The Triumph of Leadership

TO run the race and not pass the baton is madness, and to run a race on your own is incomprehensible. It was recently reported that William Henry Gates III (better known as Bill Gates) will be resigning from Microsoft. This is a company which he founded with his high school buddy, Paul Allen. He is leaving Microsoft in great financial health, while he is in the top three of the world richest behind his friend Warren Buffet and Mexican Carlos Slim. He has passed on the baton to the new generation of leaders who will take Microsoft to the next level. This is the essence of leadership – passing on the baton. Make no mistake; Bill Gates is a top class entrepreneur. However, Microsoft is now faced with new challenges requiring new thinking. There is a new generation of IT geeks who are changing the competitive dynamics in the industry. An “old hand” from the old school like Bill Gates might find the ball game a bit too fast to cope. Kudos to Mr Gates for understanding the times.

Success Without A Successor is Failure

The majority of first generation of African entrepreneurs did everything right except grow successors. The day they died, is the day their businesses died. How tragic! This is not limited to the world of business alone, but also to politics, religious and social arena. If the entrepreneurial spirit, exceptional organisational skills, managerial talent and excellent governance that was obtaining during the time Great Zimbabwe or Khami Ruins was built, Zimbabwe would surely be great today. Successive Zimbabwean generations have passed on this key DNA.

I could talk of the of 15^th century Zimbabwe chiefs like Nyanhewe Matope or Nyatsimba Mutota. They built the strong Munhumutapa Empire underpinned by a clear succession policy. The challenge is on the current generation of leaders across the political divide to stop grandstanding and protect this great nation’s enduring traditions. As one generation passes on the baton, let them do it with honour, and those who receive the baton accept with humility. Zimbabwe as a nation has a collective responsibility to manage generational succession. The success of any nation depends on its ability to promote leadership succession. It’s a matter of survival as it is of self preservation.

Succession Is Not An Accident

There is one certainty in life – you will not always been around. This fact of life makes it imperative for you to consciously develop people around you who will carry your dreams to the next generation. One Moses of ancient Israel used to do everything, until his father in law, Jethro told him, “This idea of doing everything yourself, is not wise, delegate!” This principle of delegation known as the “Jethro Principle”, is at the heart of succession planning. The best way to grow leaders is to give them responsibilities. Put in their pathway, challenges and assignments which develop their skills. The late televangelist, John Osteen, prepared his son, Joel who has managed to continue with his father’s vision. The whole Kenneth Copeland generation is involved in church the ministry so that when Kenneth Copeland is off the scene, the vision stays alive. Arin Sarin the CEO of Vodafone will soon be leaving but a successor is already in place to lead the next wave of business challenges. The important thing is that these successors have been thoroughly prepared. When Jack Welch left General Electric a few years ago, he had 3 equally good successors, to an extent he had to get the other two jobs at 3M and Home Depot as CEOs since he could only appoint one.

A Time To Handover

Even our Lord Jesus, divine as He was, knew there was a time to handover. His model of succession has endured the test of time. His twelve disciples received the baton from Him, and went on to make ‘disciples of all nations’. 2000 years later, the vision is just as strong, neither has architectural integrity been compromised – the message is still the same. Succession is about knowing that the world must not revolve around you. If your vision will die with you, then it’s a small vision. The mark of true leadership is to know when its time to leave the scene and take the backseat. The triumph of leadership is the ability to handover the baton under terms which you can define not when you are about to faint or collapse before the finishing line.

Life As A Stage

Opening Act: Scene 1

The day begins. There are numerous decisions to make, people to please, work with, persuade, negotiate with. There are many roles to play: mother/father, manager, peer, sub-ordinate, friend, son/daughter, partner, patient. There are also a multitude of goals to achieve: financial, social, spiritual, physical, professional, work, personal. It’s all in a day’s work and all pretty serious. Or is it? Let’s not forget that we’ll do it all again tomorrow.

The bigger Picture

Using our presence of mind, or some might say losing it, we may be able to lift ourselves out of the trees and get the bird’s eye view. What if we allowed ourselves a brief indulgence in make-believe and saw ourselves as actors playing this part according to a ficticious script? Then, we might see things differently. All the politics, promotions, possessions, social circles and so many other details that we had unconsciously slipped into identifying ourselves with may not be so important in the bigger scheme of things after all. It might even be quite an entertaining drama from the observer’s perspective.

What Really matters?

Numerous opportunities have been created for us to be who we choose to be during the course of each day, within the personality that we play in the drama of life. So when we’re grinding our teeth to a pulp trying to make things go our way, it might help to consider that this is just a play about who we are being as opposed to what the outcome is. Are we playing the victim or the criminal, the freedom-fighter or the oppressor, the sadist or the masochist, the pleaser or the pleasure-seeker, the labourer or the capitalist, the leader or the follower? At a deeper level, these antonyms are on the same piece of string – tackling opposite ends of the power theme of the play are the oppressor and the oppressed. You cannot have one without the other. Yin and Yang. You can have them at varying degrees of strength, though- some subtle, other more obvious. It’s pain that awakens us to change, unless we realize it sooner.

We can play many different roles in the great plethora of situations that are created for us each day – numerous sets and props and scripts to choose from. What will you choose in each instance? What drives you? What energises you into motion? What is your cue?

When life’s not working

If you don’t recognize your cue, if you’re feeling drained of energy instead, then ask yourself one key question: am I playing the role that is truly me? Am I being the person that I choose to be or am I too busy doing? What are the themes of the drama that is my life? If I am driven by leading others, where in my life can I change from being a follower to a leader? How can I better present these themes in the world so I may come alive in the experience of this drama? How can I make it an adventure for myself and for those with whom I interact?

Changing the script one minor influence at a time

So why not try to change the world using the only leverage we may have: who we wish to be each moment of every day, rubbing off on all we come into contact with. We have the power to change the world by changing our own attitudes. Like an artist, let’s paint the colours that we wish to experience in our lives. Let’s choose to live life vibrantly, settling for anything less is criminal for it means that we have suffocated that greatness that lies latent within us.

The final curtain

Having trouble figuring out who to be? Then follow this simple exercise:

Imagine your final stage in life. Who and what would you like to be surrounded by? How would you like to be known? What impression would you like to leave on this planet? Is that picture quite different to the one that you’re living now? If so, how can you re-design your life toward that final scene and start living it as soon as you wish?

By Rakhee Nathoo

Executive and Personal Coach

Intuition: The Sub-conscious mind is not Infallible – Rakhee Nathoo

What is the purpose of the subconscious mind?

It has been said that “There is nothing new under the sun”. Perhaps this idea stems from the concept that all possibilities exist at all times – it’s just a matter of which one do we choose at any one time. What we regard as trial and error experiments, we could perhaps minimize as we learn to access the subconscious mind. When we are fully relaxed, the sub-conscious mind is there to help us create. It brings forward information that we would not otherwise have access to. We need to oscillate between the super-conscious and conscious states in order to manifest into some form the vast creative energy/intelligence that exists in the sub-conscious realm.

How do we use the sub-conscious mind?

While the concept of applying the sub-conscious mind is still a relatively new one, those who are more enthusiastic should also guard against taking the concept too far. We cannot know upfront what our life-journey is and so we cannot know what the outcome is each decision is to be. When it has occurred, we cannot know whether the outcome was moving us closer to our life-purpose or further away.

It has taken mankind millions of years to evolve to a state where we are aware that we have a mind that can be trained to work for us or else it generally defaults to working against us. Just as in my own life, I expect most others would also notice all the self-inflicted pain and suffering that has been caused by the mind reading stories into situations that may actually never have existed. That’s where it starts and if that negative state is acted upon, untold misery can follow. I suppose, most people buy into this concept of training the mind to be as positive thinking and objective as possible.

It follows then that the subconscious mind as vast and non-discretionary as it is, can be a powerful tool for creation or destruction. If we are to go by the example of the conscious mind, the benefits or harm affect the self as much as they do the external world.

So, how do we go about training the sub-conscious mind?

At this stage in our evolution, I believe it would help us to first understand the sub-conscious mind. It is there to provide information and aid the conscious mind in accomplishing it’s quests. It conveys inspiration from the spirit energy. So, the question is how do we go about gaining a deeper understanding of the sub-conscious mind?

Respect and acknowledgement

Firstly, by ensuring that we respect the sub-conscious mind just as much as we do all the other parts of the magnificent entity known as the human body. While respecting it, we need to ensure that it is mature/evolved enough to handle the responsibility of being a guide to the conscious mind. After all, it is a tremendous responsibility to convey messages from the spirit to the conscious mind.

Holistic Alignment

Secondly, by ensuring that the mind (conscious and sub-conscious) is aligned with the will of the body and spirit. In order to achieve this, we need to develop a good relationship with the mind, body and spirit. (At this point you may ask who are we if not the mind, body or spirit? My view is that we are the fragment of the larger spirit body able to objectively identify as the seer who looks at the results of each decision and action and is able to inject enough love energy to keep the body and mind in motion).

When is the mind aligned with the spirit?

When a thought is made out of love, it is aligned with the spirit. When it is made out of fear, it is misaligned. When our interpretation of a sub-conscious message leaves us feeling fearful, then we have misinterpreted the message. If it is a message of how to love ourselves and others better, then it has been correctly interpreted. The law of nature is abundance rather than sacrifice.

Universal Love

Thirdly, by raising our state of consciousness to a point where we can experience that we are all one. This means that there will no longer be a place for judgment, prejudice or any emotion other than love for ourselves or for anything in existence.

How will we know when we have it?

We will be able to access an answer whenever we ask for it. There will be no doubt in our minds regarding what the message is. It may not make logical sense to the conscious mind and it may even cause unhappiness. However, a message that is aligned with the spirit is not concerned with transcient happiness or sorrow – it’s objective is to help us realize our spiritual mission. It will therefore require courage to act upon the message.

What are the signs of a less evolved relationship with the whole self?

Inner-conflict. Discomfort with whichever decision is chosen. Feelings of anger, hate, jealousy, frustration, fear, loneliness and any other numerous shadow emotions that we as humans experience either toward ourselves or toward others. Ultimately, there is only love. Anything else is just the journey of the shadow side of love.

Is mastery of the sub-conscious mind an impossible goal to aim for?

Why should it be when we’ve all experienced glimpses of our sub-concious mind in action – be it through inspired writing, painting, creating. Should we wish to be able to access it at will, then that will require mastery of the conscious mind first and belief in our abilities to do it. It is, afterall, our birthright to use all of our faculties optimally. Mastery of the sub-conscious mind will follow when we are ready for it – we must beware of tricking ourselves

Guest Post By Rakhee Nathoo

Executive and Personal Coach

Coaching South Africa