6eshwar9

S.M.I.L.E….is contagious, you must  have noticed and felt this  even when  a stranger smiles at us. It then takes us on an inquisitive journey and leaves a  trail of questions unanswered like, who was that guy or gal, why did he smile, where did I met him…and then if we do not get the answer, we just smile and shrug off.

This aspect of S.M.I.L.E is becoming a scarce commodity in our daily life. One finding of increased stress levels in employees  is attributed to this absence.  A work place full of smiling employees invariably has a different ambience and is more productive than a place full of serious and frown filled.

How to get the S.M.I.L.E back on employees and ease the stress, is a major challenge before us ? I invite your comments and suggestion towards this to enable us come out with some concrete actions together?

Looking forward to getting some innovative ways and means towards preserving this rare commodity.

We have grown up listening since Childhood, “All work and no Play makes Jack a Dull boy”…….the same if it were to be restated in todays context, would read somewhat like, “All work and no play makes Jack a Stressed Guy”. Stressed because Jack in this circumstance is not a dull guy, he is smart, ambitious, comes with a good pedigree, with lots of energy, dreams and wants to achieve success in life.

Such Jacks are found in each and every organization and has  now synonym for many working executives  irrespective of whether it is a MNC or local. Ask any executive in any Organization to name the single issue facing him and his colleagues, and pat comes the reply without even thinking  and waiting for you to complete your sentence…..increased STRESS levels. Whether there has been a corresponding increase in the Sales and Profit levels because of this stress or not , but one thing which is true, without doubt is level to which the Stress levels have  increased has become not only alarming but also disturbing.

Beating the street, or dancing to the tunes of stock market and financial analysts or just to keep up with the Jones, whatever factor you may attribute it to Jack is finding no respite. Month after Month, Quarter after Quarter Jack is expected to outshine, he is expected to swim against the tides of Economy or Industrial growth.

This is not only affecting the executive, but also costing his family and organization too. Confronting the organization are issues like increased medical cost, productivity and high levels of attrition of key executives. Family is forced to come to terms with irritable behavior towards family members, addiction to alcohol, increased smoking, and in extreme cases shortened life of an otherwise healthy executive.

But, the moot question still remains, “Is there a way out” Work life Balance is an age old prescription which psychologist have been talking about. Managing stress levels rather than getting sucked into it is another way. At the end of the day one must realize, there will be organizational constraints, economic constraints, and various other limitations over which the individual or the organization has no say..…..hence to come out of this rather than stay there, we must find out our own ways and means to handle and keep the stress levels at bay rather than become a victim of it.  To some it may be perusing a hobby, may be joining a peer group outside company, taking a break, listening to music etc etc.

It is no brainer that, key people in organization have to work more closely and cohesively for better coordination and success. However, more often than not this remains confined to statements. Individual aspirations, EGO comes in way and block the goal from being achieved.

Many CEO’s and  their HR heads are grappling with this issues. At ITW Chemin, we made a small initiative which, we feel is paying dividends. Although the initiative is just 9 months old, yet the results are being felt by the organization and team.

Exactly 9 months ago, initiative H.O.S.H took birth with the sole intention of improving cohesiveness and breaking the formal barrier. It started with 12 like minded people coming together and giving it a try. H.O.S.H is an acronym for HOURS OF SHEER HAPPINESS.  The members of H.O.S.H are from all the functions in the organization. The agenda, approach, rules and regulations, etc were set by the members of H.O.S.H themselves. Members decided to meet once every month, after office hours at a common place. One rule which was unanimously accepted by all was, the members could talk anything under the sun except any issue remotely related to office work. The rationale was to get members out of their office environ and make them talk something common to the group. We used to discuss about the agenda for the next meet, how can this group do something different, like once all the members went to CYCLING, one may say, what’s big in this… yes its not something to raise eyebrows…..but indeed one would be taken back, if it is told that, members decided to go for cycling at 6.00 a.m in the morning and that too on a sunday and decided to have breakfast together after the cycling.

Another initiative by the members of the group is to celebrate the marriage anniversary of members falling every month. Members pool money and buy TITAN  “ Bandhan” watch for the couple. This way the group is trying to extend cohesiveness beyond the members

The indirect benefits of this are felt by the organization, slowly one finds the formal barriers  getting broken, exchange of information between key managers has become smooth, feeling of oneness started coming in….it is just 9 month that this initiative has been started and  slowly it is becoming a discussion point.

The group has already lined up slew of activities in the months to come, some of them are  Blood Donation, Visit to Old Age Home, trekking, etc etc. While what we are doing is not something very new, yet sustaining this for long is the challenge and that is where we feel the group has succeeded.

As the mercury soars, we are also seeing the political temperatures also soaring, one can see a mad scramble for allies, regrouping and re aligning , new equations  and axis emerging . At the moment, none of the major parties are willing to try their luck at the husting. Neither the CONGRESS nor the BJP seems to be confident. If BJP is groping for an issue, congress is saddled with barrage of issues which seems to be  haunting it day and night, It wanted to encash on the hanging of AFZAL GURU and KASAB, but that has not paid political dividends, No one knows what is going on in the mind of Rahul Gandhi.

BJP too seems to be at cross roads, their is a clear divide on who should be the prime ministerial candidate….there are equal number of supporters and opponents of MODI, DMK, AIADMK, TMC, BSP, JD – U, SP are busy extracting their pound of flesh from the congress.

It seems like the excitement of IPL, the journey to elections to 2014 is indeed going to be nothing less than Hitchcock thriller.

Dear All,

Writing has been very close to my heart, and  i was looking for such a medium where i could connect with people whom i have not met but share a common thread. May be this opens new viestas of expression of opinion, thoughts and views.

Wish me the best

Eshwar