Life is a movie

Life is a movie.   We can kind of guess the climax, but still enjoy how the story unveils.

We like to play

As kids we liked to play.  Sometimes we won, sometimes we lost.  But we went out with the same set of friends to play the next day.  Office politics / power play the same way.   We like to play, we win some, we lose some.   That's what makes life interesting. And the best part is in the process we learn new skills. 

Authenticity makes a big difference

In my early years of career, I had heard the advice that people start believing in you when you they know more about you including your vulnerabilities.  It didn't make sense initially as I grew up with the belief that I should project only my strong side and hide my emotional side and weakness.  Through the later part of the career, I understood it did me harm when you project only the good side of you, especially when you lead people.   When you project only your stronger side, you appear superhuman to people and that is not something people can match up to or look forward to.  There are not too many superheroes who have company!   

When you start connecting with your authentic self including your true vulnerability and share stories of how you failed and regained, that starts inspiring people.  It takes a lot of strength to talk about your vulnerabilities and expose who you truly are.  But once you start doing that, it frees you up.  It gives you childlike joy with nothing to hide in your mind.   You can connect compassionately with others, not worrying if you would appear weak.  It is ok to be weak sometimes and those tears are great stressbusters!

Don't break the chain: How discipline matters

When you grow in the leadership position, another key thing you understand is how much discipline matters.   You have a large team counting on you and you need to keep the commitments.  Keeping these commitments are key to your credibility.  One or two instances you might get some slack.    

The key to maintain discipline and to learn new winning habits is not to break the chain.   Consistenly tracking your desired behavior gives you the accountability and the satisfaction that your life is on track.  Of course, there could be emergenices which throw us off a consistent schedule, but with pratice is becomes a happy and content life that we always try to come back to the consistent behavior patterns aka discipline. 

Act with Integrity

Interacting with integrity is key to building long term relationships.  Living with integrity is key to happiness.

How do you act with integrity?

I act with integrity by being accountable for my thoughts and actions.   Being open in my communicaiton with others, interact with hidden agenda and apologies if my emotions / ego based thoughts take over.   Admitting that I am vulnerable has been a key learning in my journey show integrity.   From a know all / can do all attitude to admitting that I don't know everything  / can' do everything by myself was the first step in my journey to act with integrity. 

Bringing out the best in people

Status quo gets boring and the way to come out of it is by challenging yourself.  The same apply to the people you interact with.  Challenging people intellectually brings out the best in them.  Heathly challenge between teams or individuals which promotes creativity and efficieny is good for the overall team and the organization.