I realized that the leaders, the professionals, the workers and each and every person in civil society are proud of their core, they want themselves to be identified with. They do not want any compromise, any dilution in thought while communicated to others, they repeat it again and again. They want to transmit it in each and every possible occasion, whenever chances are there.
I have come across the communities, who have their defined core. Like division of social rules, activities, the right to take decisions etc. separate for male, female, even kids, separate for different castes, people for different economic category, even by age. Those systems have been followed for generations and inherited by the following generations.
The leaders define their vision, their mission, their objective, what they stand for, what they mean for, what they aspire for. Everything just clear, no-ambiguity, no confusion. We take it as vision statement, mission statement etc etc.
Even the individuals, those, I have come across, I find some people they just analyze the new things, the new systems, the new processes, they come across critically, but always come to a negative conclusion. They never appreciate the change. Because their core has been designed in such a way that they visualize the risks fast after correlating with their core and flex and that sense of uncertainty dominates so much that they always ignore the opportunities. Few identify themselves as the best analysts, some identify themselves as most intelligent. We tell they are rooted to their own values or sometimes, we say they are perfectionists.
While other group love to explore and innovate the new systems and processes to ease the system as per the change of situation. It is not true that they are not bothered about the risks or they can’t visualize the risks. But they develop enough Flex to take the risk of uncertainty and face the challenges.
So the leaders have to know what is there in their core, good or bad. I have met with number of leaders, I have not taken permission, so do not want to mention the names, they say, honesty, sincerity and loyalty are their core. They love to follow the traditions without any dilution. They say they have never compromised with it in their lives. But if we critically examine, is it true ? Leaders, we come across, they are adaptable, they are broad, they are accommodative, they are sensitive for others issues. They are criticized as spineless, no core values, but is it true?
I attended a meeting of Indian Commerce Association in Hazaribag, 4-5 years back. We all were waiting for a very senior leader and ex- cabinet minister of NDA government, to join us in Dinner. The venue was not big enough to arrange the sitting places for all the delegates in one floor, so arrangements for different category of people were made in different places. But, when Chief Guest, arrived, everybody wanted to meet him and interact with him. So rush was there in the same floor. While Minister arrived towards the sitting place, I remember that myself and one more lady executive member of the association just left our seats on sofa and requested him to sit. But suddenly he took two plastic chairs and sat with the crowd and requested us to take our seat. Discussed with the members on different aspects of the association and advised on certain issues. But his gesture had impressed few of us a lot and we all discussed after he left. Which shows the proper balance between his core and flex. He did not accept the offer to sit on sofa, as he said women should be respected and in this rush, you need the proper place to sit not me. That is his core. But he sat on two different plastic chairs not bothering the organisers for separate arrangements and interacted with hundreds of people and accommodated them all in interaction, because of his openness to accommodate, which is the flex he has built upon his core.
Now, in most of the cities, we live in a society, where people come from different social, cultural, financial and religious back ground with different core values. Those people live in same complex, same housing society, but follow different social systems, they observe different festivals, they eat different food, they go for different religious practices. Sometimes, if it is coming on the ways we live our life, then we react and become impatient or intolerant to others without understanding the issues. We should understand that the opposite person also must be facing the same problem.
The people those who are facing such issues in the work place, in the society, in the city, should visit different places of diversity like institutions built up in different generations, spiritual places built up with different faith bases, visit different types of industries with different objectives, manufacturing, service, health care, NGOs etc and try to understand the diversity. Talk to the people in different community, the villages, small towns, big cities and try to understand. Talk to the people of different age groups and try to understand their aspirations. I think such experiences will give extra eyes to get the confidence to build up the flex to live with harmony by sharing the different experiences, thoughts and beliefs and enjoying the happiness, not ignoring the surroundings or isolating yourself.
Love for Yourself and Love for All.
The idea of error-friendliness takes in the ideas of production of errors, tolerance of errors, and the «friendly» cooperation between these two aspects for the exploration of new opportunities.
– Christine von Weizsäcker
So this is brilliant. The notion that a system needs errors in order to evolve. It’s a balance between the amount of errors, and the power of a system to deal with these errors that allows that system to be flexible in exploring other options, and thus makes that system better set to evolve. Sort of brings in the notion of resilience – the ability to adjust to severe change – in relation to error. It very much backs up the hypothesis that experiencing errors can help teach a person to become more flexible and resilient.
The related concept is the tolerance for ambiguities – very useful to leverage the flex with core to evolve and innovate suitably.
Good Article
Nicely elaborated the importance of core values…..
You are rightly said leadership should be flexible and lead as per demand of the group or what will be best for the group he is associated. Learning can be best if we consider individual differences while teaching. One remarkable thing is you always try to learn from people whether in group or on person. That was what you try to express as your core.As rightly said others issues must be given importance and one must be tolerant on all situations.
Text senses nicely the real social issues and solution. We are facing new issues and challenges in our day to day activities. We, the human being. cannot do everything in single mind. We should accept criticism by others in an open mind and we should devise some tools to overcome it. I strongly believe in team work and not to hurt others in any means.
In a soft & sweet statement, I would explain, no one can distinguish by looking at some water that, where from it has been drawn; whether from a well, a pond, river or an ocean. Likewise, theme of this Article is vast though not visible by the normal eyes. It does not require any contact lens to visualize. Open heart & real soul can grasp originality of the narration.
Salute to pen of the writer.
Dilip, School of Civil Engineering, KIIT DU
I am wordless to express my happiness after reading the article, it's simply marvelous. Citing live examples on core values of a good leadership quality, the author has given a message how one can be focused and happy. Thanks a lot madam.
I must appreciate the author for her wide depth of knowledge to differentiate between the core and flex by heart not by act. It clearly shows her adoptibility to accept the flex based on situation, time and above all requirement. Core sticks to ethics but for changing society, flexibility should be associated with core to make you an example for others. Bandita Paikaray
Appreciated the elaboration of core values of different communities i.e. social, cultural, financial and religious back ground people & leaders as well.
Mutual respect & appreciation with a good team work of positiveness leads success in every path that I believe always. Core values indeed…
Core : you should not change or you could not change while Flex : your adaptability.
The article nicely describe the real social issues and its solution.
The author have righly summerized the the proper balance between his core and flex, that is highly appreciated. Amlan Panda
The balancing between core and flex always makes a flow vibrant. The present situation has shown us how to make a balancing all. Nice write up.
The article is nicely written.