Authenticity

”Corporate Sufi” Leader

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*Finding Your Purpose*

Once you find your life mission, the one thing you need to do, then fuse it with all of your activities—personal and corporate. By so doing, you unleash your potential and find fulfillment on your journey.

*Embracing a Principle-Centered Approach*

Listen and trust the voice of your conscience and work with integrity, principles, and respect.
You have a social conscience, and you ensure that your corporate work creates a better society all round. You do not engage in any activity that is detrimental to the overall well-being of society or the environment.

*Making a Difference*

It is not just what you have that matters; rather, the value of your life is determined by who you are and what you give. You treat life as a precious gift and use this gift to give and to make a difference.

*Embracing Life-Long Learning*

You learn from cradle to grave. You learn from all, including nature which offers immense wisdom. You know that, in order to succeed in life, competence is the key which comes from life-long learning.

*Having Faith in the Unknown*

You do not fear the unknown. You are willing to take risks and to persevere in realizing your dreams.

*Persevering*

You never give up. You persist until you succeed in achieving what you believe in.
Perseverance and patience go hand in hand.

*Being Effective*

You are a role model inspiring your team through your example.
You eliminate insecurities by trusting and believing in the inherent abilities and gifts of team members.
You are results-oriented, not task-focused.
You empower your team—you do not overpower them.

*Having a Positive Attitude*

You keep confident expectations. What you expect is what you invite into your life.
You are solution-oriented, not problem-focused.
You are non-judgmental, giving people the benefit of the doubt.
You do not worry about criticism. You believe in doing your best and leaving the rest.

*Balancing your Life*

Real success is holistic and caters to your body, mind, and soul. You allocate your time wisely and do not compromise on a tight set of priorities, which brings you balance and synergy.

*Savouring the Path*

You know that destiny lies in the path. You love the challenges and hurdles because they enhance your strength and tenacity.
You regard each day as the most important day of your life. Thus, every day—every moment—is a gift that you cherish and savor. You go with the flow without taking your eye off your goals.

*Taming Our Ego*

You strive for positive pride and shun egotism.
You let the subject disappear in the object by letting the self disappear in the higher purpose of your work.
You accept your shortcomings. You do not have a need to become defensive or take things personally.

*Igniting your Spirituality*

You make spirituality the centerpiece of your life, including your corporate life, so that 24 hours of your day are grounded in spirituality.
You know the corporate soul—the real reason for the corporation’s existence.

*Understanding Life and Death*

You realize that there is a beginning and an end to everything in life. Every beginning is an end of the old, and every end a beginning of the new.
When you die, you know that you do not take what you have but, rather, what you gave.

*Experiencing the Divine in Corporate Life*

You know that all success happens by the Divine’s work. Hard work and struggle pay dividends, but without grace you cannot go too far. You invite the Divine into your corporate life and make the Divine your partner in everything you do.
You become co-creators with the Divine by creating something beautiful in this world through your work.
You see divinity in all. You understand that everything and everybody is a signpost to the Oneness of creation.

These principles are universal and practical. They are founded on love and act as a bridge between your personal and corporate life. If these principles are implemented by you and other leaders in your team, your corporation would be a more happy, peaceful, and loving place where each person is given the space and the opportunity to flower to his or her potential and to contribute to society and to the world.  Your corporate life will, thus, be materially rewarding, as well as spiritually enriching.

Unconditional Love!

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Today is Valentine’s Day and lots of love messages and roses are going to be exchanged.

One thing I leaned from my parents is the power of unconditional love! For them love was not based on conditions; it was based on acceptance! Their approach was: I love you the way you are, not the way I want you to be!

This approach is very difficult for modern parents. Therein lies the challenge. When you try to change people it can be a lifelong challenge. The fastest way to change people is to change the way you look at them. Dr. Wayne Dyer would say: “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change!”

So as we are celebrating Valentine’s Day and sharing roses and loving messages yet the one foundational trait we need to work on is to accept people the way they are. Once you do that you give them the permission to value their uniqueness.

Negative Effects of Ego

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Some of the effects of negative ego include:

1. Weakens collaboration with others – Egotists can’t see beyond their own immediate interests. They overlook the benefits of interdependence and the synergy derived from diversity.

2. Diminishes authenticity – Egoists cannot be authentic, because of the incessant need to protect their image even at the expense of denial. Their fear prevents them from acknowledging and appreciating the gifts of others.

3. Creates a scarcity mindset – Egotism breeds insecurity and jealousy. The fear of losing out increases and others appear as burdens or competitors.

4. Builds barriers to learning – Ego is the latch on a closed mind. Egotists abhor any show of vulnerability and hence are closed to any new learning. Being unable to accept criticism, they cannot gain any insight. Without openness, people lose awareness of what reality is and end up making unreal choices.

5. Promotes fear and distrust. Egotists are always watching fearfully over their shoulders, worrying that someone might overtake them. They want constant attention, sympathy, and flattery and make unreasonable demands. This makes them overly competitive, a sore loser, and a perfectionist.

6. Encourage destructive behaviours. Recognizing and dropping this false ego means letting go of all that is deceptive or artificial about us, and reclaiming our true magnificence, our positive pride.

Creating Zest

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Zest creates joy; it gives you the ability to appreciate life even when there are ups and downs; the drive to face challenges in a positive manner.

Zest is fueled by what excites you, makes you enthusiastic and passionate. If you know what this is, do more of it.

When you are living and working with passion, it is contagious and it inspires others. Work and life are then less stressful.

Finding things that make you feel excited about life help to increase your zest – but doing the right thing does too. How you build your relationships with loved ones can have an impact on how zestful you feel. If you have loving and jovial relationships, you enhance your energy.

People who practice zest embrace life as an adventure and push the envelope. They see possibility where others only see problems. They do big things and bring other people along on their journey.

Create zest in your life and experience a life of unbridled energy and enthusiasm!

Non Judgmental!

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We all feel that we are non judgmental. The reality is it is very difficult to be non judgemental.

We all have our biases and prejudices. The only way to be aware of our biases is to catch ourselves in action. When you find someone taking long to order their food and we go in our mind ‘there he or she goes again’ or if you are in a line up and someone takes a little longer to conclude a purchase and we say, ‘how long does it take to conclude a simple transaction for God’s sake?’ These are examples of making judgemental remarks.

Not everyone can be like you. Just because people are different from you does not make them objects for judgement.

Acceptance of people the way they are, not the way you want them to be; is the foundation of non judgement. Not so easy!

One minute video from Azim

Perspective

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If you are able to gain composure and put things in perspective, you will find the big challenge you are having, can be managed.

When you are consumed by fear, panic or anxiety the perspective gets clouded.

In times of great challenge, the starting point is to realize the best way to minimize and handle your challenge is to be calm and composed.

When you are calm and composed you get perspective of the challenge and you also draw from your deep inner wisdom.

Perspective is the antidote to fear, anxiety and panic!

One minute video from Azim

Unleash the Power of Challenges

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Unexpected challenges, enormous change, or pressing deadlines are real and happen to all of us. The secret to surviving them or rather thriving is not to get ruffled, but to maintain your equilibrium and enthusiasm, and to stay centered. By relaxing and staying calm, you’ll be able to handle things effectively.

Involve your family and your colleagues in these challenges. This way you won’t feel alienated and they’ll also help you overcome these challenges.

When you are put to the test, stick to your values and principles by making the right choice in the moment of integrity.

The more you exercise wise choices, the easier it is to continue to do so in the future. When you succumb to temptations, you are less likely to withstand the real tests that are bound to come in life.

As you become successful, you face more challenges.  With each success, the test gets bigger.  As you overcome the first hurdle, a new one is put in its place.  This is the universe’s way of honing your capacity and ability to succeed.  There is nothing wrong with this since most of us never make use of our full potential.

One minute video from Azim