Pile On Motivation

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Category: Leadership

  • These are the five necessary ingredients of a JUST CAUSE

    A JUST CAUSE is espoused by a visionary leader and acts as a guiding star for motivating more and more followers.

    In essence a JUST CAUSE has these 5 essential ingredients:

    1. It must be FOR SOMETHING , meaning that it must be affirmative and optimistic for something better in the near future
    2. It must be INCLUSIVE – To embrace more and more followers who would like to be motivated
    3. Service Oriented meaning thereby it should be for the primary benefit & SERVICE of others
    4. Resilient and should be able to ensure political , technological and cultural changes
    5. Idealistic – Should be asymptotic and though big and bold should be ultimately un-achievable

    Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book The Infinite Game

  • These are the 5 practices followed by an Infinite Minded Leader

    An infinite minded leader who adopts an infinite mindset in order to play the infinite game of business must follow the following 5 practices:

    1. Advance a Just CAUSE which acts as a GUIDING STAR for motivating followers.
    2. Build Trusting teams where people psychologically safe with each other in order to be high performing
    3. Respect , study and be prepared to learn from Worthy Rivals to keep playing the infinite game more effectively
    4. Prepare for Existential Flex which is run time disruption at a time things are going well.This is done to ensure that disruptive players do not make the organization extinct.
    5. Demonstrate the Courage to Lead

    Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book The Infinite Game

  • This quote from Simon Sinek has a deep meaning

    Let us analyze the following inspirational quote from Simon Sinek from his book Together is Better:

    “The MIND can be CONVINCED , BUT the HEART must be WON.”

    Here MIND is the RATIONAL brain or NEO Cortex of human beings which has capability to think rationally , understands logic and can brainstorm.

    Here HEART is the LIMBIC or EMOTIONAL brain that has no capability for rational expression.This brain only understand emotional cues and cannot understand logic.

    Hence the summary of the quote is that howsoever logically we may place an argument to someone , the best and most effective pitch is wherein we attract the emotional LIMBIC brain for most effective returns.

  • How best can “A group of people work together”?

    A team is NOT necessarily a GROUP of PEOPLE who WORK TOGETHER.

    In the modern day of TRUSTING TEAMS a TEAM is  a GROUP of PEOPLE who TRUST each OTHER.

    In such teams people psychologically safe to work with each other and openly express their vulnerability.

    Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book The Infinite Game

  • This saying proves why Wikipedia is so famous

    Motivation 3.0 is a term coined by Daniel Pink in his book Drive to state that the modern day knowledge worker needs a different motivational technique than the carrot and stick approach.

    Motivation 3.0 centers around “Intrinsic Motivation” which is so visible in the rise and rise of Open Source Community , software and for that matter Wikipedia which has made MSN Encarta irrelevant.

    Simon Sinek says the following when trying to differentiate Will from Resources , in his book The Infinite Game

    “Money CANNOT BUY TRUE WILL.”

  • This is a big truth about High Performance teams

    High Performance teams are Trusting teams who have trustworthy individuals high on emotional quotient.

    These are the main components of a trusting team that makes us realize why these are high performing teams:

    1. Members fearlessly are open to express vulnerability
    2. Members hugely trust each other
    3. The group shares the suffering

    Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book The Infinite Game

  • “Will or Resources” which does a Infinite Minded leader prioritize?

    Resources come from outside sources like customers or investors which is the sum of all financial metrics of an organization.

    Will in contrast is intangible and is harder to measure.When we talk about Will we talk about Human Metrics e.g. feelings with which people come to work.

    Short term oriented finite minded leaders try to focus on the more tangible factor i.e. Resources to meet their targets even if it is at the cost of people i.e. layoffs.

    On the other hand an infinite minded visionary leader , bets on Will by taking requisite risks , motivates this and hence gets results in the long term in a very sustainable manner.

    Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book The Infinite Game

  • A finite minded leader shows a bias for SCORE

    A finite minded leader tends to show a bias for the SCORE.

    As a result , they often opt for choices that demonstrates results in a short time frame , even if doing do REGRETTABLY and comes at the cost of people.

    These are leaders who during HARD times look at layoffs as the first resort.

    Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book The Infinite Game

  • These are the primary responsibilities for any business

    The following are the primary responsibilities of any business.

    1. Advancing a Purpose – This offers people a sense of belonging and gets their buy in to the JUST CAUSE
    2. Protect People – Operate in such a way that protects the interests of people who buy from us and who work for us
    3. Generate profits – Money is fuel for a business to remain viable so that a company can exist to advance the first two priorities.

    The order in which a company approaches the priorities makes us realize whether the company is playing with a finite or an infinite mindset in the infinite game of business.

    Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book The Infinite Game

  • Why the combination of CEO with “WHY” and COO with “HOW” is a deadly combo?

    Look at the success of companies like Apple , Microsoft , SWA and you realize how the combination of a person who knew WHY and a person who knew HOW resulted in such an iconic organization.

    Paul Allen had the HOW whereas Bill Gates had the WHY to create a PC industry and Microsoft came out as an industry icon.Had Gates not had the vision Paul Allen could not created his magic for Microsoft.

    Same holds good for Apple.Steve Jobs had the WHY whereas Steve Wozniak knew HOW to translate the WHY into reality.

    It is a proven fact that in any iconic organization the combination of a CEO who knew WHY and a COO who knew HOW has always been a deadly combination.

    Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book the Infinite Game