Developing the growth mindset: Learning, Unlearning and Re-learning

Developing the growth mindset: Learning, Unlearning and Re-learning

Growth mind-set is developmental. It constantly stimulates growth and pushes an individual to the next level. Growth mindset is widely used in education system of many countries. The children are not penalized for doing something wrong, instead they  are appreciated, which enables them to be on the learning curve, which is in the path of growth.

Learning is very important in life to understand and appreciate the outside world. When a child is born, not only the child grows but also the parents who grow along with the child. In the growth process they learn something new at each and every step the child takes forward. The learning is not only limited for the child but also for the parents. A wise man once said, learning never stops. Its a process which any individual has to undergo at any stage of their lives.

Unlearning is also the other side of the coin known as learning. We need to constantly unlearn the wrong things which we had learnt. Sometimes unlearning can be the most painful in our lives. A great deal of unlearning has to occur before new learning can be acquired. Due to our mental models and biased  learning, we may have totally a different idea about any profession or job or people or a concept. In such cases we need to unlearn a particular concept in order to under and appreciate a new concept in a better manner.I believe unlearning is very difficult for the millennial who are much much tech-savvy, trendy etc. As managers one has to be more sensitive in dealing with millennial.

The next step would be relearning. This is a process like starting from the square one. The stage where one is ready to acquire knowledge or reality in the purest form after getting rid of  biases, if not keeping them at the minimal. Relearning is an iterative process, which goes on and on till the end of our lives.

Instrinsic Motivation: Finding meaning in work,Becoming a self actualising individual

Instrinsic Motivation

Life begins from within. In the same way intrinsic motivation begins from the inner you. People who are intrinsically motivated have a better meaning of purpose in their lives. They are like the unstoppable, who can’t be affected by external factors.Intrinsic motivation refers to behavior that is driven by internal rewards.Motivation for engagement comes from being natural. It is like to say, have a purpose and so you don't need any motivation.

Intrinsically motivated people do the work on a pure enjoyment. Intrinsic motivation creates a positive emotions in an individual which gives them the natural kick of doing things. They constantly work to get the positive emotions. Intrinsically motivated people are passionate about what they do. They put their heart and soul in getting the things done without bothering about the results.

Involving in activities can stimulate awesome feelings when they give people a sense of satisfaction like participating in volunteer or church events. They may also give you a sense of progress when you see that your work is accomplishing something positive or competence when you learn something new or become more skilled at a task.

Self Actualizing Individuals

Self Actualizing individuals are the natural people. Many times i have experienced self-actualization. It really gives me goosebumps, when i think of such situations and incidents. I was feeling extremely delighted when i imagine that i am fulfilling my deeds as a self actualizing individual. 



Self actualization is achieved when we are able to reach the full potential be it creative, intellectual or social. Self actualised individuals have peak experiences, which i had referred to as goose bumps in the previous paragraph. Those are the moments of transcendence in which a person emerges after transformation.

Self actualised person can have a creative life as they fully use their potential. Such persons are spontaneous and unconventional. They don’t follow generally accepted social expectations, as they don’t feel confined by these norms in their thoughts or behaviour. They emphasise on the need for personal growth and development throughout one’s life. Self Actualization lies in the topmost level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It is the final stage in the linear growth of the individual.

Self actualisation is not about making the most money or being the most famous person. Its all about getting that happiness, content,peace and mindfulness. Self actualisation involves the pursuit of excellence and enjoyment, whichever people chose to desire and emphasize. Self Actualisation is truly about achieving your dreams.

Decision making and biases

Decision making and biases

Managers make decisions, backed up by mental biases. Most of the times, the decision taken becomes the nightmare of our life. There are 16 cognitive biases which can kill or aid the decision making process.

Cognitive biases helps us to understand and are designed to help us survive. We cannot process all  information around us, hence we must resort to trusting in biases to make decisions quickly and effectively.

Known broadly as the curse of knowledge biases rely on our past knowledge and ways of applying prior knowledge in decision making. On a lighter note, a funny comics is depicted below.

Most of the decisions we believe we are making with a clear mind are actually controlled by mental shortcuts known as cognitive biases and it is important to learn how to minimize their negative impacts on decision making. Biases are experienced and perceived differently by different persons to a different extent. The best decision is one which can satisfy personal biases, sub-conscious egos and agendas to the minimal, thereby maximizing the interests and outputs of the firm.

Discovering Creativity

Discovering Creativity

Creativity is a culture. It is an emotion, which one has to live through. The mother of all innovations is creativity. The way in which Indians have grown up is totally different from the rest of the world.  My idea of creativity after the class has totally changed. Creativity is not like a tap which can be opened and closed as and when required. Creativity is experiential. One has to live through it.

Creativity is mostly linked with the sub-conscious part of the mind. We need to tap in to the sub-conscious part of our mind.

Think of our mind as a surface of a crystal clear lake. Each and every thought is like the pebbles thrown into it, which are creating continuous ripples on its surface. Beneath the disturbed surface is where our creative,inspirational and spontaneous thoughts lie. So, while we may think that we are not a creative person, we probably need to give our thoughts a chance by calming the surface to get a clear view of the creativity that lies beneath. Mindfulness is required for a calm mind.

Becoming emotionally competent

Becoming emotionally competent

I belong to a Government Organisation. I have seen several officers who are extremely talented in terms of knowledge, influence, power, decision making etc. But there are only a handful of them who are emotionally competent. Being emotionally competent is the need of the hour.

Understanding the facial expressions, body language etc makes a person emotionally competent. EQ is something which should be high in an individual as compared to IQ. A manager has to understand what the employees are going through. One has to be kind enough to understand them and treat them with sympathy and empathy.

Emotional competence refers to the essential social skills to recognise, interpret and respond constructively to emotions in yourself and others. This will help us to deal with several personalities and tells us how to behave with them.

Even in personal relationships, emotional competency helps us to be together in the ups and downs as it helps us to handle feelings,trust, flexibility, intimacy, disagreements, expectations and forgiveness.

Emotional competence requires being able to walk in the other person’s shoes. Everyone brings a baggage like mood or anxiety issues or unsupportive parents, narcissism etc. Emotional competency helps us to handle such issues at ease.

Emotional competence can make any business thriving or surviving or failing. Emotional intelligence based on self-awareness, motivation, self regulation, empathy etc determine our potential to learn new things at our work places. Emotional competence is the degree to which we manifest that potential in the workplace.

Eg: The salesman who had the record sales was found to be harnessing the potential of his emotional competence with his customers.

Emotionally competent managers and workers perform best. Hence, it is very much essential to harness emotional intelligence as a skill.

Creating a purpose driven organisation

Creating a purpose driven organisation

How good it will be to work in a purpose driven organisation. Such an organisation will give us sense of pride. It will be a place where people can flourish and can perform coherently. I can imagine a scene from the film avatar.

Fulfillment and purpose are the key words.

Money has become less of a motivator today as we find that more individuals are leaving their stable high paying jobs to pursue passions or work aligned with their life purpose.The employees start seeking something to believe in that is aligned to their values which make them feel a sense of importance through their contribution towards a higher purpose.Purpose-driven organisations stay core to their mission by always keeping the “why” in mind. The company is continuously kept at the center of thought processes. They look at the big picture.

Employees are three times more involved and contribute better when they understand that their presence is making a positive impact through their work.The best companies create opportunities disguised as challenges for their employees to develop a sense of purpose and belonging through their key performance areas and facilitate them to make a star performer at their workplace.

Effective organisations provide clarity to the mission and how individuals contribute which makes it more actionable. Companies need to not explicitly indicate their values and purpose by making it visible within the company but to subtly make it strong in their day-to-day behaviors with the right organisational culture and support structures.

The alignment between employee and organisational values where the match in value proposition between their purpose and company’s mission becomes a motivating factor. In reality, organisations and firms get best results when they come together in order to  create a meaningful work culture for employees to flourish.We all have the innate desire to be productive and active citizens of society and be part of a formation that benefits and accelerates society towards development as a whole. With the autonomy and opportunity to contribute to something bigger than ourselves, it creates huge amounts of job satisfaction and personal happiness. We need to feel that we are making a huge difference to the company in terms of achieving its mission and vision.

Congruence: Building Authenticity

Congruence: Building Authenticity

In an era of the millennial and technocrats, authenticity is still in its infancy. How comfortable we are in trusting our colleagues, bosses, neighbours, clients etc. ?There is always an element of doubt due to inauthentic behaviour exhibited by people. How authentic  are relationship between individuals?

Building authenticity requires time,mutual care and interest.

Authentic  leadership is the most desired by all. An authentic leader will emphasize on building legitimacy through honest relationships with followers who value their input. Such a leadership skill is built upon the foundation of ethics. Generally, authentic leaders are highly positive and optimistic. Authentic leaders promote openness.  They improve the individual and team performances by building trust.

People believe that entire organisation can behave like an authentic person through responsibility, reactions to uncertainty and creativity.

An authentic leader makes a team to believe in itself and its true potential. Authentic leaders create an emotional or psychological response from their followers, which leads to increase in individual and team performance altogether.

Authentic leadership is an outcome of lifetime of experiences. No training can contribute significantly to authentic leadership. It comes from within.

Biases and Mental Models

Biases and Mental Models

We have several biases in our minds  which is backed up by our thoughts and feelings. The atmosphere and environment in which we have grown up or experienced has a major role with respect to these biases.

Biases are false assumptions, which is not true. Biases are like the lenses, which are worn by people. The lens has the capability of either giving more clarity or to impair the vision. Even biases have a same effect on our mind. At instances we use the biases one after another.

Beliefs and opinions are agents of the mind. A mental model is a map to explain how certain things work Its a tool for understanding. Mental models guide our opinions and behavior. Mental models are deeply held beliefs on how the world works.

Example: Supply and Demand Curves are mental models to understand economics.

These are basically the thinking tools which can be used to understand life, make decisions and solve problems. Learning a new mental model helps us to see a new world. Mental models can be imperfect, but still can be useful.

Thus,mental models are frameworks consisting of our underlying assumptions from socialisation, values, beliefs, education and experience that helps us to organise information. Mental model influences, leadership, reasoning and thus organisational outcomes. Mental models often become barriers to change rather than acting as enablers.

Menta models will be useful in taking important life decisions. The decisions are the outcome of our mental model. One has to be prudent enough to understand this and apply in their lifetime.

Ethical Dilemmas

Often we are faced with ethical dilemmas in life. Even good managers may take unethical decision in life. Ethics is always kept at the last chapter of any professional degree. Again this is an ethical dilemma whether to keep it as a first chapter or last. There is a doubt on whether to decide based upon moral philosophy or an imperative decision. There is an ethical paradox.

Ethics is doing the right things when nobody else is watching.



Right from the morning, we have dilemmas in our lives. Whether to snooze the alarm? whether to skip the signal while rushing for office? But, these decisions are very small when compared to the real life scenarios which we need to face. Doing the right things involve the right mix of personnel, professional and societal ethics.

Some of the times when we face ethical dilemmas are in situations such as,
1.Truth Vs Loyalty
2.Individual Vs Community
3.Short term Vs Long term
4.Justice Vs Mercy

The easiest way to stick to morality and code of conduct is not to lie, because one lie makes many. It keeps on multiplying and hides the reality or the ground situation. We need to be give credible information considering the moral, ethical and legal impact it can have on oneself and their surroundings. There can be some situations where we may not be able to take ethical decisions, in such case we can take expert opinions from our elders,seniors or colleagues who have had a similar experience. We need to mentally be prepared on how we are going to communicate and should act responsibly with confidence and style.

Playing your Strengths! How do we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us?

Playing Your Strengths!

The most important component of a person is his/her strength. The first thing which comes to my mind is the picture given below. Strengths lie at the core of a person. As Managers, we need to identify the strengths of a person and nurture the person to flourish. Strengths must be sharpened, honed and toughened. In order to do that we need to identify the right strength within ourselves, within our friends and within out team. Strength based approach will create a positive organisational culture.

Giving positive feedback to other people will create an atmosphere filled with positive vibrations. Generally, a positive feedback is associated with the underlying strength of any individual. The Reflected Best Self exercise is based on the very same concept. The RBS exercise helps us to identify our strengths through the words of our near and dear ones. RBS helps us to create a beautiful poster, painted by the colors of strengths in the canvas of past, which further acts as a portal to launch us into the future with vibrant qualities.

How do we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us? (Johari Window Excercise)

We have an image of ourselves in our mind. Similarly, others have an image of our personality in their minds. There is an intersection of these two images. Sometimes the two images are totally different. Now, arises a question in our mind which of the two is true? Do we have only these two images? Do we have any other image which is hidden?

Johari window excercise gives us a clear image of ourselves. Awareness about the self gets enhanced.Next, is the Johari window, which i had heard for the first time. This is a simple tool for self-awareness, mutual understanding between individuals. I had come to learn a lot about myself, which gave me an eureka moment. I really loved this exercise because my team mates were not judgmental. This activity had helped me to understand others' relationship with me. Most importantly my strengths and myself. The reading exercises, how to play your strength and Managing Oneself had given a clear idea.on how to go ahead with lives.


The next topic which was wonderful to me is the Japanese concept of purpose "IKIGAI". The above picture depicts the profound concept in a single frame. How productive will our life be, if we wake up everyday to solve the purpose of life. How happy and motivating it would be to chase our passion. I would really jump out of my bed everyday to follow my bliss. The center portion in the image is where we get the satisfaction and true happiness of life. Happy life means a long life, which has a central core of meaningful purpose.