Path to Excellence

I have spent the last 5 decades trying to understand the secret to success. Is it working 18 hour days, the choice of subject, perseverance, luck, intelligence, discipline…? What is it that helps some people reach the moon and touch the stars, while some struggle to even get it right. The answer is all of the above but more importantly, self-belief. Belief in the inner self is the highest common denominator to success.

Last year, I launched Arka Leadership, an institution focused on developing and inspiring people to live true to themselves. As part of our outreach projects, we conducted interviews with some of the successful leaders like Deepa Malik, Olympian para-athlete and her daughter, Devika Malik, Naina Lal Kidwai, Shyamal Vallabhjee, Dr Pawan Kumar, A Vaidheesh, Rajeev Dubey and P Dwarkanath etc. Also, over the years, I worked with many successful CXO’s and senior management teams, who have achieved success in their respective fields.

All these leaders aim for excellence. They are not focused on immediate success only, they play a long term game of asking themselves, ‘How can I do it better than yesterday?’ A constant need to strive and do better makes a person a reflective learner, thereby becoming a student of and for life.

Here are some of the nuggets:

1. Authenticity: Staying true to self becomes paramount to any leadership position because it helps develop relationships of trust and respect. Rajeev emphasized on the need to check in and ensure that the action is in alignment with the context and purpose. Dwarka shared that authenticity also includes the art of tough love, wherein sometimes there is a need to be tough on issues and soft on people. Since authenticity is a life long journey of learning and growing, it requires a leader to be vulnerable and inclusive.
2. Clarity of vision: Having clarity of what you want to achieve most, helps to direct energies in a focused manner. Often, we dissipate our energy by trying to do everything. This requires us to move the entire ship consisting of our mind, body, emotions, relationships, health and time in the same direction. Dabbawalas serve professionals by ensuring that they get hot home cooked meal on time. The Dabbawalas is regarded as a six sigma organization, with an error rate of 1 in 8 million. Their vision is to create a community with a sense of belonging and pride in its work. Dr Pawan Kumar of Dabbawalas asserted that authenticity is the only way to sustain an organization. 
3. Self confidence: Only when there is confidence in self can a person take a leap of faith to step into action. Living with self-doubt due to a fear of failure or rejection freezes a person from looking for ways to translate their vision into reality. Vaidheesh shared that when we live with faith in the possibilities and explore options, we can generate alternatives for any problem.
4. Agility: Finding the solutions to doing things the right way takes experimentation and exploration. The answers to problems are not always obvious and require the attitude of trial and error like that of a scientist. Deepa Malik recalled how first she started training for swimming and soon realized that given her constraints, she would need to move into athletics. She remained committed to being a competitive sportswoman and changed the type of sports.
5. Resilience: There is no short cut to achieving excellence. Success can be transient and is dependent on the world, whereas excellence is a game played with self. Excellence requires patience and consistent effort and above all, sticking power. When Deepa recounted her constraints and how some days can be really hard, I was humbled by her commitment to self.
6. Team spirit: None of us can achieve anything alone. We are born with complementing skills and serve each other from our strengths. Speaking to Naina Lal Kidwai, she advised that it is very important to not only collaborate with the team at work, but also at home to ensure that the back end is as strong. At work and home, she developed a structure and culture of empowerment and collaboration. Only when everyone understands our needs and constraints, are they willing and able to support us achieve our dreams.
7. Discipline: All leaders have a routine and method to manage their stress and respond to situations thoughtfully and creatively. Shaymal Vallabhjee has invested years in understanding how to regulate and control the emotions to develop emotional intelligence. He has stayed at monasteries to understand different techniques and rituals that help conquer the unanchored emotions. All of them involve taking time out for reflection and maintaining a healthy and balanced mind and body through a regime of exercise, chanting, meditation, reading, journaling etc.
8. Learning: Passion alone does not serve to achieve excellence. Climbing Mt Everest or landing on Mars or the Moon requires a zeal to constantly learn and discover new ways of doing things. COVID has forced digital transformation and demanded everyone to adapt to engaging virtually. This significant shift has required people and organizations at large to change processes and redefine policies. This is not short-term phenomenon because technology coupled with the pandemic has unleashed a revolution that will require us to learn on the go to keep pace with change.
9. Create impact: All leaders care to make a difference and create impact because they are always challenging their boundaries and designing new ways of growing as an individual. There are various ways to share knowledge and experience such as webinars, books, social media, etc. Today, technology has opened the doors to reinventing our expression and getting the message out there to audience globally.
10. Self-awareness: All in all, excellence is a constant journey of evolution or self innovation. Stagnation in expression or learning inhibits our growth. Any entrepreneur or leader needs to be aware of their strengths, limitations and be attuned to their instinct to know when they are ready for the next reinvention. By staying curious and courageously exploring, they can unleash potential and continue to excel as a human being.