Friday, July 30, 2010

Creativity, a key Factor in Leadership Competency

The acceptable definition of creativity is “Production of something original and useful”.

If we look back, in the past 10 years, some interesting innovations were introduced in the marketplace. Itouch, Segway, iPod, Clone dog, Cindy smart doll, Sonic Toothbrush, Dolly the sheep, iPhone, Wi-Fi, Gameboy, eBay, IPod etc are few commonly known products.

A recent research tells us that the creativity is going down the hill! How surprising to know that at this age of innovation, global creativity crisis has started emerging!

Moreover, in an IBM poll conducted recently, creativity has been identified as the key factor in “Leadership Competency”. If that is a true outcome of IBM Survey, I am afraid, the leadership around the globe is also showing the same impact, “LACK OF CREATIVITY”.

I believe that the creativity needs to be harnessed right from the childhood. How unfortunate it is that in most schooling systems the “arts” is referred as the tool to enhance creativity! What about music, science, nature, these are creative inspirations too!

Read an interesting article on http://bit.ly/avK5Oi

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Problems are Opportunities!

Problems around the globe keep the news media alive!

I still remember a comment by a CNN reporter “If there is no violence, there is no news”. Isn’t that a valid comment? Such news has conditioned our brains to look for negative and problem riddled news. However there is one nation that has redefined the way people look at problems! Chinese….. yes they call these problems “Opportunities”.

Recently reading an article in TIME magazine “China’s New Continent”, I was amazed to learn that China is investing heavily in Africa, a continent known for PROBLEMS!

Chinese have invested in countries such as Algeria ($20 billion in construction industry), Nigeria ($23 billion in refineries), Angola ($2.5 billion in offshore oil) and South Africa ($5.5 billion in banking sector) suggest that China is delivering investments on one hand for creating a new market for its products, and on the other, accessing new resources.

Chinese Ambassador to The Democratic Republic of Congo says “Other countries say, this country has lots of problems. We say there is huge potential”!

One interesting lesson for me……… look around for problems, these will actually create opportunities…… the only condition is to remain positive!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Dalai Lama - How can we teach our children not to be angry?

Dalai Lama. His Holiness is both the temporal and the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.

( Read Biography of Dalai Lama http://bit.ly/aDICx6 )

Reading in TIME Magazine of July 5th, 2010 I was struck by Dalai Lama’s response to a question. Thought I share it with you;

Question was: How can we teach our children not to be angry?

Response: Children always look to their parents. Parents should be calm. You can teach children that you face a lot of problems but you must react to those problems with a calm mind and reason.

I have always had this view about the modern education system: WE pay attention to brain development, but the development of warm heartedness we take for granted!

I often feel, while buried in our issue, parents forget that our prime responsibility is towards the development of the next generation human beings! But, living in an era of stiff competition, we forget certain key responsibilities given to us by the nature!

Anger pushes us towards insanity, that’s true! We loose control over our emotions several times a day, don’t we?

Read the whole interview at http://bit.ly/9mQy5L