In many cultures, the heart is considered as the seat of the soul. For instance, this is a sentiment that’s expressed in ancient Indian philosophy.
In fact, they go one step further and say that the soul or atman is the size of your thumb. Ever luminescent, this thumb sized atman resides in your heart.
The brain on the other hand is the rational centre of our life. It is with the brain that we make the decisions that help us guide our life. A focused use of our intellect also helps us in our employment or business, helping us with have a good economic life in the process.
The heart - the engine that drives the body- should be in perfect sync with the rest of the body
In fact, as the world we live in become too complex to submit to easy understanding, the use of the brain becomes almost a constant feature of life. Take for instance, the simple act of ordering food online.
The overpowering need for intellect in even mundane tasks and the danger of distraction lurking in it
The key steps involved in this seemingly simple process are the following: You tap open the app, choose from different food items the one that you wish to order, then you pick a vendor, set the place of delivery and then place your order.
While doing this last, you may have to login to a banking account which would have you type in a remembered password to allow you in.
The processes that happen in the conscious mind in this sequence of events are many. Deciding which item to order depending on the state of your hunger and the previous meal you had - and when you had it. Choosing places that wouldn’t take above a certain period of time to deliver (meaning temporal sense is essential).
Evaluating the reviews of restaurants while also recollecting previous experiences- personal or anecdotal - of ordering from one place for another. Comparing the recipes for dishes in different restaurants. Reclaiming the password for your account from wherever in your brain it is that you have it stored. All these things and more happen in the span of a minute or two that you take to place the order since tapping the app open.
Now, imagine how incredibly more ‘process-intensive’ your brain must be in the course of running an organization. The decisions and the consequences thereof, involved in running organizations are often far more significant than a simple food-order would involve.
And these decisions - big and small - are made by leaders everyday, hour after. In other words, the leader is always on his or her toes, with regard to using their brain to take the right decisions.
So, it’s perhaps not surprising that many organizations lose their spiritual centre - or the heart - in the course of their functioning, sacrificing it on the altar of brute rationalism. This often happens without the leader being conscious of it. The greater problem is that lacking heart, the motivation levels of the change agents come down, which in turn adversely affects productivity.
Needless to say, such a scenario is not desirable.
Neither is it an inevitability. Far from it. You could find a balance between the intellect and the heart, thereby giving rise to a more focused, better cultured organization.
What the leader needs to bring that about is discover his or her True Personal Vision.
True Personal Vision- the key to striking the perfect balance
True Personal Vision is the vision that resides in your self and which could be found nowhere else. Unique and formidable, this vision acts as a destination you could guide your team or organization towards.
Thanks to the myriad distractions that everyday life brings your way, this vision lies buried in your mind. Without the right circumstances and guidance, it becomes extremely hard to find your way to your vision.
Temenos Vision Lab or TVL is a unique session developed by Temenos+Agility to help you realize your True Personal Vision. Using proprietary tools, TVL is conducted by some of the best leadership coaches in business with extensive experience in conducting transformative sessions.
True Personal Vision acts as the heart around which strategies for progress are woven. It’s a yardstick which you could use to judge your decisions on. If the decisions are in line with the vision, it means you are striking a balance between the heart of the organization and its brain.
Otherwise, you can reassess your decision and get back on line. Either way, the path onwards is graced with both the power of intellect and the wisdom of the heart.
