Naturally reducing Cholestrol

All say ‘aye’ to the captain - Article in Times of India on Sunday, 11th April 2010

All say ‘aye’ to the captain

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just
—Blaise Pascal, French mathematician


There is evidence that toxic leadership is responsible for more human suffering than ever
before. Toxicity is created when someone responsible for a group of people or an organization
leaves it worse off after the engagement. Hitler is a powerful — and evil —example of toxic leadership. Millions of examples abound through history. Almost everyone will be familiar
with the toxicity introduced in the work, home or community environment by destructive guardians, inept, insecure bosses, corrupt politicians and even sexually perverse religious
leaders.

Can the poison created by toxic leadership be contained? It is widely acknowledged that most medical ailments are rooted in enduring psychological distress but there is not quite as much recognition of the debilitating effects of toxic leadership. People are generally accepting of the wilful abuse of power and do little to challenge their environment.

Often, toxic leaders are people who rise to positions of high authority but are unabashedly consumed by their need for personal glory. They are characterized by low levels of self awareness, which allow them to ignore niggling matters of ethics and moral fairplay.
Money and power become their primary motivators. Toxic leaders can be spotted a mile away: these are the people who exercise complete control by rewarding sycophants and edging colleagues with talent and the facility for critical thought to the bottom of the pile. Toxic leaders are threatened by intelligence, character and creativity in the people around them and they will generally do anything to eliminate such individuals from the game.
The classic example of toxic leadership and the small-mindedness that goes with it is the retiring chief executive. Upon retirement, a toxic leader will carefully pick a mediocre buffoon as successor. This ensures a continuous legacy of toxicity and a higher level of mediocrity in the successor. In turn, this ensures that people make unfavourable comparisons about the change of guard.
Those with low self-worth (this is a characteristic of toxic leaders) generally over-compensate by pursuing material accomplishment at any cost. Why does the toxic leader flourish? It is a puzzling issue considering that large numbers of people in the workforce end up deeply, often permanently psychologically scarred because of the leader’s toxic behaviour.
Sometimes, the relationship between oppressor and oppressed becomes almost an unholy bond, a behavioural pattern that cannot end without external help.
This can take the form of spiritual and psychological counselling for the victim. Often, the oppressor is equally doomed to his cycle of unfair, dysfunctional behaviour, though this may be less obvious. One cannot simply condone victims of unjust toxic leadership. Being a victim does not mean one can never take control of the situation and break the cycle of injustice. Oppressors get free reign when their victims see no reason to change the situation in the foolish belief they actually benefit from their corrupt ways. The more enlightened worker prefers not to become either victim or beneficiary, choosing instead to stay away and not ‘get their hands dirty’.
Toxic leadership is not new. It is a societal affliction that is as old as time. Even an institution of great antiquity such as the church is reluctant to clean up, to weed out the toxic leadership that controversially looked the other way when ‘celibate’ priests became serial paedophiles.
Inevitably, toxic leadership creates great demand for fixers, hustlers and pimps to fill positions of authority. This is arguably an important factor in the rising incidence of women and child abuse and trafficking around the world.
This, because the toxic leader sits at the top of the pile, profiting from unsavoury criminal activity while fixers, hustlers and pimps work overtime to keep the empire going.
Needless to say the leader’s hands remain notionally clean. Financial fraud is also on the rise and this too indicates toxic leadership.
The recent global financial meltdown offered the clearest sign possible of the extent to which toxic leaders can distort an entire system, turning questioning colleagues into passive, mute victims.
In the corporate sector, toxic leaders do by bullying their team and ensuring that only the woefully inadequate are rewarded in order to buy their unquestioning loyalty.
What can companies do about this? Intelligent inquiry will reveal the decline in a company’s productivity because the toxic leader has perpetrated the deliberate murder of enthusiasm. There might also be an increase in attrition as genuine talent starts to haemorrhage from the company. The recent meltdown illustrated the way organizational rot can go deep to the point of sudden corporate collapse.
Everyone gets the leader he or she deserves. There is no reason to suffer a toxic leader. Effective leadership is about celebrating human uniqueness. We can invoke positive leadership by abandoning passivity and challenging ourselves as well as the people around us.
Mahatma Gandhi freed India from foreign rule but political liberation is meaningless if we continue to suffer tyranny. Those who continue to be enslaved by passivity deny themselves the possibility of attaining their true potential.
The change must come from within. As Roman philosopher Seneca said: “He is most powerful who has power over himself.”

Let your Dreams rise and fly

“Higher, ever higher,
Let thy dreams and wishes rise,
Let them mount like flame of fire,
Upwards to the skies.
Higher , ever higher,
And when thy heaven is overcast,
May thy star of faith aspire
Till all is bright at last."
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