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There is more to good leadership that Practicing mindfulness while driving

just being a great motivator Drinking alcohol during pregnancy? It can

Part of good leadership is to set a clear direction, find your employees’ innate harm your baby’s brain development
gifts and encourage them to use those gifts
Exercise helps mitigate fatigue post breast
BY AZIM JAMAL | 21 Feb 2017 cancer treatment

Research-backed advice to help you stop

mindless eating

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develop conspiracy theories

Strict parenting increases risk of depression

in later life

New dads experience changes in their brains

Even asexual individuals can forge

successful romantic relationships: New
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Poor gut health may cause breast cancer to

spread

Rumi says, “Something opens our wings. Something makes boredom and
FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS
heartache disappear. Someone fills the cup in front of us. We taste only
sacredness.” All human beings have great potential. The question every Dr Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., bestselling author
of The Biology of Belief, is a cellular biologist
leader asks is “How do we tap into this enormous potential?”
Wayne Allen, retired psychotherapist, author
of 5 books, Zen practitioner
A few years ago I was in Tajikistan, where I worked with a company that
Dr David Bardsley, author, surgeon and
was struggling with both finances and motivating its staff. I was forewarned speaker

that the staff members did not have business sense because they had Liggy Webb, leading authority in the field of
become accustomed to the Soviet system in which the state did everything. behavioural change and positive psychology

The private enterprise system was foreign to them. Patricia Spadaro, award-winning author of
Honor Yourself: The Inner Art of Giving and
Receiving.
My job was to motivate the staff, and I was given two full days to
Bijay Anand, Kundalini Yoga teacher and
accomplish this. After flying to Tajikistan and getting a VIP welcome at the actor

airport, I was brought back to reality when I travelled by jeep to the Dwayna M Covey, performance consultant,
speaker, certified laughter leader, laughter
company’s headquarters. What was supposed to be a 12-hour drive in the yoga teacher and reiki master
mountains turned out to be a 19-hour commute with four flat tires and no
Phoebe Hutchison, professional counsellor
real washrooms or restaurants along the way. and author

Walter Michael Bortz II, professor of

We reached our destination at 3am. The view of the mountains was medicine at Stanford University and author

nothing short of spectacular. Getting out of the car, high in the mountains, Akshay Chopra, Athlete, coach, nutritionist,
author and former pilot
I was greeted by thousands of stars, each seemingly bigger than the earth. I
Dr Jaishree Sharad, consultant cosmetic
was watching with my entire five-foot-seven-inch height. If I’d ever wanted
dermatologist and author
to learn a lesson in humility, it was right there.
Dr Minnu R Bhonsle, consulting
psychotherapist, counsellor and counselling
teacher
GETTING OUT OF THE CAR, HIGH IN THE
MOUNTAINS, I WAS GREETED BY THOUSANDS
OF STARS, EACH SEEMINGLY BIGGER THAN
THE EARTH

“I won’t motivate them”

At 8am the CEO was knocking on my door, saying, “Hey, Mr Motivator,
please come and motivate my people.” I told the CEO that I was not doing
that. He was surprised because that was the purpose of my engagement.

I told him that what I wanted to do was spend the first of my two days
interviewing his top 25 people. He didn’t think that was going to help
because they had no idea about business. I told him that didn’t matter
because I needed to understand the challenges from their perspective before
I could motivate them. I did not leave him much choice.

I spent the entire day interviewing his top 25 people, many of them with the
help of a translator. I asked them three questions:

1. Do you have a clear idea of the vision and mission of your company?

2. What are the big roadblocks preventing you from working at your best?

3. If you were the CEO of the company, how would you run it differently?

As they responded, I made notes and ended up with about 30 pages. In the
evening I asked the CEO to assemble these top 25 people at 8am the next
day. He asked me when I was going to start motivating. I told him,
“Sometime tomorrow.”

I woke up at 2am and summarised the 30 pages into 10 key areas, which I
wrote on a white board. At 7am I went through these 10 points with the
interviewees to confirm that I had captured the essence of what they had
stated the previous day. They studied the list hard and confirmed that the
points encapsulated our individual discussions.

I WOKE UP AT 2AM AND SUMMARISED THE 30

PAGES INTO 10 KEY AREAS, WHICH I WROTE
ON A WHITE BOARD

rom my interviews, I learned that no one had a clear picture of the vision
and mission of the company. I decided to put them into groups of four to
brainstorm about where they would like to see the company in five years’
time. I gave them approximately 30 minutes to do this.

Subsequently, I had one member from each group present their findings. As
we went through each presentation, they were not only able to articulate a
powerful vision and mission but also came up with a logo and branding
proposition. Incredible! I had never seen any group that I have dealt with
come up with all of this in a matter of an hour and have consensus around
it. This was a group that supposedly had no business background.
Absolutely amazing!

This example illustrates two key points. First, we underestimate people’s

capabilities. We all have innate gifts. Second, without clarity of purpose and
direction, there is no motivation.

Importance of clarity
If you don’t have a clear sense of your purpose and goals, you cannot use
your innate gift well.

A few years ago, Harris Interactive, the originators of the Harris Poll, polled
23,000 American residents employed full-time in key industries and key
functional areas. Among other things, they reported the following findings:

Only 1 in 5 was enthusiastic about their team and organisation’s goals.

Only 1 in 5 had a clear “line of sight” linking their tasks and the team
and organisation’s goals.

Only 15 per cent felt their organisation fully enabled them to execute key
goals.

Only 17 per cent felt their organisation fostered open communication

that was respectful of different viewpoints.

Only 10 per cent felt their organisation held people accountable.

Only 20 per cent fully trusted their organisation.

In his excellent book, The 8th Habit, Stephen Covey explains these findings
as follows:

If, say, a soccer team had these same scores, only four of the eleven players
on the field would know which goal is theirs. Only two of the eleven would
care. Only two of eleven would know which position they play and exactly
what they are supposed to do. And all but two players would, in some way,
be competing against their own team members rather than the opponent.
Can you imagine the personal and organisational cost of failing to fully
engage the passion, talent and intelligence of the workforce?

A shared vision is an absolute must

Is everyone aiming at the same goal? If not, there will be scattered energy.
Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, often shared with his teams
the GE philosophy for the organisation: Either they were #1 or #2, or they
would fix, close or sell. His blueprint for transforming GE’s performance
was to keep it simple. That is the power of mission and focus. It is
important to have a common or shared vision. Once people buy into a
vision, it is easier to implement. You need the contribution of everyone who
is part of the vision.

You may also like: What a leader is not

Part of good leadership is to set a clear direction, find your employees’

innate gifts and encourage them to use those gifts. By doing this, you
encourage your employees to work to their potential. You may lose some
employees when they realise they do not belong in your team—but better to
get them off your team early rather than late.

A version of this article first appeared in the June 2012 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

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Spot an error in this article? A typo maybe? Or an incorrect source? Let

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TAGS Azim Jamal coaching leadership skills stephen covey strategy teambuilding vision

Azim Jamal
http://corporatesufi.com/

Azim Jamal is the founder of Corporate Sufi Worldwide, a company dedicated to

inspiring leaders to achieve material success, blended with a deep sense of purpose,
passion and happiness. Azim is the author of several highly-acclaimed books and has
conducted high-level coaching assignments with billion-dollar corporations. His inspiring
message has been heard live by over 1,000,000 people in 30 countries.

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