Category: Leadership

Are You A Maximiser Or A Satisficer? The Answer Shapes Your Life


Last week, I was at an anniversary celebration of a start-up organisation I have worked with. The dinner buffet was quite a spread. The choice from a variety of Western, Japanese, Indian, Thai, Indonesian and Singaporean fare was overwhelming. Most of us sampled different dishes, but somehow felt dissatisfied for not having tried them all. A few of us were happy sticking to just a few dishes. It reminded me of the idea of maximisers and satisficers, popularised by Barry Schwartz, professor of psychology at Swarthmore College.

Maximiser

If you are a maximiser, you like to maximise your experience from every decision. You tend to regard every decision as a problem to be solved – with the underlying belief that there’s only one solution that would give you the best outcome. You are always keen to explore all possibilities, research them well, and then decide. You don’t like to take the chance of making a sub-optimal decision. You would hate to have tried the dishes that didn’t maximise your lunch experience.

Unfortunately, this approach does not make us content and happy. Since arriving at the ideal outcome is key to our approach, we routinely like to compare with others’ outcomes. When we find that some others have gotten to a better outcome, we feel dissatisfied. For example, when our peers do better at work or friends’ children seem to achieve more or others whose plate looks more stimulating.

Imagine driving home through a busy road. As a maximiser, you would be constantly estimating which lane would move quicker and be willing to keep changing lanes to get home faster. Notwithstanding the road etiquette concerns, how do you feel when the vehicles in the other lane actually move faster?

Satisficer

The other dominant type is the satisficer.  If you are a satisficer, you prefer peace and contentment over desperately arriving at the ideal solution. You are willing to work…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Leadership, Self-growth | 21 Comments

To Go From Expertise To Mastery: Learn To Let Go


Last year I had a slight brush with the notion of mastery. I received the accreditation of Master-level Coach from the International Coach Federation (ICF). ICF, the global gold standard in coaching, has three levels of accreditations – Associate, Professional and Master. Going through these levels involves rigorous evaluation. This includes a certain number of hours of coaching experience and a review of actual recorded coaching sessions. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that less than five per cent of all credentialed coaches worldwide have received the Master level.

When I shared this with one of my clients, he curiously asked me, “As a coach, what’s the real difference between the professional and the master level?” My instinct was to say, ‘greater expertise’. But after some reflection, I responded, “As an associate you are comfortable with the fundamentals of coaching and as a professional you are proficient at those skills. The real difference at the master level is that you are now willing to let go of the narrow path of a trained approach and more willing to go with the flow. You are truly in tandem with the energy of the client; you rely on your intuition and are spontaneous in choosing an approach that would be most helpful for the client.”

That was a new insight for me. I have since been more aware of the power of letting go in pursuit of mastery in any craft. This is not to negate the relevance of long hours (some suggest 10,000) of practice. However, when you become really good at something, the breakthrough to mastery only comes with learning to let go of the attachment to those skills and to the outcomes of your effort.

How does Federer do it?

Roger Federer is a true master of his sport. Passion, perseverance and an extraordinary level of proficiency are surely crucial to his success. But, to excel at an elite level, he also needs one more trait – the ability to let go. The ability…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Leadership, Personal mastery, Self-growth | 9 Comments

If You Can’t Do What You Love, Try Loving What You Do


Happy man working on laptop

Our society frequently promotes the idea of following one’s true passion or calling. Rightly so. I routinely encourage my clients towards it and have written a lot about it as well (Are you following your calling, Discovering your calling). Pursuing your calling is an important contributor towards experiencing deeper happiness and fulfilment.

However, it’s not always possible for everyone to follow their calling. Firstly, you may struggle to find that one dominant theme that you are passionate enough to commit your professional life to. Besides, you maybe deterred by your perceived chances of success in that path. Equally, you maybe concerned about its financial viability.

If you find yourself in such a stalemate, don’t be disheartened. You can still find happiness and meaning in your work. Here are three approaches how.

Try loving what you do

1. Examine your attitude

Talking to our domestic helper the other day, I figured that her real dream is to run a food stall back in her village in Indonesia. While the dream remains on hold, she brings a highly positive attitude towards her current job. She believes work is worship and finds joy in making others happy.

Your attitude towards what you do can often be more important than what you do. If you bring the right values towards your work, you would find the work rewarding. If you are diligent, organised, collaborative, thoughtful and open-minded, you would likely enjoy whatever you engage in. Alternately, if you don’t have the right attitude towards work, even pursuing your calling may not be a satisfying experience.

2. Amplify what you enjoy

I am sure there are aspects of your work that you greatly enjoy and find exciting. Maybe it’s meeting people from diverse backgrounds, helping your team members succeed or working on innovative projects. Identify what you most enjoy about your work and consider ways to expand the time you spend on those activities.

Getting busy with varied expectations at work, it’s easy to become disconnected with the parts that actually…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Leadership, Self-growth | 5 Comments

Needed In The Age of Artificial Intelligence: Real Wisdom


Your life is about to change dramatically, but your wisdom can shape its direction.

Ever wonder how Google maps instantly adjust your travel time in different traffic conditions; or how Facebook shows you hotel ads no sooner than you have searched online for a holiday destination; or how Siri recognises your voice? AI is present in our lives in a bigger way than we realise; and it’s growing rapidly.

Machine learning will change the future

All these developments seem benign for the most part, even helpful in many ways. However, machine learning, a recent breakthrough in the field of AI, has the potential to dramatically alter the scope and potential of AI in the foreseeable future. For better and for worse.

The first stage of AI is to program something to execute certain tasks based on predetermined commands. For example, a robot in a car factory. At the next level, a machine, armed with a framework of rules, is trained to work through large amounts of information to make the most optimal recommendation. For example, a supercomputer that checks through innumerable options and selects the best chess move.

Machine learning is changing all that. Advanced machine learning relies on algorithms that have the ability to self-learn by observing patterns from humungous amount of random data and making informed decisions by themselves. It’s equivalent to a computer learning to play chess by itself. Learning from the quality of its decisions and outcomes, the machine progressively gets better at the task. Facial and voice recognition and driverless-cars increasingly rely on this.

The real game changer

As AI machines or robots continue to improve on their decision-making and build stronger cognitive ability, it is envisageable that one day they would be more intelligent than humans. The AI world refers to this milestone as Singularity. This would be the tipping point of an exponential rise in the power of self-learning machines.

While there are varying views on how soon Singularity would be possible, Ray Kurzweil, a highly regarded futurist and director of engineering at Google,…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Global challenges, Leadership, Personal mastery | 11 Comments

Capitalism Needs A Soul


“We are not here to merely earn a living and to create value for our shareholders. We are here to enrich the world and make it a finer place to live. We will impoverish ourselves if we fail to do so.”  ~ Woodrow Wilson

Adam Smith, a pioneer of modern economics and author of Wealth of Nations (one of the foremost books on free market economics), wrote another book before that. The Theory of Moral Sentiments was based on the idea that intentional virtue and goodwill are the foundation of both an economic system of free enterprise and a political system of a representative democracy. He acknowledged that if individual virtue deteriorated, neither the free market nor a democracy could ultimately survive.

Capitalism refers to an economic and social system in which the means of production are predominantly privately owned and operated for profit. Besides, all aspects of an enterprise are determined through the operation of a market economy. It is usually considered to involve the right of individuals and corporations to freely trade in good and services, labor and land.

Some of the defining features of capitalism are: high focus on individual (ownership and advancement), pursuit of profit (or wealth creation) and efficiency (determined by competition and free market dynamics). While this system has delivered enormous progress for the better part of last century, I believe it needs to evolve to better respond to the social challenges of our time. Here’s why.

Focus on individual progress

The sharp focus on individual economic progress, as one of the core elements of the system, has led to an all too familiar approach of ‘winner takes all’ – with disproportionate and instant rewards for individual success. According to a report published by AFL-CIO, an American labor organization, the top executives in America earned on average 354 times as much as the average worker. The similar figures for Denmark, Norway and Japan are 48, 58 and 67 times respectively. While this approach has produced some of the highest achievers in diverse…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Community, Global challenges, Leadership | 3 Comments

Mahatma Gandhi Revisited: Life Lessons For You And Me


Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. 

I just finished reading Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography, My experiments with truth. Not sure why I did not get to it sooner, but I am so glad I finally did. Reading it has been delightful and inspirational. Amidst a global shortage of leadership role models, revisiting Gandhi’s life offers rich lessons towards creating a more meaningful life.

He once famously remarked ‘My life is my message’. Indeed, his life, values and ideals raise the bar for every human being on what’s possible and what to strive for. Here are my five personal life lessons from the book. Notwithstanding his unmatched contribution to India’s independence, these lessons draw on Gandhi’s life journey– the man that he was.

1. Relentless search for truth

There is no God higher than truth.

First and foremost, Gandhi led a life driven by a strong sense of purpose. He was a lifelong seeker of the truth about life – the deepest principles that govern life and make it meaningful.

His strong personal beliefs around self-control, acceptance, equality, love and non-violence were not based on an intellectual understanding of the ideas. They were founded on personal trials, tribulations and experiences that he chose to put himself through – so that he could get closer to the truth. Through his life, he continued to experiment, learn and refine his beliefs and was unabashed in pursuing them irrespective of what people around him thought.

He voraciously read about all religions and philosophies. For him, morality and being truthful, in actions as well as thoughts, were critical foundations towards building a purposeful life. He had immense faith in the power of the universe (God) to support those living a principled life – he narrates several personal experiences as proof.

This brings home the relevance of living by strong values and principles in life. What core principles do you live by that are non-negotiable under any situation? How often have you let convenience get the better of truth?…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Community, Global challenges, Leadership, Personal mastery, Self-growth | 7 Comments

Five Keys To Managing Interpersonal Conflicts

Photo from h.koppdelaney
Photo from Andy Zeigert

Learning to manage interpersonal conflicts is critical to professional and personal effectiveness. Any situation that involves two people or more carries the potential risk for some form of interpersonal conflict. Whether these show up as minor disagreements or a strong animosity, they occur routinely in the workplace and in our personal lives.

When not addressed appropriately, they lead to breakdown of communication and trust in relationships. They adversely affect achievement of common goals. Besides, they create heightened levels of negative emotions, like anger, frustration and of being wronged, for all those involved.

Understanding the possibilities

Interpersonal conflicts do not necessarily have to result in dysfunctional relationships. Before I lay out the five keys to managing interpersonal conflicts effectively, I would like to draw your attention to the possible outcomes of any such situation.

As the pictorial adaptation of the Thomas-Kilmann model on the right highlights, there are five possible outcomes of any conflicting situations.
Our relative levels of concern for our own needs and those of the others determines which outcome we subconsciously strive for.

While we do not always follow the same approach, we do have a subconscious preference for one of these. Generally, we are either too aggressive (wanting to win every time) or too permissive (willing to give in to avoid a confrontation). The ideal approach is to leave our ego or insecurities aside and look for a win-win solution – that not only meets our needs, but that of the others too.

Five keys to managing interpersonal conflicts

1. Choosing to deal with it

All too often, we avoid directly addressing conflicts. We are averse to uncomfortable conversations and wish our differences would somehow go away. Like a wound that festers, so do unresolved differences. People grow distant in their relationships and in extreme scenarios leave a job or even their marriage. The first step to managing interpersonal conflicts is choosing to deal with them.

This requires making a mental commitment to resolve the…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Leadership, Relationships, Self-growth | 15 Comments

Discover Your IKIGAI, Create A Life

Photo by wolfgangfoto
Photo by wolfgangphoto

The Purpose of Life Is to Discover Your Gift. The Meaning of Life Is to Give It Away.

IKIGAI (pronounced ee-ki-guy), is a Japanese concept meaning ‘the reason for being’ – the very purpose for which an individual exists. Ikigai signifies the source of value in one’s life or the things that make one’s life worthwhile. According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai and discovering it and living a life aligned to one’s ikigai adds contentment and meaning to one’s life.

Besides, research suggests that staying connected with your ikigai has a noteworthy influence on your health, vitality and longevity. Research by Dan Buettner of National Geographic of over 73,000 Okinawans, who have the highest percentage of centenarians in the world, highlights ikigai as a key to their longevity (alongside active life, healthy eating habits and social connections). A clear sense of purpose is also known to improve cardio-vascular health and emotional resilience.

The idea of ikigai has great relevance to how we choose our life’s work – not merely our professional pursuits, but the very direction of our life. Among all the roles we play in life, which of those is central to who we are and what we want our life to be about. Is nurturing your children to their potential your ikigai or is it serving your community; is creating innovative solutions for your clients or providing a financially and emotionally stable family environment?

Powerful relevance to professional life

The concept of ikigai can further be adapted to significantly guide our choices in our professional life. It is equally helpful to a youngster starting out in her professional life and to a person who in his middle years is keen to create a meaningful second innings. While the idea of following our passion inspires us, but then we struggle to identify enough role models who have made a success of doing so and we quickly resort to pursuing what would make us financially successful. Over time,…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Leadership, Self-growth | 2 Comments

Spiritual Quotient (SQ): Leadership’s Final Frontier

Photo by h.koppdelaney
Photo by h.koppdelaney

“We are not here to merely earn a living and to create value for our shareholders. We are here to enrich the world and make it a finer place to live. We will impoverish ourselves if we fail to do so.” ~ Woodrow Wilson

Spiritual Quotient (SQ) is the key to holistic, sustainable and outstanding leadership. Leaders choosing to progress on this journey can have a profound impact on the leadership of our times, across business, public service and the social sector of our society.

Until the 1980s, the most popular management approach to gauge a person’s leadership potential was their Intelligence Quotient (IQ) – simply put, the belief that the smartest person in the room should be the leader as they were considered most equipped to develop a powerful business strategy.

In the 1990s, the idea of Emotional Quotient (EQ), popularized particularly by Daniel Goleman’s seminal work in the area, gained much traction. Rightfully so, it urged leaders to pay attention to how they managed their emotions and related to others – considered crucial in the leader’s ability to galvanize the team towards manifesting the strategy into life.

Spiritual Quotient

While different variations of these two core ideas have served leaders well, there’s a relatively nascent idea (and I am a keen believer of it) based on the principle of Spiritual Quotient (SQ). Not to be confused with any religious or related undertones, the principle of Spiritual Quotient relates to the leader’s level of holistic self-awareness, morality, wisdom and self-responsibility. It’s indicative of the leader’s depth of awareness about who they are (and by extension their holistic awareness of the people and the world around), what they want their life to be about, and their commitment towards living their inner values and purpose.

Leaders with high SQ have an advanced understanding of their personal being. They are not only very aware of their professional strengths and limitations, but are also in tune with their personal mental-emotional make…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Leadership, Personal mastery | 1 Comment

Are You Delivering Results But Not Making Impact?


Do you often get feedback that, as a leader, you are delivering healthy results, but not making enough impact? Do you feel that despite your performance, you run the risk of being overlooked for a promotion? Are you running out of ideas to get noticed and be counted?

You are not alone. A number of leaders respond in positive to at least one of the above questions. Many a time, the skills that helped you get to the current level of success may not be the ones that help you get to the next. Here are five ideas you can consider working on to make greater impact, get on top of your game and get recognized with all the rewards you deserve.

1. Three things that matter

Making impact is about making strategic contribution – delivering steady results in your defined role, while important, by itself hardly qualifies for that. To start making impact, you need to be more strategic in your approach to your role – be able to look at the big picture of your landscape and identify a handful of priorities that would make the greatest difference in 12-18 months or longer.

I find limiting your focus to the top three priorities most productive – three is not too many and yet it’s high enough for the results to count. While considering these priorities, think not of tasks, but of processes; not of processes, but of structures; not of your annual goals, but of the longer-term mission of the organization; not of the transactional, but of the transformational.

Further, to manifest these priorities into reality, and to avoid the risk of being consumed by short-term goals or the 24/7 gadgetry stimuli, consider creating non-negotiable time windows upfront in your calendar on a weekly basis to progress on these priorities. Most impactful leaders spend upwards of two-thirds of their time on their top three priorities. Furthermore, for being impactful, choose adopting this approach to every interaction you…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Leadership | 2 Comments