Powerpoint presentations and leadership

      The other day, dad gave me a task. He was requested by the guys at the "Human Resource" dept. of his company to give a presentation on "leadership" to all sub-ordinates and fresh recruits. he pretty much finds a waste of his time and prefers spending it doing something else, i.e. something productive. So, such frivolous tasks are given to me. I make the draft ppts, he then tweaks them a little and then gets the chore done with.

 Sometimes I wonder what number of people really think such presentations are of use. Like a presentation on management, or say "leadership", or "entrepreneurship", "personality development", how many really think all these topics can be "learnt", and that too through a powerpoint presentation? I believed its just something that was invented by the MBA folk. Some ritual of powerpoint presentations that they believe must be preserved to show that our organisation is organized, meticulous and believes in team participation. How much participation does a slideshow demand from the audience? Unless its of importance to the audience's daily or future productivity, its just a show of colorful slides!! with animation.

    A young entrepreneur, who co-owns a software company, "what does it take to become an entrepreneur?". He didn't recite out 15 bulleted points out. He just said, "You should be ready to take that risk". That is it. I next asked him, "Does doing an MBA make you better equipped?"."No it doesn't. Hardly ever has it helped anyone. The only thing I look for in MBA grads when I go recruiting, is that the institute he/she did MBA from already probably took an entrance test before giving admission. That cuts off my task of separating the completely dumb ones and narrows down my search. Rest, any business administration skills you need to know, are pretty much on the job.".

       Coming back to my topic, I guess its just the culture that brews in large organisations. The pros to it is that everything is meticulous organised and good, solid policies, and in-depth planning, in all departments including HR do make sustainability a much much more realistic goal. however, some things are really unnecessary sometimes. Mainly all the "soft skills" training that goes on.

       How do you train someone in leadership with just powerpoint presentations and speeches? Its a ridiculous idea that you can. If you really want to train leaders, spot the ones with potential, put them in a position where they have to take the lead, willingly or otherwise. And they will learn.

How do you spot a leader? easy thing. You see, it isn't something that exists only in organisations or say political parties, or the freedom struggle. Leaders exist everywhere. Its a primal instinct to lead. Why do you have to always only think of "Gandhi", "Nehru", "Kapil Dev", historical generals and prime ministers, etc when I mention the term "leader"? Anyone that assumes the responsibility to make decisions for a group, to take the risk, and guide the others. Pablo Picasso could be said to be a leader too; he lead the world of art into a new dimension. Of course a leader doesn't necessarily need to have a pack of disciples and minions following him wherever he/she goes. It could be as plain and simple as being the first to move in some new direction. In fact, leadership is a very primal, animalistic instinct that I bet got sharper through evolution. Don't we assume leadership of all the animals around us. We pet some, some we keep in cages, some we exterminate, and for some we decide that we would like to destroy their forests. And not just us, animals have leaders too. Each pride of lions has the alpha male. Every wolf pack has a lead male wolf. Elephants too. Bees have the queen bee and the worker drones. It's everywhere. How is it decided? Lions for example implicitly choose the strongest male to be the leader of the hunting group. He commands largest share of all the prey and has primary right over the territory and the females. Any contention as to who gets to lead the territory is decided by a fight between the contenders. Trust me, it is really that amazing.

   A leader is a leader, wherever he goes. Ideally it should be in all of us. Doesn't mean you convince some people to obey your command. It just means, being the first, taking charge. That is how you spot the leader. it is really that simple.

Fire and Ice

"Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice. "
-Robert Frost 

I had read the above lovely poem sometime in school. I really loved it, like most of Frost’s work. This poem rang into my head recently when I read some of the news pieces in this week’s papers.

“Love affair costs teen his life: Gets murdered by rival and accomplices”

“Girl kills self after being dumped on Facebook”

 

Fire: Two pretty contrasting stories ostensibly, yet the same culprit, too much of “fire”. It’s just too much passion. It appalls me beyond ridicule what drives good men and women to such insanity? It’s like an aphrodisiac, a slow poison. It is fed to us throughout our upbringing, the movies, the books, the fairy tales, peer pressure, society, all…all of them feed so much of this passion, that it builds up on a person and intoxicates the mind. It clogs all rationality and makes one loose perspective. All wouldn't have been lost if the guy would’ve just let go instead of taking the decision of taking another fellow’s life. Or if the girl would've just let her ego go for the sake of other things in life. Of course, if anything, I have the least disrespect for anyone who commits suicide. Yes, you read right, DISRESPECT. I don’t find any circumstances in hell that justifies suicide. I am not alone, pick up any scholarly/religious text and you’ll find the worst punishments meant out for suicide. There isn't any excuse for wilfully letting go of this wonderful life. (That doesn't include euthanasia. I am still undecided about that topic, and am not opinionated on that till I think about it more).

The above few and many more over the years, especially the increasing rate of passion crimes over the years really makes me believe, someday men and women are going to destroy themselves over this. It wouldn't be too much exaggeration to say that there is enough unrest, sufficient unresolved feelings, prominent insecurities in the hearts and minds of young men and women to bring about annihilation of this world on its own.

                            

“Asked to pay Rs27, motorist shoots Gurgaon toll man”

 

Ice: Rs 27?? Twenty seven!!! Sweet Lord!! What has the world come to? Then again, petty as this crime is, I don’t think the rudimentary sentiment is that new.

“Hatred” has always been one of the greatest human vice. Be it in anger, disgust, jealousy or revenge; all have stemmed from the feeling of “hatred” towards fellow men and women folk. After all, wasn’t it “hatred” that brought about the great war of Mahabharata? The eternal wars between the religions of the world? Don’t they all have their roots in “hatred”? Our own nation fights many internal wars between castes, sects, religions, regions that are all deeply rooted in “hatred” and mistrust. What makes even great leaders of the say and do horrible things is after all, some uncontrollable feeling of “hatred”. This in contrast is a slow, solid poison. It grows in the minds like a creeper and grips harder and harder, like a true poison ivy, till men and women are controlled, possessed and driven by their “hatred” towards each other. Tolerance is the key. It’s the only defence. You’ll find a million things worth disliking about the person next to you. But remember, you have better things to do then carry around a baggage of “hate”. If the quotes are really sticking out then let me explain. I never use the word hate. I am just too scared by it. It just brings in so much negativity. It means, in so many ways that you are so prude that you think you can afford restricting your world and prefer carrying this dark lead heavy feeling in your conscience forever. It just isn’t worth it.

The world is a beautiful place. Life is too precious to burn or freeze.

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Hi everyone,

  All those who used to follow my previous blog would know that the frequency of my blogs had reduced pretty much to nothing recently. That is because things had got hectic recently and I was just adjusting to the changes. Also, now I have better purpose to write.:-)

 If you are searching for some life changing inspirational read, or quirky tit-bits, some informational content, any sad/sullen romantic drag story, or me sharing the nitty-gritty teeny tiny events of my day to day life in killing detail, I am sorry to disappoint you, this isn't what you are looking for. In fact, it won't even have any sermons.  Because I always believe "preach too much and you prove you have nothing else better to do".period.It is what it is, just channeling my thoughts.(I wanted to use the title "pensive", Darn that Dumbledore).

So, read on, comment, share. All brickbats and opinions are welcome without discrimination. Watch this space for more.;-)

Ohh... I almost forgot :

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