Forget perfection, be remarkable, US professor tells forum

Stanford University Professor Behnam Tabrizi has met a lot of great leaders, including US President Barack Obama and the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, and one thing he has found is that all of them possess the “seven distinctions of extraordinary leadership”:
1. Personal mastery: Know who you are and constantly work on who you are.
2. Integrity: Honour your words.
3. Receptive and open to new possibilities: Shift your mindset from a space of “expectation” to “possibilities”. “A lot of problems in this world stem from your expectation and comparisons with other people.”
4. Courage, despite fear.
5. Charisma: Fulfil whatever you are doing. Inspire others in every conversation.
6. Power: Empower others to achieve extraordinary results with unconditional love and infinite and abundant passion. This is in contrast to manipulating or being forceful.
7. Instead of trying to be perfect, be remarkable.
“We’re in the epidemic of perfection. I think the beauty of life is to be imperfect. Just be brilliant, be remarkable. Perfection is a myth. Nobody is perfect,” Tabrizi said.
Tabrizi is a consulting professor in Stanford’s department of management science and engineering, author of four books on corporate transformation and an adviser to many Fortune 500 companies. He was also a senior adviser to Obama’s transition team during his first election campaign four years ago.
He was in Bangkok this week to share some thoughts from his latest book, “The Inside-Out Effect: A Practical Guide for Transformational Leadership”, at a forum held by True Corporation, Settrade.com and Assumption University.
“Inside-Out Effect” reveals powerful lessons on leadership and achieving your full potential as taught in Stanford’s graduate and executive education programmes.
“People only use 20-30 per cent of their potential. This is no limit ... once you connect to yourself and be who you are,” he said.
Based on his neuro-scientific research, people cannot get to their full potential because they are “sabotaged” by their “survival brain” (or monkey brain, as he also called it), which is conditioned by their past and “negative” bias. To get to know your “blind spot”, you should try to get out of your “comfort zone”.
“When was the last time you did something for the first time?” Tabrizi asked the Bangkok audience. “Do one thing that really scares you every day. Write this on your wall.”
The professor also suggested to all listeners that they come up with a “vision statement”, explore their strengths and “find what gives you meaning”.
Many people have tried to achieve things as commonly expected by society, but as long as they are not knowing and living in alignment of themselves, they will not be happy and enjoy success.
“Most people I have found are in the ‘crisis of meaning’,” he said.