Colorful Pebbles Picked up from an Ashwin Filled Weekend

There is always a Monday morning feeling when you have to get back to work, back to regular grind and the regular weekday scenario. However there is always the memories from a fun filled weekend from which I derive my motivation and inspiration. I always view it this way that, each second in ones life is a whole new experience and I draw my strength from these mini lessons that I pick along the way. As a child I loved to collect colorful little pebbles. More so I was always fascinated by the round, transparent ones which had colour rainbows within them. As I grew older, this little fascination gave way to the Pebbles of learning that I keep picking up each day. As colourful as the ones when I was a child, Most Transparent as there is no ulterior motive other than pure undiluted learning. These are the Pebbles that I picked up from Ashwin over this weekend, and I wish to share them with you my readers. I call these colourful Pebbles Leadership Pebbles.

Leadership Pebble Blue: Great Leaders push themselves to attain perfection
Here was Ashwin practicing at the nets, while I tried to capture the legend at his work through my lens. It cannot get closer than that. I could notice that Ashwin was too eager to work on his batting skills. Hours of knocking the ball around. for a layman like me, it was exciting to see him. For the world he is a legend, however he is always at it, wanting to set new benchmarks, trying that wee bit harder, that extra sweat. A Leader strives for perfection, never that one bit satisfied with their current performance, always wanting to add more zing to their performance, always inching closer to levels of perfection.

Leadership Pebble Orange: Great Leaders Multitask. 
Ashwin is great at doing this. Here he was an epitome of hard work and concentration,trying to get his shots right. At the same time he always has time for good advice to young budding talent. Let me illustrate this with what happened yesterday. Ashwin was busy focussing on his own batting skills. In the next net to where he was working out, was a young ten year old left handed batsman who was honing his skills. Now Ashwin was quick to give a few words of advice to the young boy on how to drive the ball properly, simultaneously focusing on the job at hand.

Leadership Pebble Green: Leaders never back off from seeking advice and Feedback.
This is a peach of a leadership quality that most of us forget when we reach the top. Great Leaders are those that constantly seek Feedback on their own performance levels. Ashwin is one who is always, constantly seeking feedback with a view to improving his own performance levels. He talk to people, engaging them in conversations, seeking advice and thereby gathering valuable inputs. Again a point to illustrate the case. Its well acknowledged that Ashwin is a world class sportsman, amongst the very best. When it comes to enhancing his skills, you can see him working with Coach Srinivasan, ideating and finally implementing the inputs, putting them into actual practice. The chances of these kind of leaders succeeding in what they do are very high.

Leadership Pebble Gray: Leaders have an elephantine memory
A cracker of a quality to have. for an Amazing Leader there are no gray areas. They are never shrouded in doubt, but filled with self belief and confidence. These Leaders are very good when it comes to data, recalling numbers and or names of people. They are equally good at shortlisting their own drawbacks and most importantly how to overcomes these chinks in their armoury. Yesterday when Ashwin was at the nets, he was recalling how he got out during the Australia series in India, how Lyon had dismissed him or how Cummins had got him with a snorter of a delivery, venue all details stored up in his brain like a micro processor. This is indeed a God given Talent and Ashwin is blessed with tonnes of it.

Leadership Pebble White: Great Leaders have a lot of foresight and peeks into the future
Leaders are always very clear and have deep insights into the future. This is purely because they are constantly analysing themselves and also on account of the rich experience that they possess. They have gone through the grind and hence know how to plan for the future. In one of the conversations with a few young cricketers, Ashwin was making a mention of how young people needed to plan for the future, set benchmarks and go about achieving them. He added saying that he knew six months down the line what to expect out of his own career, or one year down the line what are the things that he needs to plan for. This is no rocket science but a fair estimate of ones own current performance and how to plan accordingly.

Leadership Pebble Red: Leaders are never afraid of failure, never stop trying something new
You have to adapt to changing times, pace of a growing environment around you. Leaders are never ever afraid of failures. Ashwin is always on the lookout for innovations. He works on his bowling run up, sometimes a shortened one, other times maybe a slight halt before a delivery. He is constantly trying out newer variations, subtle changes, maybe a new trick added. This is what will make a Leader unpredictable-in the positive sense and more difficult for opponents to sort them out. 

Leadership Pebble Chocolate Brown: Leaders have that charisma and power of attraction around them
They are inspirational full of charge, an aura around them that attracts people. They are great fun to be around with. They dabble around with humour as if it were second nature to them. If you were to spend some time with Ashwin, you will find him to be a very warm and cordial person, once he knows you a little better, you can enjoy those magical moments of fun and laughter.

Now my take on this blog would be that in our daily lives we interact with a number of people, you will find these colorful pebbles in each one of them. Collect them, analyse them and make the rich vibrant colours a part of your own lives. I can guarantee you that if you collect these pebbles , your own life and the ones of your near and dear ones will be as colorful, happy and meaningful. The best part of these colorful pebbles is that they dont cost any money, all you need to do is seek them out and they shall be yours for the keep. Have a wonderful week ahead of you.