Hema Praba Vincely ISC Toastmasters
INFLUENCE “I
t is inspiring to realize that in choosing our response to circumstance, we powerfully affect our circumstance. When we change one part of the chemical formula, we change the nature of the results.” – Stephen Covey. I used to work with a multinational company for many years. This company was headed by a very dynamic President. He could read and forecast trends. He was creative, talented, capable, and brilliant - and everyone in the industry knew it. But his management style was very dictatorial. He had a tendency to treat people like “gofers,” as though they didn’t have any capability of judgment. Typically, his conversation with those around him was, “Go for this…go for that…now do this…now do that…” The unsaid message he was sending was “I make all the decisions here.”
The net effect of all this was that he alienated almost the entire executive team surrounding him. Whenever, they gathered informally around the coffee-machine the conversations always turned into complaints about him. Their discussions were all very sophisticated, very articulate, as if they were trying to help the situation. But they did it endlessly, soon absolving themselves of every responsibility in the name of the President’s weaknesses. “You can’t imagine what has happened this time”, someone would begin. “The other day he walked into my department. I had everything all laid out. But he came in and gave totally different directions.” 14
WHERE LEADERS ARE MADE
“Everything I had built up over months was shot, just like that - without the slightest hesitation. I wonder how I’m supposed to keep working for him. How long will is it till he retires?” “He is only fifty nine”, someone else would respond. “Do you think you can survive for six more years? I don’t know. He is the kind of person they probably won’t retire anyway”. But one of the executives was proactive. He was driven by values and not by emotions. He took the initiative - he anticipated, he empathized and he read the situation. He was not blind to the president’s weaknesses, but instead of criticizing them he would compensate for them. Where the president was weak in style, he would try to buffer his own people and make such weaknesses irrelevant. And he would work with the president’s strengths- his vision, talent, creativity. This man focused on his Circle of Influence. He too was treated like a gofer. But he would do more than what was expected. He anticipated the president’s need. He read with empathy the president’s underlying concern, so when he presented information, he also gave his analysis and his recommendations based on that analysis.
Take a look at some of the Richie Riche’s in the under 25 list. They sing, they dance, they act and they endorse products (sometimes all at the same time) on their way to hefty pay cheques. Daniel Radcliffe, aged twenty-one rode on a wave of success to a net worth of 295 million $ on the Harry potter franchise. Justin Bieber, at seventeen, already has a net worth 240 million and so on… Definitely the changing environment is helping to fuel this growth - globalization, outsourcing, interdependence of the countries; the demographics of BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India & China) are all adding to the advantage of the modern day youth. It is also equally important to understand how these youth responded to the environment around them to appreciate the reasons for their richness. What do all these young billionaires have in common? Some say it’s their birthday; more self-made billionaires are born in September than any other month. Some say it’s the Y-chromosome factor as the list is generally dominated by Men. For some it is the Harvard & Stanford influence. For some it’s the fulfillment of end time prophecies. To share my own thoughts on the subject,
I would say it’s the P-Q-R factor that they have in common. Perseverance – Questioning –Risk taking attitude. It is their Perseverance of success, Quest for knowledge; it is their ability to question the status-quo; it is in their Risk taking ability as a response to change. As Toastmasters, we share something fundamental with these young billionaires. The very same attitudes of Perseverance, Questioning and Risk taking can make all the difference when it comes to developing our leadership skills. They pursued excellence by enduring all problems, challenges, discouragement and rejections. Remember the story about Edison going through over 1,000 combinations of gas and filament before he found a light bulb that would last? Every time when he failed he considered it as a step towards success. Much the same, these achievers never gave up on their goal when it looked impossible to achieve. They persevered for excellence in what they did until success was just a few steps away. Isn’t this the same quality that we need on our Toastmasters journey to improve, say our body language or to overcome stage fear? ISC TOASTMASTERS DECEMBER 2011
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