First Rule Begin

First Rule is to Begin

LeadLab bySangeeth Varghese

What Would We Discuss Today?

• Speaker introduction • Vision of LeadCap• Why are beginnings so difficult? Why is it so difficult

to start something?• Q&A session

Speaker Profile

• Sangeeth Varghese is an acknowledged leadership thinker, and the founder of LeadCap.

• Is the author of the bestseller 'Decide to Lead' and writes a popular column in ET. His columns have appeared in Forbes, TOI and he has appeared in BBC and CNBC. Varghese guest edited the 2008 New Year edition of the TOI as a “young star making a difference”.

• Feb 2008, Bombay Stock Exchange Journal rated Varghese as one of the most influential leadership thinkers.

• Did his masters and research London School of Economics with a scholarship.

Building a Nation of Leaders

• LeadCap is nurtured by thinkers from the Ivy League with a vision to build the first leadership democracy in the world; to build India as a nation of leaders.

• LeadLab is created with a mandate of creating a million leaders: where we empower a million individuals in India with leadership opportunities, beyond their birth and living conditions.

• Currently in the process of identifying 20 zonal leaders – who would take lead of their zones and build more leaders.

"Is there an Indian equivalent of the American Dream? LeadCap is striving to identify it": Forbes

We delve in to our minds and others hearts

• Our approach is different• We approach leadership as a decision, not as a

position or as a set of skills• A decision requires deep understanding of human

psychology and motivation

• A gentle push towards the decision• Leadership is not a destination, but a journey• The minute you stop learning, you are dead!

Eating bread with bread!

• Life slipping into complete randomness

The story of a speech and a book

Why beginnings are so difficult?

• Busy• Change is irrelevant• Now is not the time• Fear

Why do we fear to begin?

• Tasks appear difficult from outside: Outsider’s perspective coloured by fear

• Fear of unknown: Many things are strange and unfamiliar

• Fear of risk: Familiarity with comfort zone• Fear of unpredictability: Not sure of the results

4 rules to help you begin

Switch off the TV

• 24 hours is more than enough• Get rid of distractions

• Our senses capture only what is required• Sit back and think forward

Permission to begin

• This permission could come as an endorsement from an outside entity that you look up to or from yourself.

2 ways. 1. Remain positive and affirmative

• Do not focus on difficulties or failures, but on the positives.

• Keep minds open. Discover new aspects of the task. Try to work out several ways of accomplishing the task.

2. Be in the company of likeminded and optimistic people. • Would create a positive rub off and in building

enthusiasm. • Take encouragement positively and criticism

constructively.

Bribe yourself to be leader

• Appeal to the sense of adventure even as they are looking forward to beginning a task.

• Motivate by imagining about the new learning and growth opportunities that it would open up and the impact that it would help them produce.

• Start viewing the task they are about to start as the greatest growth opportunity in their life.

Seeing the end in the beginning

• Most of us see the beginning in the beginning• Results can be the biggest motivator for a potential

leader to begin a task. • Sustaining a level of enthusiasm is difficult, if

leaders have no end in their minds. • Even before beginning, start thinking about the end

results. Push to be excited about those possibilities.• Enjoy your journey

Leadership Takeaway

There is magic in beginning something.Well begun. Half done

BEGIN NOW!

Next Session

• Next week, “Setting the LeadCap network”• Another engaging, interesting and inspiring session• Till then spread the word about LeadLab, because

every individual inspired is another leader won for nation building.