We are all in this together.
Our guest, Rajen Makhijani, is a client partner with KornFerry. He works with clients on issues of leadership and impact.
True Wealth
“An experience is to life what a brick is to a wall.”
So, if you want a life of well-being, of happiness, of joy… then think about every brick of the wall. If each of your lifetime experiences ends up on net being joyous, you end up with a happy life.”
Today we talk about billionaire in terms of dollars, but what if we changed the focus to moments and experiences. How would our lives change if we were focused on becoming a “Billionaire of moments.”
Other You
Every time I have been able to discover our common humanity, right from childhood, it has been profoundly joyous. To me, this is something that springs from deep within.
We have divided ourselves into subgroups and we end up making judgements about the “other.” The choices made by the “other” seem different and weird because I do not understand the context of their choices.
We are talking about unpacking choices to enable better understanding and bridge social divisions.
Rajen describes 3 experiences that put him into the shoes of the “other.” When you do this, you discover that they are solving for the same sorts of things we are solving for, but they are doing so within a very different context and under very different constraints. Without understanding context and constraint, the decisions look backwards or wrong or even stupid. But, recognizing the context and constraints, the decisions seem very rational and begin to make sense.
We cannot understand the decision without understanding the context. If we don’t take the time to understand the context, we cannot (should not) judge the decision.
The way to come by the knowledge is to stop observing and start participating directly.
One example is the fees we pay for public goods. In our culture, we call them taxes. In many cultures where the systems of taxation don’t exist, these fees are called bribes. Because bribes are far less efficient, they are more expensive.
What can we do?
As an individual, you can do individual things. You can help out specific circumstances and engage socially through current programs. Rajen offered the example of the boy saving starfish. (Link below)
Systemically, come from a place of empathy, curiosity, and compassion – not moral high-ground. Recognize the struggles faced by people in developing world as legitimate.
Leadership By Results
A way of thinking about leadership characterized by three things:
- Leadership vs. Tourism . Leadership is serious. If you want to learn something and meet people, this is valuable, but it is not leadership training.
- In the context of Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) – something really hard
- Accountable to goal – measuring.
- What skills and mindsets do I need to shift in me to create the best in me?
- What skills and mindsets do WE need to shift in us to create the best in us?
ESG (Environment, Social, Governance)
Friedman taught us in the 70s that “The business of business is to earn a profit.” Makes sense if profits are made through innovation and productivity breakthroughs in the context of perfect competition and markets. Makes less sense when distortions in markets are also sources of profit.
Market does not price in externalities (that is a market imperfection). Friedman would hold if he could price in externalities (environmental issues, labor issues). When priced into the equation – Dumping becomes a risk, sweat shops become a risk.
74% of institutional investors demand ESG in the process. – absolutely unheard of.
The pandemic has had a counter-intuitive effect.
All the doomsday predictions of climate change, before the pandemic, felt a little tree-huggery or a little sci-fi. They were easy to dismiss. But, we saw in the pandemic that the world CAN actually shut down… It isn’t sci-fi. It can actually happen… it seems to have caused an increase in concern about climate change.
The Pandemic was only the trailer; the movie is global warming.
It used to be that the investors were only concerned about return. But now it’s flipped. The investors are asking… what are you doing about climate change
The First principle in leadership coaching is that you can’t coach someone who is not on the pitch. You can’t coach someone that does not want to be coached. So, when the customer goes from being fully focused on return to wanting return and demanding ESG, this is a game-changer.
