The Four Fundamental Drivers Of Success

Success is not an accident—it’s the result of specific emotional and logical initiatives. Many believe that talent alone determines who rises to the top, but as Angela Duckworth highlights in her book "Grit," success is shaped by four key factors: Interest, Practice, Purpose, and Hope.

If you’re not actively developing these qualities, you’re setting yourself up for mediocrity. But if you’re willing to embrace the uncomfortable truths of success, you can unlock your true potential.

1. Interest: The Starting Point of All Achievement

Without genuine interest, persistence is impossible. Many people chase success in fields they don’t care about, only to burn out or give up. Interest fuels curiosity, and curiosity leads to mastery. If you’re in a leadership role—or aspiring to one—you need to ask yourself: Are you truly interested in what you do?

2. Practice: The Relentless Pursuit of Mastery

Success isn’t about occasional bursts of effort; it’s about sustained, deliberate practice. Duckworth emphasizes that great achievers—whether in business, sports, or academia—repeatedly refine their skills, pushing beyond their comfort zones. Leadership requires the same commitment to continuous improvement.

3. Purpose: The Driving Force Behind Long-Term Success

Passion alone isn’t enough. The most influential leaders don’t just work for personal gain; they are driven by a deeper purpose. Whether it’s transforming an organization, mentoring others, or solving real-world problems, purpose gives your work meaning—and meaning fuels resilience.

4. Hope: The Resilience to Overcome Challenges

Every leader faces setbacks. The difference between those who succeed and those who don’t? Hope. This isn’t blind optimism—it’s the unwavering belief that setbacks are temporary and that perseverance will lead to success. If you lack hope, you’ll quit when things get tough. If you cultivate it, you’ll rise above adversity.

Success requires sacrifices. Every high achiever has given up something they love to attain something they once hated—but ultimately needed—to craft an image that others admire.

Most people remain trapped in deception—believing in shortcuts, luck, or talent alone. But the reality is this: If you want to be a leader, you must embrace the discomfort of learning, practicing, and persevering.

If you’re serious about success, you must invest in your mind. Books like "Grit" offer insights that expose the illusions holding you back and provide a roadmap to genuine achievement. Ignoring such knowledge is a choice—a choice to remain ordinary.

Want to break free? Start reading, start practicing, and start leading.

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Change Your Destiny With Spiritual Practice

This post and none of my earlier posts on the role of Destiny and Karma, governing our life developments, are depicting a pessimistic observation of life.

What I write is my point of view. I believe and said so many times, that Destiny is unavoidable but condition applies: That's Spirituality, which helps us make the right choice in a neutral state of mind.

The neutral state means, when the mind is devoid of internal and external conflicts and is stable with the ability to take right decision and make appropriate choice in accordance with the demand of the prevailing situation.

When I choose candidate for Leadership positions in Corporate India, I deeply analyse the same for obvious reasons.

Spirituality and Leadership are two sides of the coin called Success in both Professional and Personal life.

Success is not about getting highly charged in the morning like your mobile phone through night-long input.

Success is all about being performing through-out the day, without being charged on daily basis in the night and in the morning, for achieving your intended goal of life.

Success is not about external motivation, but about internal transformation.

And that never happens without being spiritually strengthened!

Message for the young generation below 45 years of age:

I had attended the Satsang at Kriya Yoga center of Paramhansa Sri Yogananda today morning.

Amazing experience!

Joining the 1st level of Kriya meditation very soon to explore my internal world and continue to the last level for attaining self-purification and eternal peace and happiness.

My elder daughter is doing level 2 now and she is feeling great.

It all begun for both me and my daughter, when we started reading the book "The Autobiography of A Yogi" few months ago.

That's how the calling comes, as I realize it now, with astonishing surprize, when God wants us to surrender unconditionally to the mighty power of the Law of Nature and inspires us keep working hard without any expectations from our efforts.

I have never believed in religious rituals, and those satanic and schizophrenic exhibitions of human madness. Don't now even; however, I have begun to believe in the power of meditation for changing our internal world for bettering the external manifestation of self.

That's where and how spirituality steps into our lives, the life we never control and neither have any influence over, unless the power of Spirituality helps us change the Will of Destiny.

We can change our Destiny through Spiritual interventions. That's how Nature works, and life as well.

When a learned scholar of Veda and Vedanta visited Paramhansa Ramakrishna - Guru of Swami Vivekananda - and explained him the meaning of ancient scriptures, RK replied - I am sorry, I havent read any of these. I'm the son of my mother 'Kali' and have surrendered to her.

That's the 'Power of Surrender' to the creator of this Universe for living a meaningful life.

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Success: Are You In The Spotlight?

What is meant by success? Is there an universal definition of success? Can we pin point, yes, reaching that particular milestone is called success?

For an animal, primary success is all about being alive: For a predator, success means achieving the daunting task of killing her prey for the next meal; for a prey, success is the manifestation of her ability to stay away from those killers on daily basis.

I think, the same principle applies to humans as well, at primary level: Winning the struggle for survival.

Requiring to meet the basic needs, humans look for a stable source of income that would help them remain alive -- physically.  I would like to call it 'Primary Success' because all species, including humans, must first ensure the survival before looking beyond.

And after achieving this primary success, one can think of achieving the next level. The next level of success, that we notice in animal kingdom, is the desire to dominate others. By domination, I mean reaching leadership position through muscle power like the owner of a pride of lions, or by virtue of knowledge and experience like the leader of a herd of elephants.

Strikingly similar developments take place in human society also. Humans, consciously or subconsciously, try to dominate others within their area of influence: Some do it with money power, some with muscle power and a few with the power of knowledge.

This urge to dominate others is basically for fulfilling the need to be recognized and accepted, that one is better than the rest. Nature maintains its equilibrium by rewarding the performers and punishing the failures, and it happens with every form of life on planet earth.

Nothing wrong in getting ahead of others, however, sometime, this in-built desire to perform better  - proving to be superior to others - and the quest for subsequent recognition, 'Success,' makes humans step over the limits imposed by moral and ethical values that constitute the foundation of human civilization.

So success, any domain of life, in my opinion, basically translates to establishing oneself as the leader, who would protect his followers and inspire them to be successful at their own level of existence. Ultimately, success is all about reaching a higher level of excellence and influencing others' lives for making this world a better place.

And it can happen, only when you are in the spotlight! Do you agree?

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Hope Is The Engine Of Life

The foundation of our existence is HOPE. Hope is the Engine of Life that helps us keep moving toward our destination. 

Perseverance, Persistence, Patience, talk about anything, all are fundamentally influenced and governed by hope for a better future in every domain of life. 

If there is no hope, there is nothing in life. If there is no hope, we cease to exist. When hope dies, we too die. May be physically, or emotionally, or both. So, keep the hope alive even in the worst situation. 

Hope is a positive cognitive state based on a sense of successful goal-directed determination and planning to meet those goals. 

We must never let the hope disappear from life, even when stuck up in the dark tunnel of life. Hope keeps us alive and it is nothing but the flame of a better future in all domains of life. 

However, at the same time, to make our hope come true we have to unleash massive actions towards achieving whatever our goals are. 

The goals could be anything. Materialistic and or Spiritual. Whatever those are, we can achieve the same with a combination of Hope and Hardwork. 

The purpose of this article is to motivate them who have lost Hope, or in the process of giving up the same in life. 

Hope is the foundation of living a meaningful life and an existence full of happiness.

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Are You A Leader?

Having interacted with and interviewed more than 10,000 plus senior and mid level professionals in last 25 years of career in Executive Search, dissecting their profiles from various angles, my definition of Leadership is as follows:

A person who can make the other person sitting across the table or on the other side of the communication network comfortable, inspire her or him to open up during conversation from the bottom of heart - is a Leader.

Watch out your own performance, evaluate and get the answer to this trillion dollar question - "Am I A Leader?"

Image Credit: Madhurima Kar

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10 Books I Have Recently Read!

Average person reads 1.5 books/year. Top CEOs read 50+ books a year.😇

Want to be a top CEO?

Then, start reading books!📚

To start with, read a book for an hour everyday. If you can eat and sleep everyday, why not read daily?

Let me suggest a few books for a short reading:

1. As A Man Thinketh
2. The Four Agreements
3. Who Moved My Cheese
4. What I Know For Sure
5. IKIGAI

If you have sufficient time for an exhaustive reading, let me suggest the following books:

1. The Goal
2. The Choice
3. Can't Hurt Me
4. Start With Why
5. So Good They Can't Ignore You

You may Google the tiles to find out details and download the books of your choice - free of cost - from www.pdfdrive.com.

For a pleasant reading experience, download the free app MoonReader+ from app store.

I have read all of them and learned so many life lessons from the same in the domain of Leadership, Relationship, Personal Development, Career Management, Thought Management, Happiness and Spirituality etc.

Following are the 10 advantages of reading books:

01. Mental Stimulation
02. Stress Reduction
03. Knowledge
04. Vocabulary Expansion
05. Memory Improvement
06. Stronger Analytical Thinking Skills
07. Improved Focus and Concentration
08. Better Writing Skills
09. Tranquility
10. Free Entertainment

#success

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Give Your Employees The Power Of Control!

Scanning through my career, spanning over a few decades, the most effective performance enhancing factor I could remember was nothing but having a sense of control over whatever I had been doing. 

Scientific research into the DNA structure of Management Science has already confirmed that giving employees control over what they do and how they do, leads to a sense of fulfillment and multiply the degree of engagement.

My best career performance was in the organization where my bosses  delegated the act of problem solving and decision making to me, allowing me full freedom and control over all the activities in my area of operation.

The opposite happened in another organization I had worked for several years, without having any control over anything within my sphere of responsibility.

Leadership may look into this aspect of human psychology with a better sense of understanding and ensure appropriate mechanism for implementation of the same to create a self-controlled culture of working in the organization. 

Give them the Power of Control and watch the wonders unfolding. Based on my personal experience, I can bet on witnessing a dramatic shift in employee engagement.

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It Is All About Your Position, Not You!

Holding prestigious and responsible positions, both in government and private organizations, with great authority and power, we forget that the attention and respect we receive are not meant for us as individual but the positions we represent.

There is nothing personal, everything is official, unless we have a powerful personal brand equity for commanding recognition and appreciation on our own as individual.

This is very important for us to understand it and accept the same to ensure a smooth transition from the world of dream to the realm of reality, when we relinquish our positions.

It is difficult to accept such stripping down of years of being the center of attention and the pleasure of domination, but it is inevitable and obvious. Let us accept the truth gracefully.

Simon Sinek, a best selling author and management guru, explains the same with two real life examples and I thought it is worth sharing with my readers.

Here it is. Watch with full attention. You need to click on the video couple of times to activate it.

Image Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko

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You Are An Eagle, Not A Chicken: Come On, Fly!

I am sure, you have heard the story of a chicken farmer, who found an eagle’s egg and put it with the eggs of his chickens. Soon the egg hatched. 

The young eagle grew up with all the other chickens, and  did exactly whatever they did. He thought, he was a chicken. 

Since the chickens could fly for a short distance, the eagle too learnt to fly a short distance only. He never thought anything beyond that. 

One day he saw a bird flying high in the sky. The eagle was very impressed and asked the hens around: “Who is that?” 

“Oh, that’s an eagle, the king of the birds,” the hens told him. “He belongs to the sky. We belong to the ground.” So the eagle lived and died as a chicken.

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Brain Interconnectedness!

The other day, while introspecting through my career achievements, in general, I suddenly remembered a professional with whom I had worked for a few years as his deputy . 

 

The company was not in good shape, making huge losses, and the owner paid hefty compensation to get the best available talent for reviving the lost glory.

Having worked with one of the largest system driven organizations of that time, for many years, I was suddenly at loss of enthusiasm and initiatives on the very first day. 

 

Although I was told about the background and also the current state of affairs, living with it even for few hours happened to be a different kind of experience. Only news worth mentioning was: My new boss would be joining the next day.

Well, he came; mingled freely with all of us; and in a few days became extremely popular. In less than 3 years he turned around the company from a blacklisted entity to a self certified vendor supplying precision engineering products to a galaxy of public and private sector organizations.

I followed him blindly, rather he made me follow him blindly – which I did not realize at that point of time – because his ability to inspire and motivate people was remarkable. 

 

Entire team worked round the clock, happily, embedding in mind a single objective of reviving the lost glory of the company in terms of reputation as well as profitability.

He successfully removed all other priorities of life from our mind, channelizing our strengths in one direction and, finally, achieving the objective. What made him such a good leader, is a million dollar question!

I think it’s his ‘Social Intelligence’ skills, exhibiting empathy and becoming attuned to our moods — literally integrating his own brain chemistry with that of ours, his followers. He actually removed the “Fear of Failure” from our mind. 

 

Apart from professional issues we could confide in him about personal matters also, taking his guidance time and again and in that process made him an integral part of our life.

It was a unique biological synchronization or Brain Inter-connectedness through which he guided us to develop a genuine interest in the purpose, fostering positive feelings in us.

Well, a recent discovery of mirror neurons in widely dispersed areas of human brain confirms above connectivity, that help us detect, consciously or subconsciously, someone else’s emotions through their actions and our mirror neurons reproducing those emotions. 

 

Collectively, these neurons create an instant sense of shared experience: Mirror image! Perhaps, because of those mirror neurons’ intervention we minutely observed and followed his actions moving seamlessly towards the goal — no longer his, but ours too.

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Would You Like To Be An Excellent Person!

 

The dictionary meaning of excellence is the quality of being outstanding or extremely good. So it's a talent that surpasses ordinary standards. Conventionally, it could be in a particular domain of expertise. Some body could be excellent as a singer; somebody could be an excellent actor; somebody could be an excellent communicator...

Here; however, we are talking about what makes someone an excellent person, who is extremely popular and liked by all within her/his sphere of influence and who people blindly trust with full confidence. I mean, someone completely dependable. There are people like that. I have come across quite a few in my own life.

They usually are a never ending source of positive energy. Being with them is a delightful experience in itself. while with them, people forget their pains and agonies. In their company, people lose count of time. They make others feel so important. In nutshell, they make others reach an amazing state of happiness and fulfillment.

What is the secret behind attaining this state of excellence in life? What makes them far superior to others? What makes them so desirable? What do they have that others don't. There must be something or quite a few things that they possess, not available in others. Yes, there are a few things that make them different.

In pursuit of finding out the answer to these questions, I decided to dig out from my memory every relevant experience I have had so far in that regard and do some research work by scanning through information available on internet. 

In my opinion, they don't do anything special but a few things naturally every day and consistently. These are:

Being Authentic - They express their thoughts, ideas and views as those actually are a part of their value system and character, without any fear of others' opinion.

Being Forgiving - They let go the thoughts and feelings of resentment and anger and the desire to seek vengeance and retribution towards those who hurt them, including their own-selves.

Being Ego-less - They don't inflate their self-importance and believe in putting themselves in other's shoes, while practicing gratitude as an affirmation of kindness and goodness in others.

Being Giver - They are others-focused in terms of extending unconditional help and support to others, focusing on adding values to their lives in terms of useful contributions.

Being Listener - They make every interaction a positive experience for others they are conversing with, intensely and openly discussing and focusing on the issues and differences. 

They do have many other qualities that make them stand out in the crowd, in terms of being a constant source of motivation and inspiration for others. That's why they are delightfully awarded the crown of excellence.

Image Credit: PEXELS

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True Story: How To Fight The Battle Of Life!

"Abhijit, we must complete the order in another 15 days, else.." Said my boss with a gloomy face. It was 12 O'clock in the night and we were walking down the shop floor, inspiring supervisors and workers to put in their best efforts for producing as many finished goods as possible.

To complete a prestigious order that my boss was talking about, we had to achieve more than 150 percent productivity. And that was a near-impossible task by any standard, as, 27 years ago, when this scene was unfolding, automation was in its infancy state in India compared to what it is today.
 

I being in-charge of both production and quality of more than half of the factory and also the account manager for that client, boss was completely banking on me.

Before leaving the factory I told him, "Sir, we will do it, I promise!" He gave me a tiring smile and moved away to the parking lot.

Next morning, the first thing I did was to assemble my team members for a briefing. When all of them gathered around me, I explained the situation - which they already knew - and said, "guys, give me the next 15 days of your life for achieving this impossible task. I promise, you will cherish this memory throughout your life!'

They listened with rapt attention, their face turning bright, radiating the sign of determination that was gradually building up within. None of them uttered a single word, but their body language revealed everything. I could sense that they were fully charged and committed to make it happen.

For the next 15 days we worked round the clock, hardly sleeping for an hour or two everyday and, finally, completed the order at 11 PM -- just an hour before the expiry of the dead-line.

Immediately after that, I personally thanked my team members, one by one, asking them to take a day off to make up for lack of sleep and spend some quality time with their family members. Last but not the least, in consultation with my boss, I announced the date of celebration also.

It took me a few more hours - along with some of my team members - to complete the paperwork . At around 5 o'clock in the morning I could get the Release Note ready and went to the guest house, woke the client's representative up and got his approval half-an-hour later.

Then I called up my boss, who had left for home once the last bundle was packed, and congratulated him. He returned the same with a choked voice, thanking me profusely for achieving this near impossible task.

Finally, with the sun rising, I left for my home. With great difficulty I could barely manage to have breakfast and straightway hit the bed. I woke up the next morning, I mean after more than 20 hours.

All that happened when I was just six months into the company. But recognizing my efforts, management promoted me to the next grade during the next appraisal and I became the youngest manager.

Well, more than twenty-five  percent of my team members were also promoted and the rest received a huge incentive for that financial year.

It was an amazing experience of experiencing the truth that nothing is impossible in this world if you decide to achieve it through dedication and smart-work. It's that fighting attitude, that can even make an unfavorable destiny change its stand and start dancing in tune with your instructions. Those, who do it, are called the Warriors.

I believe that all humans are born Warriors. Most of us fail to recognize our capabilities, but a few do understand it and fail to fail. What marks the difference between success and failure is, a true warrior never leaves the battlefield without winning the fight. Simply because, he never believes in giving up even while facing an impossible task.

That's why, Theodore Roosevelt had said:

"In the battle of life, it is not the critic who counts; nor the one who points out how the strong person stumbled, or where the doer of a deed could have done better.

The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who does actually strive to do deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends oneself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he or she fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those timid spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

So look within, wake up the sleeping giant, and bravely face all the challenges that life throws at you; I'm sure, you will win the battle.

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Please Treat Others With Respect and Empathy!

He called up and desperately, requesting me to look for an immediate placement for him as he has already been serving the notice period. He is the same person whom I have been repeatedly calling up for past several months, but in vein. He never bothered to pick up my calls, neither called back. Simply put, he refused to a decade old relationship while riding the success wave.

Another professional, who would always give me an appointment, but would refuse to meet at the last moment, not once but several times, demonstrates a weird behavior that needs detailed analysis to identify the root cause of such an irrational approach. 

Ideally, when you're not interested to meet someone, the best way is to let him know it outright instead of agreeing first and then aborting it at the last moment.

Both of them belong to HR fraternity! 

Well, I don't expect this type of behavior to be HR's exclusive rights, as you would find such personalities in all other functions and in all domains of life. However, being into the business relationship management, dealing with dozens of HR Heads, I'm slightly inclined towards watching their behavior more than I do with others.

Let's look at the other side of the coin now: A HR Head, much more prominent than the above ones, both in terms of reputation and level of operation, is completely opposite in his approach. Interaction with him, either on phone or across the table, is a delightful experience. And, it's not person-specific, as many others have confirmed the same. Fortunately, I'm associated with quite a few like him.

Now, coming back to the issue, what amuses me, and confuses as well, is, why some of the most prominent HR professionals fail to understand the essence and usefulness of long term relationship in professional domain of life. 

And this lack of realization that HR is more about establishing an emotional connectivity with employees for taking them into confidence - which is essential to bring about the desired cultural change - is gradually eroding the credibility of HR as a function as such.

If HR Heads, like the ones I mentioned in the beginning, are so weak in managing long a term relationship with external agencies, how can you expect them to deliver results while dealing with internal agencies/people in terms of effective talent management?

Alan Zorfas and Daniel Leemon, explaining the importance of establishing an Emotional Connectivity with specific reference to customers, through an interesting article in Harvard Business Review, highlight:

"Our research across hundreds of brands in dozens of categories shows that the most effective way to maximize customer value is to move beyond mere customer satisfaction and connect with customers at an emotional level – tapping into their fundamental motivations and fulfilling their deep, often unspoken emotional needs  (for details, see our HBR article “The New Science of Customer Emotions”). That means appealing to any of dozens of “emotional motivators” such as a desire to feel a sense of belonging, to succeed in life, or to feel secure."

Why don't they realize that managing talent is more about mapping others' ego and synchronizing and aligning them towards achieving both micro and macro business goals of the organization than of inflating their own? 

Athanasios Drigas and Chara Papoutsi, through a publication on Research Gate, describing the models of EI and review the findings to show the positive correlations between EI, leaders and employees, points out:

"Emotional intelligence (EI) is related to emotions and emotional information. It has attracted great attention among researchers and Human Resource (HR) practitioners because of its input for leaders and employees and its key role in organizational effectiveness and excellence."

They should also understand that the ability to connect with people within their sphere of influence - a decisive criteria for effective talent management in particular - is a matter of habit, and, it should be independent of the level or identity of the person on the other side of the table.

Highlighting the four basic foundations of Social/Emotional Intellience Skils,  Amy Morin, through an article published in VeryWellMind, suggests how to increase your social intelligence skills:

"Individuals with social intelligence can sense how other people feel, know intuitively what to say in social situations, and seem self-assured, even in a larger crowd. You might think of these folk as having “people skills,” but what they truly possess is social intelligence."

So let us treat others with respect and empathy!

Photo by Moose Photos from Pexels

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An Integrated Strategy For Attracting The Right Talent!

Despite running a Talent Sourcing firm, I've been struggling to identify and hire the best available candidates for my own company. And I'm sure, it's no different elsewhere: Leadership from all industry verticals are facing an acute talent shortage.

Much have been debated over this issue and all conventional methodologies are being implemented by organizations, not really producing desirable outcome though.

Hence, the need of the hour is to design an innovative and result-oriented integrated strategy with total commitment to its effective implementation.

Some of them, in my opinion, are:

 

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The Perspective Of Perception!

Capturing the perspective of others' perception, I mean, the ability to understand the point of view of another person, from his angle of interpretation, is not possible to decode, unless you yourself live the life of that person and experience what he had gone through.

That is the limiting factor of human experience, because, we can't live the life of another person.

When someone, who, himself, had gone through the hell and teaches others about what the hell that hell looks like, I salute him with great respect.

When someone, who, himself, without experiencing anything about the hell, teaches others about how the hell looks like, he is the man we must avoid most.

Frankly speaking, there are thousands of them around, as life and corporate coach, who teach you about something or most of the thing that they themselves have never experienced.

Next time, while attending and watching a corporate leadership training drama, when that speaker on stage tells you about the solution to a problem, stand up and ask him about his own life experience in that context.

Victor Frankl, who taught us about the importance of finding a purpose of life, to remain vibrantly alive, against the mother of all odds, experienced that truth himself.

Only a survivor can tell us -- how to survive! 

Rest, fake it!

Photo by David Cassolato from Pexels

 

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Key To Success: Read The Body Language of Others

Long ago, I, along with my partner, from a company that we had launched at that time, made a presentation to the Director-HR of a large Indian Corporate for clinching a lucrative business deal against huge competitions from the global corporations. My partner, a young and renowned HR professional, who had worked with a host of MNCs before quitting the job, had always been to the other side of the table: Listening to similar business presentations.

During the meeting, when, after launching initial dialogues, I handed the game over to him, he, being a methodical and knowledgeable professional, started delivering a detailed speech to the HR director, highlighting even the minutest details. In less than a couple of minutes, I could sense that the HR Director was getting little impatient - may be bored - while listening to my partner’s detailed lecture about how we fare better than our competitors.

So, getting slightly worried, I had no option but to intervene and switched the topic over in such a way that it gave the Director to react comfortably. I could very well sense my partner’s uneasiness for an uncalled for intervention. However, that timely intervention, ultimately led to winning the business deal. Now, let me tell you, how I could sense that I must intervene.

It’s the body language of the the HR Director, indicating that he had almost lost interest in whatever my partner was telling him. It could be for various reasons, but the indications were clear, and I could read them clearly because of my previous experience. Later, I apologized to my partner, explaining the reason for cutting him short in the middle of his presentation. And he, being a highly matured person, understood it well and appreciated my efforts.

So the point is, while talking to another person, it’s extremely important to read their body language and understand if they is still interested in listening to whatever you’re delivering. If not, take a break against your wishes and allow them to take control over the course of discussion.

This is relevant, especially during a business meeting, when you are making a presentation to your prospective client. Because, success in converting a business presentation into a confirmed deal depends more on your ability to handling your prospect’s ‘Psychologically' than marketing your competence — if you meet the minimum criteria.

The same principle, obviously, applies to our personal life also. So, be alert and correctly read the other person's ‘body language,’ if you wish to remain one of the most preferred friends of theirs. Business presentation or personal discussion, the successful transactions depends more on correctly analyzing the body language of the other party involved and taking appropriate corrective action in time.

When you master the art of interpreting the body language, correctly, knowing when to stop talking and let the other person take over, you’re a step closer to win over his heart and mind. And who doesn’t know that the intensity of success is mainly governed by the right brain, not left.

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

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True Story - How Emotional Connectivity Fuels Leadership Performance!

If you're not able to connect with key people in your professional circle, emotionally, I don't think you would ever make it happen as a leader.

By Emotional Connectivity I mean building a strong attachment bond with professionals in your domain of operation: Team members, Suppliers, Service Providers, and keep them sufficiently motivated to maintain and improve upon their current performance level.

Unfortunately, very few leaders take it seriously and, without realizing what's going wrong, they keep descending down the performance ladder and vanish from the Success Domain over a period of time.

Let me share with you a true story, highlighting, how emotional connectivity fuels leadership performance:

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Taking Action In Time Is More Important Than The Action Itself!

Around 15 years ago, during a week day at my office, around 2 O’clock in the afternoon, I received a call from my wife saying that one of her close relatives, based at Kolkata, had suffered a major brain-stroke and been hospitalized in a critical condition. She also said that he, being a central government employee, had been shifted to an empaneled hospital and the doctors were carrying our detailed investigations.

Well, within a few hours of our discussion, I, along with wife and both the girls, was airborne — heading for Kolkata. Immediately after landing at Kolkata airport at around 9 PM, we straightway headed for the hospital and reached there by 10 PM.

There we met his wife and daughter, along with a few neighbours. They said, he was in ICU. Despite, trying our best, we could not meet him since the visiting hours was over long ago. After an hour of futile attempts, all of us headed for home with our mind full of anxieties. During our journey back home, I kept on digging out the details of what had happened and how.

Next course of events, spanning over a period of close to a month, was an unforgettable experience of learning to handle a life crisis situation.

Early morning, the next day, all of us went to the hospital and, one by one, met him in ICU. Looking at him, I could clearly make out that he needed the best treatment available in Kolkata and this hospital, obviously, was not the right place for him.

However, none of his family members were decisive about shifting him to another hospital, neither any of his colleagues were keen to do so, may be in view of cash-less facility available here — apart from the risk involved in transporting him in such a condition.

I don’t know why, but there was a bell ringing inside me, warning me that if he didn’t get a better treatment he might collapse very soon. During the next couple of hours, I went through a daunting task of convincing his family members, neighbours and colleagues for allowing me to shift him to “Woodland,” one of the best hospitals in Kolkata.

When they finally agreed, from nowhere appeared another resistance: doctors of this hospital told me, since they felt that the patient was not in a condition to be shifted to another hospital, for getting discharge approval from this hospital I would have to sign a bond taking the full responsibility of any untoward incident happening thereafter!

At that point, my wife asked me, if I was confident about the step I had decided to take against the wishes of everyone.

Well, I said yes, and then shifted him to “Woodland,” one of the most reputed Nursing Homes in Kolkata. Later we came to know that, had he been there, in that hospital, for a few more days, it would have been difficult for him to survive as the hospital had neither the specialists nor the facilities required for handling such life-threatening medical emergency.

I remained there, in Kolkata, for a month, along with my family members, attending to him in the Nursing Home and discussing about the problem with his doctors, reading and collecting relevant information from various health-care sites on the internet and sharing them with the Specialists — all the time ensuring that he was getting the best possible treatment.

A month after we came back to Delhi, he partially recovered and returned home. By undergoing a rigorous physiotherapy for close to a year and half, while demonstrating unbelievable will power, he almost recovered and now leading a normal life.

When, recently, his daughter casually mentioned in a gathering that it was me who saved her father — tears came to my eyes, as I had never thought about such interpretation of that incident.

Well, in this process, I did learn a few important life-lessons and these are:

1. If we are confident and convinced about a course of action, particularly in a life-threatening situation, we must go ahead with that decision — even if it requires overcoming the “Mother of All Obstacles.”

2. Success is always shadowed by an element of risk; less fearful we are, more successful we would be.

3. Taking action in time, is more important than the action itself.

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Stand Out!

Instinctively, all species, including humans, strongly desire for getting noticed by others through better performance in the specific areas of interest.

Call it achievement or success, the fights are always on to move ahead of others up the ladder of social hierarchy in terms of recognition by the masses and subsequent acceptance as better than the rest.

The race is tough, but the reward is huge. However, to qualify, one needs to work hard for improving a specific set of soft-skills. The decisive ones, in my opinion, are very simple:

1. Keep smiling in all situations.

A victory or a defeat, you must keep smiling. A smile doesn’t cost you a dime but the lack of it may cost you a fortune.

Smile represents positivity, and people are automatically attracted towards them who radiate the same in even the most difficult situation.

2. Talk less and listen more

The desire to share thoughts, ideas and opinions with others on any issue is ingrained in humans. Everyone wants to talk, but none is willing to listen.

In such a situation, if you are able lend a patient hearing ears to others, you would surely become more desirable than those who don’t listen.

3. Help others to the best of your capacity.

Emotional, financial, professional, be it any need, always extend help to others to the best of your capacity.

Humans are built to reciprocate, and respect them who never fail to help others. Respect leads to developing trust and confidence, making you a dependable entity . And a dependable person is far more popular than the rest.

Listening to others’ problems with a smiling face and offering help to the best of your capacity is what makes you stand out in the crowd of relationship network. It’s all about genuine love and care that you shower to all within your area of influence.

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