Law Of Attraction Coach – Mitesh Khatri
Leadership book 'Awaken The Leader In You' is a road map for those who want to become successful leaders in their professional and personal life both.
Leadership book 'Awaken the Leader in You' discusses the traits and leadership skills needed to be a successful leader. This leadership book breaks the myth that leaders are only people at the top management. According to this exemplary author, all are born with infinite potential and within every ordinary person, there lies an extraordinary leader. The tenet of this leadership book is to awaken that leader in you. Offering a completely new perspective on leadership, Mitesh categorizes leaders as extraordinary people: if they have an entrepreneur mindset and ordinary people: if they have an employee mindset.
Replete with inspiring leadership stories, exercises and simple-to-apply strategies, this is a step-by-step guide for the spiritual individual to develop the entrepreneur mindset and become a leader in his professional as well as personal life.
It’s a Textbook for Developing Leadership which everyone MUST read, so you can achieve anything you want to Be, Do and Have in your life. Awaken The Leader In You by getting you copy right now.
Awaken The Leader In You is not just a Leadership Book, it's a Leadership Workshop with practical Exercises and Guidelines...a MUST READ.
The book reads as if you are just attending one of these workshops, and effectively helps you hone your leadership skills.
Even as leaders, we have some glaring flaws, it helps to eliminate or at least minimize those.After Reading, this book was marked by me at so many places. The author goes on to explain how anyone of us can uncap and unleash our potential and take up a role of responsibility. From a position of power, it is very easy to become vain or smug or self-satisfied. This book is more beneficial to readers who already have a leadership position, is what I think. I could relate to so many instances/feelings/events because I have been working as a leader for a while. I am not sure I can say the same about the others, who are yet to become a leader.
When I was first approached to review the book, “Awaken The Leader In You” penned by Mitesh and Indu Khatri, I was a bit wary as it was a self-help book based on leadership. Now, the Indian market is really flooded with these and technically, most books on leadership are, more or less, the same. They give you examples of a few successful leaders, show how the successful people are determined, work hard, have a vision and are fearless. I’m glad I didn’t give in to that initial thought and accepted to read the book instead.
Awaken The Leader In You by Mitesh and Indu Khatri takes you on a tour to know the essentials of being a successful leader.
Full of inspiring leadership stories, strategies and practice exercises, this book is meant for those, who wish to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and become a leader, not just in professional, but also in the personal life.
I especially liked the way they have shared how the difference between leaders and others lies between the “employee” and the “entrepreneur” mindset. It made me stop and ponder, for the principle holds true in all aspects of life. Also, the chapter on emotional intelligence has been beautifully done, with simple tips on how to manage our emotional patterns, for the person who has achieved a control on emotions has cleared a big hurdle in the path to professional success. The concept of trust bank accounts introduced by the author exposes reader to the advantage of building trust with people since the level of trust we create within our people is directly proportional to the effectiveness of our leadership effectiveness.
Awaken the leader in You is not written to induce false dreams into you to become super rich super quick. It is instead written to help you learn viewing daily problems from a new perspective and finding practical solutions.
Book explains with simple illustrations and examples how leaders differ from ordinary people.Let me share a few examples from the book:
Before the first chapter, there is a wheel depicting the essential leadership skills. The chapters are based on this wheel and begin with the difference between an employee mindset and an entrepreneur mindset. Every chapter is clearly structure with a good number of tables and case studies to help you understand the concept. After each chapter there is a clear summary of the same, which adds to the value of the book.
Thanks for sharing the Book “Awaken the LEADER in YOU”.
This is a wonderful book. Written in simple statements but with deeper meanings.
The entire book is so motivating that I have read twice in last 15 days. Your chapter on emotional intelligence was outstanding. Every chapter is explained by real life stories which make it more interesting and realistic.
Truly Inspirational & Exceptional!! Mitesh’s book is an extension of him. Its not just a book, but is actually the crux of his popular and super-effective leadership training methods & practices. The book covers every dimension of leadership and is a must read for anyone aspiring to be a leader. The simplicity with which Mitesh has put across the knowledge and the effectiveness of his exercises are unmatched compared to any other book in the same genre at the moment. After attending his trainings and reading his book, I have no doubt in my mind that Mitesh is one of best leadership trainers India has.
Mitesh has the rare ability to change people’s perception about leadership and then also about themselves. I thank Mitesh and Indu for the knowledge & motivation I get from them and their work. I wish them best of luck for many more such successful books.
This is a note to thank you for writing the book. I purchased this book at the Bangalore Airport today at 12.30p.m. I just finished reading the book. Never done that in my entire 43 years of life except while reading "Robert Ludlum-- Jason Bourne Series".
I loved all examples , stories and exercises in the book. I have not done all the exercises, but I plan to do it when I read the book a second time. I will be doing that tomorrow evening. I loved the story about yourself which you have told in the Emotional Intelligence section.
I think I could relate to the story as I am a Sales professional who started doing "Door to Door Selling" . I later found my lifes calling to be a trainer.A story similar to you I guess.
I am a sales trainer and I teach people the art of selling.
Over my last 35 years of professional experience I have read more than 700 books on human mind & human behaviour. Life has repeatedly taught me that it's simple to make things difficult, but it's difficult to make things simple.
From that perspective I can surely say that Mitesh & Indu's book stands out for its simple and practical approach for a topic which inherently is a very ambiguous and vastly difficult topic to present successfully.
They have definitely presented their deeply profound ideas in a very lucid way. They absolutely know what they are speaking because they have practically lived the very values that they are talking about in their amazingly effective book.
I am proud to have personally known such a fine couple in my life's journey on this beautiful planet.
Energy is omnipresent. It’s all over, everywhere. It can be seen, felt and literally sensed through all our sense organs. Take a moment and look at our universe....planets revolving around each other....energy!, Solar Systems revolving around each other...energy, Galaxies revolving around each other....energy! The so called void of our atmosphere, the invisible air also confirms energy. I pick up my mobile and call up my friend in Chennai or my niece in Chicago, I get connected instantly, indicating energy, even in the void, it plays a role. Going micro, the most micro particle of any matter, the atom, too represents a bundle of energy...electrons existing in various orbits around the nucleus moving around incessantly... again, it’s all energy. Can we ever deny the existence of energy around us? More importantly, can we deny the impact of energy on us?
Just another facet of energy... Imagine, you have entered a room. There are six tables around which there are people sitting. You have the choice to sit around any of the tables. In an extreme corner, diagonally opposite the door, is the table where you noticed a group laughing their lungs out, enjoying, pulling each other’s leg. On the adjoining table, a serious discussion is on. On yet another table, people are sitting just quiet, heads down and studying and so on and so forth. You walk into the room. Where will your feet progress? I have narrated this situation in many of my talks and posed the same question. Trust me the answer which I got has been identical and that has been “the corner table (even though it is most distantly located.)” Why ? The answer is simply energy. Such is the magnetic power of energy. In innumerable experiments as well as real-life experiences, it is proven beyond doubt that highly energized people are far more liked, far more successful and far happier.
Let’s take a pause now and reflect...what is your basal level of energy? Do you radiate/transmit energy or take and absorb other’s energy? Do you attract people or deflect people? Are you an energy provider or energy sapper? Are you really conscious of this? And if you are, do you work to acquire/source energy and build your energy reservoir?
If you are really convinced, the chapter does give some simple but effective ways to generate and optimally build your energy reservoir. If you take these techniques seriously and earnestly, without trivializing them, I am very sure, you will be immensely benefited. Let me share with you my own small experiment and its resultant experiences in multiple companies, people and settings. Meetings are somewhat an essential part of a business setting or profession or situation. In a business review session, a lot gets discussed intensely, encompassing both successes and areas of improvement. More often the areas of improvement take away lion’s share and that does build stress and sap energy. To counter the energy sapping and infuse energy in the system, a simple slogan was devised which centered around the theme and the spirit of the organisation.... The slogan went like this : “Say....YES !”; “That is....the Spirit of Triumph”; “Hum Honge ...Kamyaab”; “Kamyaab forever with....”theme of the company”. Whether it was the start of the meeting or the end of the meeting, or even during the meeting, the team periodically stood up, raised their hands and with all sincerity shouted this slogan, without trivializing it. Believe me, this, not only kept the theme of the company uppermost in the minds of the team and generated one-ness but also, and more importantly, generated a huge amount of energy in the system. Energy was palpable across in the room...it was so very vivid that you could touch the forehead and feel the perspiration in an otherwise air-conditioned room, reflecting the generation of such a bundle of energy that it made the physical body perspire, so visibly. This is just one experiment. There are innumerable ways and possibilities.
Let’s consciously work to generate energy and keep our reservoir perpetually full. Let’s consciously transmit or infuse energy to the people around us. Let’s all experience its virtues all the while.
Time Mastery – It needs intent and practice
It never ceases to surprise me how many young people, with a far less work load than I have perpetually complain of being unable to finish their work on time. This leads to long hours after office trying to catch up on pending work, an unmanageably long backlog and stress created by the inability to be as productive as they would like to be.
At the risk of sounding arrogant, let me share my responsibilities with the readers of this book – leading a 2000 crore plus global software company with operations in fourteen countries, championing various causes from Leadership to Innovation to Knowledge Management to IP Protection for CII, NASSCOM and the Harvard Business School Club of India, being on the Board of Skills company Global Talent Track and investor company Social Venture Partners, investing in start-ups through the Indian Angel Network, guiding the activities of our family’s foundation Natarajan Education Society and teaching the occasional case study at Harvard Business School and other academic institutions. And of course writing books articles and making contributions to other books like this one! Over the years I have found that the key to accomplishing a lot and making every day, week, month and year count is prioritization and enjoyment of all you do.
Prioritization is certainly not rocket science. People spend too much time worrying about work life balance, inadequate sleep and other trivia. My own schedule when I am in my home location Pune is to get five hours of sleep, be in my office at Zensar for twelve hours 8 AM to 8 PM and find adequate time after that and on weekends for all the other things. And I still spend time with friends see the occasional Bollywood movie and am active on Facebook Twitter and other Yahoo groups with classmates and friends. My meetings are normally concluded in fourteen minutes or maximum twenty-five minutes and we rarely waste time in office on long face to face meetings or phone calls. And when I have to travel which is twenty days a month, there is always time to read write and watch movies on those long international flights.
Enjoying what you do is probably the most important aspect of time management. Somebody has rightly said that if you find a vocation that lets you do what you love to do, time flies and you never have to “work” a single day of your life. I have certainly enjoyed every minute of my twelve year tenure as CEO of Zensar and watched it grow from less than a thousand people to nearly seven thousand people belonging to over a dozen nationalities today. And when somebody asked me recently where I find the time and the inclination to do so much, my answer was “If there is inclination, I can always find the time”.
Manage your time well and get more out of your life!
In my view, Trust is one of the most powerful virtues of a leader. Ability to build trust with your employees, customers & other stakeholders has always been a challenging task for every leader. It is like taking personal responsibility of an individual’s expectations and more importantly delivering on these expectations. Mitesh addresses this challenge through an extremely practical and equally effective manner in the coming chapter.
Mitesh in his very simple yet livid manner has put forth the beautiful concept of Trust Bank Account (TBA). The concept is so powerfully delivered by him that it gets permanently registered in your mind as soon as you read it.
And consciously or not, you would start practising the TBA method immediately. It’s like opening an instant bank account as you start making your cash and cheque deposits right away. So easily you get into the habit of creating your trust bank accounts with people and start making rich deposits in to them.
Personally, I have been immensely benefited and have created this wealth of Trust, both for my Organisation and for myself.
While leading organisations you are required to take tough decisions which can potentially strain relationships. This is the time when your awareness of your ‘trust-quotient’ with people or groups of people comes handy. You are easily able to steer through such situations without creating any discontent as you know you are maintaining adequate trust balance with these people.
End of the day , It is also very satisfying to see your Trust balances growing leaps n bounds as you make conscious efforts through your communication and commitments.
Always remember that trust cannot be built in a day and it is a continuous process. Keep giving steady and regular instalments of communication coupled with vital commitments to people with whom you need to build trust with.
Keep accessing your own leadership style & communication methods and most importantly identify and innovate new methods of building trust through dynamic communication and thus get rid of your own blind-spots.
How beautifully Mitesh has defined the word Power and linked it with values. When we hear the word power what most of us feel is craving and when we hear the word value, we feel cautious. I relate the word power with President Obama and value with Mahatma Gandhi. However after reading this chapter, I can conclude that both were great leaders who had access to unlimited internal power by consciously working on their highest values to achieve their desired goals.
The word value is one of the most misunderstood yet it is a word that steer us through our life. Values are the basis of our decisions and choices. They are important beliefs and desire that shapes attitudes and motivate actions.
Mitesh’s conclusion that values are what you give high or low priority is so simple but still so profound statement. Every parent wishes to imbibe good values in their children. Because it is believed that values are foundation on which the character and personality of an individual is built. We enrol them in the good schools in the pursuit of giving them the best value based education, live in good locality to ensure their children have good surrounding, give lectures on good behaviour and bad behaviour and how it would influence their values.
Children observe us very minutely and learn lessons from our unintentional lies. While we are on the road with our kids, knowingly/unknowingly we tend to jump the traffic signal, overtake from the wrong side, park wrongly and still we assume that we made all the right choices to ensure all the desired values in our children towards becoming a good law abiding citizen. So as always our priority (highest value) is others and not ourselves to do the right things. We doing the right things are the lowest values for us.
These actions of us reveal the confusion & misunderstanding associated with the word value. Values cannot be forced or taught but are learnt through observation and experience.
Disrespecting values is a shame, not only because it breeds cynicism which in turn poisons the organizational culture but also because it wastes a great opportunity. Organization which incorporates values in their day-to-day actions stands out from the competition by clarifying its identity and serves as an employer of choice for prospective employees. But coming up with strong values and living them requires real guts. Organizations which aims to run their business based on values must understand that when properly practised, values inflict pain. They make some employees feel like outcasts. They limit an organization’s strategic and operational freedom and constrain the behaviour of its people. They may leave leaders open to heavy criticism for even minor violations. And they demand constant monitoring & vigilance.
If we are not willing to accept the pain real values incur, it is not worth going the distance and taking the effort of formulating and publishing a values statement. We will be better off without one.
The value of a value is in its priority and its application, not in the words that describe it.
As Mitesh writes our highest desires may not necessarily be our highest values. So rightly mentioned when we understand the meaning of word power & value, and how they are correlated as explain in the chapter.
Values Identifier Test and the Redesigning Values Exercise are excellent tools offered by Mitesh to baseline our highest values and steps to live by them to improve the quality of our life. Value driven organizations need value driven individuals. Hence the relevance of this chapter is extremely important given the cynicism surrounding these days.
My Views about the chapter and how important it is for leaders:
"Charismatic Leadership" is a topic which in most of the leadership books gets lost in the maze of personal traits or anecdotes of Generals with lengthy lecture! That is why the very word "Charisma" remains an enigma to most of us and gets described in a way which is at the mercy of readers' interpretation. So first of all I was very happy to see that this was featuring in Mitesh's book and was curious to see the content. When I went thru it, I felt good to see that he has linked it to something that is tangible, doable and reviewable.
Mitesh in this chapter has connected Charismatic leadership with consistent results and suggested some simple (but difficult to follow everyday!) steps which will drive a leader towards consistent results. For any leader this chapter is very important. This is because this chapter talks about commitment, which is an extremely important and must have trait for a leader. The interesting point is that all the seven points that Mitesh has mentioned are in our control and can be implemented and these simple steps can lead to consistent results.
For every leader it is important to show consistent results. Consistent results give credibility. Surprisingly once you are successful then whatever you do, becomes charismatic!
How I have applied this in my leadership journey:
The first point that Mitesh mentioned in this chapter is "Think before you commit". This is an important "strategy" that I follow. Because with every announced commitment what you do is -increase expectation. Once you increase expectation and then do not deliver, it creates trust deficit. When there is a trust deficit, the very essence of leadership is lost. So it is important that we "Think" before we commit. Thinking means analysis, thinking means self talk where we evaluate the possibility of success and we plan for success.
Another point that is really interesting - "Apologize for your mistakes without giving excuses". Let me tell you- it is very difficult to say " I am sorry" , specially to your team members. It is something that has always helped me. Saying sorry for mistakes creates a culture of performance and creates a culture of accountability. It creates trust, it helps in aligning the team together and therefore it helps in getting results.