Stay Steadfast – any path will do and will lead to success.

Stay Steadfast – any path will do and will lead to success.

Any path you choose will support your growth to Leadership! There is no one particular path. Like the saying, all roads will lead to Rome. Having said that, it is critical to stay steadfast to a particular path, you will not succeed if you deter away from your goal. It is the commitment that will make you succeed. Abandoning something halfway is the issue why we fail to succeed. One needs to be total. One ought to relentlessly pursue what one desires, and with an unflinching resolve. To ensure that one must persevere in the worst of times. Existence unfolds its full bounty to anyone who digs deep, who continues to trudge along, despite whatever. In my work as an Executive Coach, I have come to realize that in order to succeed, there are three simple steps:

1.     Am I clear what I want?

2.     Do I know the price I have to pay to get to realize my goals?

3.     Actually, paying the price along the way.

Most folks who are successful tend to offer three reasons for their success:

·      Hard work and steadfast pursuit of their vision

·      Encouragement from their spouse

·      Fortune to be ‘lucky’ – being in the right place at the right time.

Any methodology that is devised has one intrinsic principle – to support awareness and continuous learning. Growth is ever present in all forms – that is its very nature. It is like a circle. Whichever way you move forward you will reach the center from the circumference. It is changing one’s part midway that deters you away and makes you get lost along the way. Like an arrow that has left the bow, it must move towards the target, it should not change it path along the way. What brings one home is totality, unconditional commitment, and dedication. What matters then is not the path, but these conditions. Years ago my brother, once shared with me, ‘When I choose one thing, I tend to appreciate my choice fully, I don’t think of my other choices, lest they linger within’.  Years later I realize how wise his words were.

With these conditions and without the path, one can still reach, and yet one who is on the correct path, but without these qualities will not reach her destination. For the one who leads, who is a true Leader, he must imbue in his followers, a steadfastness to stay the course. In order to do this, although he is aware that all paths are useful, he deliberately condemns them. It is not with deception, but in order to ensure, his followers do not have doubts, on his leading them towards the goal. He knows that Trust in him, is what would make them follow, and in order to succeed, he knows that his followers must have deep belief. A belief or faith that is unshakeable.

When Jesus said, “I am the truth, I am the way and the light”, he was not wishing to confirm that there is only ONE path to the Kingdom of Heaven. He being an enlightened leader, would know that more than anybody else, that any path would suffice.  Hinduism has offered in its all-embracing manner, that all paths lead to the ultimate path to Truth.  

Truth is, that the journey of Leadership is the path within. When one moves away from the circumference and moves to the centeredness, he gets to that point of personal awareness where he views everything with a deeper perspective. Away from the circumference, he is free from all the vicissitudes of life storming at the surface. At the core of his being, he sees everything with heightened awareness and realizes the true nature of things.

The role of the coach is to support the client traverse the path. He begins with clarifying the Goals and values of the pursuit; the commitment to reach one’s goal, and the price one is willing to pay. His role is to ‘be the mirror’ to the client, continuously helping to bring to his awareness, lessons and insights along the way. To work assiduously with the client develop options and strategies as he overcomes internal and external barriers. To be there for the client, acknowledging him, for his commitment, yet prepared to confront him, if he is untrue to himself. Celebrating each milestone, forever encouraging.

In the end, both Coach and Client are aware that the journey is self-traversed. The client will need to take responsibility for the goal and own the process. The path to leadership cannot be taught, but it can be learnt.  It has to be self realized, it has to be self-understood. No other can beam the light, one must, as Buddha advises, shine and follow one’s own light.  Jidu Krishnamurthy once remarked, ‘ to traverse the path one needs no Master’. Masters are there only to help support you with devices. No devices are needed. In the end, whether you fall gradually or at once, it is not the path, but the ‘drop’, that does it.  We are all bodhisattvas, all natural leaders. Some will take a shorter while to get there, some longer.

When followers get to the place they seek, it is not without reason that they feel that they got there by themselves. True Leaders lead silently. When the job is done, everyone believes they correctly got there by their own efforts.

In truth, staying true to the present, is what is crucial in the relationship. The role of the coach is to be with the client’s present reality. While the client pursues the goal, the role of the coach is to ever stay with his client, in the moment.  The role of the coach is to stay unattached to what the client seeks, but to support and be caught with the purpose of helping the client clarify his thinking and feelings that leads to purposive action.

For in the ultimate analysis, the motivation of all human behavior is guided by a deep desire to be happy. While being happy is a universal driver, what makes one happy differs from the other. Our experienced reality of the world is but an expression of how we think, feel and act. Changing the way, we think, we feel about others, and ourselves, and acting from personal awareness, is what will finally get us to our divine purpose.