Personal Leadership

Personal leadership represents the leadership that is beyond the ego. Ego based leadership is about power for control, prestige and personal reward; the kind we normally come up against! On the other hand Personal Leadership is about focusing on the needs and aspirations of ALL. Broadly speaking in personal leadership I will examine my knowledge of myself. How am I leading myself, before I want to lead others, whether in the family or at work or in the society?

The quality of our personal leadership beliefs will dictate how we will feel and behave. Personal leadership is leading from the inside – out. It is choosing to live from our own values, essence and sense of meaning – rather than the byproduct of life happening to us. As we change, and then become the role model for change – our environment changes as a byproduct. Old outdated behaviors like having the need to change/ control someone falls away and we become more allowing of those around us.

Successful Leaders know their Personal Leadership Philosophy and communicate it by living it passionately everyday in all they say and do. They have taken the time to determine who they are, their values and priorities. They know their course and have set their internal compass, which gives them greater self knowledge, greater self confidence, and improved effectiveness as a leader. They know how to create level and balance between work and home. Balance between physical, emotional, and intellectual needs. Not neglecting one at the expense of the others.

We all want to control the behavior of others, and thus call the outcome as leadership. How much is that a true leadership? A true leader is the one who knows to control his own behavior, let us examine how the individual’s behavior is controlled.

We all have five gross senses (eyes, ears, nostrils, tongue and skin), and we also have five acting senses (hands, legs, voice, genitals, and anus), and three subtle senses (mind, intelligence, and ego). Everything that we know and perceive is nothing but the products of the inexhaustible permutations and combination of the forms taken in through these thirteen senses. In this way our situation and behavior is carved by our perception of surroundings through these senses.

Without doubt, MIND is the most unsteady and difficult to control, the senses are the greatest source of distraction for mind. Mind is the leader and these ten senses are its employees/assistants. Mind has to control and give instructions to his assistants as a leader, and not the other way round. So next time you feel your junior assistant trying to influence and control you, first check is your mind under the influence of its assistants/ senses?? Mind is influenced by intelligence and ego, the other two subtle senses, intelligence is of-course budhi / wisdom which is positive but ego comes through stored unconscious habits of the past which is dangerous and need to be controlled.

Mind can be controlled through practice and dispassion (renunciation). To control our own mind we need to delink from the unnecessary negative thoughts from past, present and other sources on one side and on the other side we need to link the mind with God in order to get the right thoughts, to do any task or assess any situation.

One should through gradual practice attain tranquility by fixing the MIND on God, with reason controlled by steadfastness and without thinking of anything else. The application of de-linking process is based on the fact that at one moment when the MIND is engaged at one particular spot it is not linked with the other spot at the same moment. Thus if one trains oneself to disengage the MIND from the world outside it will by its own nature get directed towards the centre (the Atman). Let us look at it in another way. Our scriptures are full of description that the world is nothing, but an illusion or maayaa or dream. It has existence but is unreal. In fact, it is a creation of MIND. The same challenge is assessed and created differently by different minds, so at the end of the day it is all our mind’s creation.

If through subtle art of meditation one is able to consciously quiet the MIND, one realizes the falsehood of experience, like in dream it seems all so real but we realize it as unreal only after getting up from sleep. The reality of the Supreme presence of all pervading Paramaatman/ God becomes glorified once the false-existence of world, created by MIND is negated. Thus through the DELINKING PROCESS one can get linked with Paramatman/ God, which in fact is the REALITY and only due to ignorance one is slave of the senses and the MIND. There is need to become their master and in order to so the TAMING OF MIND, through abhyaas/ practice is to be followed by the DELINKING PROCESS. Once we have control over our own mind, we can easily get the desired results from our team members achieving effective leadership.

For personal leadership one can pray, study, listen, meditate and reflect as a regular practice, but setting aside an extended period of time for a more intensive encounter alone with God provides an incredibly rich grounding for leadership. Consistently making Him a part of our day to day activity, talking to Him and taking His guidance even on all petty issues. Keeping the following checks on a regular basis:

1. An integrity check – are we living out our stated values? Are our intentions and motivations honorable? Are we walking the talk?
2. An obedience check – are we doing what God has asked us to do? Following God’s laws and trusting His leadership? Confessing, repenting and forgiving?
3. A word check – are we able to perceive God’s truth and work it out in our own life? Can we discern God’s guidance for us personally? Being able to discern God’s guidance is a prerequisite to leading God’s people.

Those who don’t have their senses under control would have a difficult time living in the wilderness. According to Vedic philosophy, we living entities have been placed in this material world and given suitable bodies in order to fulfill our desire for sense enjoyment. Sense gratification is achieved by attempting to satisfy the aforementioned senses. However through experience, we learn that the senses actually never get satisfied. We are always hankering after something that we want, or lamenting after something that we don’t have. This cycle repeats over and over again, and through our desires and actions, we keep receiving new bodies after giving up our current ones at the time of death. True spiritual advancement only comes when we are able to subdue our senses. Connecting our minds with the Supreme Lord. By concentrating all of our activities on God, and always thinking about Him, we gradually become immune to the desires of our senses. It doesn’t require one to give up any of his activities, but simply relate them with God.

Once our internal compass is directionally oriented towards God, we shall lead in the right direction first our self and then people around us.