What Personal Mastery is NOT

Tanmay Vora
Updated on

I recently delivered a talk at Ahmedabad Management Association on the topic “Personal Mastery – The Key To Deliver Quality”. It was wonderful speaking in front of an ‘interested’ audience on a cloudy/rainy Friday evening. The talk was very well received.

During my talk, I touched upon the changing world of work, new viewpoints on quality, excellence and how personal mastery is at the core of delivering quality (and hence excellence) at an individual level.

Part of my talk also explored what personal mastery is NOT. In my view, personal mastery is not…

… about control/conservation of knowledge (but about generosity/ sharing)

… a destination (but a life long process)

… just about learning (but applying those lessons to create results)

… experience (but gaining real expertise in getting something done)

… knowing everything (but knowing what we don’t know)

… always quantifiable (but can always be ‘felt’)

Also check out the video excerpt of my talk where I explore each one of the above in a slightly greater detail.

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Related Posts at QAspire:

– On Personal Mastery and Commitment to Learning

– Lifelong Learning – 20 Lessons

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6 Comments

Thabo Hermanus July 13, 2011

Personal Mastery is such an interesting journey. I am always amused at myself when I catch myself lost in my energy to want to share and actually realising that I am stuck in my ego and serving me, rather than what I think I am doing which is sharing my knowledge with others. That is why I love the question, “what are you pretending not to know?”.

Tanmay Author July 15, 2011

Absolutely, Thabo. That’s a great question.

Michael Friesen July 13, 2011

Tanmay – Great points as always! I especially appreciated the first bullet about personal mastery not being conserving/controlling information but about generous sharing.

Best,
Mike

Tanmay Author July 15, 2011

Thanks Mike, I am glad you liked the pointers. In leadership, as in learning, generosity is #1 virtue. My guru tells me that knowledge that is shared always grows.

Setu July 14, 2011

Excellent summary of your take on personal mastery !
I particularly liked the Upanishadic style of “Neti Neti”–

Tanmay Author July 15, 2011

Thanks for the encouragement. I think a lot has been said about how to do things, but less about how NOT to. “Neti Neti” works.