Palettes, Paints & People

Cleaned up my art & craft supply cabinet over the weekend. There were three color palettes covered with layers of acrylic paint. For a long time, whenever I saw these, I had felt like throwing them away as they appeared to be useless and beyond saving. However, this time around, I took a small screwdriver and prodded the dried paint.. et voilà! It peeled off, just like a sticker, leaving behind clean grooves! It was hard work at times but worth making the effort.

While peeling the paint, I started thinking about the parallels with human beings. Whether as leaders in our organizations or as individuals in our personal lives, we meet and work with people who appear to be ‘lost causes’. Those whom everybody has given up on. However, with focused attention, right strategies, appropriate tools, and continued support, these individuals have the potential to shine. This is one of the key responsibilities of a leader.

The experience also had me thinking about how things (and even people) may appear ugly at times but with love, care and attention, their true beauty re-emerges from under the unpleasant exterior. This was a much-needed reminder. As I work with junior team members, many a times my impatience gets the best of me. Even though I keep reminding myself to be more patient, sometimes stress takes its toll.

Happy to have had this opportunity to unwind and learn during the process😊

before

after

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Burnout to Breakthrough: How to Create Calm from Chaos

One of my friends shared an article by Eileen McDargh on how to move from burnout to breakthrough. In addition to it being very relevant and easy-to-understand, the article comes with a GIVEAWAY!

Leave a comment on Eileen’s post at the Leadership Freak website to become eligible for one of the 20 complimentary copies of her new book, Burnout to Breakthrough: Building Resilience to Refuel, Recharge, and Reclaim What Matters. Deadline for eligibility is Aug 9, 2020. International winners will receive electronic versions. Happy reading!

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Big Questions: Simon Sinek on The Infinite Game

In this episode of Big Questions, Simon talks about the theme of his upcoming book, The Infinite Game, with Cal Fussman.

https://startwithwhy.com/discover/simon-sinek-the-infinite-game/

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Leadership

From Simon Sinek‘s book Together is Better, A Little Book of Inspiration.

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Currently Reading: Hostage at the Table

Someone gave me this book as a gift. i.e., this one found me 🙂

The author, George Kohlrieser, is a psychologist and professional hostage negotiator. In this book, he shares insights into how leaders can benefit from the techniques used in hostage negotiation to effectively deal with conflict. George also has a TEDx talk about this topic.

I’m currently reading the second chapter and finding it interesting. However, I have yet to find an example from real-life ‘hostage’ situation, something I was looking forward to. Let’s see how it goes as I read further.

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Currently Reading: Lean In – Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

I had heard/read about Sheryl Sandberg‘s book ‘Lean In – Women, Work, and the Will to Lead‘ before I saw it at the bookshop.Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer at Facebook. I thought for a while before I bought it. Started reading it a few days ago. After re-reading The Fifth Mountain, and The Alchemist, and reading Biz Stone’s ‘Things a Little Bird Told Me – Confessions of a Creative Mind’, I did find it difficult (initially) to go back to a book about gender issues. Having a Board Meeting this week didn’t help either. However, slowly and gradually, I have picked up pace and am enjoying reading Sheryl’s book. Still on the second chapter but can already understand and relate to the issues identified by Sheryl. More to come later.

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Review: The Fifth Mountain – Paulo Coelho

Without doubt, The Fifth Mountain is my most favorite book of all time! And, the best one from Paulo Coelho. This is the 4th time that I’ve read this book. Actually, to-date, I’ve read it a total of 3.5 times. This book NEVER fails to inspire me. I’ve read it at various points in my life. From the time I was trying to find my own path to the time when I struggled on my chosen path, all the way to the current time when I am continuing with my journey. Elijah‘s story has been an inspiration, and has helped me make sense of my life experiences. I love the fact that even though he’s a prophet, he still faces doubt and confusion, and questions his own beliefs. As a young prophet, he goes through the divine training and comes a full circle at the end. This human characteristic makes him my favorite character of all times. The story and the writing is simple. The book’s title cover, format, size, and fonts help the reader move with the flow of the story. I have so many lines and, at times, multiple paragraphs marked in this book. It’s one of those books that you hold on to.. for reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading!

I had thought about listing down my favorite quotes from this book. However, there’s just too many of them to put here. At some places, I’ve marked multiple consecutive paragraphs! If I list all of them, I’ll actually have to put nearly the whole book here!

Anyway, here are a few of the quotes:

1. ELIJAH REMEMBERED. She had come to ask him to make some trays. While Elijah was doing as she asked, he heard her say that her work was a way of expressing the presence of God. “From the way you make the trays, I can see that you have the same feeling,” she had continued. “Because you smile as you work.”
2. Everything in life demands training.” “Even being a prophet?” “Even to understand angels. We so want to talk with them that we don’t listen to what they’re saying. It’s not easy to listen: in our prayers we always try to say where we have erred, and what we should like to happen to us. But the Lord already knows all of this, and sometimes asks us only to hear what the Universe is telling us. And to be patient.”
3. “Even if it comes to pass, I have doubted myself. I am no longer worthy of my task,” answered Elijah. “Every man hath the right to doubt his task, and to forsake it from time to time; but what he must not do is forget it. Whoever doubteth not himself is unworthy–for in his unquestioning belief in his ability, he commiteth the sin of pride. Blessed are they who go through moments of indecision.”
4. “The Lord needeth thee to rebuild Israel,” said the angel. “Thou wilt tread thy land when thou hast learned to rebuild.”

Prophet Elijah in the Desert

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Mandela (1918-2013)

Rest in Peace..

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Book Review: ‘How Leaders Lead: 71 lessons in leading yourself and others’ by David Lim

Before writing something about the book, some background about how this book entered my life. In Jul 2013, I attended the PMI Leadership Institute Meeting – Asia Pacific (PMI LIM-AP) in Singapore. As always the LIM proved to be an exciting and inspiring event. The keynote address at the LIM was delivered by David Lim.

David Lim is a Singaporean mountaineer and motivational speaker who led the first Singapore Mount Everest Expedition in 1998. His keynote address was about leadership lessons from Mount Everest. Yes, it was quite an insightful keynote! He also gave all the participants a complimentary copy of his book titled ‘How Leaders Lead: 71 lessons in leading yourself and others‘. He was gracious enough to sign my copy of the book! 🙂 Soon after I returned from the LIM, I started reading this book and found it an easy read.

David has successfully distilled the leadership lessons learned as a mountaineer. The book is divided into 6 sections:

1. Leadership
2. Goal Setting & Vision
3. Self Leadership
4. Resilience & Change
5. Teamwork
6. Life Balance & Ethics

Each section contains a selection of blog/magazine articles written by David. At the beginning of each article, a picture/cartoon is also included. I always like this approach as these visual aids depict the core message of the article in an effective way. The arrangement of material is clear, logical, and easy to follow. The language is simple and David’s style is conversational. This maybe due to the fact that most of the articles were originally blogposts. I also like the fonts used as they help make the material easy to read. Short & independent articles make it easy even for the busy readers to manage reading some parts of the book every day.

Somehow, the article that made me stop and reflect the most was the one about Internal Programming. It helped me gain perspective on a few things related to my professional life, especially David’s comment about ‘towards’ vs. ‘away’ mindset. The article that I liked was about Resilience Awareness. The notion of sustainable optimism, adversity quotient, and three components to human capacity (i.e. required, existing, accessed) was new to me. David makes another thought-provoking statement about Teamwork being an individual skill (rather than a group skill)! Many articles have food for thought and references to relevant research work. David also makes references about useful tools such as Work Preference Profiling Tool (from Team Management System) and Team Performance Profile which encourage the reader to find out more about them.

From among the 6 sections, my most favorite was the one about Life Balance & Ethics. Following articles from this section made me think about life, in general.

• Having a Sense of Being
• The Importance of Doing Absolutely Nothing
• The Whys and Whats of Life

What could be improved?

The grammatical and spelling errors (along with punctuation issues at some places). I found it difficult to read many articles due to these issues. Small issue, perhaps, but one that negatively affects the flow of reading. I hope a revised edition with an improved proofreading is in the pipelines.

My rating

3.5 out of 5 (especially for the references to many areas worth exploring in detail)

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Xiao Chu: Wind over Heaven

“Forcing your way will only bring misfortune. Remain focused on your path and remove obstacles with gentle actions. Look at the long term. Plant the correct seeds now to reap a harvest in the future. Cultivate patience, tolerance, adaptability and detachment. Accept that all you can do is change yourself.”

Thank You, Johnny Depp, for teaching me an important lesson today.

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