School of Business Management, NMIMS Mumbai

Project Report on

Leadership Lab
Personal Leadership Development
Are you Leading (or just living) your own life?

submitted to

Dr. Gowri Joshi

By

Nikhil P
B042 Year -1
Trimester- II
80101190502
 My Transformation To Become A LEADER

As we grow we learn so many things in schools, colleges, work and through experience. But
nowhere in life has anyone taught me the importance of mental well-being or the steps/path
to achieve the same. And as you grow you ignore it wholly until circumstances hit you
negatively when you try to rethink.

My purpose in life is to achieve mental health and well-being, so that I can be calm,
composed and be at peace throughout my life. I envision that the world along with me join
hands to achieve the same and together we all make the world a stress-free

To be honest, change is hard for mankind, and sometimes we set goals that we aren’t able to
meet. Our success depends on how much we are able to put in the effort and show
commitment to the changes that we want to make in our life.

Ever since I have completed my ‘Art of Living- Happiness Program’ during my Engineering
graduation days, I was always in awe of how much impact, mental health and well-being
through meditation, can have in our lives positively. I always dreamed of doing meditation
daily first thing in the morning. But my dream was short-lived.

After the initial few months of meditating in the morning, I lost the consistency. It was
ironical. Meditation was supposed to make me more focused but I was not able to meditate
every single day. Meditation cannot be blamed for my lack of consistency. It is the priorities
in life that have overpowered my daily meditation. Thereby my SMART Goal of achieving
mental health and well-being through meditation was heavily disturbed.

Initially, it was the exam during Graduation, which I prioritised more importantly than
continuing the daily meditation. It was a hard decision, but one that was taken from the brain
and not from the heart. I believed that if I quit meditation during exam time, it will not impact
me much in the bright future that I would achieve from exam results, by utilising the time
spend on meditation to studying.

Getting placed from college for a wonderful job in MNC is great, but it changes your lifestyle
and priorities. When my 9–hour job which turned into a 12-hour job, it made few changes in
my life. To incorporate these changes I adjusted or made a compromise on a certain aspect of
life. One of them was to get time to my own personal needs and satisfaction or to devote time
for my hobbies. This made changes to my meditation schedule from daily to occasionally.
 Core values, Intrinsic & Extrinsic motivation

Core values are the fundamental beliefs that a person as being of utmost importance. This
belief can help an individual to understand the difference between right and wrong. These
values underlie our work and how we interact with each other.

I always believed in maintaining a healthy lifestyle with the utmost importance. These values
act as guide-rails for me. I feel at ease when I am aligned with my core values.

Some of the activities that will allow me to achieve my core values are- meditate, having a
healthy meal and peaceful sleep. These are also my intrinsic motivation. These activities
give me pleasure and I enjoy doing it.

This is where my SMART goal plays a role in achieving my Core value. For achieving my
core value I need to meditate and keep myself focused.

One another intrinsic motivator in my life is acting. I don’t aspire to become an actor or
pursue it professionally. It is because I am good at acting and enjoy doing some roleplay that
I actually like acting. It is a very good stress relief for me and I totally get immersed in it in
my free time.

It was a great opportunity for me to get selected in Rangpunch, The Dramatic club of
NMIMS. I was happy to land myself a role in their short film- which was also the first time I
was acting off the stage and doing a video.

My extrinsic motivators are the main reason I was not able to achieve my SMART goal. My
tangible extrinsic motivators like- getting a high paid job, getting good marks, winning
competition- made me feel good and I was always motivated to achieve it. Intangible
extrinsic motivators like praise, encouragement, and compliment have helped me to push my
limits and to achieve more in life.

But little did I know that by keeping my extrinsic motivation above my intrinsic motivation I
was actually procrastinating my SMART goals. But I didn’t get to learn the fact that my
SMART goal can actually help me achieve my extrinsic goals. Whether it be scoring good
marks or getting a well-paid job, all activities require me to be focused to achieve those. But
instead, I put off my intrinsic values for achieving my extrinsic goals. If I have not reflected
on myself, I would not have understood this and would not have tried to achieve my SMART
Goals.
 STRATEGIES

In order to achieve my SMART goal, I need to follow a systematic approach.

 Evaluate self- I need to evaluate the pros of having a meditation for mental health and
well-being. Also, I will have to evaluate or measure what I will be missing on not
being punctual in doing meditation.
 Checklist-I will also develop a checklist to help me evaluate how close am I able to
achieve my goal. I will be taking the help of mobile apps (such as TimeTunes) to help
me track my daily meditation count wherein I will be able to lock-in the number of
minutes I spend on meditation. This will also provide me with daily, weekly and
monthly report which will be helpful for me to evaluate myself. Also, it will serve as
motivation for me to continue the long run.
 Communication- To maintain my mental calmness and peace I will also connect with
my loved ones. I have also read that, research has proved that speaking to one’s loved
ones for even 5 minutes can create mental stability and reduce stress. I would speak to
my loved ones (who care about my well-being- which includes my parents and
relatives) on a regular basis. This will also help me to open-up my problems with my
loved ones and seek help from them
 Embrace gratitude- Showing gratitude helps us to maintain inner peace and mental
well-being. It will also help me to control my inner happiness. Even if I am not in full
control of my emotions, I will be able to steer happiness and maintain my mental-
being by showing gratitude.
 Scheduling/ Planning- I will schedule my day-to-day routine to avoid chaos and also
to keep myself calm and not to panic in case of any surprise element in life. Planning
the day beforehand will also help me to incorporate meditation in my morning
schedule. For daily scheduling, I will seek the help of the Scheduler app.
 Healthy diet and lifestyle- the major part of mental well- being is governed by a
healthy lifestyle. Although I rarely have junk food, I will have to try to minimise it to
the point of nil.
 Balancing intrinsic and extrinsic- Although both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
gives me happiness, I have to see to the point that my extrinsic motivation doesn’t
compromise on my intrinsic motivation. I have to maintain a strict balance so that
both my motivations are satisfied for the greater good of my well-being.
 Key Learning

How much ever try, how much ever do there is going to be so many external and internal
factors which will demotivate you to achieve your goal. These external factors may include
work pressure or lower grades in the exam. It may also include some factors which are not in
your control like someone’s bad behaviour or someone you care about met with an accident.
Such activities are sure to disturb your mental peace. You become disturbed and won’t be
able to do your work. It can make your daily chaos.

I have realised that eternal happiness and to fully achieve mental health and well-being is a
myth. Although we have to try to achieve mental health and well-being as much as possible,
it doesn’t come as a guarantee that we will devoid of disturbance.

But what is important is keeping peace of mind even in times of difficulty. It is important to
keep your emotions in control as much as you can. Meditation can surely help me achieve it.
It’s also important to take note that such factors don’t have any impact on your goals and you
stay focused. Also, it’s okay to let go of things than to carry emotional baggage. It’s
important to take life as it is.

Few of the leadership quality that I have developed over the course of the assignment
includes-

 To take a deep breath and to maintain composure in case I am under stress

 To learn to adapt and grow.
 Take life as it comes- not to run away from problems and the ability to face it
 To schedule and plan the day beforehand.
 To stay optimistic throughout the difficulty
 The ability to stay calm and composed under pressure
 To show love and compassion to my loved ones.
 Not to compromise on my core values or SMART Goals
 To identify my intrinsic and extrinsic values

Altogether this was a great experience for me. It reflected on myself and reflect/ improve
upon myself. It showed my strength and weakness as a Leader. It also showed the hindrance
to achieving my goals. Even the smallest problem can add up to culminate upon to have a big
burden upon you.
Peer Feedback

Nikhil is very clear about his goal. It is close to his personal life. He has shown
genuine interest in meditation. We remember him educating us about mediation and its
impact on mental health and well-being since first semester. We believe that if he is are
dedicated towards something, he will be able to achieve it- he has such a good determination.
He continuously shared his tasks and goals and that is what kept us notified about his work.
He has shown keen interest in achieving his goal. He also wishes that we as a group also
meditate on a regular basis, which clear state his personal vision.

Aditya: Should show more dedication and consistency in achieving his goal, just like
he shows dedication and consistency in doing group work

Animesh: Nikhil is very resourceful and extremely punctual in his work. I have strong
believe that he will achieve his SMART goal in short time if he shows a bit more of
involvement in the goal

Ankush: A good friend of mine who is extremely disciplined and humble. His goals
are clear and his objectives are outlined very clearly. He has the determination to achieve
many things in life- a true leader

Kejal- A bit of sharpening his leadership ability and then he can become CEO of the
greatest company is the world. Humble and open friend.

Shivangi- After going through this project work of his, I have strong faith that if
Nikhil improve upon his dedication in achieving his SMART goal, he can become the true
Leader. He has all qualities to be a leader, a bit of polishing is required.

Ratings:

Parameters/ Rating out of 5 Aditya Animesh Ankush Kejal Shivangi Average Self
Goal Clarity 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Outlined objectives 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Dedication 4 4 5 5 4 4.4 4.5
Involvement 4 5 4 5 5 4.6 4
Consistency 5 4 5 5 4 4.6 5
Openness to Feedback 5 5 5 5 5 5 5