Well Begun is Half-done

We have a weekly program in our office. It is named as Wissendock. “Wissen”, in German, means “Wisdom”. This program involves a series of lectures & team-activities, & is conducted voluntarily by employees of the company.

As a part of this program, our Business Development Manager, Vivek, was scheduled to give a talk on EQ. It was scheduled to start at 4pm. Around 3:55 pm we were told to settle down in the lecture-hall. We all move in, and Vivek came and took his place. He seemed to be prepared well for the talk. We all were sitting now, and still he seemed to be waiting for something to start.

Then suddenly he shouted at one of our co-workers present in the hall. “Why are you talking there? Do you think I am a fool standing here waiting to speak to you all? What do you think of yourself? Can’t you come and take your seat?”

The entire hall went silent at this burst–out from him. Nobody had expected Vivek to behave in such a manner. He is known to be one of the coolest guy around. The employee who was target of this burst, did not know what to do (he is junior to Vivek). He silently went and took his seat.

And then Vivek burst out laughing. He explained to us that what he did was just a demo of a person who has a low EQ than average……

Public speaking is an art. The speaker has to capture not only the attention of his audience, but also drive home the key-points of his topic to them. And when a speaker knows how to capture the attention of audience, his job is almost done. By starting in such a fashion, Vivek not only captured our attention, but also gave a demo as to what we would not do if we have a high EQ. It was a good beginning.

Not to forget to mention, the targeted person is a close friend of Vivek. Even as he was shocked from the out-burst, he knew in his heart that it was not to be taken seriously. Well done Vivek!

Everybody is a Role-Model

Have you heard this saying – “One should keep improving throughout one’s life”? Many a times we would have tried to put it into practice. We would have looked for role-models around ourselves to learn something from them. We might have searched for instances in their life so that we can learn a lesson that life is here to teach us.

Unfortunately, it is not that easy to find role-models. All the qualities that we admire are not found in a single person. On the other hand, many times we find people who are totally opposite. They have those qualities that are not worth emulating. And if we interact with such people quite often, this thought will come to our mind one time or the other, “Can’t these people see me & learn from me? Why can’t they take me as their role-model?”

Here I would like to quote from a mail that I got recently from my friend, Ramanathan. He has commented on this very subject. The excerpt is as follows:

“……be a keen observant of your surrounding and people for they are the best teachers. They teach in either way. One is either how to be or how to do or how to live and the other is either how not to be or how not to do or how not to live like them...... this is a part of life... I have personally gained a lot from such observation....”

Suffice to say, if we cannot learn what to become, we should at least learn what not to become. These people around us are also role-models. Only we need to learn from them in a bit different way.

Thank you Ramanathan……

Nip it in the Bud

Last week, my young cousin sister was getting ready to make chapattis for all of us. It was first time she was making chapattis. I was to supervise her. The task of making chapattis involves making dough out of wheat-flour, cutting it into small pieces, roll each piece into a flat pie-shape, and then bake it on the stove.

As she started making the dough, I stood by her side & watched her silently. After making the dough, she asked me whether it was rightly made. Unfortunately, it was not. The dough she made was quite hard. Even as I noticed the flaw, I told her to go ahead with rolling the chapattis. I thought that I should inform her of the mistake only after she finishes the chapattis.

The hard dough made it difficult to roll chapattis. It took almost double the time to roll out the required number. The shape also was not round but uneven. As the chapattis were put on the oven, they were getting stuck on the pan, & some even got burnt, unfit to eat. Finally I myself had to take out some more flour, make dough, & cook chapattis. The lunch was served one & a half hour late. All because of me as I did not correct my sister during the initial stage.

When we are asked to supervise somebody’s work, we should not let the person to carry on with flaws in the basic plan, thinking that the concerned person will learn from his mistake when he gets a final product, full of flaws. Then there is absolutely no need for our supervision.

As a guide / manager / supervisor, one’s job is to nip the flaw in the bud itself. Otherwise, the blame may as well come to us for not being attentive to our job…..