Leadership Skills for Legislators

>Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s Blog Page.

I was very happy and it is good to see our legislators sitting in the classrooms of IIMB the elite management institute, trying to learn the new way of social management. Yes, ofcourse they need it.

Who else can make this happen other than our great Indian Inspiration Dr.Abdul Kalam sir. He is an amazing Indian who deeply energies and inspires the youth of this nation to a greater level. I don’t think there is anyother leader who could create this inspiration and passion throughout the nation. I am sure every school going children knows who he is and what’s his dream 2020 is all about.

When Karnataka Legislators decided to take up a 3 days management class from our former president and some senior professors of IIMB, there is a hope that they would have at least picked up some basic managment lessons to implement in their constituencies.

Acording to Kalam, a leader must have the following eight qualities:

  1. Vision
  2. Passion to bring true the vision
  3. Ability to travel on unexplored path
  4. Know how to manage success and failure
  5. Courage to take decisions
  6. Nobility in management
  7. Transparency in management
  8. Work with integrity

The main problem I see is , as a country we have labeled politics as service to the society. During the days of independence people entering into politics were considered to be sacrificing their personal and family priorities for the sake of National priorities. Now even after 60 years of independence our politicians still think that they are doing a great service to the people and the society, while actually doing all possible things to keep their personal and family priorities on the top. I believe that this irony of thought and action should be fundamentally changed.

Why can’t we consider at least our elected representatives as an executive of a company, who is accountable, perform, deliver his promises, fold his sleeves and get into action.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Leadership in the Times of Crisis

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Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s Blog Page.

When the entire world was glued to their television sets, watching the great mayhem of this year in Mumbai I was equally angry on our so called Leaders as any other young Indian. The 60 hours of action seemingly like a Hollywood blockbuster at last came to an end with unfortunate loss of the innocent lives.

It was very obvious, as a nation we are not even near ready for these kinds of times of crisis. Crisis is an unexpected, sudden disaster that can deeply impact the lives of the people, disrupting even their very existence in this society. Now with this Mumbai event it’s clear that not only Nations but businesses, institutions and even individuals need to be prepared to these kinds of crisis. Today’s society is more and more becoming vulnerable to these kinds of dastardly terror acts as it is easy for any one to get hold of the necessary materials, technology and expertise to make weapons of mass destructions.

In an open society where we value the freedoms of movement, we definitely can’t guarantee stopping these attacks completely. All that we can do is to make our best possible efforts in putting up all possible hurdles to carry out even a simple attack on the innocent lives around. In fact the Mumbai attacks clearly showed that, we don’t even have given a simple difficulty for those mindless animals to carry out such an outrageous act. It was just a cake for them into those high profile buildings. This is really a matter of deep concern for all the citizens of this country.

Leadership that can promptly act, make things happen quickly in the times of crisis is what we need. For all these years, we’ve allowed these problems to be part of our lives. At least this time it’s heartening to see the young Indians waking up, who don’t want to allow the problem to be part of their lives, instead wanted to deal with it strongly. We should be demanding our leaders to make things happen and make it clear to the world that we as a country will not allow these kinds of dastardly acts in our soil anymore in any form. We should firmly make it apparent that will go to any extent to address these issues right now at this moment.

Some critical points for the leadership during times of crisis I could think of are:
  • Be proactive and not reactive (let’s at least have a crisis management team in place to handle such times of crisis)
  • We shouldn’t even think of what to do when the moment hits us, instead we should be prepared in detail on what are the priorities in the times of crisis (faster we act, quicker we can take charge of the situation)
  • Speculations and rumors are the killers in times of crisis. (we should have a one singe reliable communication channel to the people, instead of every one taking out to take political mileage out of the situation)
  • We should be careful of every word spoken during crisis (especially for the media and political leaders)
  • We should learn to rise to the occasion, leaving all our differences aside (religion, caste, creed, etc…)

As I always say, we often relate the word “Leadership” with politics, business, sports, and very few areas of our lives. Many a times I’ve noticed people think and talk, that Leadership is all about position. But, I strongly believe Leadership is everybody’s business. It is for men, women and children. It is for families, business and communities. It is for me and you. It is for each one of us.

Let’s take charge and make sure for a Fundamental Change in this great India. Jai Hind.

With Love.
Anbusivam

Leadership through Physical Fitness

>Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s Blog Page.

When I was doing my regular weekend long-run this morning, the thought stuck in my mind was, “Is there a relationship between Leadership and Physical Fitness…?”. From my few experiments and little experience I am fully convinced that, Yes there is a great relation between one’s Leadership Qualities and his/her Physical Fitness.

It is also true that, children involved in rigorous physical activities like sports and games could concentrate better in their studies as compared to the children who spend most of their time with computer games or television.

Here is what physical fitness can bring in to our lives,

1. Keeps us healthy and fit.
2. Positively impacts our personality.
3. Increases our self confidence.
4. Certainly clears of all the stress and tension.
5. Brings in lots of clarity in thinking.
6. Provides more behavioral choices.
7. Increases our ability to handle stress.
8. Increases our endurance.
9. Makes us more flexible.
10. Gives better emotional stability.
11. …
12. … i am sure this list could go on and on…..!

Research have proved clearly that there is an obvious connection between the employee muscle and employee behavior. A study undertaken by Naval postgraduate school, gave organizations a better idea of what to expect from improved management and employee muscle. The results indicated the improved physical fitness can significantly affect the individual in terms of changes in personality and behavior. The changes also appear to have a significant positive effect on individual leadership traits.

Barack Obama, one of the very few fittest presidents usually starts his day in the gym. He says,

“I tend to be a healthy eater. So I probably could get away with cutting my workouts back a little bit. The main reason I do it is just to clear my head and relieve me of stress. It’s a great way to stay focused.”

One key thing to remember is, what ever we do, its all going to come back to us.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love,
Anbusivam

My Presentation at IgniteBangalore2008

>Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s Blog Page

I am sharing the presentation slides from my talk at IgniteBangalore2008.

What is Ignite?

(Hope the video will be up soon too)

These slides were running at one slide per 15secs, I had 20 slides and 5mins to talk. Let me know if you can think of what I would have talked there…???

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Hardwork Can Only End In Great Results

>Hello Friends.

Welcome to Anbusivam’s Blog Page.

For the first time I’ve shamelessly copied few excerpts word by word from a wonderful article of SiliconIndia. Thanks to my friend Pradeep of SiliconIndia, for one of the best article that has ever come in SiliconIndia. (In my humble opinion)

This is a story of brothers who have proved clearly that no matter what the external circumstances are, but a sincere hard work had to end in great results. There is no other way actually. Nothing can be substituted to Hard Work in the world of consistent success. Though hard work may not be the only attribute for success in life, but I am sure every thing else without hard work is meaning less.


It’s an amazing life lesson from Kalyan Raman, VP.Technology and Head of Amazon Bangalore Centre and Kumar Srinivasan, CEO of Global Scholar. This brothers had proved that sucess comes to those who dare to dream and have the spirit to make it true. This really inspired me to daringly dream for a next level in my life.

Do Visit this Link for Sure:
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/48412

Disclaimer: Inspiration Guaranteed.

Thank for visiting my page.

With Love
Anbusivam

Yes, I am a Valuable Person

>Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s Blog page.

I am writing this post when most of Bangalore is snoring in a cold midnight suddenly jumping out of my bed. Though writing a blog post has been one among my high priority tasks for the end of my work week, I thought of doing it tomorrow as I was little down with some overwhelming emotions and feelings. In spite of all, I couldn’t resist myself jumping out of my bed to complete this task, prompted by Scott Peck.

I picked up a very interesting book “The Road Less Traveled” by Scott Peck last week. As usual I am sticking to it like a lizard on the wall and I will, until I complete it. Scott says,

“The feeling of being valuable – “I am a valuable person” is essential to our mental health and is a cornerstone of self discipline. If we feel ourselves valuable, then we will feel our time valuable, and if we feel our time to be valuable, then we will want to use it well.”

I personally value my time spending in blogging to the most purposeful in my life This is the time during which I really think more critically, try to get more information, understand the subject to its deeper and subtler levels and so on. As I value blogging to the core, I was unable to sleep while that is not completed as required to be. This can also be looked as a way of “Delaying Gratification” means, by which I am ready to sacrifice a cozy sleep in this cold midnight in order to get this task of blogging accomplished on time.

Let’s all value ourselves and hence value our valuable time to put it for our best purpose.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Congruent Living

>Hello Friends,

Welcome Anbusivam’s Blog Page.

I am doing my DCS (Diploma in Counseling Skills) from Banjara Academy. Our teachers both Dr.Ali Khwaja and Raja Reddy are wonderful people. I really love and enjoy myself in this course with excellent classmates helping me to understand myself and others in a better way.

As a part of the course work we were out of Bangalore this weekend to Manthan, a six-acre farm located in Yelahanka (outskirts of Bangalore), belonging to the Banjara Academy serves as the venue for the many activities of the Academy. Manthan is an ideal weekend getaway in its wonderful serene surroundings. Two full days were all about “SelF AwarenesS”.

I personally had a wonderful experience there, during the camp I could really get to know some of my unknown traits those are useful neither for me nor for anyone else. In fact those qualities in me were roadblocks to some extent in my interpersonal relations. So, having identified them I am gonna sincerely work on them to get rid of them to replace with some very useful qualities there in place. I did some soul searching there to identify few good qualities those will be certainly useful to me and in my interactions as well.

“Congruent Living” is the right phrase I would like to put in place for what I want in life. Carl Rogers originated the word the term congruence. For him congruence is only when our thoughts, feelings, emotions, values and behaviours are aligned in same direction. I always find meditation to be an excellent technique to strive towards congruence. I am sure this is helping me a lot in my never ending journey from the present real-self to the ideal-self.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Brick Walls Are Not There To Keep Us Out

>Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s Blog Page.

Couple of weeks ago I realised that I am almost stuck with one of my personal goals. All my efforts ended up in vein and I was about to give-up. My thought of giving up broke, when I came across this wonderful video of Carnegie Mellon University Professor Randy Paush’s Last Lecture.

Randy talked about his application to Walt Disney Imagineering, saying “I dashed off my letters of applications to Walt Disney Imagineering, and they sent me some of the damned nicest go-to-hell letters I have ever gotten”. But the rejection didn’t discourage him and eventually wound up doing work for Disney.

He said, “The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.” In other words, the brick walls of rejection help us figure out who we really are and what we really want.

Randy went on to say, “The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”

So I asked myself , “How badly do I want that goal to be achieved? How good are my climbing skills to climb across? Or do I think success is ‘too hard’ to achieve and just give up?”. After all these questions I started working with all my effort towards that goal and it looks like I am making some decent progress if not great steps ahead.

I am happy for not giving it up….!!! Find here the (Video)

Let’s understand that, “Brick Walls Are Not There To Keep Us Out “

Thanks for visiting for my page

With Love,
Anbusivam

Street Smart Leadership

>Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s Blog Page.

When I was walking along the busy commercial street last evening, I noticed a young boy selling balloons on the road side. I was curious to know the way he does his business. I opted to wait and observe him rather than going and asking him questions about his way of business. I quietly picked up a cone of ice cream and stood near him, to observe what’s going on there.

My observations:

1. First thing he did was gave a flashing, catchy smile at the little children looking at him and his balloons.

2. With his smile and some funny actions, he inspired the children to ask for a balloon to their parents.

3. He had a variety of balloons, round, long, twisted, doll like…etc in various colors.

4. He had no fixed rate for the balloons, it depends on the attire of the child and her parents. He charged Rs.15 to a posh looking family in a brand new car and Rs.5 for the same balloon to a middle class family. He even gave it out for Rs.2 to a poor child on the street.

5. He knows how to fix the rate according to the person….as well. The price starts with two to three times the basic price and comes down gradually if the buyer seems to be bargaining too much. Same balloon is fixed at a reasonable price if a decent and quick buyer is seen in front.

I am sure this young boy on the street side had acquired these skills just by practice, and experience not by reading any best selling books. All the above the very necessity of not loosing a prospective buyer.

We have the most highly educated, literate and engaged workforce in our corporate world. And these graduates from elite institutions are most of the times from well to do families and they hardly know what “Street Smart Leadership” means. Street Smartness is just a combination of life experience, intelligence, awareness, cleverness, guile, humor, ingenuity, agility and ability acquired beyond (or in place of) formal education.

I sincerely believe “Street Smartness” is a greatly valuable commodity these days for those who want to get ahead of those elite and highly educated.

Thanks for Visiting My Page.

With Love,
Anbusiva

Motivation from Special Children

>Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s Blog Page.

Last Friday I had a great opportunity to visit Spastic Society of Karnataka, which is a special school for children with special needs. It was a part of my Counseling course and I was not even aware of the meaning of Spastics till I go there to see those wonderful children.

Yes, this school is mainly for children with Neuro-muscular disorders, Developmental and Learning Disabilities. All the teachers there are well trained special educators with lots and lots of care and empathy for those children. It was absolutely an amazing experience when we were taken to the classrooms. Those children seems to be enjoying and having a great time in their own world with their special school, special friends and special educators. Paradoxically I felt a huge pain and agony to see those innocent little ones in need of special care. Children were very happy to see us and they were well trained to handle thier basic physical needs and ettiquites by themselves. And the best part I observed is those children are highly helpful to eachother than the children we see in normal schools.

In spite of being differently-abled with special needs, I felt somehow the nature had given those little ones something more than what we all have and striving for. That something is Happiness. They are just laughing, giggling, smiling, talking, and playing all around with no big sorrow and worry on their disabilities. They also do some wonderful paintings, craft work, bakery products. We picked up some wonderful paintings and nice biscuits those were made by the children themselves.

The greatest Motivation I got from the visit is “When those children can be happy and enjoying life all the time, why can’t we too…!!!”

Please, find out a special school near your place, do visit them, just spend some time with those little one’s and help them as much as you can. I am sure you’ll feel great and contented at the end of the day.

Thanks for Visiting My Page.

With Love,
Anbusivam