Limitless Performance.....

The limitless performance

We have probably all heard the “wise” saying: “the sky is the limit.” This would seem to have a lot of wisdom in it at first glance. However, it implies that man’s potential has a limit when in actual fact, man’s potential is limitless. Let’s examine what exactly one’s potential as a human being is. Firstly, let’s define potential. Potential is all that one can be, but have not yet become. It is all one can accomplish, but have not yet accomplished. It is unexposed or dormant ability. This means that the ability to become and to do is already there. It just hasn’t been brought out and utilized.

As in case of the greatest batsman in the world today, Sachin Tendulkar has the cricketing world at his feet. The adulation he commands world over is unsurpassed, perhaps since the days of Don Bradman, to whom of course he has been compared, by no less than the great man himself. While he may not end with a Test career average of 99.94, there is little doubt that based on his vigorous style of batsmanship and his insatiable appetite for runs and big scores, he is the most complete batsman since Vivian Richards. In many ways though he has surpassed even that outstanding West Indian batsman.

Tendulkar´s batting combines timing, elegance and power. Mentally very strong, Tendulkar is best when confronted by a challenge - as he showed when mowing down Shane Warne in India in 1998. Captain during two short stints, Tendulkar has made it clear that he would prefer to concentrate on his batting and indeed,

Consider a fertilized human egg (zygote). That single cell has the ability to form every part of the human body. Everything from your brain to your toenails can be formed by that single cell. It has unlimited potential.

One’s potential is limitless
Similarly, the mind of man has unlimited potential. It has the limitless ability to create. Man has been on earth for thousands of years, yet human beings are still making new discoveries today and creating new things everyday. Human beings cannot exhaust the creative power of their minds. The functioning of our minds remains, for the most part, a mystery even to modern day science. But even though we do not understand it’s functioning, we cannot deny its power.

One have the power within
An individuals most powerful asset is his mind. The answer to the question ‘what is a realistic goal and what is achievable’ is entirely up to one. If one’s mind can accept that something is achievable, it will find a way to attain that thing.

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” These are the immortal words of Napoleon Hill, a man who truly understood that “there are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.”

One’s possibilities are limited only by him thinking. What may be a limit for one person is a walk in the park for another. It’s all in the mindset. One’s potential as a human being, then, is unlimited. One have within one the ability to become and to achieve anything one want. Now that one understand that one’s potential is limitless, one’s next challenge is to answer the question: what do one want out of life? As a child, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was fascinated by the flight of seagulls. He grew up on the island of Rameshwaram where his father was a boat builder. Kalam's interest in flight led to a degree in aeronautical engineering, and eventually to his supervising the development of India's guided missiles and then on becoming the President of India.

Think of the possibilities

If money, education, social status and so on, were no hindrance what would one want out of life? If all the knowledge and wealth in the world were at one’s disposal what would one want to be and to do? Even with all the resources at one’s disposal, it is very likely that one would still struggle to come up with 3 goals that one is absolutely passionate about and to which one would dedicate every waking hour. Therein lies the problem – it is not one’s possibilities that are limited, it is one’s thinking!

One’s vision is limited only by oneself. The problem is that one don’t know what one should be. It’s not one’s fault, really: one’s education has messed one up. It has taken one’s boundless potential and shrunk it and shaped it into a narrow title.

It doesn’t matter what title has been placed on one, one need to break free from it. One is not what one does. One should see himself as the truly capable human being that he is. “The Jantar Mantar gave me inspiration," says KP Singh, the chairman of DLF, India's largest real estate company. "And the inspiration was that if this guy who conceived and made the Jantar Mantar centuries ago could be a forward-looking man, why is it that we can't be forward looking in our development and start to do something ahead of the time?" A simple village boy from a small town in Uttar Pradesh to England, where he went to study aeronautical engineering and became a part of the high society. He then returned to India for a career in the army, and later took a plunge into the world of business, finally taking charge of DLF , with the credit of developing the modern township of Gurgaon.

Cultivate the right mindset

This requires that one should look deep within and examine his mindset. Are there things one has accepted simply because everyone else seems to accept them? Has one accepted society’s standards as his own? A word of caution: society celebrates patchiness. Ordinary people do not like it when others get ahead. It only exposes their lack of vision and motivation. That is why patchiness is often embraced and excellence is shunned. Being ordinary is acceptable.

If one wants more, there is something wrong with one. If something is widely accepted and everyone is doing it, it is probably better for one as a dreamer not to do it. If one wants to get what everyone else is getting, do what everyone else is doing.

It is not difficult to see the results others are getting from what they are doing. One has to find one’s own way. One has to utilise the potential within oneself as a prospector digs for oil. The oil has always been there just waiting to be tapped. But if no one bothered to search for it and bring it to the surface it would just remain there dormant, wasting and useless.

Same is with one’s potential. If one does not challenge himself to grow beyond his present circumstances, it will just waste away and be totally useless not only to one, but to the rest of humanity.

Lastly, motivation implies pressure – to move forward, to do more- but too much pressure, in other words too much stress, can be harmful in both the short and the long term. Of course, the answer is balance. In the short-term, we need sufficient pressure to concentrate well and do the job quickly and efficiently, but not so much that panic starts to intrude an concentration becomes difficult. In the medium to long term, we must avoid working to exhaustion The link between motivation and performance seem to be an obvious one. If individuals are highly motivated, they will perform better. In turn, better performance may well lead to a sense of achievement and result in greater motivation.

Marianne Williamson said – “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?”

Limitless Performance.....

The limitless performance

We have probably all heard the “wise” saying: “the sky is the limit.” This would seem to have a lot of wisdom in it at first glance. However, it implies that man’s potential has a limit when in actual fact, man’s potential is limitless. Let’s examine what exactly one’s potential as a human being is. Firstly, let’s define potential. Potential is all that one can be, but have not yet become. It is all one can accomplish, but have not yet accomplished. It is unexposed or dormant ability. This means that the ability to become and to do is already there. It just hasn’t been brought out and utilized.

As in case of the greatest batsman in the world today, Sachin Tendulkar has the cricketing world at his feet. The adulation he commands world over is unsurpassed, perhaps since the days of Don Bradman, to whom of course he has been compared, by no less than the great man himself. While he may not end with a Test career average of 99.94, there is little doubt that based on his vigorous style of batsmanship and his insatiable appetite for runs and big scores, he is the most complete batsman since Vivian Richards. In many ways though he has surpassed even that outstanding West Indian batsman.

Tendulkar´s batting combines timing, elegance and power. Mentally very strong, Tendulkar is best when confronted by a challenge - as he showed when mowing down Shane Warne in India in 1998. Captain during two short stints, Tendulkar has made it clear that he would prefer to concentrate on his batting and indeed,

Consider a fertilized human egg (zygote). That single cell has the ability to form every part of the human body. Everything from your brain to your toenails can be formed by that single cell. It has unlimited potential.

One’s potential is limitless
Similarly, the mind of man has unlimited potential. It has the limitless ability to create. Man has been on earth for thousands of years, yet human beings are still making new discoveries today and creating new things everyday. Human beings cannot exhaust the creative power of their minds. The functioning of our minds remains, for the most part, a mystery even to modern day science. But even though we do not understand it’s functioning, we cannot deny its power.

One have the power within
An individuals most powerful asset is his mind. The answer to the question ‘what is a realistic goal and what is achievable’ is entirely up to one. If one’s mind can accept that something is achievable, it will find a way to attain that thing.

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” These are the immortal words of Napoleon Hill, a man who truly understood that “there are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.”

One’s possibilities are limited only by him thinking. What may be a limit for one person is a walk in the park for another. It’s all in the mindset. One’s potential as a human being, then, is unlimited. One have within one the ability to become and to achieve anything one want. Now that one understand that one’s potential is limitless, one’s next challenge is to answer the question: what do one want out of life? As a child, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was fascinated by the flight of seagulls. He grew up on the island of Rameshwaram where his father was a boat builder. Kalam's interest in flight led to a degree in aeronautical engineering, and eventually to his supervising the development of India's guided missiles and then on becoming the President of India.

Think of the possibilities

If money, education, social status and so on, were no hindrance what would one want out of life? If all the knowledge and wealth in the world were at one’s disposal what would one want to be and to do? Even with all the resources at one’s disposal, it is very likely that one would still struggle to come up with 3 goals that one is absolutely passionate about and to which one would dedicate every waking hour. Therein lies the problem – it is not one’s possibilities that are limited, it is one’s thinking!

One’s vision is limited only by oneself. The problem is that one don’t know what one should be. It’s not one’s fault, really: one’s education has messed one up. It has taken one’s boundless potential and shrunk it and shaped it into a narrow title.

It doesn’t matter what title has been placed on one, one need to break free from it. One is not what one does. One should see himself as the truly capable human being that he is. “The Jantar Mantar gave me inspiration," says KP Singh, the chairman of DLF, India's largest real estate company. "And the inspiration was that if this guy who conceived and made the Jantar Mantar centuries ago could be a forward-looking man, why is it that we can't be forward looking in our development and start to do something ahead of the time?" A simple village boy from a small town in Uttar Pradesh to England, where he went to study aeronautical engineering and became a part of the high society. He then returned to India for a career in the army, and later took a plunge into the world of business, finally taking charge of DLF , with the credit of developing the modern township of Gurgaon.

Cultivate the right mindset

This requires that one should look deep within and examine his mindset. Are there things one has accepted simply because everyone else seems to accept them? Has one accepted society’s standards as his own? A word of caution: society celebrates patchiness. Ordinary people do not like it when others get ahead. It only exposes their lack of vision and motivation. That is why patchiness is often embraced and excellence is shunned. Being ordinary is acceptable.

If one wants more, there is something wrong with one. If something is widely accepted and everyone is doing it, it is probably better for one as a dreamer not to do it. If one wants to get what everyone else is getting, do what everyone else is doing.

It is not difficult to see the results others are getting from what they are doing. One has to find one’s own way. One has to utilise the potential within oneself as a prospector digs for oil. The oil has always been there just waiting to be tapped. But if no one bothered to search for it and bring it to the surface it would just remain there dormant, wasting and useless.

Same is with one’s potential. If one does not challenge himself to grow beyond his present circumstances, it will just waste away and be totally useless not only to one, but to the rest of humanity.

Lastly, motivation implies pressure – to move forward, to do more- but too much pressure, in other words too much stress, can be harmful in both the short and the long term. Of course, the answer is balance. In the short-term, we need sufficient pressure to concentrate well and do the job quickly and efficiently, but not so much that panic starts to intrude an concentration becomes difficult. In the medium to long term, we must avoid working to exhaustion The link between motivation and performance seem to be an obvious one. If individuals are highly motivated, they will perform better. In turn, better performance may well lead to a sense of achievement and result in greater motivation.

Marianne Williamson said – “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?”

Changing Mindsets..... Middle level officers

The employees do not resist the change , what they resist is the transition from one phase to another . That's majorly because the transition phase is, in itself, an unclear stage, the middle level manager is relatively unclear of the phase. The top level management though shares the "to Stage" post transition and mostly every manager would be convinced but the unfreezing of the present stage is quite disheartening.The bottlenecks are treated as and when they arise. the guidelines need to flexible and the middle level manager is in a question mark situation in the absence of clear cut guidelines.

The middle level officer in routine tasks over a period of time assumes that he is not accountable, authorized and is powerless to take decisions during the performance of work. He feels that he is not capable of exercising positive influence to move the decision in the right direction or willingly he doesn’t want to take decision. That results in a spectator state like situation which is un warranted in this phase.

The change is permanent what is important is to induce the middle management on whom the success of any change or transformation rests on . This calls for enhancing systems working on the structure , systems and strategy for implementing change i.e the hard elements of the McKinsey's framework. The softer elements would necessarily follow (sharing values, skills, staff, and style) accordingly.

Once this is set then the unfreezing, intervening and the refreezing phases would not invite the resistance as the harder elements are already in place with the required skill set , and understanding of getting the objective accomplished.

Social Responsibility......

In present scenario where SR (Social responsibility) is the talk of town I believe it is a by- product of accountability of business at all levels. Increased perceptions of value-added in business in a sense, is based on this accountability. A firm that concentrates on market-based (intangible) assets drivers of value , will be able to sustain this asset .

Accountability of business not only rests on making profits, increased cost efficiency, increased contribution to shareholder value, enhancing product value,or contribute to increased cashflow ..... and so on. It also encompasses ability of the industry (nations firms) to achieve sustained success compared to the foreign competitors without protection and subsidies i.e strengthening the industry .

Accountability towards the society as a responsible citizen calls for achieving a high and rising standard of living which can be sustained over a long term by continuous improvement of productivity, to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystem thereby sustaining the equilibrium between the two.