The mind and intellect together constitute your inner personality which is housed in your physical body. Productivity in any field of activity requires a sharp intellect and a calm mind. When the mind is disturbed with many unfulfilled desires and consequent worries and anxieties, the intellect loses its focus and application to work. The intellect needs to be strengthened to maintain the mind’s focus in the wake of its desires and demands. And the intellect exercising its control over the mind is self-management. No external management would be effective until you are self-managed. Which in effect means that your actions are propelled by the intellect and not directly by the mind. Hence you need to build a strong intellect and keep the mind composed to optimise production in your field of activity.
The physical body no doubt executes actions. But the body per se cannot act. My body cannot write these lines on its own. Neither can your body sit down and read these lines. There is something other than the body which drives it to act. It is either the mind or the intellect. If the actions are propelled by the mind alone they would be emotional, impulsive. If controlled and guided by the intellect then those actions would be intellectual, discretionary. An executive working in a corporation may possess adequate educational qualification and technical training but his productivity will be impaired if he acts impulsively, not intellectually. Ironically, executives in business houses are selected with great care on the basis of their academic achievements rather than their intellectual strength. Consequently, the academics with undeveloped intellect have caused the repeated downfall of corporations.
— Extract from “Governing Business and Relationships” book written by A. Parthasarathy.
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