Conscious with Jadu

“Work is love made visible.”
– Kahlil Gibran, Poet

Conscious living is the creation of wealth and wellbeing in your life and career. It takes not only strategy but a way of understanding your world and optimizing its vitality. Worth is not measured by how much one takes but by how much one gives to a greater cause. A conscious life is a generous life. In the worlds of Scott Fitzgerald, “Vitality never takes.”

When plans shift a reasonable person adapts with understanding. Understanding means asking big questions with honesty and integrity. Questions like: what’s my ideal job? What’s my ideal team? And what’s my ideal life? Defining a vision is the job of a leader. The world needs more leaders. If there is anything a leader takes, it’s responsibility.

Being idealistic in this way doesn’t mean being delusional. What matters is positive change and growth. Growth belongs to doers because only the doer learns. A conscious doer is what I call Jadu, pronounced Jaadoo. In Farsi it means magic.

As the saying goes, “Go big or go home.” Jadu sees the bigger picture and lets his imagination spread wide, never stiff, always stretching his understanding. Creativity is a conversation that changes you, it’s humanity’s superpower, waiting to be tapped with a little Jadu.

It’s why great leaders are called visionaries. They offer imagery that fire up the mind. The likes of Michael Jordan and Elon Musk inspire humanity and expand the possibilities. They stand not for good but for remarkable.

Becoming great at something

Leadership expert Jim Collins wrote a classic book titled Good to Great which offers a blueprint on the great teams and companies of the world. The research revealed a certain cut of greatness among publicly traded companies, as determined by the stock market over a 10year period. The signature characteristics were 1. a fierce and unwavering drive to become the best at something and 2. an economic engine for growth.

Greatness is no accident. It’s the sheer focus with passion and resources that upbraids the Procter & Gamble’s of the world. The leadership tone that carries them through is a blend of discipline and humility. A Level 5 leader, as they are termed, exhibit a dogged devotion in terms of how their attention is deployed.

Cherishing the time

The opposite of Jadu is an Udaj (pronounced uudaaj). Udaj operates from fear and doubt. They maintain a proving ground with others. They’re obsessed with arguing and taking sides. You know that person who likes to argue with you? That person wakes up in the morning and asks, “how do I argue better?”

Jadu on the other hand, wakes up and asks, “What do I want to become the best at (or the first in)? How do I learn better?” Jadu maintains a playing ground. Jadu is direct, tactful, and sincere. He or she is the person we all want on our team because they bring understanding to confusion (not the other way around).

Headstrong on goals and values and inspire the same in others, Jadu is a conscious way of being, an obsession with the things we cherish.

The best kind of ship is a relationship and a team is any kind of meaningful relationship. Empathy is an endless itch for Jadu and oxytocin is the hormone that spins. Oxytocin, or the bonding hormon, fires when people hug or display trust and purpose. Here are two questions to develop the potential for Jadu in your team, at home or at work. The foundation is in Stephen Covey’s famous phrase, “Seek first to understand then to be understood.” Taking turns, ask each other:

• On a scale of 1-10, how connected do you feel as a team? why?
  • The great Phil Jackson brought this question to his Bulls and Lakers with Jordan and Bryant. The emphasis wasn’t on the rating but on the type of conversations it fostered.
• What can I do to be a better team partner?
  • I periodically ask this question to my girlfriend and I learn immensely from her response. Communication is huge. Words matter and honesty wins the long game.

Discovery skills

Harvard’s Clay Christensen spearheaded the research on disruptive innovation. In his book The Innovator’s DNA and laid out the five discovery skills of disruptive innovators: observing, associating, questioning, experimenting, and networking. At the basis of it is an emotional expertise, an understanding, to know what stories to engage along the various dimensions.