Greatness is in details & care

     

Some time back, I read the interview article by Mr.K.V Kamath, Ex-Chairman of ICICI Bank about his amazing experience with Mr.N R Narayanamoorthy (NRN), founder of Infosys. As they had been friends, one day they went to a hotel for lunch in Bangalore. As they were engaging in a meaningful conversation while entered into the hotel entrance, a janitor welcomed both and opened the door. Kamath was passing through the door, NRN stopped the conversation for a moment, looked at the janitor and asked him with smile “Had your lunch?” .The janitor smiled back and nodded head positively. Then NRN continued the conversation with Kamath and found a table for their meal.Kamath was surprised with that incident and wondered how a  high profile person with many priorities and work pressure had a time or heart to care for fellow human being.He described NRN as great human being.

     You also could have come across such great people in your lifetime either in business or in a personal environment.The greatness is not in a position or financial strength; it is in displaying the modesty, humbleness, simplicity, care for fellow people amidst all work pressure and priorities.

     Sometimes, we are too busy to notice small things which matter most. Our greatness is when we start appreciating little things and care for either it could be people or beauty of this universe. Becoming good to great is all about excellence .

What are you thinking and feeling during conflict?

      When conflict happens between two either at home or in the profession, only a few have the maturity to see the conflict as the difference of opinion and able to take it lightly considering the big picture of family or organizational. Most of the people struggle to differentiate the conflict over issues and personalities. Also, conflict end with compromising, accepting other’s perspectives, forgive, being humble or not getting into blaming or even taking personally.

Your thinking and feeling during the conflict determine your peace of minds. One of the powerful strategy philosopher and psychologists suggest that think of the consequences and think of the event in a time distant, say from a week now, a month now or even a year now. That makes a difference.
For example, recollect a conflict, which ended up intense arguments one year back with your spouse or colleague.Answer yourself whether that event is significant to you or your life now. Mostly, it will not.

Likewise, if you think of the argument’s significance one week or a month down the line or its consequence to your quality of life, most of the conflict ends up smoothly.

It just requires awareness during the conflict. Just try when you get into heated arguments with somebody closer to you and learn!

Mindset and practices of outstanding executive

    In any organization, some people emerge as effective executive or leader among others. A lot of research had been conducted to identify the factors differentiating the outstanding executives and other mediocre executives. More than educational background, technical competency and experience, the mindset and practices differentiate the outstanding executives from others. 

    One of the management article published in Harvard Business Review highlights the below eight practices of effective executives 

They use to ask, “What needs to be done?”
They use to ask, “What is right for organization?”
They use to develop action plans
They use to take responsibility for their decisions
They take effort for communication
They focus on opportunities than problems
They run productive meetings
They think and say “we “rather than “I”

  The reasons look like true from my experience in professional environment. 

Let us evaluate ourselves against those factors and reflect our mindset and practices!

“Beyond Expression”

Most of us frequently describe the professional boss (even spouse at home!) as “angry person”. We complain as they get angry often.Angry is one of the most labeled emotion which is visible to outside.When we start giving different terms of emotions to the “angry”, we may get different insights.

Sometimes, they get angry because they are impatient with our behavior or results
Sometimes they get angry because they get offended by our words or behavior 
Sometimes they get angry because they frustrated with our behavior or actions
Sometimes they get angry because they annoyed with our behavior or actions

The outcome expression may be angry and look like same all the time, but the reason for the outcome may be different every time.

When we understand other’s intention at surface level, there is less chance for improving relationship or change in self-behavior. If we understand other’s intention at a deep level or different perspectives, there may be a chance to improve the relationship or self-improvement.

It just requires awareness and conscious interest to get the perspectives right!

Reflect and move on

“Dates that come around every year help us measure progress in our lives. One annual event, New Year's Day, is a time of reflection and resolution.” —Joseph Wirthlin

Even though the transformation in personal and business life happens through the changes WITHIN, irrespective of change in calendar years, now, this is the opportune time to plan for change. Instead of merely planning with wishes, it would be effective to look back, learn from the past, and set the direction for the future.

Hence, reflect and evaluate your 2016 in all aspects of life with the right questions. This may help to reinforce the good things you did, realizing the bad things you did. Answering to the following questions may help you to set the direction right on career / business / relationship / financial aspects.

Which initiatives worked well in your business / profession   and which were not?
What motivated me last year and what drained my motivation level?
What factors improved / affected the quality of relationship with family members / peers/ subordinates / clients?
Which factors improved my personal financial success and what not? 
What made me proud of my contributions to others?

Reflection is more powerful than any other form of learnings. Reflect on 2016 and move forward for great 2017 as each one of us are deserved for excellence.

Wishing you and your family & business to achieve extraordinary growth,peace, happy New Year 2017!

Are you grateful or regretful?

      There are only two set of people based on their perspectives about life .One is being grateful for everything and another one being regretful for everything. The first set of people looks at the life with the achievements they did so far, being grateful, happy, and look for next level growth. The Second set of people always looks for what they missed out irrespective of their achievement, becoming skeptical about themselves and lose the sight of future prospects

       One of the studies in sport reveals that, the person who won the bronze medal use to be happier than the person who won the silver medal. The reason may be that silver won person kept thinking about how he missed out the gold medal, forgetting the gift of being achieved silver, whereas the bronze won person kept feeling that he got into the medal winners list and be proud of achieving.

      The point is that aiming for high is good, but not at the cost of forgetting the current achievement and celebration. It is our mindset, how we look into the life, feeling either happy about current achievement despite challenges or cribbing about what we lost.

      Let us celebrate the current achievement of 2016, feel grateful, and aim high for 2017!

Regrets of the dying

Bronnie ware is an Australian nurse who spent many years working in palliative care, taking care of patients in the last weeks of their lives. She collected the information from dying people about their regrets, wishes, missed opportunities etc and she found a common pattern surfaced repeatedly .Based on her experience, she had written a book “Regrets of the dying people” which is a best seller.

The top five regrets emerge from the majority of the people are 

1.I wish I had courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me
2.I wish I didn’t work so hard
3.I wish I had the courage to express my feelings
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends
5.I wish that I had let myself be happier

Those above regrets may not be the expression of entire humanity as it is not statistical proven,yet  the sample may reflect the quality of life .Most of us are living with sub standard life against our inner deep desire .Striving for fulfillment must be a conscious decision and that requires awareness .

Let us be aware of our quality of living!

What does prevent us to express timely?

The value of “life aspects” is only when we nourish its value when it is with us. The “life aspects” could be like health, wealth, knowledge, profession, relationship etc. When something is lost, we realize the value of it or associate it with more memories.

In personal life, we use to take the people relationship as granted, especially with people in our close circles. We tend to value people after we lost them or they moved away from us. After losing, either regret about the inability to nurture the relationship or start valuing by way of praising the positive side of the personalities (as nostalgia rituals!!). Even in professional life, we use to appreciate or endorse the qualities of the person during a farewell session as a routine. The person could have enjoyed the association more with us, if he/she had been endorsed or acknowledged or appreciated for his personality when he/ she were with us.

As life is too short and uncertainty, what does prevent us from nurturing the relationship and expressing timely? We may list work pressure, lack of time, ego etc, but more than anything else, it just needs a deep awareness of the fact of life.

As someone quoted, “Sometimes the words we leave unspoken are the most important ones that should have been said” is much more valid for the relationship especially with our close circles.

Factors enabling the harmony at the workplace

As discussed last week, in personal and professional life, maintaining harmony with our daily interesting people is must have peace of mind, quality of work, in turn growth and happiness.

Irrespective of the difference of opinion or conflict with others, still harmony can be maintained.If we observe highly successful and matured people, we can notice some of the practices while interacting with others.

 Easily approachable 
 Connecting others with care
 Consistency in behavior
 Giving self first 
 Respecting and not approaching with fixed perception
 Be helpful, friendly and firm 

Maintaining harmony with others is a conscious choice for growth and happiness, which is possible with practice.

The given video link demonstrates the improvement in the relationship between boss and subordinate with the above factors…

Hope you enjoy it…

https://goo.gl/Jn361N

Why do we struggle to keep harmony with others?

   As discussed last week, in personal and professional life, maintaining harmony with our daily interacting people is must to have peace of mind, quality of work, in turn growth and happiness.

   However, in reality, we struggle to maintain harmony with others.Rather than looking the reason from the other’s point of view,let us look it from within us. One of the expectation or condition, we set ourselves to maintain harmony with others is not accepting others if they differ from our thought process or opinion. This is strongly conditioned in our mind.

    However, the nature reveals that no creation is same as others, each is unique.No two people can have same likings and thought process.We tend to mix people and issue together. Let us accept people, especially those are influencing our life on a daily basis .Accept them as such ,separate the intellectual part from the people part .Once if we accept the people as such , then we are open to see other good qualities of those people. It may be difficult for most of us to practice this, but this awareness is required to improve the quality of relationship.

    Let us the discuss the factors will enable improved harmony next week.