Leadership

Five Most Important Leadership Traits

by Mark Shead on January 3, 2007

Some people sit and pontificate about whether leaders are made or born. The true leader ignores such arguments and instead concentrates on how to become better at leading people. In this article, we are going to discuss five leadership traits that people look for in a leader. If you are able to increase your skill in these five traits, you will make it easier for people to want to follow you. The less time you have to spend on getting people to follow you, the more time you have to spend refining exactly where you want to go and how to get there.

The five leadership traits are:

1. Honest
2. Forward-Looking
3. Competent
4. Inspiring
5. Intelligent

These five characteristics come from Kouzes and Posner’s research into leadership that was done for the book The Leadership Challenge.

Your skill at exhibiting these five traits is strongly correlated with people’s desire to follow your lead. Exhibiting these traits will inspire confidence in your leadership. Not exhibiting these traits or exhibiting the opposite of these traits will decrease your leadership influence with those around you.

It is important to exhibit these traits. Simply possessing each trait is not enough; you have to display it in a way that people notice. People want to see you demonstrating these traits–not just assuming that you have them. It isn’t enough to just be neutral. For example, just because you are not dishonest will not cause people to recognize that you are honest. Just avoiding displays of incompetence won’t inspire the same confidence as truly displaying competence.

The focus of each of these five traits needs to be on what people see you do–not just the things they don’t see you do. Being honest isn’t a matter of not lying–it is taking the extra effort to display honesty.

Honesty as a Leadership Trait

People want to follow an honest leader. Years ago, many employees started out by assuming that their leadership was honest simply because the authority of their position. With modern scandals, this is no longer true.

When you start a leadership position, you need to assume that people will think you are a little dishonest. In order to be seen as an honest individual, you will have to go out of your way to display honesty. People will not assume you are honest simply because you have never been caught lying.

One of the most frequent places where leaders miss an opportunity to display honesty is in handling mistakes. Much of a leader’s job is to try new things and refine the ideas that don’t work. However, many leaders want to avoid failure to the extent that they don’t admit when something did not work.

There was a medium size organization that was attempting to move to a less centralized structure. Instead of one location serving an entire city, they wanted to put smaller offices throughout the entire metro area. At the same time, they were planning an expansion for headquarters to accommodate more customers at the main site. The smaller remote offices was heralded as a way to reach more customers at a lower cost and cover more demographic areas.

After spending a considerable amount of money on a satellite location, it became clear that the cost structure would not support a separate smaller office. As the construction completed on the expanded headquarters building, the smaller office was closed. This was good decision making. The smaller offices seemed like a good idea, but when the advantages didn’t materialize (due to poor management or incorrect assumptions) it made sense to abandon the model. This was a chance for the leadership to display honesty with the employees, be candid about why things didn’t work out as expected, learn from the mistakes an move on.

Unfortunately in this situation the leadership told employees that they had planned on closing the satellite location all along and it was just a temporary measure until construction was completed on the larger headquarters building. While this wasn’t necessarily true, it didn’t quite cross over into the area of lying. Within a few months the situation was mostly forgotten and everyone moved on. Few of the employees felt that leadership was being dishonest. However, they had passed up a marvelous opportunity to display the trait of honesty in admitting a mistake.

Opportunities to display honesty on a large scale may not happen every day. As a leader, showing people that you are honest even when it means admitting to a mistake, displays a key trait that people are looking for in their leaders. By demonstrating honesty with yourself, with your organization and with outside organizations, you will increase your leadership influence. People will trust someone who actively displays honesty–not just as an honest individual, but as someone who is worth following.

Forward-Looking as a Leadership Trait

The whole point of leadership is figuring out where to go from where you are now. While you may know where you want to go, people won’t see that unless you actively communicate it with them. Remember, these traits aren’t just things you need to have, they are things you need to actively display to those around you.

When people do not consider their leader forward-looking, that leader is usually suffering from one of two possible problems:

1. The leader doesn’t have a forward-looking vision.
2. The leader is unwilling or scared to share the vision with others.

When a leader doesn’t have a vision for the future, it usually because they are spending so much time on today, that they haven’t really thought about tomorrow. On a very simplistic level this can be solved simply by setting aside some time for planning, strategizing and thinking about the future.

Many times when a leader has no time to think and plan for the future, it is because they are doing a poor job of leading in the present. They have created an organization and systems that rely too much on the leader for input at every stage.

Some leaders have a clear vision, but don’t wish to share it with others. Most of the time they are concerned that they will lose credibility if they share a vision of the future that doesn’t come about. This is a legitimate concern. However, people need to know that a leader has a strong vision for the future and a strong plan for going forward. Leaders run into trouble sharing their vision of the future when they start making promises to individuals. This goes back to the trait of honesty. If a leader tells someone that “next year I’m going to make you manager of your own division”, that may be a promise they can’t keep. The leader is probably basing this promotion on the organization meeting financial goals, but the individual will only hear the personal promise.

An organization I was working with was floundering. It seemed like everyone had a different idea about what they were trying to achieve. Each department head was headed in a different direction and there was very little synergy as small fiefdoms and internal politics took their toll.

Eventually a consulting firm was called in to help fix the problem. They analyzed the situation, talked to customers, talked to employees and set up a meeting with the CEO. They were going to ask him about his vision for the future. The employees were excited that finally there would be a report stating the direction for the organization.

After the meeting, the consultants came out shaking their heads. The employees asked how the important question had gone to which the consultants replied, “we asked him, but you aren’t going to like the answer”. The CEO had told the consultant that, while he had a vision and plan for the future, he wasn’t going to share it with anyone because he didn’t want there to be any disappointment if the goals were not reached.

Leaders can communicate their goals and vision for the future without making promises that they may not be able to keep. If a leader needs to make a promise to an individual, it should be tied to certain measurable objectives being met. The CEO in the example didn’t realize how much damage he was doing by not demonstrating the trait of being forward-looking by communicating his vision with the organization.

The CEO was forward-looking. He had a plan and a vision and he spent a lot of time thinking about where the organization was headed. However, his fear of communicating these things to the rest of the organization hampered his leadership potential.

Competency as a Leadership Trait

People want to follow someone who is competent. This doesn’t mean a leader needs to be the foremost expert on every area of the entire organization, but they need to be able to demonstrate competency.

For a leader to demonstrate that they are competent, it isn’t enough to just avoid displaying incompetency. Some people will assume you are competent because of your leadership position, but most will have to see demonstrations before deciding that you are competent.

When people under your leadership look at some action you have taken and think, “that just goes to show why he is the one in charge”, you are demonstrating competency. If these moments are infrequent, it is likely that some demonstrations of competency will help boost your leadership influence.

Like the other traits, it isn’t enough for a leader to be competent. They must demonstrate competency in a way that people notice. This can be a delicate balance. There is a danger of drawing too much attention to yourself in a way that makes the leader seem arrogant. Another potential danger is that of minimizing others contributions and appearing to take credit for the work of others.

As a leader, one of the safest ways to “toot you own horn without blowing it”, is to celebrate and bring attention to team achievements. In this way you indirectly point out your competency as a leader. For example: “Last year I set a goal of reaching $12 million in sales and, thanks to everyone’s hard word, as of today, we have reached $13.5 million.”

Inspiration as a Leadership Trait

People want to be inspired. In fact, there is a whole class of people who will follow an inspiring leader–even when the leader has no other qualities. If you have developed the other traits in this article, being inspiring is usually just a matter of communicating clearly and with passion. Being inspiring means telling people how your organization is going to change the world.

A great example of inspiration is when Steve Jobs stole the CEO from Pepsi by asking him, “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to change the world?” Being inspiring means showing people the big picture and helping them see beyond a narrow focus and understand how their part fits into the big picture.

One technique to develop your ability to inspire is telling stories. Stories can be examples from your customers, fictitious examples from your customers, or even historical fables and myths. Stories can help you vividly illustrate what you are trying to communicate. Stories that communicate on an emotional level help communicate deeper than words and leave an imprint much stronger than anything you can achieve through a simple stating of the facts.

Learning to be inspiring is not easy–particularly for individuals lacking in charisma. It can be learned. Take note of people who inspire you and analyze the way they communicate. Look for ways to passionately express your vision. While there will always be room for improvement, a small investment in effort and awareness will give you a significant improvement in this leadership trait.

Intelligence as a Leadership Trait

Intelligence is something that can be difficult to develop. The road toward becoming more intelligent is difficult, long and can’t be completed without investing considerable time. Developing intelligence is a lifestyle choice. Your college graduation was the beginning of your education, not the end. In fact, much of what is taught in college functions merely as a foundational language for lifelong educational experiences.

To develop intelligence you need to commit to continual learning–both formally and informally. With modern advances in distance, education it is easy to take a class or two each year from well respected professors in the evening at your computer.

Informally, you can develop a great deal of intelligence in any field simply by investing a reasonable amount of time to reading on a daily basis. The fact is that most people won’t make a regular investment in their education. Spending 30 minutes of focused reading every day will give you 182 hours of study time each year.

For the most part, people will notice if you are intelligent by observing your behavior and attitude. Trying to display your intelligence is likely to be counterproductive. One of the greatest signs of someone who is truly intelligent is humility. The greater your education, the greater your understanding of how little we really understand.

You can demonstrate your intelligence by gently leading people toward understanding–even when you know the answer. Your focus needs to be on helping others learn–not demonstrating how smart you are. Arrogance will put you in a position where people are secretly hopeful that you’ll make a mistake and appear foolish.

As unintuitive as it may seem, one of the best ways to exhibit intelligence is by asking questions. Learning from the people you lead by asking intelligent thoughtful questions will do more to enhance your intelligence credibility than just about anything. Of course this means you need to be capable of asking intelligent questions.

Everyone considers themselves intelligent. If you ask them to explain parts of their area of expertise and spend the time to really understand (as demonstrated by asking questions), their opinion of your intelligence will go up. After all, you now know more about what makes them so intelligent, so you must be smart as well. Your ability to demonstrate respect for the intellect of others will probably do more to influence the perception of your intellect than your actual intelligence.

Summary of the Five Leadership Traits

By consciously making an effort to exhibit these traits, people will be more likely to follow you. These are the most important traits that people look for in their leaders. By exhibiting them on a regular basis, you will be able to grow your influence to its potential as a leader.

Fear of Failure

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
Theodore Roosevelt

Half of the failures in life come from pulling one's horse when he is leaping.
Thomas Hood

Go back a little to leap further.
John Clarke

Look out for new oppurtinities

Key that Unlocks the Opportunities

I would like to share with you a small anecdote. This was told to me by one of my Swamijis during our II PUC send off at Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala, Mysore, where I did my high school and PUC. His name is Swami Tejomayananda.

“There was a small boy who was very competitive in his studies and sports. He had won many prizes and gifts throughout his career. When he was in the final year of his graduation, his father promised him to present him a sports car if he were to bag a medal at the university level.

“It had always been his craze to drive a sports car and his father’s promise motivated him a lot. He worked hard to achieve his dreams and finally did it too. When he came to convey his success, his father pointed to a new book on his table and said, ‘I knew you would do it, my son. There, I have got a new book for you.’

“‘I wanted a sports car…’ the boy shouted angrily. Before his father could explain him, he slammed the door behind him as he went off. He was so angry with his father that he decided to stay away from him. He went off to a distant place and found a job. He married the girl of his choice and was happy there. He never returned back to see what had happened to his father after he had left.

“A few years later, he got news that his father was on his death bed. He returned to see his father, but it was too late. He saw that book still lying on his father’s table. And as he opened that book, something fell to the ground and drew his attention. It was the key of a sports car kept as a bookmark…!”

With that story, Swamiji concluded,

“It does not really matter how many opportunities came our way when we start counting how many we missed just because they did not come a desired form.”

Even though it’s seven years since I heard it, the story and the moral are still afresh in my mind inspiring me to look for hidden opportunities around and to make the best use of them. Hope it has inspired you too.

Organizational Behaviour in a NUT shell

Organizational Behavior

Introduction Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. It does this by taking a system approach. That is, it interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives. As you can see from the definition above, organizational behavior encompasses a wide range of topics, such as human behavior, change, leadership, teams, etc. Since many of these topics are covered elsewhere in the leadership guide, this paper will focus on a few parts of OB: elements, models, social systems, OD, work life, action learning, and change. Elements of Organizational Behavior The organization's base rests on management's philosophy, values, vision and goals. This in turn drives the organizational culture which is composed of the formal organization, informal organization, and the social environment. The culture determines the type of leadership, communication, and group dynamics within the organization. The workers perceive this as the quality of work life which directs their degree of motivation. The final outcome are performance, individual satisfaction, and personal growth and development. All these elements combine to build the model or framework that the organization operates from. Models of Organizational Behavior There are four major models or frameworks that organizations operate out of: Autocratic - The basis of this model is power with a managerial orientation of authority. The employees in turn are oriented towards obedience and dependence on the boss. The employee need that is met is subsistence. The performance result is minimal. Custodial - The basis of this model is economic resources with a managerial orientation of money. The employees in turn are oriented towards security and benefits and dependence on the organization. The employee need that is met is security. The performance result is passive cooperation. Supportive - The basis of this model is leadership with a managerial orientation of support. The employees in turn are oriented towards job performance and participation. The employee need that is met is status and recognition. The performance result is awakened drives. Collegial - The basis of this model is partnership with a managerial orientation of teamwork. The employees in turn are oriented towards responsible behavior and self-discipline. The employee need that is met is self-actualization. The performance result is moderate enthusiasm. Although there are four separate models, almost no organization operates exclusively in one. There will usually be a predominate one, with one or more areas over-lapping in the other models. The first model, autocratic, has its roots in the industrial revolution. The managers of this type of organization operate out of McGregor's Theory X. The next three models begin to build on McGregor's Theory Y. They have each evolved over a period of time and there is no one "best" model. The collegial model should not be thought as the last or best model, but the beginning of a new model or paradigm. Social Systems, Culture, and Individualization A social system is a complex set of human relationships interacting in many ways. Within an organization, the social system includes all the people in it and their relationships to each other and to the outside world. The behavior of one member can have an impact, either directly or indirectly, on the behavior of others. Also, the social system does not have boundaries...it exchanges goods, ideas, culture, etc. with the environment around it. Culture is the conventional behavior of a society that encompasses beliefs, customs, knowledge, and practices. It influences human behavior, even though it seldom enters into their conscious thought. People depend on culture as it gives them stability, security, understanding, and the ability to respond to a given situation. This is why people fear change. They fear the system will become unstable, their security will be lost, they will not understand the new process, and they will not know how to respond to the new situations. Individualization is when employees successfully exert influence on the social system by challenging the culture. Impact Of Individualization On A Organization _______________________________ High | | | | | | | | | | Conformity | Creative | | | Individualism | | | | Socialization |_______________|_______________| | | | | | | | | | | Isolation | Rebellion | | | | | | | Low |_______________|_______________| Low Individualization High The chart above (Schein, 1968) shows how individualization affects different organizations: Too little socialization and too little individualization creates isolation. Too high socialization and too little individualization creates conformity. Too little socialization and too high individualization creates rebellion. While the match that organizations want to create is high socialization and high individualization for a creative environment. This is what it takes to survive in a very competitive environment...having people grow with the organization, but doing the right thing when others want to follow the easy path. This can become quite a balancing act. Individualism favors individual rights, loosely knit social networks, self respect, and personal rewards and careers. It becomes look out for number 1! Socialization or collectivism favors the group, harmony, and asks "What is best for the organization?" Organizations need people to challenge, question, and experiment while still maintaining the culture that binds them into a social system. Organization Development Organization Development (OD) is the systematic application of behavioral science knowledge at various levels, such as group, inter-group, organization, etc., to bring about planned change. Its objectives is a higher quality of work-life, productivity, adaptability, and effectiveness. It accomplishes this by changing attitudes, behaviors, values, strategies, procedures, and structures so that the organization can adapt to competitive actions, technological advances, and the fast pace of change within the environment. There are seven characteristics of OD: Humanistic Values: Positive beliefs about the potential of employees (McGregor's Theory Y). Systems Orientation: All parts of the organization, to include structure, technology, and people, must work together. Experiential Learning: The learners' experiences in the training environment should be the kind of human problems they encounter at work. The training should NOT be all theory and lecture. Problem Solving: Problems are identified, data is gathered, corrective action is taken, progress is assessed, and adjustments in the problem solving process are made as needed. This process is known as Action Research. Contingency Orientation: Actions are selected and adapted to fit the need. Change Agent: Stimulate, facilitate, and coordinate change. Levels of Interventions: Problems can occur at one or more level in the organization so the strategy will require one or more interventions. Quality of Work Life Quality of Work Life (QWL) is the favorableness or unfavorableness of the job environment. Its purpose is to develop jobs and working conditions that are excellent for both the employees and the organization. One of the ways of accomplishing QWL is through job design. Some of the options available for improving job design are: Leave the job as is but employ only people who like the rigid environment or routine work. Some people do enjoy the security and task support of these kinds of jobs. Leave the job as is, but pay the employees more. Mechanize and automate the routine jobs. And the area that OD loves - redesign the job. When redesigning jobs there are two spectrums to follow - job enlargement and job enrichment. Job enlargement adds a more variety of tasks and duties to the job so that it is not as monotonous. This takes in the breadth of the job. That is, the number of different tasks that an employee performs. This can also be accomplished by job rotation. Job enrichment, on the other hand, adds additional motivators. It adds depth to the job - more control, responsibility, and discretion to how the job is performed. This gives higher order needs to the employee, as opposed to job enlargement which simply gives more variety. The chart below (Cunningham & Eberle, 1990) illustrates the differences: Job Enrichment and Job Performance _______________________________ Higher | | | Order | | Job | | Job | Enrichment | | Enrichment | and | | | Enlargement | | | | Accent on |_______________|_______________| Needs | | | | | | | Routine | Job | | Job | Enlargement | | | | Lower | | | Order |_______________|_______________| Few Many Variety of Tasks The benefits of enriching jobs include: Growth of the individual Individuals have better job satisfaction Self-actualization of the individual Better employee performance for the organization Organization gets intrinsically motivated employees Less absenteeism, turnover, and grievances for the organization Full use of human resources for society Society gains more effective organizations There are a variety of methods for improving job enrichment: Skill Variety: Perform different tasks that require different skill. This differs from job enlargement which might require the employee to perform more tasks, but require the same set of skills. Task Identity: Create or perform a complete piece of work. This gives a sense of completion and responsibility for the product. Task Significant: This is the amount of impact that the work has on other people as the employee perceives. Autonomy: This gives employees discretion and control over job related decisions. Feedback: Information that tells workers how well they are performing. It can come directly from the job (task feedback) or verbally form someone else. Action Learning An unheralded British academic was invited to try out his theories in Belgium -- it led to an upturn in the Belgian economy. "Unless your ideas are ridiculed by experts they are worth nothing," says the British academic Reg Revans, creator of action learning [L = P + Q] -- learning occurs through a combination of programmed knowledge (P) and the ability to ask insightful questions (Q). Action learning has been widely used in Europe for combining formal management training with learning from experience. A typical program is conducted over a period of 6 to 9 months. Teams of learners with diverse backgrounds conduct field projects on complex organizational problems requiring use of skills learned in formal training sessions. The learning teams then meet periodically with a skilled instructor to discuss, analyze, and learn from their experiences. Revans basis his learning method on a theory called "System Beta," in that the learning process should closely approximate the "scientific method." The model is cyclical - you proceed through the steps and when you reach the last step you relate the analysis to the original hypothesis and if need be, start the process again. The six steps are: Formulate Hypothesis (an idea or concept) Design Experiment (consider ways of testing truth or validity of idea or concept) Apply in Practice (put into effect, test of validity or truth) Observe Results (collect and process data on outcomes of test) Analyze Results (make sense of data) Compare Analysis (relate analysis to original hypothesis) Note that you do not always have to enter this process at step 1, but you do have to complete the process. Revans suggest that all human learning at the individual level occurs through this process. Note that it covers what Jim Stewart (Managing Change Through Training and Development, 1991) calls the levels of existence: We think - cognitive domain We feel - affective domain We do - action domain All three levels are interconnected -- e.g. what we think influences and is influenced by what we do and feel. Change In its simplest form, discontinuity in the work place is "change." Our prefrontal cortex is similar to the RAM memory in a PC -- it is fast and agile computational device that is able to hold multiple threads of logic at once so that we can perform fast calculations. However it has its limits in that it can only hold a handful of concepts at once. In addition, it burns lots of high energy glucose (blood sugar), which is expensive for the body to produce. Thus when given lots of information, such as when a change is required, it has a tendency to overload and being directly linked to the amygdala (the emotional center of the brain) that controls our fight-or-flight response, it can cause severe physical and psychological discomfort. Our prefrontal cortex is marvelous for insight when not overloaded. But for normal everyday use, our brain prefers to run off its "hard-drive" -- the basal ganglia, which has a much larger storage area and stores memories and our habits. In addition, it sips rather than gulps food (glucose). When we do something familiar and predictable, our brain is mainly using the basal ganglia, which is quite comforting to us. When we use our prefrontal cortex, then we are looking for fight, flight, or insight. Too much change produces fight or flight syndromes. As change agents we want to produce "insight" into our learners so that they are able to apply their knowledge and skills not just in the classroom, but also on the job. And the way to help people come to "insight" is to allow them to come to their own resolution. These moments of insight or resolutions are called "epiphanies" -- sudden intuitive leap of understanding that are quite pleasurable to us and act as rewards. Thus you have to resist the urge to fill in the entire picture of change, rather you have to leave enough gaps so that the learners are allowed to make connections of their own. Doing too much for the learners can be just as bad, if not worse, than not doing enough. Doing all the thinking for learners takes their brains out of action, which means they will not invest the energy to make new connections. Reference Cunningham, J. B. & Eberle, T. (1990). "A Guide to Job Enrichment and Redesign," Personnel, Feb 1990, p.57 in Newstrom, J. & Davis, K. (1993). Organization Behavior: Human Behavior at Work. New York: McGraw-Hill. Knoster, T., Villa, R., & Thousand, J. (2000). A framework for thinking about systems change. In R. Villa & J. Thousand (Eds.), Restructuring for caring and effective education: Piecing the puzzle together (pp. 93-128). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Koch, C. (2006). The New Science of Change. CIO Magazine, Sep 15, 2006 (pp 54-56). Also available on the web: http://www.cio.com/archive/091506/change.html Revans, R. W. (1982). The Origin and Growth of Action Learning. Hunt, England: Chatwell-Bratt, Bickley. Schein, E. (1968). "Organizational Socialization and the Profession of Management," Industrial Management Review, 1968 vol. 9 pp. 1-15 in Newstrom, J. & Davis, K. (1993). Organization Behavior: Human Behavior at Work. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Monk Who sold His Ferrari

Book review: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

This is an Excellent book a true example for motivation one of the key facets of human physche to do and perform great things.

Note: I plan to do a series of book reviews about books that inspire, that offer practical tips about goals, habits, productivity, simplifying, frugality and more. This series should run every few days or so, and it will cover some of my favorites in this fairly large genre.

Overview
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny, by Robin Sharma, is an interesting book — as the subtitle suggests, it’s a fable, and it’s one that will certainly make you give some thought to your life, your goals, your dreams and how your daily habits help you reach those dreams. In other words, right up the Zen Habits alley.

I can’t give this book my highest rating (see Conclusion for the rating) for several reasons I discuss below, but I did highly enjoy its discussion of a number of concepts. The author is a leadership expert and author, and he fills the book with a combination of life strategies. Many of these are useful, but whether they work in combination is the real question.

The Fable
The book takes the form of a fable about Julian Mantle, a high-profile attorney with a crazy schedule and a set of priorities that center around money, power and prestige. As such, Mantle represents the values of our society. The story is told from the perspective of one of his associates, who admires Mantle’s great success and aspires to be like him.

But when Mantle has a heart attack, he drops out of the game and disappears. He sells all his possessions and goes to India to seek a more meaningful existence. When he comes back, he’s a changed man. Really, it’s as if he’s a completely different person. He’s learned from some mythical Himalayan gurus who give him mystical and yet practical advice, which he shares with his former associate (and the reader).

The Concepts
The core of the book is the Seven Virtues of Enlightened Learning, which Mantle reveals one by one. Now, although the book presents them as actual Virtues learned from Himalayan gurus, it’s important to remember as you read that these are made up by the author — actually, he pulled them from other sources and put them together:

1. master your mind
2. follow your purpose
3. practice kaizen
4. live with discipline
5. respect your time
6. selflessly serve others
7. embrace the present

Each of these Virtues is discussed in some detail in separate chapters, each of them with a number of concepts and habits to develop. Most of them are very inspiring and potentially very useful. After reading the book, I incorporated several of them into my life, including the ones that involve positive thinking, visualizing goals and more. Again, these are not new concepts, and have been discussed in many other books, but the book presents a great collection of useful concepts that you might want to try out.

The Problem
After reading the book, I began to outline each of the Seven Virtues, because I was confused about all the action steps the book recommends taking. The truth is, each of the Seven Virtues encompasses a bunch of daily habits, and incorporating all of them into your life would be cumbersome. And some of them seem to me to be conflicting.

As an example of the large number of habits in every virtue, here are the ones I have listed for the first virtue, Master your mind:

• Habit: Find positive in every circumstance; don’t judge events as “good” or “bad”, but experience them, celebrate them and learn from them.
• Habit: The heart of the rose: find a silent place and a fresh rose. Stare at the heart of the rose, the inner petals, concentrating on the folds of the flower, the texture, etc … push away other thoughts that come to you. Start with 5 minutes a day, stretch it to 20. It will be your oasis of peace.
• Habit: 10 minutes of reflection on your day, and how to improve your next day.
• Habit: Opposition thinking – take every negative thought that comes into your mind and turn it into a positive one. First, be aware of your thoughts. Second, appreciate that as easily as negative thoughts enter, they can be replaced with positive ones. So think of the opposite of the negative ones. Instead of being gloomy, concentrate on being happy and energetic.
• Habit: Secret of the lake. Take a few deep breaths and relax. Then envision your dreams becoming a reality. Picture vivid images of what you want to become. Then they will become reality.

And that’s just with the first virtue. Each one has a number of habits to develop, and they’re not listed out like I’ve done here. If you tried to incorporate all of the habits in the book, your day would be very busy indeed. Also, I would recommend only trying to adopt one at a time — more than that, and your habit change will be hard to sustain.

Conclusion
Although I can’t give The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari my highest rating, because of the problem listed above, I still enjoyed it a lot and was highly inspired by it.

I give this book a buy recommendation for anyone who is interested in incorporating routines and habits that can transform their lives, help them achieve their dreams, calm them and make them more happy. Yes, it’s a jumble of too many ideas, but you can pick and choose, and the ideas contained within are potentially very powerful. Plus, it’s a fun and easy read.

If you’re interested, check it out here: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny.

Personality Development

Swami Vivekananda

(1863 - 1902)

Swami Vivekananda is just another name for the phenomenon that exploded on the Indian scene towards the end of the nineteenth century and restored the self-confidence and self-respect of a nation that had been badly mauled for millennia. Born on the 12th January 1863, of an intellectual but compassionate father and a deeply religious mother, Narendranath - that was his original name - got a good education and cultural training under them. An innate desire for spiritual perfection brought him into contact with Sri Ramakrishna in the early part of 1882. The next four and a half years - until the Mahasamadhi of Sri Ramakrishna - were marked by turbulence and turmoil, the direct result of the perfect Master chiselling and shaping the perfect disciple, but ending in total submission of the latter to the former. As per the specific direction of his guru, Narendra along with the other young men who were his co-disciples, took to monastic orders and found a monastery in his guru's name at Baranagore (Calcutta) in 1886. Setting out on pilgrimage, mostly as a wandering monk, he finally arrived at Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of the Indian soil, sometime during 1892. There, while meditating on the rock inside the sea, the mission of his life was revealed to him. Then, things moved quickly. Setting sail for America on the 31st May 1893, he created history at the World Parliament of Religions held at Chicago during September of the same year. After whirlwind tours in America and England, he triumphantly returned to India via Colombo on the 15th January 1897. During the next five years he literally shook the Indian nation to its foundations, electrifying it to dynamic self-expression, through his speeches and writings as also conversations. These have been compiled and published in eight volumes, now well-known as `The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.' They contain, as he himself once remarked, enough messages for a millennia. He formally established the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 and consecrated the newly built Belur Math, the Head-quarters of the Ramakrishna Monastery, in 1899. He shuffled off the mortal coil on the 4th of July 1902. His was a multifaceted personality - a prophet, a patriot, a monk, a yogi, a social reformer, an educationalist, an artist, a poet and a humanist - all rolled into one. His dynamic life and message gave a new direction to the resurgent India. His work is being continued today by the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission, the twin organizations that he established with the motto: Atmano mokshartham jagaddhitya ca, `For the sake of self-realization and the good of mankind.' The Math is unique in that it has charted new avenues in Indian monasticism. The Mission is an ideal service organization embodying the teachings of practical Vedanta.

Teachings

One way for attaining bhakti is by repeating the name of God a number of times. Mantras have effect - the mere repetition of words ... To obtain bhakti, seek the company of holy men who have bhakti and read books like the Gita.


Our first duty is not to hate ourselves; because to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God. He who has no faith in himself can never have faith in God.


Every duty is holy, and devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God.


Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.


To me the very essence of education is concentration of mind, not the collecting of facts.


That society is the greatest, where the highest truths become practical.


Faith, faith, faith in ourselves, faith in God - this is the secret of greatness ... Have faith in yourselves, and stand up on that faith and be strong; that is what we need.


The Hindus were bold, to their credit be it said, bold thinkers in all their ideas, so bold that one spark of their thought frightens the so-called bold thinkers of the West.


In my opinion, a race must first cultivate a great respect for motherhood, through the sanctification and inviolability of marriage.


Renunciation and service are the twin ideals of India. Intensify her in these channels and the rest will take care of itself.