Striving towards Excellence

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-Karthik Gurumurthy

Today is Guru Purnima. Guru Purnima is an Indian festival that is celebrated as per the Hindu Moon Sign calendar to express reverence towards your Guru, your teacher or mentors. Etymologically, the word Guru has been derived from two parts – Gu that means darkness and Ru that is the antidote to the darkness.The word 'Guru' is defined as a person who leads people on the path to enlightenment. Guru removes avidya, or ignorance, which is a case of mistaken identity.

-Karthik Gurumurthy

All of us have blind spots and it is very important that we take time to be aware of them.  If we want to develop your own ability to be more conscious of your strengths, weaknesses and how they are perceived by others, here are some steps one can possibly do:

1. Please try to get feedback from someone you trust other than the family. It should be someone in your life you trust 100%, who has your back and will tell you the truth. While you may want to ask a family member, there’s too many feelings and emotions tied with family and sometimes with family they may judge you and they might give you a sermon than honest feedback. Please make sure you prepare your friend in advance about what you are seeking and don’t be afraid of what they’ll say.

If the feedback you receive seems to be out of left field, let the other person know you are surprised and then ask for examples. Ask for an example of the last time you exhibited the behavior: For example, “Was there a specific time you felt I wasn’t listening carefully enough?” That may help take the sting off any unexpected criticism because it narrows it to some specific events as opposed to feeling like an overall character flaw.

2. Take a few days, a week or even a month or so before you determine what or how you want to react. Generally, there are three possibilities you can address the information:

Make a big change: If the feedback can improve your life across the board, move forward with making changes.

Make a small change: The information may not impact every aspect of your life, but will allow you to make improvements in small ways.

Do nothing: In some cases, the phrase “I am who I am” applies as long as you are aware of the consequences of not changing.

3. Forgive yourself and move forward
You probably won’t like everything you hear. But feeling bad about criticism is only human. Acknowledge how you feel, whether it’s angry, sad or ashamed, and then work on self-acceptance.

We are so focused on building self-esteem when what we should be doing is looking at self-acceptance. Once you can give yourself permission to not be perfect, you can identify what you can control and do something to change that behavior.

Being at peace with yourself is key to building self-acceptance. People who are most introspective make self-awareness a priority and commit to working on it every single day.

-Karthik Gurumurthy

I consider myself very  fortunate to work with some of the best companies and highest performers of our day. I noticed that many had succeeded at becoming the best in their space, but that once they did, they faced an even bigger challenge: how to become better.

When you are at the top of your game improvement are more incremental and harder fought. You have got few if any to emulate. You now are the leader, and just maintaining much less increasing that lead is difficult.

If you are already among the best, or even really good, why would you even want to get better?

 First consider this: we all know how good we have become, but none of us know who good we could be. No person or organization I’ have ever worked with has ever claimed they were living or doing business at peak potential. Why is that? We simply don’t know what is possible, so we keep aiming to get better and find out just how good we could be. That makes life and business incredibly interesting. 

I believe that there are three vital factors to consider for upgrading yourselves.

The first is change: with so many changes occurring around us, we need to improve our knowledge and skills just to keep up.

The second is customers. They have increasing expectations. Ever noticed that the more you do for customers, the more they expect? Of course. And that’s why you need to continue to increase your value proposition.

Finally, your capabilities are above whatever level you are performing at now.  We don’t benchmark against our competitors, we benchmark against our capabilities.

Nobody gets better “accidentally.” Only wine improves with age without trying. You don’t accidentally improve significantly, reach the highest summits or make the greatest positive impact without intentionality.

How much do you want to get better? Teachers can teach you, coaches can coach you, and can pump you up but it is what you do with the information that matters.

Ongoing improvement requires a process and is based on principles you correctly and consistently apply. The exciting thing is, when are intentional and take action, the door to your future swings wide open. Your willingness to work at improving yourself is the secret  sauce to realizing your full potential.

You supply the commitment to getting better coupled with the right plan and process and your effort will start to pay off. It is definitely worth it.

Not only will it benefit you, but it will also benefit the people around you.

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Let me share a story called "The Cricket Field of Leadership":

Early in my career, I worked at a company where I witnessed a classic selection mistake. Our star batsman, Rob, had the highest batting average in the department. When the team captain position opened up, management immediately pointed to Alex's batting brilliance and handed them the leadership role. It was like making someone captain just because they could hit centuries - not considering if they could actually read the game or inspire the team.

As I moved through different teams, I started noticing different leadership styles, like different roles on a cricket field. There was Michael, who was like a perfect opening batsman - technically flawless at executing projects but sometimes struggling to adapt when the pitch conditions changed. Then there was Lisa, who might not have had the most impressive statistics, but she had this remarkable ability to unite the team like a seasoned captain, knowing exactly when to change the bowling or adjust the field.

One day, during a leadership workshop, I learned about the four core strengths of leadership: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking. It was like discovering the essential skills of cricket - batting, bowling, fielding, and tactical awareness. Each leader combined these skills differently, creating their unique style of captaincy.

I thought about my current director, Sheila, who leads like T20 captain - dynamic, strategic, and always ready to innovate. In contrast, my previous manager, Albert, was more like a Test cricket captain - patient, relationship-focused, and excellent at playing the long game through careful planning.

But here's where it gets interesting - I noticed some leaders falling into what I call the "copycat captaincy trap." Instead of developing their own style, they tried to be perfect imitations of successful captains like Dhoni or Ponting. They surrounded themselves with players who would never question their decisions, rather than building a diverse team that could handle any match situation.

The breakthrough came when I realized that the most successful teams were like well-balanced cricket teams. One project team I worked with was like having eleven batsmen - great at scoring runs but lacking the ability to take wickets or save runs in the field. We could create amazing strategies but struggled to execute them effectively.

Now, as I develop my own leadership style, I think of it less as trying to be the best at everything - batting, bowling, and fielding - and more about being a good captain who knows how to bring together different talents. Just as a cricket team needs its steady opening batsmen, aggressive middle order, crafty spinners, and reliable fast bowlers, a business team needs its executors, influencers, relationship builders, and strategic thinkers.

The key is understanding that you don't need to master every role to be a great leader, just like a captain doesn't need to be the best at every cricket skill. Instead, success comes from knowing your strengths - whether you're a Rahul Dravid-like steady hand or a Virat Kohli-style aggressive leader - and building a team that complements those strengths with different abilities.