Leadership is a personal choice

1. Leadership is a Personal
Choice

2. Mirza Yawar Baig
Changing the world, one mind at a time
Work Experience:
 International Speaker, Trainer, Author, Coach, Leadership Consultant
with 16 years in Corporate General Management, 30 years in Training
& Organizational Development. Author of 24 books
Director / Professional Member:
 Centre for Conflict Resolution & Human Security
 Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science
Entrepreneur:
 1994: Founded
Education:
 IIM-A , P-CMM®, MBTI©, WSA©, ISABS
Books include:
 The Holy Cat
 Hiring Winners
 Present Your Way to the Top
 Leadership is a Personal Choice
 The Business of Family Business
 An Entrepreneur’s Diary
Member Consultant Panel:
USA
 GE Corporate University, Crotonville
 AMA International, New York
 Andersen Corporate University, MN
India
 Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh
 LBS Academy of Administration, Mussoorie
 SVP National Police Academy, Hyderabad
 SSB Academy, Gwaldam
Clients Include:
GE, Oracle, Motorola, Microsoft, IBM, National Semiconductor, Unilever,
BSNL, Tata, Colgate, Asian Paints, Siemens, Wartsila, MphasiS, Bangalore
Labs, EXL Service, World Bank-CGIAR, Tata, Corporate, J & J, Accenture,
Zeneca Seeds, Shanta Biotech, Advanta, Reuters, Air India, Rahim Afrooz,
Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo, Olam, Regal Beloit, Reliance World, NIS Sparta,
AMKA, Emami Group, Suzlon, JP Morgan, SEW Infrastructure, LANCO,
SEAPOL, KAR Group, Expolanka
www.yawarbaig.com

3. “The two most important days in your
life are the day you are born and the
day you find out why.”
~Mark Twain

5. Leave a mark of your
passing

6. Perspective
 “The ability to simultaneously hold in your mind, a
picture of where you want to go while being aware
of where you are today.”
Without perspective you can never find direction

7. “We all must suffer from one of
two things:
The pain of discipline or the
pain of regret.”

8. Abraham Lincoln
Always bear in mind that your
own resolution to succeed is
more important than any other

9. IBM Millennium Survey:
Winners = Olympic Gold = 2%
 Do you want to be with the 2%?
 Or with the 98%?
Excuses don’t change reality

10. Remember
 Winning is not a size or number or beauty or strength
thing
 Winning is a quality thing
Winners are not those who have the most
But those who contribute the most

11. Winning = Learning
 What did you learn in the last three months?
 What did you do with what you learnt?
 What did you read in the last three months?
 Do you track your development?
 Do you track your contribution?
What you don’t measure you can’t guarantee

12. Challenges come to help us
 Every time you ask for success, you get a challenge
 The challenge is the exam. You can take it as many times
as you like
 But you can only move when you pass
People who don’t learn from history are
condemned to repeat it

13. The Slide of Life
Idealist
Optimist
Realist
Pessimist
Cynic
Indifferent
You cannot light a fire from a dead lamp

14. We were sent to lead
 To lead you must set the standard
 To lead you must stand out – not blend in
 To lead you must be prepared to be the target
 To lead you must build bridges – not walls
To lead you must have faith

15. What is Faith?
When you come to the end of the light of all that you
know and are about to step off into the darkness of
the unknown, faith is to know that one of two things
will happen: there will be something firm to stand
on, or you will be taught how to fly.
~ Barbara Winters
Faith is to know – not merely to believe

16. Your Challenges
 Please list the top 3 challenges that you expect to
face in your immediate future
 What is your strategy to overcome them?
Because only ‘Overcomers’ are rewarded
Others become statistics
10 minutes

17. The key is passion
 Ask yourself:
 How much do I really want this?
 What am I willing to do to get it?
Success is directly proportional to passion

18. 2, Critical parameters
 Time
 Implications of our ‘time’ in history
 Space
 Implications of our ‘place’ in today’s world
Nations that don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it

19. Time – 2 questions
1. What lessons can we learn from history that can be
applied to our time?
2. How can we leverage these lessons?
Sheep follow – Shepherds lead

20. Space – 2 questions
1. What is our place in the overall scheme of things?
2. How can we leverage the assets of our place?
You must know where you are, to know where to go

21. Prof. Robert Burgelman
Stanford Business School
“The single biggest danger in business and life,
aside from outright failure, is to be successful
without being resolutely clear about why you
are successful in the first place.”

22. Two kinds of Knowledge
 Experiential Knowledge
 What we discover through our own experience and
experimentation
 Revealed Knowledge
 What Allah‫ﷻ‬ revealed through His Messenger‫ﷺ‬

23. Experiential Knowledge
 Always changing
 Dependent on who is experimenting and what theory
they are trying to prove
 Today’s ‘truth’ becomes tomorrow’s ‘falsehood.
 Always raises new questions
Needs a framework to understand reality

24. Relationship between the two
 A’l Imran 3:189-91 To Allah belongs the dominion of the
heavens and the earth; and Allah has power over all things.
Behold! in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the
alternation of night and day there are indeed Signs for men of
understanding. Men who celebrate the praises of Allah standing
sitting and lying down on their sides and contemplate the
(wonders of) creation in the heavens and the earth (with the
thought): "Our Rabb! Not for nothing have You created (all) this!
Glory to You! give us salvation from the penalty of the fire.

25. Islamic Perspective
 See the world wearing the glasses of Tawheed wa Risala
 There is no conflict between ‘science’ and ‘religion’ in
Islam because science opens our eyes to the marvels of
the creation which all point towards the Creator
 Conflict is the result of trying to understand creation
without acknowledging the Creator
You can’t ignore the source of your own power

26. Two Major Confusions
 ‘Purpose’ (Why) and ‘Activity’ (How)
 Why do you exist?
 How do you earn your living?
What is your work ≠ What is your means of livelihood?

27. Purpose of Creation
 Dhariyat 51:56 I have only created Jinn and men that they
may worship Me.
 Worship is in the broader meaning; including recognizing,
obeying, praying, remembering in all aspects of life
Harmony comes only when you fulfill your purpose

28. Purpose versus Activity
 ‘Purpose’ is that of the Creator
 Only the Creator can say what is the purpose of His creation
 Activity is our realm of operation
 We have the choice in activity of what we do and how we do it
Success means only to fulfill the purpose

29. Activity must fulfill Purpose
 Yusuf 12:108-9 Say thou: "This my way: I do invite unto
Allah on evidence clear as the seeing with one's eyes; I and
whoever follows me: Glory to Allah! and never will I join
gods with Allah!
This fulfills our purpose and gives peace of mind

30. ‘Why’ and not ‘How’
 Rum 30:41-2 Mischief has appeared on land and sea
because of (the deeds) that the hands of men have earned
that (Allah) may give them a taste of some of their deeds:
in order that they may turn back (from Evil). Say: "Travel
through the earth and see what was the End of those
before (you): most of them worshipped others besides
Allah.
Answering ‘Why’ with ‘How’ creates problems

31. Today’s paradox
 To disobey Allah‫ﷻ‬ is not only accepted but is considered
the ‘right’ of the individual
 We call this freedom, life style choice, adult consent
 Yet we want peace, plenty, comfort, safety
 Hadith: There is no obedience to the creatures in the
disobedience to the Creator
How can you have harmony while angering Allah‫?ﷻ‬

32. Growing Up – Owning Personal Authority
Moving from being a ‘herd animal’ to
being a ‘shepherd’

33. Where we Start
 ‘Someone else is responsible for my welfare’
 ‘My role is to feel good or bad about what the
other person does’
 I ‘laugh’ or ‘sulk’
Many people get stuck at 4 years old

34. The Fear of Freedom
 The fear of ‘owning’ responsibility
 The fear of being ‘held accountable’
 The fear of paying the price of failure
 Blaming others for own failure to learn or succeed
Ask, ‘Do I really want to be free?’

35. So who is stopping you?

36. Three Stories
Stop to think

38. Until 19.5 Kgs. Nothing will happen
At 20 Kgs the
balance will tip

39. Chains are in the mind

40. What difference do you want to make?

41. I will not allow, what is not in my
control, to prevent me from doing what
is in my control.

42. Window of Opportunity
 In the life of every man and woman comes a time when
they have a unique opportunity to make an impact and
influence others.
 To succeed we need to anticipate, prepare and act with
courage when it opens
The window shuts after a while – perhaps forever

43. 3, Learning disabilities
And their solutions

44. 1. Complacency
 “Good enough, never is.”
 The only use of history is to learn from it. Gloating
or lamenting about past glory is the surest way of
ensuring that it remains in the past.
People who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it

45. Usually when you feel the need to
change it is already too late. To be
competitive is to anticipate change
and execute before it becomes
necessary.

46. 2. Not aiming high enough
 It is in the nature of extraordinary goals to
inspire extraordinary effort.
 Satisfaction is directly proportional to the
degree of difficulty in reaching the goal.
Among the blind, the one-eyed man is king

47. Self-congratulation
1. Is like self-strangulation and as lethal
2. But unlike it – you feel nice while you die
3. Ask tough questions
4. Face harsh reality
5. Take steps to change
If it happened in the past you had nothing to do with it

48. 3. Excuses and blaming
 Stop blaming others for your situation
 Analyze what went wrong and create a plan to avoid it in
the future.
 Being objective, even hard, on yourself is the best way to
avoid repeating mistakes.
Excuses merely indicate that you still haven’t
learnt your lesson

49. Loss doesn’t change to gain
because you have an excuse

50. “Master” or “Victim”
The Stances of Success

51. The Essential Truth
 Living life is about making choices:
 Choosing to be a “Victim”
 Or choosing to be a “Master”
 Both stances are subject to the givens of society,
environment, organization, but have very different
implications in terms of development and happiness
Choose wisely because you only live once

52. Distinguishing features
 Victims
 Complain
 Think of excuses
 Blame others
 Lose hope & give up
 Perish
 Masters
 Say, “What can I do about it?”
 Think of solutions
 Own responsibility
 Courage to try new ways
 Win, even if they fail
What do you want to be – you are free to choose

53. The Price of Success
 Success, like everything else, has a price.
 It is essential therefore that:
 We define ‘Success’
 Are clear about the investment it will take
 Are willing to pay that price
If you think success is expensive, try failure

54. Price of My success?
 In terms of the challenges that I face today,
what do I need to do if I want to be a ‘Master’
and not a ‘Victim’?
 What is the investment that I need to make in
order to succeed?
You get only what you can pay for

55. Qur’an-Personal Responsibility
Al Ya Seen
20 Then there came running from the farthest part of the City a man saying "O my people! obey the
Messengers
21 "Obey those who ask no reward of you (for themselves) and who have themselves received Guidance.
22 "It would not be reasonable in me if I did not serve Him Who created me and to Whom ye shall (all) be
brought back.
23 "Shall I take (other) gods besides Him? If (Allah) Most Gracious should intend some adversity for me of
no use whatever will be their intercession for me nor can they deliver me.
24 "I would indeed if I were to do so be in manifest Error.
25 "For me I have faith in the Lord of you (all): listen then to me!"
26 It was said: "Enter thou the Garden." He said "Ah me! would that my People knew (what I know)!
27 "For that my Rabb has granted me Forgiveness and has enrolled me among those held in honor!"

56. Courage is not the absence of
fear, but the willingness to
continue

57. It’s not important who you want
to be.
What is important is, who wants
to be You?

58. Productivity Tools
Work only if you apply them

59. What I get, depends on what I do
What I do depends on who I am

60. AM
Ideas
Beliefs Dreams
Values
GET
Power
Friends Reward
Fame
DO
Actions
Speech Stances
Writing

61. Intention
Behavior
Results

62. Because we can’t see
belief/intention but
we can see behavior
So our claims about intention are only as
good as our behavior shows

64. Personal SWOT
Strengths Weaknesses
Opportunities Threats
YOU

65. Waste Hard Work
Delegate Leverage
Investment
Impact

66. Force field analysis
Problem solving tool

68. What to do?
 Strengthen positive forces (Enablers)
 Remove negative forces (Inhibitors)
 Removing negative forces is more important than
strengthening positive forces because there is an
internal push towards good in all of us

69. Change and Motivation
V x E = M
VALUE X EXPECTANCY = MOTIVATION
“What’s in it for me?”
“Am I confident it can/will happen?”
“…then, perhaps, I will.”

70. What’s your Brand?
1. Brand differentiates
2. Brand creates loyalty
3. Brand is your legacy
Brand is the best insurance

71. 3 – Secrets of Branding
Quality
Quality
Quality

72. Success is where
opportunity
meets preparation

73. Success is a process of
connecting aspirations to reality
Investment
Commitment
Adaptability
Persistence
Ambivalence Passion

74. ‘SMART’ Goals
1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Actionable
4. Realistic
5. Time bound

75. Start Stop Continue
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
What is my investment?

77. www.yawarbaig.com
Twitter: myawarbaig
Books: www.amazon.com/author/yawarbaig