Good morning wonderful people how are you are doing today? I just wanted to do a quick
screen share read out points to you which I made for leadership, seven points of leadership
which we can draw from nature. Now this I personally used in my career as an engineer
and it helped me a lot. The first point, a wise man said truthfully if you teach a person
only to use a hammer all he or she will see is nails everywhere. Be careful about the
kind of tools you use or model you use. That is what it means. So I had to carefully choose
what model I wanted to bring and live like in my position of leadership at work. What
kind of model do I want to follow? The one which looks at the wild side sees only hunters
and prey everywhere or ones which are more beneficial. Is there some model in nature?
We are talking about nature here which I can use. I tried the forest based model for myself
in my career which I found very helpful. I will share seven points with you now.
First point, plants and trees do not fight for survival. Two different plants or bushes
or trees can be quietly growing next to each other flowering, bearing fruit, giving out
new leaves however they grow without fuss or without attacking or putting one another
down. Which basically says no competition or scarcity in nature. This is what it told
me. This is because they take all their sustenance from a common source. They take all from a
common place. There is the earth itself and they are content doing that. They are self
assured. The truth which stands by itself without the need for endorsement from somebody
else. They have no issue of self-worth. That life will be sustained and grow and bloom
as the dirt of the earth knows who is here, what fruit they need. I have used this approach
in my daily work even as an engineer to get out of survival and have a more benevolent
approach to people around me. People tasks anything. Not a competition mindset which
is like the jungle you are always looking for, praise everywhere. That is the competition
mindset which is inherently violent in and of itself. If you ask me, competition is violence
and which leads to promoting non-cooperation between people. People do not cooperate with
each other and they are competing. This is why invariably they use phrases in the corporate
culture like survival of the fittest. It is a jungle out there. Which side of nature do
you choose to embrace as a leader? Number two, no two plants or trees are alike. Some
may flower, some do not. Each grows in its own physicality and never compares itself
to the one next to it. Observing this inform me that no two humans are alike and that is
beautiful in its own way, in and of it is. Without me trying to compensate, convert,
teach or preach to another with who I work. There is a piece of availability of self with
this which I found. It is possible here which is both accepting and harmonizing not homogenizing.
Big difference there. Or wanting all to be the same. No two people are the same. Not even
siblings are the same. Which would you rather choose as a leader? To work in acceptance or
try to create a homogenous environment which is against the very law of nature. Just look
around you. Nothing is same in nature. And it is not going to happen anyway. It does
not matter how hard you try. Number three, no two flowers or fruits are alike. Neither
do they bloom in the same season nor need the same kind of watering, manure to nurture.
Each plant is different. Some need less water. Desert plants need less water. I use this
principle of nature to understand deeply in me that no two humans bloom or grow to their
personal happiness or in their lives in the same way. Each one has a different color of
petal to show which is talents. A different season of life or years which is the maturity
cycles we speak of in astrology in which they come to bloom and each human needs a different
kind of nurturing, caring, encouragement, style to work. Each one is unique. An individual
to them alone which allowed me to benefit the acceptance of things the way they were,
not as I needed them to be. Number four, all plants, all types of plants,
trees, crops are needed to keep the land fertile. When the tree shed leaves, fruit branches,
they become part of earth. They become part of the soil. Different ones do it all together.
In their death, nature becomes a part of the greater life of earth. What dies is a tree
as grass becomes a part of earth to nurture another life.
So from this principle of nature, helped me see and appreciate the greater picture, the
greater reality, the meaning of the projects I was working on as an engineer. I worked
as an engineer in the oil and gas industry. So it helped me to see that the fuel I was
bringing to the world, oil and gas, is maybe something that I will not use personally,
that fuel which I am extracting from the ground. But somewhere, someone is using that and that
silent greater thread of life and to be part of it was contentment and satisfaction enough
for me. I had to kind of cultivate this understanding that all are needed. Doesn't matter how uniquely
different each one is in a team. Yet it is that very uniqueness which sustains the very
soil for all the future generations to come and grow.
Number 5. Some fruits are poisonous and can kill you. Not all fruits are good for me.
This principle taught me that some people can be venomous, attacking, aggressive, without
cause or generally toxic behaviors. We all see this. I need not engage with them that
part of them. It is their poison to resolve themselves. That is really up to the individual
to resolve their own shadow side, their own personal psychological wounds and etc. etc.
which makes them toxic. I learnt to disengage with their energy easily this way. I wouldn't
carry their energy back with me after the work period is over. Not into my personal
life. Let them be as they are. Let them deal with their own emotions or whatever is going
on in their life. So I do not harbor their toxic energy in my systems and emotions each
day. Leaving them be basically. Hoping that some later years they will get over there.
Whatever was troubling them in their life. Number 6. Every flower blooms not just for
our enjoyment as humans but as a means for attracting the bees for pollination and offering
the bees nectar as a reward, as the attraction. This principle taught me that there is nothing
inherent function even in the display of beauty which is harmonious in all ways. Even in beautiful
display there is a purpose, there is a cause embedded there. And it is not just a singular
one. That nectar of life is in every bloom. Understand this metaphorically as a meaning
which you can translate to humans. Every person, every activity is not singular. I have just
to find what is it that is fulfilling to me personally so that I am more able to bloom
and shine in whatever I bring to the table. Be supportive of every potential bloom. It
means every human that I am working with, my team as a team leader, I was in charge
of the team. So I have to take care of each one's blooming. Only for their own unique
blooming is the forest able to be. The forest is comprised of everything. All kinds of plants,
trees, bushes, you name it. Last, number seven, some grow to mighty oaks while some remain
grass all their life and each is happy that way. Grass is happy to be, grass oak is happy
to be oak. The grass might be at the foot of the mighty oak yet both sway gently in
the breeze in their own way. One touches the sky, one caresses the earth. This principle
taught me that each being is here uniquely different and apart. There is no such thing
as one might have a conquest or a position to aspire only to be what I am and letting
others shine by encouragement, having no competition, but collaboration in my work environment.
The grass is happy being by itself, right? So is the mighty oak being by itself. There
is no comparison factor there. This taught me as a leader that I can be alongside the
construction worker and I have seen this personally. It is very humbling who is welding a pipe
in the desert. It is 45 degrees centigrade and 100 percent humidity in the desert over
there in the Middle East. So imagine that guy is welding a pipe and I would stand next
to him, watch him and think that we are equals. Nothing about what I do is bigger than what
he or she does, right? I am sure you can come up with more examples of nature if you think
along these lines. Just be careful about which part of nature do you want to draw from your
personal and professional life. Do you want to take the model of the lion and the prey
or do you want to take the trees and the forest? So you got to be careful with which kind of
model you choose people, okay? That is the main thing I wanted to convey. Take care,
be safe and have a nice day.