On Leadership and Healing the Toxic Leader

Linked 2 Leadership

Earlier this year, someone sent me a Washington Post article about the Pentagon’s investigative actions to remove abusive leaders.

• One general was described as a profane screamer who was “cruel and oppressive.”
• Another leader was singled out as a verbally abusive taskmaster and still another was “dictatorial,” “unglued,”a master of “profanity-fused outbursts.”
• A power-hungry senior Department of Defense civilian was so bad her subordinates said that it was “like you were in a prisoner of war camp.”

Fortunately, I’ve never been assigned to an abusive, toxic leader except when I was in a Vietnam POW camp for more than five years. When I came home, I made a vow that I’d never serve under those conditions again.

“Freedom and dignity were much more important than any short-term security.”

The Toxic Leader

The problem exists in every field of work, and regularly I hear about someone leaving a good job…

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On Leadership and True Commitment

Linked 2 Leadership

I spent the last three days in an intensive training session on change management.  I had returned home from visiting Los Angeles no less than 2 days before the training started.  As you can imagine, I was still operating on LA time.

I’m embarrassed to say that an overload of caffeine and sugar was needed to successfully carry me through the three days.

On Leadership and Training

Much of the training time was spent working on applied exercises.  As I worked intensely on the different assessments, the trainer would say “times up” before my work was completed.

Invariably, I would look up and say, “But I’m not done yet!”

She would smile and say that she knew I wasn’t done but we needed to move on.  I fought with myself to let go of each exercise and move on physically and emotionally to the next.

This…

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திருவெம்பாவை , திருப்பள்ளியெழுச்சி- மார்கழி உற்சவம்

No Greater Joy

Practical Practice Management

For many, this week is represents a big Holiday and for many this Holiday may bring a lot of stress with it.  In the office that I work in we discussed several weeks ago about everyone taking a vacation day on Friday since Christmas fell on a Thursday and many of the staff would have relatives staying for the long weekend.

It just made sense for our office and once the decision was made you could feel the relief from everyone, knowing that they would have a long weekend to enjoy family and plan extra activities that would make the season more enjoyable for them.

It is important to remember that everyone reacts differently to Holidays, some are sad, many are stressed, and for some people they hate the Holiday season for some reason that they either will gladly tell you about or not.

We need to be sensitive to…

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Seek Compassion

Practical Practice Management

“To be hopeful in bad times is based on the fact that human history is not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, and kindness. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand Utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

~Howard Zinn

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Do You Want To Know A Secret?

Practical Practice Management

Happy Holidays to you all! I just finished reading a great book by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller called “The Secret, What Great Leaders Know and Do”.

As with all of Ken Blanchard’s books this one did not disappoint me. I have read almost all of the books he has written or co-authored and the way he tells the stories in each case is fun, holds your attention and easy to read.

The journey that the main character, “Debbie” takes not only shows the errors that Leaders make, but also once that they learn the steps of successful leading how the people who they are leading become productive team players with potential to be leaders themselves. 

At the end of the book the authors have a section dedicated to resources and questions the reader can use to reflect on their own leadership skills.

The big take away for me (at…

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Amazing incident about a blessing for a child

Sage of Kanchi

Thanks to Shri Varagooran mama for this wonderful post in FB…The beauty of the incident that even at the end Periyava did not give the coin before proper completion – that is Periyava!!! English translation is also updated here…

“தருமிக்கு பொற்கிழி தர்றதுக்காக திருவிளையாடல் பண்ணின அந்த சங்கரர் மாதிரியே குட்டிப் பொண்ணுக்கு தங்கக்காசு குடுக்க இந்த சங்கரர் செஞ்ச லீலைன்னுதான் சொல்லணும்!”

கட்டுரை-பி. ராமகிருஷ்ணன் (பகுதி)

நன்றி-இந்த மாத குமுதம் பக்தி.

பரம பவித்ரமான ராமநாமத்தை எழுதறதும் சொல்றதும் எல்லா இடத்துலயும் எல்லார்கிட்டேயும் பரவணும்கறதுக்காக, அந்த காலத்துல ஒரு ஏற்பாடு செஞ்சிருந்தார் பரமாச்சார்யா. அது என்னனா, ஒரு லட்சம் தரம் ராமஜெயம் எழுதிக் கொண்டு வந்து அவர்கிட்டே சமர்ப்பிச்சா, தங்கக்காசு ஒண்ணை குங்குமப் பிரசாதத்தோட சேர்த்து அவாளுக்கு தருவார் ஆசார்யா. பரமாசார்யா கையால பவுன் வாங்கணும்கறதுக்காகவே ராமஜெயம் எழுத ஆரம்பிச்சாங்க பலர். மடத்துலஆசார்யா இருக்கற சமயத்துல அவரை தரிசிக்க வரும்போது கூடவே ராமஜெயம் எழுதி நோட்டுக்களைக் கொண்டு வந்து கொடுத்து ஆசார்யாகிட்டே ஆசிர்வாதமும் தங்ககாசும் வாங்கிண்டு போறது பக்தர்கள் பலருக்கும் வழக்கமா இருந்தது.

இந்த நல்ல பழக்கம் மேலும் மேலும் வளரணும்கறதுக்காக பரமாச்சார்யா ஒரு யோசனை சொன்னார். ஒருலட்சம் முடியலைன்னாலும் அதுல எட்டுல ஒரு பங்கு அதாவது பன்னிரண்டாயிரத்து ஐந்நூறு தரம் எழுதினாலும் போதும், அதுக்குப்…

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Experiences Of Sri Sriraman

Sage of Kanchi

Four generations of Sri Sriraman’s family have had the ‘bhaghyam’ of meeting Mahaperiyava. His grand father and he have served MahaPeriyava.

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Acharya on simple marriages!

Sage of Kanchi

Thanks to Shri Harekrishna for sharing this document.

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Trust Doesn’t Scale

My son knows that I am highly interested in anything having to do with trust, so he recently shared a quote that was generated by Taylor Swift, the country music singer. Taylor said,

“Trust doesn’t scale because it isn’t reducible to math.”

That quote was really thought-provoking for me. I believe her point was that trust involves emotion and risk, and those things are part of the human condition similar to the concept of love.

As I thought about it more, I think her observation about trust breaks down. There are several reasons why trust does scale.

1. You can add it or add to it – If I trust one person to do something, I can increase the level of trust into other areas and have higher total trust with that person. The word “total” here implies a kind of addition. Likewise including another person into the equation means…

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