Welcome to the Deploy Yourself Newsletter, where I gently provoke you to show you your own power. This newsletter is an invitation to your leadership. You can also read this issue online.
Hey,
If you think nice about someone, tell them right then. Don’t Wait.
It’s a pity that we often wait until a person’s death to say all of the nice things we thought about them.
Appreciation is a powerful tool for building strong bonds in relationships – whether at work or outside it.
Most organisations focus on feedback, while I have found that genuine appreciation is much more powerful.
When you appreciate people, it reminds them who they are rather than what they just did.
Strong leaders focus on what people do well and not on their shortcomings, and understand that positive attention leads to engagement and exponential performance in the future.
The next time you have a positive thought about someone—no matter how small or insignificant it may be—tell them right then.
Write them a short note expressing your heartfelt appreciation for what they’ve done and what that means to you. Be as specific as you can about what they’ve done that you appreciate.
This is not a trick.
Genuine appreciation must be sincere and genuine – it must come from your heart, and not just your mind.
I want to acknowledge you for reading this newsletter – week after week – over the last 2 years. THANK YOU.
Forward this email to someone you want to appreciate with a short personal appreciation. And. Do it right now.
Fascinating Articles & Stories
One
Manish Godha – “There is no right or wrong way to be a leader/entrepreneur.”
I interviewed Manish Godha, CEO of Advaiya, on the Choosing Leadership podcast.
In the interview, Manish shared the secrets behind his calm and balanced answers to my questions. We also talk about why there is no one right or wrong way to be a leader and an entrepreneur and unpack some of the unconventional choices he has made. He also shared his vision for the future as he looks to take his organization to the next level of growth.
In the interview, Manish shares
- My father has a background in engineering, power production, and power generation, so I became interested in those fields and got an opportunity to work on solar power.
- As a chartered accountant, you definitely gain exposure to how enterprises use technology, especially in their business processes and overall enterprise resource planning.
- You have to choose a few things that are fixed and non-negotiable, and other things will then fall into place around those choices.
- Most entrepreneurs, especially traditional ones of my generation or the one before, tend to have this tendency.
- One of the challenges is how to continue building, growing, and refreshing your expertise in your business.
- We have to have the right set of people who share a growth mindset and are willing to build expertise in themselves and provide the benefit of that expertise to others.
- Things have a way of taking care of themselves, and we just have to ensure that we learn the right things and continue to persist
- I love reading a lot of things of a fundamental nature, like aspects of physics and the laws of basic sciences. They have quite a calming effect.
Listen to the entire episode.
Two
Shay David- “In our life as entrepreneurs, we are always high on life.”
I interviewed Shay David, CEO of Retrain.AI, on the Choosing Leadership podcast.
In the interview, Shay reveals both the very practical data-driven as well as grounded spiritual part of himself, and how he balances both in his day-to-day. We spoke about his vision for the future, how he deals with often debated topics like AI and unemployment, and how entrepreneurship is different now than when he started his first company.
Shay shares:
- That he has been working in the HR space for about 15 years where he mostly worked within startups and also into scale up.
- He describes himself as a leader who has strong hands-on experience.
- I studied and worked at the same time which was very beneficial for my own development.
- I started to work for booking.com and I think this was personally the first company where I truly experienced, professionalism in a way and hyper-growth and the use of data to make really good decisions.
- I had the support also of my parents and that was great. But I also realized this kind of pushed me to go out of my comfort zone so I decided to do an internship in Shanghai China because I felt that I needed to do something that was not very obvious.
- I think we can Restore trust to become more transparent, to become more clear and overcommunicating on the expected impact, right before we actually start work.
- It’s becoming more and more important that employees would also like to have a stronger say have more access to the organizations that they work for so they would like to influence a certain process.
Listen to the entire episode.
Three
Curated resources for your leadership
Here are my best finds from all over the internet for your leadership. Make yourself tea/coffee as you read, listen and learn.
Pro-tip – Listen and read the below about YOU – not about the author. (reply back and ask if you do not understand what that means)
- Your Startup’s Management Training Probably Sucks — Here’s How to Make it Better
- The Gift of Fear – A Conversation with Sumit and Tim Shurr
That’s it for now. If you have any questions or feedback, or if you are new and want to introduce yourself, hit reply. I read and respond to every reply. All the best,
Sumit
P.S. – I am looking to interview more inspirational leaders on my podcast. If you know anyone I should interview, make an introduction.
(Twitter) @SumitGupta
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