6eshwar9

…..” I wasn’t born to follow and I’m not sure if I was born to lead, but what I’m certain is that I was born to fight my way through life and win……said by anonymous, caught my eyes when i was going through a Political Journal.

POLITICS and POLITICIANS are our favorite punching bags. Otherwise how can you explain the fact, from 7.00 p.m to 11 p.m, in almost all the prime channels, National and vernacular,  they are subjected to such micro scrutiny For the all the ills that plague the country, we don’t shy from pointing fingers at them. From ECONOMY, RAINS …HEAT WAVES…..FAMINE…..HUNGER…..and very recently natural calamity, you think of a problem and we love to attribute to one political party or the other. Yes, I am also one of them and we are not wrong, for they came to us telling they will solve all our problems.

Other than chiding them for all the problems facing the country, is there nothing in this class, which we cannot learn anything from. I am sure there would be something definitely positive for all of us, and this has been intriguing me for a long time.  After talking to lot of people and doing serious introspection, I came to conclusion that the two most important elements that one can pick from this class is, perhaps how they handle “REJECTION” and how they face ” FAILURE”.

There is no other class, which puts themselves under the scanner of Public, Media, RTI,….and off late courts, the way political class does.  Most of us have fixed Jobs, with regular hikes, and we happily plan for our retirement, pick any job, they are not subjected to such minute scrutiny as this class is subjected to. Today’s top bureaucrats, top professionals like Lawyers, Doctors, Professors, CEO’s started their career some 25 yrs back……..and can easily sail for another 10 – 15 yrs without any hitch. But, here is a class which has to subject itself to a more than 360 degree test [if there was any] every five years, they have to go through this electoral furnace, where FAILURE seems to be more close than SUCCESS.  Failure comes with a lifelong ignominy, whereas success has a time frame of five years or even less.

Isn’t it quite surprising that, almost all political parties have lost power and most of the top politicians have lost their seats, but what is more surprising is the resilience with which they bounce back, Loosing an election is both FAILURE on the part of the candidate and REJECTION by the electorate, which just five years back had voted for him. We also see the politician coming back to same electorate, without running away [ of course there are exceptions] and winning with a thumping majority.

This happens across the world with this class. But, the grace with which they accept the outcome of the husting and the vigour with which they come back is indeed not for the weak soul. It’s not easy as it may seem to be……..for if it were, look around at the society,  students committing suicide for not getting good marks, or resorting to acids attacks or violence when they do not get what they want, which in simple terms translates to our inability to HANDLE FAILURE and HANDLE REJECTION. 

If we were taught, how to handle FAILURE and REJECTION at the school itself, I am sure life would have been and will be more enjoyable. There are indeed many aspects to learn from them, yet I picked these two as I felt they are very relevant and important.

Looking forward to your suggestions / comments in building this theme further….

A kid gets 5 marks out of 10 in an exam. In the same school it is mandatory for the teacher to ensure that all the students get minimum of 7 marks, else she would be questioned. What is the option before the teacher….and the easiest one? Even if the student gets 05 marks, she can make it 07. This would save her from embarrassment and while she would have prevented herself from questioning, the fate of the student can be easily predicted, he became weak and weak and weak.

The other option would have been, the teacher spends more time with the kid, understand why he finds the particular subject difficult, talks to his or her parents, guides and coaches him to excel and perform better.  The result, in the  next exam, he may get 06 and in the next finally more than 7. Now this going without saying that it would indeed take more time, effort and pain. Neither most of the teachers nor the schools seem to have patience. Instant results is the mantra. 

A good number of organisations are caught up in this, what i call, the METRICS conundrum. 

Just look at some of the cases. ” The Indian subsidiary of Swiss drug maker has dismissed some 18 middle-level sales executives for fabricating and inflating the sales numbers of its diabetes drug Galvus, a news report said.

Novartis sales representatives used the sales incentive provided to them by the company to buy stocks from wholesalers and show a spike in the sales of the drug in order to meet their targets, a report in business wire magazine PharmaAsia News said ” 

Consider another case, The former executives of ADIDAS are formally under investigation over allegations that receipts were falsified, Reebok merchandise was siphoned off, Adidas-owned goods were hidden in four different warehouses and that goods were sent to fake distributors, two investigators told the Financial Times.

In both the instances, inquiry is going on. Now why does this happen? Just ponder for a moment.  I feel it is an ever increasing instance of trying to meet the expectation of Principals of Indian subsidiaries to grow the business month on month and each and every parameter. Metrics is good as long as it really tells and reflects  the true health of the company. If the health of the company is not sound, the metrics cannot be realistic, somewhere something is cooked….Leadership teams to sometimes resort to the easy way of managing the metrics rather than work on improving the process.

This is killing the organisation and a new breed of professional are in demand, those who can manage metrics. Executives are not being allowed to focus on the process improvement. Hence, although by managing the metrics, some of the organisations are meeting the demands of stock market and investors, yet in the long run they are making the organisations weak by not focusing on the processes.  

EGO, has go in it, but many people want to keep it with them like shadow. Why, each one has his own reason? My own experience has been the less the people understand and more they talk of EGO, the more the problems they land into. How and when this element of EGO comes into us and how is this aiding or destroying us is indeed not known, but what is known and certain is the problem it creates for the person in Interpersonal relations, creating an impression in person of his larger than life image, which often prevents other people or selectively allows access only to some people.

NIGOSYB, an acronym for Now I Get You Son of Bitch, is a psychological game which most of us unknowingly enter into. As the expansion goes, i wait for an opportunity to hit you when you are weakest and vice versa. This goes on between MOTHER IN LAW and DAUGHTER IN LAW, between two departmental heads, two functions and two neighbors and so on…one party keeps waiting for the other two make a mistake and the moment they find one, they just pounce on the person. Similar behavior is exhibited by the other side too. Often this behavior becomes problem not only to the leader but also the organisation. You see two high potential employees engaging in this self destructive behavior.

Little is known about the advantages of EGO n NIGOSYB, one thing is certain, it is a very deadly and lethal combination having the energy and power to destroy an organisation.

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