THE WINNING EDGE

- The Champion's Mindset

Avinash Bhaskar Chate

Synopsis

In this competitive business world where your survival depends on Darwin’s mantra “survival of
the fittest” mastery or excellence in your given job field is indispensable. In an environment of
rapid change, adapting and evolving is the only strategy. We don't control all the forces in this
world but of course, we are not isolated to its effects. Apart from the outside world the forces in
our inner world in thoughts and beliefs also shapes us. That’s the reason why two people under
similar conditions behave differently. This is no secret now, that in this era, only winners can
survive in any field. “Winning is living “ as a phrase transcends all fields may it be sports, arts,
business, professionals, medical, finance or engineering. And if you ask the losers they will be
the first to agree that winning is important. To win it takes the level of mastery and excellence in
that field. It also takes certain attributes or qualities to win. It takes understanding and
application of relevant tools and strategies. It needs managing one’s emotions resourcefully and
isolating yourself from distractions and temptations.Astute awareness of one’s moods and
feelings lays the foundation for behaviour change. For any kind of mastery, we need practical,
effective implementation of strategy and method. Once you combine all these you get “The
Winning Edge”. In the world of winners take all, even being marginally ahead many times is
enough. Gathering the skills for “The Winning Edge” is a process and as sir Winston Churchill
put it, “Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out
before you an ever-lengthening,ever-ascending and ever-improving path. You know you will
never get to the end of the journey. But this so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and
glory of the climb. Many of us keep on struggling, bearing the pain that comes with mediocrity
but is stuck so badly that are unable to move. Their setbacks and failures have rendered them
helpless and they are now convinced that nothing they do shall help the situations. Lot of us are
struggling because of wrong choices or strategies they deployed in the early part of their career.
The misplaced priority of chasing money has got them into a precarious job situation.
In the real world of jobs, several people have job roles which are a complete mismatch to their
qualifications and personality traits. Such jobs create stress, frustration and apathy along with
low income. This is the marshy land which drowns you with every passing moment. There are
others who settled for mediocrity in their fields. These are like the sitting ducks vulnerable to
being hunted all the time. This book is not for those who have accepted their fates that comes
with chasing “money only” in the early part of the career or people into wrong jobs. This book is
also not for the mediocre who are lured by the temporary comfort mediocrity provides.
 The book contains tools, methods and strategies for those who have goals and problems, who
have dreams and setbacks. It will help to overcome helplessness and despair of a disappointing
failure which may have crushed you. This book is for people with wayward careers who possess
the zeal to bring it back on track. This shall help the ones in business, professionals who are
employed, the ones newly promoted from executives to managers or one handling large teams.
Whether you are struggling in business or you are project head of a delayed project or anyone
who has started a new business this literature will help you to get your desired results. The
methods mentioned here will help you deal with the “pain” that you feel on the road to “Mastery
or Excellence”. “The Winning Edge “ tools would make you push beyond your limits. It will
help you to observe the ‘Reality’ when you face problems while chasing your goals. Rather than
running away from the problems it teaches you to embrace ‘Pain’. This will give you the courage
to fight the fear inside you.
For a busy people manager in this era of knowledge work who frequently gets undesired
results, who gets into trouble by working on low priority jobs and the one who gets nothing done
while multitasking this book offers practical help to manage your time and become effective. It
has tools to help you to become an effective executive by assisting you to prevent frustration
caused by simple, avoidable errors. These tools would guard you against memory lapses and
distractions. It would protect you from the ill effects of ‘Jugaad’ or shortcuts which are very
costly and time-consuming .most of our business problems in the professional world are due to
the lack of teamwork, team bonding and team spirit. We have plenty of people to get the job
technically done but our struggle starts with technical leaders who are emotionally dumb. These
people rose the rank due to their technical competence but as soon as they donned the hat of a
team leader their leadership qualities were exposed. They could not motivate their team through
failures, they could not get the different people in their team and counter created de-spirited
group of people who chase their own goals while sacrificing the group’s goals and objectives.
Such managers and leaders need tools for emotional management. They need the knowledge to
understand their own behaviour and others in their team. Marshall Goldsmith’s book name is
”What got you here won’t get you there,” it’s appropriate for one who pursuing “Mastery” to not
be ignorant in this subject know-how.
Every choice or decision we make in the professional world has a certain consequence. If the
decision is based on preconceived notions, false assumptions and unverified facts the quality of
results is going to be inevitably poor. For your decision to yield desired results it must be based
on ‘Reality’. The action must emanate from the observation of ‘Reality and not an illusion. Our
mind has more than 350 plus cognitive biases which can affect our thinking and choices. On top
of that, there are hilarious ways in which can affect our memory and attention influence our
decision making. Not seeing the reality causes failures, set-backs and broken dreams. The pain it
causes is enormous. The frustration and disappointment of failure make us surrender. It makes us
give up and quit. The fear it instils in us causes us to escape from even making an attempt. Hence
it is very important to understand how to deal with the pain caused by failure. It decides and
shapes your destiny. Maybe you possess all the talents, opportunities and support in this world
but if you do not embrace the pain caused by your exposed weakness you shall always have
limited scope. You may survive but not flourish. For you to achieve your true potential you need
a structured approach most of us hate structure and are casual about the holistic approach to
process “The Winning Edge”. The cost of their limiting belief is the excellence they shall never
achieve. One must make a holistic change because most things are interdependent. If you change
one aspect the other will get changed. Some times for one small change you must do several
adjustments. The strength of the chain is determined by its weakest link. Just like in a soccer
match only one strong or skilful player can’t make you a “CHAMPION”.its the team which gets
you the championship ``. The defence, mid-fielder, wingers and strikers all must play in perfect
coordination. Every move must be orcheastered perfectly. Similarly, possessing “The Winning
Edge” means getting the mix of tools, strategies, knowledge, emotions, actions and
implementation methods in a perfect balance. Bias towards only one aspect hampers the chances
of being excellent.“The Winning Edge” is about evolving while you adopt, it's about seeing the
‘Reality'. It's a classic recipe which has ingredients of how know your matrix of skills? How to
practice? How to solve problems & Evolve? How to understand the behaviour of yourself &
others? How to achieve consistent, long-lasting changes in your life? It's a unique mix with
practical knowledge. The illustration below engulfs the essence of the book “ The Winning
Edge”.

At the core are three sections.

The Mastery Tools
Emotional Management Tools.
Behaviour Management Tools.
 The first section: The Mastery tools have six tools who focus on teaching how to be a master
in a given field. It begins by highlighting the amount of time required for achieving mastery &
lays out a blueprint or a map of gathering & practising skills. The next couple of tools help you
to achieve goals in a practical manner. They provide you with a heightened perspective to solve
problems & make right decisii=ons. “ mastery” means being effective. Ie.to get the “Desired
results”.
Masters use methods to achieve just this. They use the time to get their important jobs done &
they are excellent at getting results without error. To achieve the above two practical habits we
will use two extremely effective tools for time management & error-free work. The Section
concludes with a tool/attitude that adds “Magic” to our toolbox.

The second section; The emotional management tools will act as the heart of the “ The Winning
Edge”. It contains three tools, among it the first one is about dealing with your feelings. It lists a
combination of twelve attributes of a star performer at the workplace. The subsequent tool is
about “Magical Relationships”. It's the “ Lord Heart of the matter”. When it comes to our
behaviour & others. It intends to make you aware of the Physics, Chemistry & mathematics of
beautiful relations everywhere. The next in line tool is about, dealing with setbacks & failures.
This is my favourite tool among the many. I have learned and Used. It’s legendary in terms of its
practical utility. It was also used by U.s Military forces in the tough battle with the Taliban’s in
the difficult terrain of Tora-Bora, Afghanistan.

The Third section; The behaviour management tools are the backbone of “ The Winning Edge” It
also contains three lavishing tools for changing one’s behaviour. I make a personal promise to
you all that if you happen to master there three tools it has the power to shape your Destiny. The
glitch is as it’s with all things of immense productivity, these tools are a bit strenuous. They are
the results of 20 plus years of penance “Tapasya” of the rishis of behaviour changes. They will
teach you about how to deal with the environment external & internal when we make behaviour
changes

From my own practice, experience & studying of 400 plus books, I have crystallized a checklist
of fifteen critical checks & for the sake of fun I have named it “ The winning Edge” Checklist. ( I
am a big fan of Checklists). I have checklists for everything. One event in my life has taught me
so much. I made my life simpler. So, the mantle of our book “ The Winning Edge” is a proven
checklist to assess your progress on the journey of “Mastery”. Each check is a milestone telling
you the distance covered.
Finally, everything comes down to actions. Even the best of plans fail if not executed. Being a
Champion means the ability to use your tools at will. It must be hard-wired into your
subconscious. It must be your second nature, the autopilot on which you cruise. At the surface,
it's the “Winning Edge” Implementation tool inspired from the life of sir benjamin franklin, the
father of American Constitution. This practice bestowed the greatness on sir Franklin & I assure
you it will enlighten you as well. It's a simple technique but alas not so easy one. Anyway, the
intention of his book is not to make you perfect but to evolve.

The book is a result of my experience as a Businessman, Businesscoach & Sales Consultant. It

draws inspiration from the dons of various world s viz Sports, business, coaching, cognitive
psychology, arts, culinary, finance, playing instruments & space technology. I want to especially
thank Mr Kaustubh Panse Sir for his guidance & blessings. I want to thank my various coaching
clients who have shared their practical experiences with these tools, My Brother Mr Madhav
Kale Sir & at the last but least my lovely teammates with whom I have been having fun while we
learnt the real-world problems & provided creative solutions. Though the pleasure comes from
reading a model or tool which is novel the real adrenaline rush is applying that tool amidst the
environment of chaos & problems. That's what they are meant for. Its meant for the war zone &
not for the cosy comfort of an air conditioner cabin.