Change is inevitable, and time and generations march on with new perspectives and practices. Leadership as a topic has been evolving over the decades with every new generation contributing a new way of thinking about it. I have seen the Command-and-Control leadership style - this has been the hallmark of the last generation of leaders. This idea of leadership was also conflated with the idea of “respect”. However, as our understanding of leadership expanded and matured, it became clear that there are different ways of giving and gaining respect other than the command-and-control style. The more formal “Sir” and “Madam” way of addressing superiors has been replaced in corporations: Bosses are now being addressed by their first names. Interactions between employees and their superiors have become more open and less constrained, resulting in a friendly and less formal work environment. Greater openness and more interaction between team members and leaders have given the team a place and a voice in the discussions and decisions. A more friendly manner of interacting has developed in corporate workplaces. I have witnessed the older style and have seen the changing, emerging perspectives of leadership. This change has been reflected by changes in societal norms as well. While the older style may still linger in the government bureaucracy and the political class, the workforce at large has adapted to the newer, less formal way of interacting. What is next in the realm of leadership is the question that came to me even as I reflected on the changes I saw. In this regard, a dialogue for annual review and personal development with a colleague last year was an awesome, eye-opening experience. I approached it differently: She and I engaged in a conversation in which I sought her perspective on how the previous year had been for her and what changes or developments in her career she looked forward to, and what needs to happen for those changes. This approach was experimental, and it struck me that engaging with colleagues to enable insights with the right questions led to a better outcome than recalling each failure and success and providing feedback on what went well and what needs to improve. This approach provided a much better outcome, which led to much more ownership being taken by the colleague and not being enforced by me. This experience seeded in me a vision of what could be inspirational leadership. I envision the leader as a coach. A leader who is also a good coach can understand and inspire the members of the team by his awareness of their unique qualities and strengths. In this way, leaders can inspire their colleagues to work to the best of their abilities, using their skills optimally. For this to happen, leaders must become good coaches. When leaders become coaches, the need for frequent monitoring and regular review can be dialled down as the team members function at their highest level. The word “Leader “then lends itself to the idea of leading oneself rather than others. An individual who can lead themselves can have an inspirational impact on others when he engages with the others within the coaching parameters. I visualize leaders with the skills to lead themselves into the best version of themselves and coach their colleagues into tapping their potential and performing at their highest. This vision if realized will effectively replace the command and review model of leadership. Further, I visualize coaching as a tool that can be used across all levels: team leader coaches colleagues in the team, and leaders engage each other in peer coaching at various levels. The coaching methodology can be used as an aid in reviews of mid-and senior-level leaders with top executives. In these situations, there are opportunities for the top executives to coach their mid-and senior- level colleagues to generate insights in place of the usual review in command approach. To my mind, an organization can optimize its performance by using the coaching approach extensively in review meetings, team meetings, and one-on-one reviews into one-on-one coaching. The insights generated can empower the organization’s team to maximize its performance by tapping the potential of the individual member and inspiring them to deliver their best. Connect for more to Coach Sunil K. Vaya @ https://www.ideasteer.net , write us at ideasteer@gmail.com or WhatsApp on +91 9001997796.

Have we ever wondered what would be our best state of performance at individual’s level in every area of life ? In the current external environment where everything is so stressed and competitive, how do we create an internal state of performance which is ideal for any individual. Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz has mentioned about this in one of the article about life and performance of athletes. however lets understand what is ideal state of performance and how one can reach there. In order to get there lets dissect this terminology of “Ideal Performance State”. Ideal : An Ideal is something aspirational. An ideal is a model of something perfect or without equal. As an adjective, ideal describes this ultimate standard for excellence. This is the level which one would like to achieve and admire to be there. Performance : performance is like DOING something, the act of doing something, such as your job. Performing any task or duty or work which you want to be known for or even life. State : State is like being. State is he particular condition that someone or something is in at a specific time. So in summary to being in an ultimate standard of performance in any task which one would aspire to be can be a simple understanding of IPS. Generally very few people are able to reach at IPS like athletes who break the records and won medals for nation or few CEOs or entrepreneurs etc. In general we are surrounded by too many interference's and hardly reach to the ideal level of our performance. If it is too hard to reach ideal level of performance, how can one be in the ideals performance state for a continuous time ? Yes, it is possible and one need to create a system to reach there. While it isn’t always in our power to change our external conditions, we can train to better manage our inner state. There is a system of life activities which need to be created consciously which can take one to its Ideal Performance state. Obviously, executives can perform successfully even if they smoke, drink and weigh too much, or lack emotional skills or a higher purpose for working. But they cannot perform to their full potential or without a cost over time—to themselves, to their families, and to the corporations for which they work. Put simply, the best long-term performers tap into positive energy at all levels of the performance pyramid. Extensive research in sports science has confirmed that the capacity to mobilize energy on demand is the foundation of IPS. There are four pillars to the Ideal Performance State : Physical Strength : Good physical State is the foundation of ideal performance. One has to maintain healthy habits to get right energy level to perform any task at its best. Being physically fit is the starting point because a small discomfort in body can create mental and emotional disturbance. The physical capacity is get built with lot of rituals which not only includes right eating and exercising but also like sleeping and energy recovery rituals. Healthy habits includes eating right, eating on time, balanced diet, enough water intact, physically active, going to bed to time consistently and waking up early as daily ritual, regular exercise and have a recovery rituals for every hour or two in between. This will ensure remaining physically good state. Emotional Strength : Next important block for ideal state is keeping emotion at best. While the positive emotions ignite lot of energy, the negative emotions drains lot of energy. If someone continuously remain in emotionally toxic environment it can create permanent imbalance. One need to transform one’s inner experience to convert this threats in to challenges. Build endurance through regular exercise and become aware of signals from ones body. Music has powerful physiological and emotional effect. Music gives us relief from obsessive thinking and worrying. Close relationship is another powerful means to boots positive emotions and effective recovery of emotions. The happy family, relations and friends induces lot of positive emotions by way of profound sense of safety and security. Mental Strength : The third important block of ideal performance is keeping mental balance and strengths to its best level. Meditation is one of the traditional practice which can serve as most practical means of training attention and promoting recovery. Good breathing exercise help colling down mind and recharge whole body. A regular meditation, quiets the mind, the emotions, and the body and promote energy. One may need to create few meditative rituals and encourage positive thinking to increase the likelihood of accessing the ideal performance. Spiritual Strength : The forth important block of the ideal performance is spiritual connection which helps purity in heart and intention. By spiritual strength means the energy that is unleashed by tapping in to one’s deepest values and defining a strong sense of purpose. Rituals that give people the opportunity to pause and look inside include meditation, journal writing, prayer and serving others, connecting with some social cause and self-less acts etc. high performance depends as much on how people renew and recover energy as on how they expend it, on how they manage their lives as much as on how they manage their work. When people feel strong and resilient–physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually–they perform better, with more passion, for longer. They win, their families win, and the corporations that employ them win. Connect for more to Coach Sunil K. Vaya @ https://www.ideasteer.net , write us at ideasteer@gmail.com or WhatsApp on +91 9001997796.

I heard from many people this statement that I love perfection or I am a perfectionist. People says that they complete every task they do with complete perfection. Often one may have noticed that one can reach 80 to 90% of perfection with 50 to 60% of efforts and last 10 to 20% of perfection needs a lot of time and efforts to reach. At times it creates lot of stress to reach the last stage of perfection. When we run behind the perfection, often it creates stress and we start missing the joy of doing something and performing. But other way round if we enjoy whatever we are doing and keep improving it with joy, very soon we may reach to perfection. State of happiness or joyfulness in whatever you do make you better and raise your interest in improvement rather than forcing you to do something which creates pressure on your life. A visionary said, When we are joyful, we do not look for perfection. If you are looking for perfection then you are not at the source of joy. Joy is the realisation that there is no vacation from wisdom. The world appears imperfect on the surface but underneath, all is perfect. Perfection hides ; imperfection shows off. The wise will not dwell on the surface but will probe in to the depths. The things you see are not blurred; it is your vision that is blurred. Infinite actions exist in the wholeness of consciousness, and yet consciousness remain perfect, untouched. Author Iddo Landau has written a book titled Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World. Landau argues that people misunderstand what a meaningful life truly is. Some people have a tendency to fall into despair. They observe the vastness of the universe and conclude that their lives are inconsequential. Others compare their lives to famous people and figure they failed to achieve much. The mistake people make, according to Landau, is that a meaningful life need not be a perfect life. People fail to see the value in an ordinary life. We should not beat ourselves up for failing to attain lofty goals. Rather, we should celebrate the “value of an ordinary life well lived. In the same way you don’t have to become a monk or nun to be a good Christian, you don’t have to be a Shakespeare or Rockefeller to lead a good life. Perfect implies 100% success, every time. And life just doesn’t work that way. You’re going to make mistakes and you’re going to suffer setbacks. You are going to find yourself “falling down” or sometimes having to make sacrifices in certain areas of your life. Whatever gives you joy is a powerful sign showing you what you need to have MORE of in your life in order to be truly happy and fulfilled. So get clear on what experiences give you joy, and look for ways to add more of it into your personal and professional life — and you will be a lot happier and also your performance and outcome will be much better when you will have joy around you. So while you would like to reach perfection, enjoy the journey and enjoy your work. Be conscious that when you do something joyfully it becomes better every day and you accomplish better every day, whether it is life or profession. Enjoy the journey and enjoy the better-ness over bitterness of stress.