Power, Fear, and Vulnerability are all part of office politics. I often see the best developers loosing their focus and ability to write beautiful code when they let themselves involve with a power struggle. Power is the interesting factor which everybody want often, but when they have it they are often not trained to use it wisely. In my career I have often seen very few leaders using the power to make a better eco-system. I honestly believe the relationship build on fear will never last. I requested Srini Chandra (renowned author of Amazon Best Seller 3 Lives, in search of bliss (Amazon | Flipkart) to write a guest post on this subject which developer can read and appreciate. Let us see Srini’s thoughts in his own words.

Volumes have been written about power in the workplace. Power is an interesting phenomenon. It controls every conscious and subconscious act of ours. In today’s world, “survival of the fittest” has somehow become synonymous with evolution. Physical and material dominance have become synonymous with advanced evolution. We’re all conditioned to seek survival at any cost, and acquire power by any means. By power, I mean anything that can be acquired from an external source and thus can be taken away or lost. It can mean all sorts of things ranging from beauty, strength, agility of mind and money to the sheer physical dominance that one country or group of people can have over another. All of these are external powers. It is the luck of the draw that determines if and when you acquire such powers. In addition to randomness in the way external power is distributed, there are other problems with it.

External Power, Fear and Vulnerability

Since external power is defined as to be always short in supply, it is perceived to be valuable and therefore induces competition. One man’s gain is another man’s loss. So, we compete for power. It is this competitive state that drives husband against wife, brother against sister, friend against friend and at a macro level, leads to the clash of classes, communities, religions and nations. Education, social status, wealth and fame are sources of external power. Anything we fear losing is an external power. The biggest problem with external power is that it tends to reduce control over the most important possession of a human being – her mind. It increases her vulnerability. It causes fear to rule her mind.

Perceptions of Power

Our perception of power is such that it causes us to believe that the more you have, the more valuable you must be. It is this perception that causes us to believe that a CEO must be more valuable than his chauffeur, a doctor more valuable than the receptionist, a parent more valuable than a child, a man more valuable than a woman, and a Goddess more valuable than her devotee. It is this perception of power that causes wives to drift from husbands, children to rebel against their parents and humans to fear a punitive God. God is not one to punish. That is a notion which stems from wrong perceptions of power. Truth be told, we punish ourselves and then blame it on a supposedly angry God, who must be exasperated with us beyond imagination by now.

External power can cause grief, violence and destruction, if not wielded properly. This is not to say that you should shun external power. Recognize it for its worthlessness and give it the appropriate place in your life. Acquire as much as you can of it, without surrendering any of your truly valuable possessions.

True Power

True power comes from reverence. Reverence for this grand universe and everything it contains. And above all, true power comes from the reverence for your own soul. Recognizing this energy source within you is power that is internal and springs from within. It causes you to fly in the skies with wings of steel. It leads to an unbelievable lightness of the being. It is a power that no force in this universe can take away. When we come to serve to the needs of the soul that are required to re-create its balance, then we are on the path to evolution.

3 Kinds of Power at Workplace

Of the many types of power in the workplace, three stand out. First is the power of authority. This is the power that comes to you by virtue of your position. It is the power “over” others. It is the power given to the few by the many. Second is the power of knowledge. This is the power that accrues within individuals who have possession of unique information. The third type of power is the power from relationships. We may respond to an authority figure out of fear. We may respond to an expert out of respect. But, there is nothing greater than the power of a request from a person about whom we care personally. Such is the power of relationships.

Questions for YOU -

Take time out periodically to assess the kinds of power you’ve accumulated at work and in life.  Are these powers intrinsic or external? Do they make sense to you? Will they stand the test of time? Take the leaders you admire and examine where their power comes from. I hope you’ll find these questions interesting food for thought.

Happy journeys! And, best wishes to you for your careers.

Reference: Srini Chandra (3 Lives, in search of bliss), Pinal Dave (
http://blog.sqlauthority.com
)

I often see developers working hard on project, personal development and professional development. The ultimate goal is to progress and achieve something. The definition of progress and growth is very complex and the journey to achieve that is more complex than solving Fermat’s Last Theorem ( x3 + y3 = z3). The question is now how we solve the life’s problem but how we attempt to solve the unknowns. The most complex situation is when we did our best but we get results which we did not expect. I requested Srini Chandra (renowned author of Amazon Best Seller 3 Lives, in search of bliss (Amazon | Flipkart) to write a guest post on this subject which developer can read and appreciate. Let us see Srini’s thoughts in his own words.

Recently, I read an excellent opinion piece in New York Times that bemoaned the fact that everyone today is busy. We’re all up to something or the other, all the time. The lament of “busyness” is ubiquitous. “I’m so busy.” “I’m crazy busy.” And so on. And when we hear that, we usually respond, “That’s good. That’s better than the alternative.” The lament is really a boast, masquerading as an exaggerated complaint. It’s tragic that we’ve become so busy. Even school children are not spared. They operate on tight schedules packed with extracurricular activities, with anxious parents egging them on to get that extra yard of advantage in this competitive world.

Busyness – A Badge of Honor?

We’re forcing each other to take on more. We’ve voluntarily created work environments in which busyness is a badge of honor, thanks to our drive, anxiety and a fear of the void that looms in its absence. To be constantly busy is neither unavoidable nor necessary. “The goal of the future is complete employment, so we can play.” The person who said that was not a drugged and delusional hippy. It was Arthur C. Clarke, the scientist/writer who was into scuba diving, and also managed to get work done on communication satellites.

Trade offs – Time and Money

I’m not suggesting that we shirk our responsibilities, avoid work or go on long vacations. My point is that we should not underestimate the role of idleness in our daily lives. There is great merit in practiced leisure. Archimedes “Eureka” and Newton’s apple epiphany arose in blissfully lazy moments. Leisure causes creativity to bloom. Let’s face it. Except for those professionals like hospital emergency staff or airport traffic controllers, the rest of us have no excuse to drown ourselves in non-stop busyness. Take time out to heal the mind. Lose the fear of the void of nothingness. Spend time on a creative pursuit for some part of the day or week. You’ll still get your work done on time. Except, that it would not have entirely consumed your day or brain. One of the biggest trade offs in the workplace is between time and money. I’ll leave it to you to decide where you want to draw the line.

Stress, More Stress and Extreme Stress!

It’s not a coincidence that busy people are also stressed people. And, stress is a killer. Stressed people die sooner. What causes stress? There are many reasons. The fundamental one is fear. Stress rises from the fear that our expectations will not be met. Watch yourself the next time you start leaping ahead into busyness and stress.  Do you really need to worry?  Is anxiety warranted?  Can you really control the outcome, even if anxiety is your only possible response to the situation?  Often, the answer is no.

Stop Connecting Dots

Let go of the fear of what may come.  Allow yourself to be who you are, in the moment you exist in, and nothing more.  Stop connecting your future to your past.  Since you’ve created the circle between the past and the future, you must be the one to break it.  Allow the past to be the past. What has happened is done and it will not create itself, unless you allow it to.

Practice - Let Go

Believe that the future is limitless, full of possibilities, and endless in outcomes.  Allow yourself to become part of a fascinating stream of events, and keep yourself open to all outcomes.  Keep a watchful eye on your behavior to check if it is influenced by your past.  Are you trying to understand events solely through the lens of your past experiences or are you seeing them for what they truly are?  You may be surprised at how much better you become at what you do, when you practice this. You will be astonished at how small a circle we tend to create for ourselves when we don’t practice this. Try it, and you will find that life is a lot easier than you think it is.

Let go of your fears, and be happy. Happy journeys.

Reference: Srini Chandra (3 Lives, in search of bliss), Pinal Dave (
http://blog.sqlauthority.com
)

Work and life are confusing terms together. How can one consider work outside of life. Work should be part of life or are we considering ourselves dead when we are at work. I have often seen developers and DBA complaining and confused about their job, work and life. Complaining is easy and everyone can do. I have heard quite often expression – “I do not have any other option.” I requested Srini Chandra (renowned author of Amazon Best Seller 3 Lives, in search of bliss (Amazon | Flipkart) to write a guest post on this subject which developer can read and appreciate. Let us see Srini’s thoughts in his own words.

Each of us who works in the technology industry carries an especially heavy burden nowadays. For, fate has placed in our hands an awesome power to shape our society and its consciousness. For that reason, we must pay more and more attention to issues of professionalism, social responsibility and ethics. Equally importantly, the responsibility lies in our hands to ensure that we view our work and career as an opportunity to enlighten and lift ourselves up.

Story: A Prisoner, 20 years and a Wheel

Many years ago, I heard this story from a professor when I was a student at Carnegie Mellon. A man was sentenced to 20 years in prison. During his time in prison, he was asked to turn a wheel every day. So, every day he turned the wheel. At times, when he was tired or puzzled and stopped turning the wheel, he would be flogged with a whip. The man did not know anything about the wheel other than that it was placed outside his jail somewhere. He wondered if the wheel crushed corn or if it ground wheat or something similar. He wondered if turning the wheel was useful to anyone. At the end of his jail term, he rushed out to see what the wheel was doing. To his disappointment, he found that the wheel was not connected to anything. All these years, he had been toiling for nothing. He gave a loud, frustrated shout and dropped dead.

How many of us are turning wheels wondering what it is connected to? How many of us have unstated, uncaring attitudes towards our careers? How many of us view work as drudgery, as no more than a way to earn that next paycheck? How many of us have wondered about the spiritually uplifting aspect of work?

Can a workforce that views work as merely a chore, be ethical? Can it produce truly life enhancing technology? Can it make positive contributions to the quality of life of a society? I think not.

Thanks to Pinal and you, his readers, for giving me this opportunity to share my thoughts in a series of guest posts. I’d like to present a few ways over the next few weeks, in which we can tap into the liberating potential of work and make our lives better in the process.

Now, please allow me to tell you another version of the story that the good professor shared with us in the classroom that day.

Story: A Prisoner, 20 years, a Wheel and the LIFE

A man was sentenced to 20 years in prison. During his time in prison, he was asked to turn a wheel every day. So, every day he turned the wheel. At first, his whole body and mind rebelled against his predicament. So, his limbs grew weary and his mind became numb and confused. And then, his self-awareness began to grow. He began to wonder how he came to be in the prison in the first place. He looked around and saw all his fellow prisoners also turning the wheel. His wife, his parents, his friends and his children – they were all in the prison too, and turning their own wheels! He began to wonder how this came about. As he wondered more and more, he began to focus less on his physical drudgery and boredom. And he began to clearly see his inner spirit which guided him in ways that allowed him to see the world with a universal view. His inner spirit guided him towards the source of eternal wisdom and happiness. He began to see the source of happiness in everything around him – his prison bound relationships, even his jailers and in his wheel. He became a source of light to those around him. His wheel jokes and humor infected them with joy and happiness. Finally, the day came for his release from jail. He walked calmly outside the jail and laughed aloud when he saw that the wheel was not connected to anything. He knelt down, kissed it and thanked it for the wisdom it taught him.

Life is the prison. The wheel is your work. Both are sacred. Both have enormous powers to teach us wisdom and bring us happiness. Whether we allow them to do so, is a choice we have to make.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to share with you a few lessons that I have learnt at the wheel in my two decades of my career (prison). Thank you for reading, and do let me know what you think.

Reference: Srini Chandra (3 Lives, in search of bliss), Pinal Dave (
http://blog.sqlauthority.com
)