Let’s talk about each element in FLAVOUR. The first one is F, which is, I think the more research I do, the more conversations I have, I find that family is a big piece of the puzzle. A lot of the choices we make are in the context of family. 

What do I mean by family? It could either be our upbringing, our relationship with money, our need for money, or the commercial context in which we operate. For example, if you're a billionaire's child, then you don't need to work for money. Then what drives you essentially as a person is different because your equation with money is different. You work for an impact on the world because money is already there. 
But if somebody who's coming from the lower middle class or middle class, you're solving for existence and sustenance. So I think tuning into a little bit of the history of commercial context is important. I think very often we don't realize that there are personal transitions that are going on. It could be maternity it could be empty nesting. Suddenly your children, one child, or both children, are gone to college, and suddenly there's time for both spouses, and that changes the dynamic. There are many transitions that are happening on the personal front. In my case, losing my father led to this whole, ‘nine and three-fourths platform’, just like in Harry Potter.

The possibility of being a leadership coach did not open up until that ‘lifequake’ happened. Family is the base note on which we play the melody. When people make decisions in a vacuum, it takes them to a funny place. 
L, I would say, is about finding something that gives us true joy. For me it’s the guitar, for my wife, it’s Bharatnatyam. For some people, it's gardening. For some people, it's cooking and so on. But I find people who come alive, who play to their full potential actually an element of what they truly love. 

A is actually aspiration. And what I say is, very often, in the corporate world, we discuss ambition. You know, I want to become an MD, I want to become a CEO. You have ambition. I find ambition to be great, but it's unidimensional. It's monochromatic. It's saying I want to get 100 in Maths. But what about English? What about social studies? What about civics? The exam of life doesn’t just include being a CEO, it needs to be a balanced scorecard in other aspects too. 

What I tell people is, why don't you tune into the various identities you have and the ones you want to cultivate? For example, I'm a father, I'm a son, I'm a coach, I'm a podcaster, I'm an author, and like a gardener, I need to water each of these identities, and I need to have an aspiration for each of these identities. 

VO is - how can you be of value and seek opportunity? See, the world of work is also changing, right? It's not like there are specific jobs. You know, even if you look at your journey, my journey, we say that we have this set of skills here as a skill stack, and how do we really create the opportunity from these skills? 

Sometimes, you know, it may not be available right off the bat. Maybe the first job you get out of campus might be some standard training job. But once you are a few years in, each of us needs to figure out, the talent market dating process. This is the talent you have, and this is the market. Who do you say yes to, who do you swipe left on?
The U is investing in yourself. It’s about investing in physical, mental and emotional health. How do you stay relevant? And how do you play the long game? My book, Play to Potential, is not necessarily about how you can flourish today. It’s about flourishing in the long game of life, given that all of us will live longer.

And R is relationships. Personal and professional relationships. But relationships also play an important part with VO, because it can open up new opportunities as well. I find that people who have built relationships will find that doors are opened suddenly and things happen. 

 

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