Flowing with intention. (Episode 50)

Interview with Manish Bundhun, Chief Human Resources Executive at the Rogers Group.

“Only uncreative fish flow downstream.” That was the sentence that popped into my head when I was discussing creativity with Manish Bundhun, Chief Human Resources Executive at the Rogers Group, a Mauritius based group of companies with employees in 13 countries and operations in 7 business sectors (Aviation, FinTech, Leisure, Hospitality, Logistics, Real Estate and Agribusiness).

Manish has 18+ years of experience in Human Resources & People Development including 10+ years at C-Suite level, is a adjunct professor and works works as an executive coach on top of his work as a HR manager. In short: Manish knows HR.

His personal mission is to “ignite the spark of transformation in people” and he spoke with passion about creativity and HR with me recently.

Which brings us back to the first sentence in this text, about only uncreative fish flowing down the stream.

Listening to Manish share his views on creativity, it became clear that one of the concepts that is very important to him is Clarity.

An example of this is how he told me: “If people are clear about where they are and where they want to go – what they want to become – then everything becomes easier.”

He must have mentioned “clarity” 10-15 times in our conversation, but he also made it clear that most people lack clarity of mind, and that some people who think they have clarity lack the self-awareness to see that they actually do not have it. Let’s call that “the mirage of clarity”. That is the most dangerous kind. When you think you know where you are, who you are and where you are going – but actually, you do not.

But if you do have clarity you gain conviction, courage and direction. All powerful forces in making us become our very best.

So, what are the foes of clarity?

According to Manish there are 4 foes: (1) Confusion (the sense of being lost), (2) Clutter (the feeling of too many things going on), (3) Chronic Fatigue (being tired and losing the ability to see clearly) and (4) Conflict (internal clash of emotions which creates dissonance)

Manish shared a story of a Leader with me – how when the latter moved from Kenya to Mauritius, a few years ago, he lost clarity for a while. And thus lost direction. While he was able to get it back, losing it for a while made him appreciate how important clarity is. The first step was to get Clear.

When I asked Manish for a good technique to help improve clarity he gave an interesting answer, he said: “Learn to let go of what you cannot control.”

He explained to me that too many people worry too much about things that they have absolutely no control over. Like the Corona virus, or the world politics, or the economic climate. If we stop spending time worrying about the things we cannot control – then we free ourselves to focus on the things we actually can control. Think of someone juggling 10 balls – 8 red and 2 blue. The 8 symbolise the things we cannot control, the blue the things we can. By letting go of the red it becomes easier to juggle the blue.

It was in this context of discussing clarity that Manish mentioned the phrase that I choose to put as the title of this text: To “Flow with intention”.

To just “go with the flow” makes us powerless and out of control. 

To try to control everything makes us paralysed by worry. 

So the sweet-spot is to “flow with intention”.

Think of an eagle using the up-streams to effortlessly stay up in the air, just making small adjustments to stay within the power of the wind.

The eagle cannot control the wind, but it can control how it uses the power of it.

By flowing with intention you feel freer and more relaxed – both mindsets that encourage creativity.

Ask yourself:

a) Where am I?

b) Where do I want to go?

c) What am I in power of? What do I control?

d) What in c) will make me reach b)?

e) What do I choose to let go of?

Mindfulness activities like meditation, walking in nature, etc are great for helping you find clarity and focus, which in turn will help you more easily flow with intention, which, in turn, will make it easier for you to become who you want to become.

Manish has clarity of where he wants to go. Be inspired by him to work on finding your own clarity.