understand the work what we do, second, we need to have a complete understanding of the environment we live in, third, the most important of all, we need to have a very good clarity of what we wish to achieve.
If you look at how FU (these are the alphabets on his cufflinks) operates, he has a complete and deep understanding of how the political parties work and operate. He exactly knows whom he needs to approach for a certain task and how to get through their mind to get his work done. This plays a very important role in building your strength.
While trying to understand the environment we live in, it requires a deep understanding of the work we deliver and how we deliver. This gives the sense of confidence and also allows us to think of various options to get things done identifying the most optimal path.
The third point is where we all get lost and confused. We need to have absolute clarity of what our end goal is, be it power, money, satisfaction or sense of accomplishment. What ever it is, we need to be very clear as to where to get to. Else, the journey is about confusion and chaos. If you look at any successful leader around us, you can clearly identify the clarity in their mind, if you spend some time understanding what they do and how they do.
It is ok to have confusion, most of us cannot identify what we want until we really spend some time in understanding what our strength is. So, as you traverse along, identify where your strength lies, understand the work and environment and be sure to build the right character to reach your goal.
Be ruthless in the right way, and you will reach your destination.
Quite often when we speak with our family, friends and colleagues, we hear “Don’t get so emotional” or “Don’t be emotional”.
What is being emotional?
If you search for emotional on google, this is the first result you will get.
adjective
adjective: emotional
1. relating to a person’s emotions.
“gaining emotional support from relatives”
synonyms:
spiritual, inner, psychic, psychological, of the heart
“their emotional needs are often ignored”
antonyms:
material
2. arousing or characterized by intense feeling.
“an emotional speech”
synonyms:
poignant, moving, touching, affecting, powerful, stirring, emotive, heart-rending, heartbreaking, heart-warming, soul-stirring, uplifting, impassioned, dramatic; More
antonyms:
dry, unfeeling, emotionless
3. (of a person) having feelings that are easily excited and openly displayed.
“he was a strongly emotional young man”
synonyms:
passionate, feeling, hot-blooded, warm, ardent, fervent, excitable, temperamental, melodramatic, tempestuous, overcharged, responsive; More
antonyms:
apathetic, cold
Look at the meaning of the word. In all the three meanings, you will see that emotions display your passion, compassion, your inner feeling. Of course, there are other meanings to the word which do not showcase the positivity, like melodramatic, temperamental etc.
I have heard this term quite a few times in my life. Every time I heard this word, it was not sounding right for me. Then, I started researching more on this word.
* Being emotional is a very good trait. However, one should understand the context of the situation where emotions are being displayed. For instance, road rage is an attribute of being emotional, showing your inner feelings of anger and frustration. This is not a positive attribute.
* Visionaries and Leaders are definitely passionate and emotional about what they do and what they believe in. This is a positive attribute.
Now, whenever I hear someone saying that I am being emotional, I take a step back and draw a mental picture of why the person said that and what attribute am I displaying. If it is regarding what I do, what I believe in and what I stand for, then I completely ignore the feedback. This feedback is coming because the other person does not share my passion and he/she is only trying to subdue my conversation by saying this. There is no point in continuing the conversation with the person. I walk away in silence.
The second instance is where we let our ego play. Even though our gut says that we are going wrong somewhere, we try to support ourselves in what we say.
All leaders who have shaped the world have displayed public emotions – From Mahatma Gandhi to Rabindranath Tagore to Steve Jobs to Sir Richard Branson to Bill Gates and the list only continues.
Being emotional is a very strong attribute of being a true leader. However, balancing the act between positive (which comes passion) and negative (which comes with ego) emotions strengthens the personality of the leader.
Few months ago, a company in US raised their minimum wage to $70,000. Everyone is happy, but two of them quit.
What happened? They quit because others not so deserving colleagues have got a rise. For them, what was important is that they both should be treated differently than others for the contribution they bring to the team/company. But, the organization was thinking different.
Most of the time in our lives, we live by comparing ourselves to others and on the way we forget what actually we need. We tend to look around in the competitive world and push ourselves to achieve what others do and not what we want.
There were two instances which stand out in my life and I am very thankful they happened.
One – During my school days, there was a tremendous pressure for either becoming an Engineer / Doctor. I took a different path. I don’t know why it happened, but it happened. I was clear on one thing – I wanted to work with Computers and that fascinated me.
Two – When I came to Bangalore looking out for a job, I unexpectedly got an offer from the Testing Company. I spoke to my family and friends and most of them suggested that I keep trying and get into development. Somewhere in my heart, I was not too convinced. I sat down and thought to myself as to what I wanted to become. I went with the not so frequented path, and I thank God for making me do that.
Many of us go through these situations, all I am wanting to share is that go with what your heart says. Stop comparing/look at others. Out intuition gives us the answer and when we go with that, we sure will achieve what we truly wish and that will complement our skills. When we compare with others, we are actually not utilizing our skills, but trying to copy someone else.
Doing well and going great are not different things. When you do well, you do great.
Interpretation is a crucial aspect. Understanding the situation is more important and the Interpretation coming from that understanding determines the success or failure of the conversation.
Recently, I attended a talk. During the talk, the speaker was speaking on the benefits of Asking and how many times do you ask. She provided many examples and asked the audience for their experiences in asking. One participant was very clear that there is no absolute result in asking and he does not believe asking is an important in solving any problems. When the presenter asked if he can substantiate what he said, he said “I believe so.”
What happens when we go with our belief’s is that we get struck to our experiences. There more than 6 Billion people on this plant and quite surely, one or the other would have experienced what we are going through right now and the kind of problem we wish to solve. Depending on the experience the person has, he/she would provide an insight to what the ‘probable’ result would be; but they are not sure.
According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, Interpretation is a story or description that is different in some way from another person’s story or description.
When starting a conversation with anyone – be it family, boss, colleague or in a meeting, what usually happens is that we go with certain thoughts/assumptions on the topic to be discussed and when the conversation starts, we tend to go by what we are thinking. However, this is not the way it needs to be handled. We need to listen, understand the other persons perspective and then take the conversation forward.
This is easier said than done. I have been trying to practice this over the last year and to be quite honest, it has been really tough. However, as I continued my practice, I am seeing the joy of the outcome of conversations.
All of us make New Year resolutions, but over the period of time, they fade away and we loose the energy to accomplish them.
I found a way to work around that.
First, Identify the intention of the Goal. For example, you wish to accomplish something noteworthy which can add to your accomplishments in life. Identify as to how it will add to your Skills/Experience. Spend time on having a complete clarity of the Intention.
Second, break the Goal down into as many smaller tasks as possible.
Third, set a timeline to achieve the smaller tasks. Monitor how you are doing on the smaller tasks each day. If you feel that the size of the task is more than you can accomplish, fine-tune the task even more.
Fourth, each day read your Intention and see how closer you are getting to achieve it.
When all the tasks are completed, you not only achieve your Goal, but you would have attained your Intention.
Intentions are powerful, where as Goals are adjustable and have a risk of getting faded.
Having the passion, desire and ability is one aspect of building a meaningful life and its outcomes, but focusing on The One Thing is the most important.
The one Thing is the first action you take which will impact other facets of your life.
To build on the habit of winning and accomplishing it becomes extremely important to keep refocusing on what needs to be accomplished.
Each day, identify what needs to be accomplished by end of day. From the list, pick 1 task which will have an impact on the day and the remaining task’s. Execute on that first task and notice the impact it creates on the reminder of tasks and the day.
Motivation comes from our inner fire and the fire ignites and continues to burn when we keep focusing and refocusing on what we wish to accomplish.
Visionaries are people who thin they want to change the world in what ever way they can. By creating their own company, by writing, by traveling, by reading, by sharing their ideas or by creating value in their own lives.
When you embark on a journey with the intention of creating value to yourself, it starts with humiliation, rejection and non-conformance.
When you want to create value to your life, you will need patience, willingness to accept what does not work, embrace it and then build over it. All these are qualities of visionaries who changed the world.
When you wish to change the world, you change yourself and automatically the world around you changes and you become the epitome of change.
Creating a niche to bring out the best in yourself always is not an easy one. In today’s world, identifying skill set, nurturing the right attributes with apt understanding of domain are the key qualities to establish oneself.
The 10 Year Rule
To be a perfectionist in a particular field, one needs 10,000 hours of practice. Let us break this into a practical way to implement.
Years 1-2 of your career goes into understanding the “working world” after spending 21 years in school/college.
Years 2-4 go into understand what the work is.
Years 4-6 go into mastering what you are doing.
At this juncture, you need to understand what you wish to do – If you wish to add professional qualifications to strengthen subject knowledge or find work which will help you broaden understanding of the subject.
Years 6-8 go into building on the learnings.
The last two years in the decade goes into establishing yourself as the Subject Matter Expert.
These 10 years will help you complete 10,000 hours of practice and help you identify, create and nurture your niche.
If you aspire to make a meaningful impact in what you do, identifying you niche is the first step.
