Advancing the Learning Curve: Deploying Creativity & Imagination to becoming a better leader

Whenever I am down in the dumps and facing any challenge while navigating the crossroads of life, I think of Swami Vivekananda’s words of wisdom – “You alone are the creator of your destiny, the strength and succor that you seek is within yourself”. A picture is worth a thousand words similarly connecting to people through human psychology and living the life of the protagonist who emerges stronger to overcome adversities in life works better than reviewing management anecdotes as the human brain’s abilities to imbibe and envisage the facts as they unfold help make the transition from the fear of failure to absolute success.

A few erudite management gurus may ponder upon a saying that “Having an open mind at the workplace is better so that one tends to be unbiased and non-judgemental, since being easily approached by the team members facilitates ease of access to break-through ideas and possibly ways how we may help others. In order that we may rule out any thoughts of notions and judgment shared by others inadvertently, it is recommended that we try our best at times to envision the world through other people’s eyes.

Most working professionals who have spent over two decades in the industry like me would possibly agree with a comment that past acquaintances and colleagues say “You know what Sudip, I used to know an earlier version of you that is now outdated and doesn’t exist anymore since you have upgraded your knowledge, networking and communication skills since we last met!”

The influence of the society on our persona is moving and poignant to an extent that the outcome is typically irreversible should we allow negativity to creep in through the backdoor and cloud our thoughts and actions. Keeping our eyes open ensuring we don’t overstep the line and managing to practice self-restraint is after all a motley mix between self-management vis-à-vis self-awareness so that focusing on self rather than focusing on the impact on others is the key to generating goodwill and camaraderie. Between peers and well-wishers, we can let our guard down during different occasions since personal competence is our ability to stay aware of our emotions, behavior, eccentricities and idiosyncrasies.

We have our moments of highs where we celebrate successes but very rarely we celebrate failures since working on self-awareness and improving the external version of ourselves seen by others is achieved not just by controlling our ability to accurately perceive our emotions and being aware of what may be the impact of our emotions externally but in being few steps of the competition and pre-empting the thoughts and emotions of the opponent.

Effectively exercising self-management is our innate ability to use awareness of our emotions to stay flexible and direct our behavior externally in a positive manner without upsetting the applecart of life or endangering anyone’s existence.

As an experienced people manager, I always ask my fellow co-workers on how I may help them do their jobs in a better way thereby allowing them in unleashing their potential effectively. It may appear to be deceptively elementary: Rather than telling employees how to do their jobs better, make small beginnings by checking with teams on how you can help each of them to perform their jobs better and make teamworking collaborative rather than have teamworking in siloes. I have observed personally that the effects of this approach can be impactful and long-lasting in bringing out the best side in people.

Any new idea takes time to bear fruit and create a change in mindset. As we throw stones in a puddle, small ripples get created on the water surface and indelibly modifying the way that teams work together creating brainstorming opportunities for success & transition into more productive, empowered groups of like-minded harmonized visionaries having high degree of ownership for assigned projects.

The inevitable foregone conclusion is that it’s a major win-win for the risk-takers/ visionaries in the company since its well known that members of a team who undertake the actual tasks of any company always know better than their respective managers on how to do a job in the best way maximizing on opportunities, with less time and the least resources. If we all decide on supporting these smart workers, respecting their ideas & encouraging them to try alternative approaches to improve the culture at the workplace stirs ideas & bring out the best version of the teams when it matters the most at the workplace.

Tim Laurence once stated that social competence is made up of social awareness and relationship management skills where social competence is our ability to understand other people’s moods, behavior, and motives in order to improve the quality of your relationships. Contrastingly, social-awareness is the ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and understand what is really going on.

When we meet up with like-minded persona to decide on what possible solutions to a problem could be – in that scenario we exercise what is known as relationship management which is our ability to use awareness of our emotions and others’ emotions to manage interactions successfully.

Sometimes the best way for leaders to serve employees — and their organization — is to create a low-risk space for employees to experiment with their ideas. By doing so, leaders encourage employees to push on the boundaries of what they already know.

There are certain distinct and not so discernible traits of leaders who make a difference in their team’s thoughts, mentalities and pave their way to success. There are also leaders who motivate only when it matters but may not be successful in building high performing teams who play well and fairly irrespective of the playing conditions. A common mistake or oversight leaders tend to do is not allowing their teams to take risks and commit mistakes as then teams would not exploit the conditions to the fullest, they would not imagine themselves to be successful against all odds.

Certain leaders like our previous President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam are humble, show respect, and allow teams to take risks and grow their risk-taking appetite.

If we break certain barriers of bureaucracy and ask employees on how the leaders may enable them to achieve higher levels of success as they improve the organization, the outcomes can be stupendous and path-breaking not only in enhancing the learning curve of the organization but also building groups of budding leaders each striving hard to come to terms with creating a niche for themselves in society and becoming better human beings.