Dhawal Tank

Category: Professional

  • The State is the Work

    In my work as a solopreneur, and in working with other solopreneurs, I find that the most difficult part of our work is not the work itself.

    The most difficult part of our work is being in the right state of mind. The right energy state.

    In a job, you are forced into a state. The workplace meetings, the expectations of someone in power, and team members keep us in check. We show up and do our work, even when it can grind us down.

    There’s a reason that half of us are unsatisfied at our work.

    But when we work for ourselves, the difficult part is cultivating this mental state. Sustaining it also takes effort.

    Instead of being unsatisfied in a job, we end up being unsatisfied and blaming ourselves. So we end up in this ebb and flow.

    For most of us, the day to day work itself is not hard to get into. It can be challenging, sure. But once you are in the swing of things, the work gets done.

    The hard part instead is to get into the state where we feel good about our work.

    We need rituals to support our work. This seems like a “soft” thing. After all, work is work and we can get it done wherever. But I think these rituals are the main part of work.

    These rituals can sustain us. These rituals cannot be mechanical. They must be deliberate, mindful, and real to us.

    What rituals support you?

  • Phony Games

    There are lots of phony corporate games played at work. Perhaps the worst of them is the game of “competition”.

    It happens in law firms, sales jobs, and almost everywhere else.

    For some reason, we have all been led into thinking that beating someone else motivates people more than… doing well. Or doing work we’re proud of.

    No matter how harmful and stupid, executive “leaders” seem to get away with terrible work cultures all in service of “competition”.

    It starts in school. I’m learning that in America at least, schools are pit against each other. District against district. The very existence of teachers, schools, etc hang in the balance.

    We’re taught that for one company (or country) to succeed, another must fail. Something disputed repeatedly by Nobel Prize winning economists.

    Why do we accept this Squid Game like zero-sum way of thinking?

    It seems like people care more about how their kid’s school is doing compared to other schools. As if that’s a marker for the quality of education.

    We are taught that we need to compete with one another to “win”. But research repeatedly shows that the pie gets bigger for everyone when we focus on cooperation instead of competition.

    At work, teams are pit against each other. Within teams, people are put against each other.

    All in the mistaken notion that people do best when they have to “beat” someone else.

    I saw this in law practices where the draw of the almighty billable hour made people burn out. Competition didn’t help.

    Sales has insanely high attrition rates. Let’s stop pretending that the cost of hiring/retaining sales teams is lower than the revenue you get.

    All this is based on some artificial scarcity.

    Research shows that cooperation works better across the board. But all this talk about competition certainly helps us vie upwards for the approval of the overlords.

    Which might be exactly the reason why this game continues to persist.

  • Endless Skill Trees

    If you grew up gaming, you know all about skill trees. But what makes for the trunk and roots in your work and business?

    In gaming, you start at the lowest branch of the skill tree and level up with experience. You unlock more abilities as you climb the tree.

    Skill trees exist in our work as well. There is an endless universe of courses and certifications to help you “level up”.

    As a society, I think we’ve overemphasized the branches of skills. We keep upgrading and trying to climb higher.

    We even think about the trunk, which I consider to be schooling.

    But the roots? The soil?

    I think that is about the culture. Wisdom. Self-knowledge. Consciousness.

    The amazon is facing deforestation everyday mostly to raise soybeans for cows.

    No matter how tall the tree, nor its many branches, there will be a deforestation of human work this century.

    Maybe it’s time to stop thinking about leveling up on our skill trees. And instead find a different forest to thrive in.

  • What’s Next for Workers in an AI-Driven World?

    Klarna fired 700 employees last year because the CEO thought “AI” would replace all their work. A year later, they wanted to hire those people again.

    Turns out AI is not so intelligent.

    Recently, James Watt asked the question:

    “What’s left for humans when AI does everything better?”

    He makes the case that, “the barista, the accountant, the professor, the CEO, the creative director – we’re all in the same boat now. AI isn’t just coming for “low-skilled” jobs. It’s coming for the Nobel Prize winners, the Fortune 500 CEOs, the world’s best doctors.”

    I really don’t think LLMs are going to pour my coffee at Starbucks anytime soon.

    But the rest, sure. But not because AI is smarter in any way.

    But because CEOs are on an endless road to promote growth at all costs. And they need employee loyalty and retention until of course employees become disposable by AI.

    The one group exempt from this: CEOs. Maybe Klarna’s CEO could have asked AI if it should have fired 700 people. CEOs are never questioned about their poor decisions made so confidently that upends the lives of hundreds and thousands.

    At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if AI is going to replace you or not. Most business “leaders” are looking to replace us no matter what (read more about this from my post a few days back).

    The only option left: we start to create our own conscious path to success. Our own road that’s inspired by own skills, creativity, interest, and desire to contribute.

    Video about that coming soon by the way.

    Let me know what you think. And if this point is of interest to you, let me know. I’m putting together a private group discussion where we figure out what’s next for us.

  • Go Outwards to go Inwards

    Go Outwards to go Inwards

    I finished reading this excellent book: The Outward Mindset by The Arbinger Institute. Rarely does a leadership book resound so deeply with me. I found myself highlighting large chunks of the book, and I wanted to share some of the choicest passages from the book with you.

    The basic premise of the book tells us that we need to change our mindset and see people as, well, people instead of objects or obstacles to manipulate, push, persuade, or overcome. They are people with their own internal needs, challenges, wants, objectives, hopes and dreams. When we see truly see people for who they are and what they want, make our work about serving them, and constantly adjust to make sure we see people for who they are, we create better families, communities, and organizations.

    This is far from a “soft skills” book. Getting this right creates a strategic competitive advantage which cannot be replicated. It creates record breaking profits, low turnover rates, and drives real business results. This set of ideas have been used by SWAT Teams, non-profits, and multinational corporations.

    This is similar to the premise of Listen & Lead by Richard Himmer which I wrote about in my two previous posts here and here. This books flows nicely from these other linked articles.

    I have seen the power of these ideas in over a decade of my volunteering effort with BAPS, and BAPS Charities. While no one has formalized these ideas in this non-profit organization, I have seen its spirit everyday. The results have been breathtaking as a small organization founded in early 20th century India in a tiny village has grown to become one of the largest international India-based non-profits in the world with a host of activities impacting millions and thousands of centres globally.

    I would say that if Arbinger really wants to see how deeply the Outward Mindset is embedded in an organization, they should carefully study BAPS.

    Here are the excerpts:

    In whatever a person does, his or her mind-set comes through, and others respond to this combination of behavior and mindset. This means that the effectiveness of an individual’s behaviors will depend to some significant degree on that individual’s mindset.

    Seeing people as people rather than as objects enables better thinking because such thinking is done in response to the truth: others really are people and not objects.

    When my mindset is outward, I am alive to and interested in other people and their objectives and needs. I see others as people whom I am open to helping.

    Not caring to notice or be moved by others requires something of me that takes a tremendous personal and social toll: it requires me to feel justified for not caring. I find justification by focusing on others’ faults, real and imagined.

    Are there people in your life, either at work or at home, whose needs, objectives, and burdens you resist seeing? How about people that you don’t resist—people with whom you are open, curious, interested, aware?
    As you compare these relationships, what differences do you notice in how you feel and act? Can you spot any blame in what you tell yourself about others or any self-justifying narratives that you’ve come to believe

    The most troubling areas of our lives will be those in which we resist what the humanity of others invites us to see. This is a hopeful truth.

    What is the cost of an inward mindset? When people focus on themselves rather than on their impact, lots of activity and effort get wasted on the wrong things.

    Think about the times in your life when you have felt most alive and engaged. Who and what were you focused on in those moments—on yourself or on something bigger that included others?

    Real helpfulness can’t be made into a formula. To be outward doesn’t mean that people should adopt this or that prescribed behavior. Rather, it means that when people see the needs, challenges, desires, and humanity of others, the most effective ways to adjust their efforts occur to them in the moment. When they see others as people, they respond in human and helpful ways.

    This approach to measuring one’s impact requires nothing but a willingness to stay in regular conversations with others about whether they feel one’s efforts are helping them or not.

    While the goal in shifting mindsets is to get everyone turned toward each other, accomplishing this goal is possible only if people are prepared to turn their mindsets toward others with no expectation that others will change their mindsets in return.

    For all these reasons—as well as because widespread mindset change happens in large measure in response to those who change first—being able to operate with an outward mind-set when others do not is a critically important ability. It is the most important move.

    People misunderstand the most important move we are talking about if they think that working with an outward mindset when others refuse to do the same makes a person blind to reality or soft on bad behavior. It does neither. In fact, what obscures vision and exposes people to more risk is not an outward mindset, which stays fully alive to and aware of others, but an inward one.

    If you start with changing mindsets, behavioral transformations can happen quickly.

    Whether in rethinking community policing or resolving labor- management disputes, when people see situations that need to change, the temptation is to immediately apply a behavioral solution. That seems like the fast approach. But if mindset is not addressed, it is usually the slow approach to change.

    We’re not trying to have a homogenized group of people who work in the same way. Everybody works individually, but they work toward a collective solution. It’s about taking difference and focusing together on results.

    Without realizing it, too many leaders assume that the role of leadership is to control.

    When I try to impose my ideas on others and thereby refuse to allow them to think, I end up getting in the way more than I end up being helpful. It’s not my job as a leader to have the solution to every problem.

  • Does Leadership Training Work?

    Does Leadership Training Work?

    Leadership is not a noun. It is a verb. Leadership happens daily, in practice.

    At its heart, leadership training is about passing on skills to people so that they can effectively read, listen, influence, inspire, coach, and guide themselves and others.

    • To read yourself effectively, you need to be introspective. To read others, you need to be empathetic.
    • To listen to yourself, you need to create space to let the inner voice speak. To listen to others, you need humility and openness to see the world differently.
    • To influence yourself, you need the tools, strategies, and guides to work on the right things. To influence others, you need to coach them, ask them the right questions to let them grow themselves. You also need integrity, strength, and decisiveness.
    • To inspire yourself, you need a powerful “why”. To inspire others, you need to connect the work with their big purpose.

    Can leadership training teach this?

    I believe it can plant the seeds for these qualities to emerge in the right people in the right situation. And the more seeds you plant, the higher the likelihood of them sprouting, growing, and flourishing.

    A training session can last for 1 day or even 1 week. But it’s up to the person to change their values, mindset, beliefs, and actions. That work is done on a daily basis.

    That’s what actually matters.

    Frequent Leadership Training is exactly what can help nurture the plant as it takes hold and grows.

    Overcoming ingrained habits, mindsets, beliefs, and values can take a long time. Just like losing weight, starting a new diet, you need constant reinforcement, motivation, and recognition to keep going.

    So, Leadership Training can work—really well! As long as it happens frequently. As long as one builds atop another. As long as the person has an interest in getting better as a leader.

    In those situations, yes it can work.

    I’ve led leadership workshops in rooms where the entire audience was completely disengaged. It took everything in my power to connect with their current challenges to make some of them interested in it.

    I’ve also been in rooms where eager people who had just been promoted were looking for ways to be more valuable to their organization and their teams, and were committed to being active, engaged, and consistent practitioners in this process.

    The later group wins. Always.

    Your Thoughts

    What has been the most effective leadership training for you? Did it even take place in a traditional professional setting or elsewhere? What was more valuable about it? Share your thoughts below to help others.

  • How SMBs can embrace Stakeholder Capitalism

    How SMBs can embrace Stakeholder Capitalism

    In this post, you will see why small & medium sized businesses need to engage in stakeholder capitalism and how to do it.

    When you pull back through the political drama of the World Economic Forum, there is one key point that the forum is advancing. It’s this: businesses need to exist for more than just the shareholders. It needs to exist to serve all stakeholders.

    This seems hopelessly out of reach for most businesses, when there are more immediate demands that they need to address. Payroll, hiring and retaining key employees, receivables, etc seem much more urgent.

    In face of these daily challenges, shouldn’t the owners of the company put their own interests first? Not taking steps to reshape your business can be fatal in the long-term. Especially for small businesses that can feel the effects of any change in the economic climate.

    The best way to serve your own interests is to engage in Stakeholder Capitalism.

    Stakeholder Capitalism is not about putting the business owner’s interests at the expense of everyone else. It is instead about holding it on an equal footing with all other stakeholders that touch your business.

    Now more than ever, founders and business owners of small, medium, or large companies need this if they are to recruit & keep top talent and grow—in good times or bad.

    Engaging in Stakeholder Capitalism is the best way to do it to stay competitive and relevant in the marketplace for customers, vendors, and talent.

    How to Make Stakeholder Capitalism work for Small & Medium Sized Businesses

    1. Expand the business purpose and mission. 

    Small businesses often exist to serve its owners, but expanding its mission can mean a shift in actions to improve the business.

    For example, a dentist can exist not just to make a living, or as most cliched ads say “to make you smile.” But instead, a dentist exists to improve public health in a community. The scope of activities that the office now stands for grows.

    In service of such a larger mission, the dentist is more likely to do more outreach work. It means speaking. It means working with healthcare providers and holistic practitioners to improve health of the community. The goodwill, authority, and trust that comes with acting on such a bigger purpose and mission can grow the business and create a line-up of talented staff that wants to work for such a person. It means using the office in the off-hours to host learning workshops for members of the community.

    And if this works at the level of a dentist, it can definitely work for larger businesses.

    Is your mission and purpose centered around your needs, or is it an expansive vision that incorporate all stakeholders? The first step of stakeholder capitalism begins with growing that.

    2. Re-map the value. 

    This means looking at value creation in the organization with a fresh lens. While previously the dentist generated value when she was working on a patient, now the dentist is generating value when she is also engaged in education, outreach, or taking a leadership position in her community to improve public health outcomes.

    She is becoming the hub of these activities and conversations in her community, and she is emerging as a leader in it through the sole virtue of her accommodating the dialogue.

    This can be scary at first. But as the hub of creating greater health in her community, she is going to attract more customers, more media, and better talent to work with her clinic.

    Have you looked at exactly what parts of your business generate value for stakeholders? How would it change if you embraced a bigger vision?

    3. Engage others in the conversations

    Whether it be vendors or employees, stakeholder capitalism is an inclusive model of growth. Management and the workforce are removed from one another. But stakeholder capitalism demands that everyone becomes an active participant in the conversation on how to create greater value.

    Demanding that from employees and creating that for vendors and customers is where the magic happens.

    After screening for technical skills, and overall personality fit with the business, also understand their alignment with your bigger mission & purpose.

    Help vendors understand your greater vision and back it up with news at every interaction with the vendor. This is about walking the talk. This is likely to galvanize both vendors and employees to step up and find greater ways of contributing to this broader vision, while enriching themselves in the process.

    A dentist who is on a mission to not just get patients in chairs, but to improve public health in her community is likely to develop a closer relationship with her vendors and employees. Vendors are likely to spotlight her in their trade publications (expanding her reach further), but also make her an example for others to follow.

    This type of leadership gives even small businesses an unbeatable advantage – even in hard economic times.

    Have you involved your stakeholders in a conversation about your bigger vision? How can you involve them more frequently?

    4. Adapt Incrementally

    Finally, evolve your mission, purpose and change the business when time comes. This is supposed to be a co-creative process. When you engage in dialogue with other stakeholders in the service of your mission, try to understand their pressing needs, wants, and desires. Understand what is most important to them.

    A dentist might find that her patients struggle mostly with diet and nutrition in order to keep their dental health sound. Her next steps might involve partnering with a nutritionist or dietitian or even a meal-prep company and providing another level of service to her stakeholders.

    This can lead to untapped revenue potential while also serving her stakeholders in greater ways than ever before.

    The Business Roundtable, leading executives from across the world are embracing this. Now is the time to do the same for your organization, whether it be a small, medium or fast-growing business.

    Have you engaged in a dialogue with your stakeholders to understand what other things they are looking? Have you tried serving those needs? Stakeholder Capitalism is not a seasonal trend, but here to stay.