Corporate Sufi

”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.

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!

Corporate Sufi?

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What is Corporate Sufi?

I use the word Sufi as a symbol for the esoteric side of all people. It goes beyond labels and focuses on the essence. On the outside people are different, on the inside not that different. Rumi the Sufi giant says, “We are all fellow travellers on the journey of life and we all face the same seasons of life.”

Why is this approach important in the corporate world? It gets rid of toxicity, egotism and turf wars – all of which is highly detrimental for the business.

I use the word “Corporate” in Corporate Sufi to symbolize the drive to excel in business, profession or career.

Corporate Sufi thus reflects someone who is driven, focused and goal-oriented, yet
heart-centered, principle-centered and balanced – a person who aspires both material and spiritual abundance.

I believe that success without happiness is a failure, that balance leads to more success, not less. It is about taking your life from success to significance!

Corporate Sufi Worldwide’s mission is to inspire and empower leaders at all levels to achieve material success, blended with a deep sense of purpose, passion and happiness.

We call this the synergy of Business, Balance & Beyond.

Judging You!

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Most of us judge others based on who we are, not who they are. We think we know a lot about others when we still have not figured out ourselves. It is so difficult to know oneself and almost impossible to really know others.

If we keep judging others adversely, we need to look deeper. We may find that what we are seeing in others, maybe a reflection of who we are.

Most people have a good side and not so good side. What do you notice more? If you focus on the good in others, it also reflects the good in you. When you see beauty, you are beauty!

The side benefit of seeing good in others is that we attract the good in them.

One minute video from Azim

Effective Leaders

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We are all leaders in some areas of our life – as parents, employers, MDs, CEOs, COOs, supervisors, mid-managers.

Our children are sometimes deaf to what we say to them. However, they observe and absorb what they see. Our teams learn from example and what they see as much as from being coached and mentored. To be a great leader, you want to lead by example and inspiration as much as by mentoring and coaching.

There is so much richness within each person to be discovered. Until it is discovered, it will forever be absent. It is the role of effective leaders to nurture this richness.

Watch Azim’s video message on the topic

Momentum

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Young girl jumping on trampoline smilingJust a little nudge can get you going. It leads to a rhythm that eventually creates a momentum.  Getting to momentum is hard, however, staying in momentum is easier.

When you create momentum there is an influx of energy, creativity and focus. In this state, a lot can be achieved.

However, if you let up and allow the momentum to wane or stop, it takes a huge amount of energy to rekindle the fire.

When you have momentum, you want to fully capitalize and optimize. The way to do this is to go all out to complete what you have set out to do – before the zest dissipates. Once you have momentum, proceed with full gusto and energy.

The trampoline effect of momentum can be amazing and can leap frog you to a totally new level.

You may experience some anxiety and doubt about your approach, however, crush that immediately before it crushes you as even a small doubt in such a situation is too big!

Momentums don’t happen often. But when they do, unfortunately few people optimize it.

If you are in a momentum phase, go all out in the direction of your dream!

Dealing with corporate politics

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Group Of Businesspeople Meeting In Modern Boardroom

Since we are unique and all carry enormous power within, the creative synergy between us could bring about spectacular results. However, people spend more time and energy on corporate politics than on creative synergy. 

Politics is found everywhere – government, corporations, communities, families.

Some people enjoy playing the political game to their advantage, some get stressed out with it whilst others just turn a blind eye to it. 

As a leader how can you convert corporate politics to creative synergy? 

1. Promote, recognize and reward creative synergy

2. Create negative consequences for those who play the political game

3. As a leader be a good role model by not playing the politics game

4. Focus on action, integrity, and results.

Whenever you are tempted to play the political game take some action that enhances your capability, trustworthiness and produces results

5. When a peer is gossiping or back-biting, walk away if you are unable to stop him or her from doing so; don’t participate, otherwise, you become an enabler

6. Manage corporate politics instead of letting it manage you. Make it clear to your team that they’ll be evaluated on merit, not politics

6. Establish consequences for people who are political or negative, and reward those who are focused on results and meritocracy

7. Network in positive ways and be a positive influence. Show you can be successful without engaging in politics, so others can follow.  Let your actions do the talking.