EPISODE 8 - LEADERSHIP AND STRESS

In the last episode, we talked about how mind detoxification and meditation make us more efficient beings generally.

Today, we will extend that productivity to leadership; how who we are and how we use natural endowments affect the quality of where we operate.

Leadership is the guidance or direction of people and resources towards achieving a particular goal. When we are talking leadership I’m not restricting it to governance; it could be in the home, offices, village settings and clubs / societies and then of course state.

The key words here are to guide and direct people, to channel resources and be focused on achieving a particular goal which naturally should be for the betterment of all the parties involved.

In management training we talk of good organizational climate, time management and the rest of it and they all apply.

My main point here is on guiding and directing people and channeling available resources to achieve a goal: can you truly guide and direct people if you don’t understand them and their makeup? How versed are you as a leader in the resources available to you as far as human capital is concerned?

How many of us care enough to know that in creating man, the hormone he is bathed with which he uses in procreation, and which makes him physically stronger and more of a risk taker than the female has also put some limitation to his ability to digest information and has localized his language development to only one side of the brain while the female has it more distributed on both sides of her brain? The point here is that men think longer about what they believe in especially if it has an emotional component attached to it, than the women and the women can see the bigger picture faster than the men. Again this localization of language issue makes it easier for women to recover from a stroke illness if the speech is affected than the men. Men on their part are more courageous, have more stamina and can take bigger risks.

If these factors are taken cognizance of in leadership, why is it that woman are always subordinated when important issues are being debated on? Is it because they talk more or shall we continue to delude ourselves that physical strength and risk taking prowess are better qualities than broader view, generativity and care?

Many parts of the civilized world know that any man who vies for any leadership must have his wife scrutinized as well; it is not for fun that Michelle Obama had to hold the bible for the husband when he was being sworn in- they know that they cannot underestimate her influence in the leadership of that country.  

Bottom-line: let all the resources- gender, emotional intelligence which guarantees self knowlegde and relationship skills and others be recognized and used if we are serious about achieving our goals in leaderships.
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