Category: Coaching & Training

Lessons I Learnt From My Parents

Parents are our first teachers and we learn so many lessons from them all our lives. It takes many years to earn the experience they accumulate in their lives. They are trees of wisdom and it is very important to preserve their wisdom and pass it on to the next generation. Their experience acts as a lighthouse for us and helps us to sail through many difficult situations in our lives. We all learn many lessons from my parents and then we pass on these to my kids. Following are the lessons I learnt from my parents: Honesty: Honesty is the jewel of a man and one should never leave this jewel for anything. Being honest means not to cheat, deceive, lie or steal in any way. Honest people are blessed with strength of character, peace of mind and self respect. Honest people are most loved and trusted by God. Learn to Enjoy the Little: Life is made up of small things and if you neglect to enjoy the little you have, you will miss the most in your life and someday you will realize how big those little things were. Happiness has nothing to do with luxuries and comforts of the world. Learn to be happy even when you have nothing or little. Hope: Look back on the good and look forward to the future. Life has no meaning without hope. Keep Calm: Keep calm when in difficult situations and remember sound decision can be made only with sound mind and decisions made by disturbed mind are usually disturbed decisions. Respect Elders: It is our moral duty to respect our elders. Respect them not because we all are bound to grow old but because they have successfully completed their journey till this age. And not everyone reaches that stage. Old people may have special needs and we should be caring enough to take care of all those needs. Remember they are the only reason we are part of this world. Thank them for all they have done to make our lives better. Elders love to tell their stories and share their life experiences. Listen to them and even if they are repeating their stories listen as if you are listening for the first time. Your kind words and your helping hand can make their day. Blessings of elders can make miracles happen. Pray Daily: If you want to determine God’s will, you need to spend time with him. Prayer gives you an opportunity to open your heart to God and in turn God opens his heart to you. Prayer helps in changing our heart to be more like God’s and changes us inside out. Work Hard: There is no shortcut to success. Behind every success story there are hours and hours of hard work. If you are focused and work hard to achieve your goals then nothing is impossible. Sometimes It Is Better To Be Quiet: Moments of silence can sometimes be loudest of all. You silence may help to keep the relationship going. Ignore mistakes of others and never blame them for anything. Master Your Subject: It is always better to be master of one than jack of all. If you know your subject it will help you stand out of the crowd. When you know you have performed your duty expertly it gives you sense of achievement and helps you to be more efficient and productive. You can also motivate other to be master of their subjects. Wake Up Early: Waking up early helps you to manage your time in more efficient manner. Waking up early helps to exercise, explore nature’s beauty, develop a positive mental attitude, live a better family life, plan your day in more efficient manner and to be more happy. Sleep early and sleep for 7-8 hours a day. Explore New Places: Exploring new places is part of our innate curiosity. Never let this curiosity die. Exploring new places helps us with many life experiences as we not only see new places but also see others cultures and meet new people. These are some of the lessons I learnt from my parents. Do share the lessons you have learnt from your parents. May God Bless All.

Getting Out of Fire Fighting- From Reactive to Proactive Management

In my previous post I shared 7 Strategies to Revive a dying company. In this post I will share the strategies of getting out of fire fighting mode by switching from reactive to proactive management. For a project management company it’s very important to meet the timelines and complete the project in the stipulated time. If the timelines are not met the company may face severe consequences and to avoid any financial loss many projects managers start work in fire fighting mode and often compromise the quality of the work. So what could be the best management style for a project manager? In today’s post I’ll discuss how to get out of fire fighting by being proactive from being reactive manager. Managing a project is very challenging as there are many internal as well external factors involved and it’s always difficult to control both the factors. Suppose you are doing a project, say Project A, which is nowhere near completion and your client is not giving you any extension to complete the project and pressurizes you to allocate more resources to complete the project on time. Now the management is forced to bow to your clients’ demands and call people from Project B. You also have timelines to meet for Project B and you are in fix where to focus more as new team will need some time to understand the Project A . In the process the timelines to complete Project B will be compromised. Now to meet timelines of Project B more people has to be called from Project C. A number of companies fall in this vicious cycle which forces the management to always be in fire fighting mode.Now question arises what is fire fighting? Is it something related to extinguishing fire? Fire fighting is an emergency allocation of resources required to deal with unforeseen problems. In management terms, Fire Fighting is another name of Reactive Management and is defined as reacting to unforeseen problems with a focus to somehow control the situation for the time being. If management has not foreseen or planned to handle the problem these often become hectic, stressful and a routine with no end in sight. Reactive Management happens due to poor planning, bad processes/policies or not fixing the accountability and a Project Manager will never be in able to control a situation. How can one move to Proactive Management from Reactive Management? Before I explain how to be proactive manager, we need to understand the meaning of Proactive Management. Proactive Management is basically to think ahead, foresee and plan for strategies to address expected as well as unexpected problems. Following are some simple but Powerful Strategies on How to manage Proactively and come out of Fire fighting mode: Process Management Do not take decision on the basis of your experience or intelligence. You may be a blessed manager but everyone is not. Make processes for all the business needs and follow the processes religiously and keep changing dysfunctional processes. A dysfunctional process may trigger a reactive management situation. Do thorough reviews of all the processes and make checklists for each situation. Make your team understand the importance of checklists and how these can help you keep a tap on the proceedings and take corrective measures if something goes wrong Time Management (Work Prioritization): Prioritize tasks or activities into urgent or important. Finish the critical tasks first and delegate the important activities. Important activities should be finished before they become urgent and pull you in fire fighting mode again. KAIZEN: Kaizen or continuous improvement is a long term approach to work that systematically seeks to achieve incremental changes in the processes in order to improve efficiency and quality. It is responsibility of everyone and not just selected few. Management should be open to new ideas with a focus on the solution. Ask your team members about their opinion on different issues.  

7 Strategies to Revive a Dying Company

There is so much of cut throat competition these days that many business houses operate on such small margins that even a small miscalculation or a bad decision can derail the company and it becomes very difficult for the management to revive the company and put it back on the right track. In this post I’ll share 7 strategies to revive a dying company which can help the management to turn around the company: Take Care of the Cash Flow: Showing huge profits in the books is very easy but managing steady cash flow to meet company’s day to day expenses is most important and challenging task. A company failing to manage its cash flow will not be able pay its liabilities and will be heading towards failure and ultimately closure. The first step is to take care of the cash flow. Engage the customers and resolve all the pending issues in a time bound manner. Once the issues are resolved then ask for the payment and at the same time the company may ask for more business with an assurance that no such issues will be allowed to come up in future and the client needs will be given proper attention. Money Saved is Money Earned: If the management fails to control the cost it increases the debt and then interest on the debt becomes another cost and it becomes like vicious cycle and if the management waits for too long there will hardly anything left to pay out the debts. The management should be ruthless in cost cutting and there’s nothing wrong in it whether there is a shortage of cash flow or not. As they say, ‘Every penny saved is penny earned’ and sometimes each penny saved can help pay liabilities. Shrinking the company can be more profitable than running a large but sick corporation. Prioritize Your Liabilities: Each liability is supposed to be paid back and prioritizing your liabilities will help you arrange and manage funds in a more efficient way. The Govt. liabilities should be the first to be settled on monthly basis and then vendor liabilities, employee salaries and other liabilities can be prioritized depending upon the need. Change Your Customer Base: People think firing a customer is like committing suicide as we don’t only lose a customer we also lose prospects of future business. The idea here is not to become choosy about clients but to scrutinize those who increase the productivity levels and those which cause stress. The reason could be any, non-performance, delayed timelines, delayed approvals, derailed project briefings, non-payments etc. What we have to see – where & with whom are we creating mutually beneficial environment. The attempt to get better shall be made- but the idea should be – to create healthy & beneficial associations and customer undoubtedly is the biggest stakeholder. Keep Your Employees Happy: This is amongst the most important aspects management should never ignore during crisis. Having bad morale and employees scared of being laid off is a sure shot way to closure of the company. When a company runs through a crisis so does its employees and they lose motivation to stay and perform. Only motivated employees can sail the company out of the crisis. Management should come forward and communicate their strategy and seek their help to negate the crisis. If some employees are to be laid off due to cost cutting their selection should be done on merit and not on employee’s personal rapport with management. The full & final settlement of laid off employees should be done on priority. Avoid giving high salary increment fearing losing good employees. Take them in confidence, explain marginal increments and why does every penny matter for the company. Keep Your Vendors Engaged: Your vendors are your life line and if you don’t have money and have failed several times in keeping your commitments and you are not sure when will you be able to pay to your vendors the management should keep the vendors engaged. There’s no harm in telling your vendors that the company is running through a bad phase and the company intend to return each and every penny and at this moment you need their support. My experience says your major problem will be solved and there are many vendors who may extend a helping hand during critical junctures. As and when you receive payments set aside a certain amount that you will pay back to your vendors. This will not only help you pay back your debt but also keep trust of your vendors. Getting Out of Fire Fighting: Management of a company in crisis tend to spend more time by being reactive to the problem than to foresee the problem and take appropriate actions to resolve it. Sometimes management knows about the problem but is so busy tackling other issues that it ignores the problem. When backlog of problems builds up management is forced to keep long term planning aside and tackle the problem in fire fighting mode. Such reactive management is very hectic, stressful, often inefficient and becomes a routine and management hardly gets time to foresee the problem and take appropriate actions to resolve. These 7 strategies to revive a dying company if implemented correctly can turn around the company. In my next post I’ll share some strategies to get out of fire fighting mode by switching from reactive to proactive management.

Investing at an Early Age

I was about to leave office when a junior colleague came to me seeking help in financial planning. Though I was in a little hurry I couldn’t stop myself helping him with my suggestions pertaining to financial planning. I am in my mid 30’s and now sometimes I think I should have started financial planning a bit early in my life and could have accumulated a substantial wealth till now. Saving and Investing at an Early Age is always difficult as we have so many temptations around us viz branded clothing, electronic gadgets or freaking out with friends etc. By the time people realize the value of savings and investment they are hardly left with time for the magic of compounding to make substantial additions to their investments. Here you can read why compounding is known as the 8th Wonder of the World. Following are some simple but powerful tips to save and start Investing at an Early Age and at any age: Understand You are not Going to Work Forever: Average life expectancy in India is around 67 years and if you start working at an age of 25 years you will have 35 years to work and plan for your life post retirement. One can’t plan his retirement at an age of 45-50 and even if one plans he will surely land short of money required to maintain a similar life style post retirement. The Sooner the Better: The sooner one starts investing the better the returns would be as the compounding will not add but multiply the return on investment in long run. Start with a Small Amount: You can start with a small amount but keep increasing the investments every month or quarter by 5-10%. This way you will be able to manage your expenses efficiently and will be able to utilize the funds in a better way. Have a Financial Goal: Have a financial goal before starting investing. Without a goal it will be like shooting without an aim. Financial goal will help you decide the amount of money you will need to invest, type of fund and tenure of the investments. Diversify: As they say one should not put all eggs in one basket similarly one should not invest all his money in a single or similar kind of funds. There are various Investment Avenues wherein you can invest your money e.g. Debt funds, Equities, Mutual Funds etc. Understand the risk associated with different investment funds before making any investment. Education Loan: If you have taken an education loan don’t rush to pay it fast. Banks offer education loans at discounted rates and there are many investment avenues which offer higher rate of return than the rate of interest charged by banks on your education loan. The RoI will further discount your education loan. Insurance Planning: Insurance is amongst most important investment avenues these days as it not only insures your life against any peril but also helps you make a big corpus in long term. The cost of insurance is lesser if you buy insurance at younger stage of your life and goes on increasing as you grow older. High Risk Appetite: At young age people have time in hands and their risk appetite is usually high so one can invest in funds with high volatility but high returns and make good fortunes in long run. But this luxury ceases to exist as you grow old. There are some temptations which attracts people to commit Beautiful Mistakes without worrying about their ill effects on their financial health in long term. One should avoid spending or spend carefully on the following: Credit cards/ Personal Loan: Credit cards offer hassle free shopping and are user friendly as you don’t have to pay in cash and offer to buy stuff even if you have a nil bank balance. This is where one need to be careful as people tend to spend more and impulsive buying usually is of no use and they end up buying products which will be of little utility. Similarly Personal loans comes with very high interest rates and people end up paying substantially very high than the actual loan. Though Credit cards and personal loans help to meet sudden expenses but after all you have to return the money to the bank and even an extra spend of one single time can severely affect your financial goals. Electronic Gadgets: Youngsters love to buy expensive gadgets with maximum no. of features/apps. A high resolution DSLR camera does not mean it will click better pictures. If you know how to manage shutter speed, ISO, aperture etc. then even a simple camera can click good pictures. A mobile with 256 Gb memory with 40 MP camera and 1000s of apps is of no use if you are keeping even those pictures/videos which you would have hardly watched if you had phone with lesser memory. Similarly if you are not using all the on your mobile, there is no point in spending money on such expensive mobiles just for the sake of show ups. Same goes for other gadgets. Understand your requirement and then only buy. If you can’t take care of your electronic gadgets or you get bored very easily then you must make it a point not to buy expensive ones. Car: Car is a luxury but also a big liability. Entry segment car costs more than Rs. 3 Lacs and if you take 100% loan for 5 years you will need to pay around Rs. 6600/- per month as installments for next 60 months. Plus add another Rs. 5000/- per month as running cost of the car to it. The total cost per month would be Rs. 11,600/-, and in 5 years you would spend 6,96,000/- for owning a car, which is quite big amount for anyone with no financial back up (Assuming you purchased the car in the very first month or year of your professional life). If your company is… Continue reading Investing at an Early Age

Snoozing your Success

I had an early morning flight to catch and the airport was on the other side of the city. And I needed to get up very early in the morning. I was alone at home as my family was away. Though I had set an alarm but still to be double sure I called my 10 friends, who work in US, to wake me up at 3 am (IST). It was 4am when someone knocked my door bell and I woke up and saw the cab has arrived. I was in shock as neither had I listened the alarm nor any of my friends called to wake me up. Now the situation was critical as I was to leave in next 15 minutes else I could have missed the flight. Cab driver assured me that I can take another 15 minutes and get ready. I took 25 minutes and left for the airport and I was the last passenger to enter the plane. Though I caught the flight I was in shock that how could I miss the alarm? What would have happened had I missed the flight? May be just a flight or some money or an opportunity? That was the day I realized that I didn’t snooze the alarm but I snoozed my success and whenever I snooze for 10 minutes I snooze my success for 10 minutes. I realized that snoozing is nothing but another name of procrastination and in order to be successful one need to learn how not to procrastinate and how can we manage our time effectively. What is Procrastination? Procrastination is habit of putting off or delaying things that one should be focusing on, in favor of doing something which is more enjoyable or that one which is more comfortable. Reasons for Procrastination Weak Focus Focus is the most significant aspect for any achiever. You need to lay your focus right and need to understand & prioritize. You cannot allow things/problems and people to affect your focus. Make them a part of your goal and ask things to wait, problems to get solved and people to support you in your motive. You need to work, take break, rejuvenate and get back to work. Complacent attitude towards Comfort Zone It is human nature to become complacent in an affable surrounding. But you need to check the difference between being comfortable and being complacent. It is good to take a break in comfortable surroundings but we need to watch out when we are turning complacent about it and need to get back to the work. Lazy Optimism A no. of times, people seems too optimist to see the future. Mostly, it is the lazy attitude to act which brings such damage to the ongoing pace. Better to keep going positively rather than thinking positive. An untimely break usually leads to a huge wastage of time. Bad Time-management Manage time smartly. One should keep the ‘to do list’ handy. Be it the leaders, philanthropists, successful people or even those who haven’t made it large to any lists but are happier than most follow the rules of time management. A simple example, we know that we have to rush & switching on TV at the breakfast table will cause delay, still we want to get hooked for that last piece of news. How well you manage your time is directly proportional to how far you go & achieve. Know yourself If you are able to avoid the above points and feel that you have already overcome those shortcomings that it is better to know yourself and do a quick self-assessment and find out the reasons which affect your routines and lead you to procrastination. Short-sightedness & Over-excitement are some other personality reasons which lead to a break in the pace of a task at hand. Sometimes, we get over excite about a certain new project, a personal incident that we shift our entire focus towards that particular stance and leading to procrastination of the goal. Overcoming Procrastination The point here is – How to Overcome Procrastination! Self-analysis The first & foremost requirement is to do self-analysis and find out what disturbs your concentration and what leads to distractions. The best way is to take a pen & paper and make notes of what takes away your focus and then make a list on – How to stop this from happening? Manage your Time Well If you have realized that some habits and practices are leading to procrastination, immediately you need to manage your time in a way that you do not end up in such situations again. Start making Task lists and assign them time-lines and if it still doesn’t help – break the tasks into smaller chunks and set shorter goals which combined lead to a larger perspective. Change the Order of Deliverable If you think that there are certain tasks you aren’t able to accomplish on timelines. Keep it aside and take the projects which excite you more at that particular time and get to work. Doing this will bring back your confidence and it will help you get back to normal routine where you want to excel & finish up the tasks. The feeling of that small accomplishment will give you the required push for bigger assignments. Change the Work-station Very often it is seen & observed that a change in place works as magic to many. People call it funny, some say these are misbeliefs, but a simple logic of this is it breaks monotony. We humans become slow when we work in a monotonous environment. A good change is well advised for. If you are really cringed to same work for longer hours or week and you feel – you are not able to really add value, it is time to change your workstation. Before it starts leading to procrastination, it is time to change the work-station and bring a fresh spark to the perspective. Unschedule/ Unwind & Plan Sometimes, doing… Continue reading Snoozing your Success

Meetings and Minutes of the Meeting!

Ever since I got into this Change Management role for organizations, I have realized that it is important to be attentive not just in the meeting but even before & after them. Apparently, they are also important because meeting take place when everyone is busy with their regular tasks at job – the junior staff, middle manager and even the top management is busy their core responsibilities, big decisions – and to avoid the misunderstandings, to avoid a situation where things slip away from our preoccupied minds, Minutes of the Meeting is a good idea and shall be followed as a work ritual. Plan for a meeting If you are the one who had called for the meeting, it is recommended you appoint a person to take down the minutes of meeting. Right from the agenda of the meeting, date & time for meeting, the attendees should be recorded. It is always better to set the outline for step 2. This should be done closely with the meeting chair. And outline helps in case the minutes of the meetings are asked to be shared as handouts for one and all. For an even detail understanding you can also refer to the Robert’s Rule. What to Record It is very imperative to understand the Agenda of a meeting and what are the results sought from it. One must keep note of the following: Motions discussed Acceptance & amendments made in ongoing business functions The significant decisions made The strategy talked about & chosen to be incorporated for Timelines discussed Roles & responsibilities shouldered on Review Meeting – date & time The above points are important to make sure that a meeting time is well utilized and optimum results can be expected. While now we know what all should be a part of MOM, here are few tips which one must know to write the MOM effectively, Create an outline/template. Take the attendance – this is helpful also when you do not know everyone who is a part of the meeting. Do not try to take dictation or capture it all, understand the importance of MOM and accordingly make notes. There is nothing wrong in asking for clarification. Make sure you MOM is all correct & validated information. Make a Call to Action head in the MOM and consider getting it signed/validated by the members involved. How to Write the Minutes of Meeting? Now that we know what all to record, it is important to understand the process of writing minutes of a meeting. The following are the points I follow to write minutes of the meeting: Take important notes during the meeting and do not try to capture it all as that might lead you to concentrate only on making notes and disturb your participation in the meeting. Complete the document right after the meeting to avoid missing on any important points. Edit to ensure clarity and detailing. For Board meetings, mention the important arguments made for decisions made. Be objective and avoid repetitions. Make sure that you do not end up writing anything which sounds like a Personal Observation. Attach any referred documents, reports based on which the decisions were take as appendix with the MOM. Sharing Minutes of the Meeting The most commonly used sharing mode for MOM is – email to the attendee as an official record. However, MOM for some of the top level/board meetings is also converted into hand-outs for future actions and timely actions. Technology has made it easier and offers many more options through – Cloud Sharing. MOM can now be shared instantly through Google Docs, OneNote, and Ever Note etc for instant & easy discussions. They offer the ease to access and edit the same document to all the users it is shared with and hence more time & effort saving. As a conclusion, we must understand the importance of MOM, they are significant for they are a record of important discussions and also they mark the future course of prominent actions being devised for business.

Har Har Mahadev- Each One in Himself (People Empowerment Perspective)

Our ancient literature and mythological books are full of stories – citing friendship, faith, dutifulness, leadership, dedication, compassion etc. Like always, I get ideas – relating their perspective to our jet age life, where I deal with people at various levels in different organizations. Being a L&D professional I have been working on bringing change to organizations and wondered if I could really link the very phrase‘Har Har Mahadev’. We all have heard this phrase several times in temples, in recitals and in prayers. The perspective clicked to me while reading about the Dharamyudha in which Lord Shiva, the Mahadev as explained by Amish in his book, coined the phrase to empower his team of warriors. I learned a new perspective of people management and people empowerment while reading this particular part in the story. It is the battle field and the entire team is ready to work for the betterment of their reign and its people. The weak, the strong, the proven and the laggards – all want to contribute and excel. Identifying traits & Leadership Style In ancient times, it was one God, one king or one leader for all. The delegation though happened in those times too but was only limited to the set of duties. The belief and onus of responsibility was put on just one person of each clan – in this case, it is the ‘Neelkanth’ – who was believed to be the messiah for the people of Meluha who waited for him to come & fight for their rights and save them from the Chandravanshi’s and the Nagas. Now the ‘Neelkanth’ has arrived who is like a new leader who is given the onus of leading the state in the best way possible, as per the rules laid by the state which has its own weaknesses and threats owing to the idealism and self belief of the population. He is trying to get into the system as he apparently is highly opinionated and believes in Karma – the good and bad. He is someone who doesn’t believe in being restricted by the man-made rules and believes in the Power of Expression, Equality and Performance over scores & class. Now isn’t that something which we all are aiming for in life and more importantly in everyday work life? We all try each day to strike a balance with our leaders (read bosses) who we want to be non-biased. A participant leader is always a welcome in a career life. It leads to mutual growth and understanding. It is the thing everybody hopes for to make the journey pleasant. Authority If a person seems important to us, we listen to that person. The person who is perceived as an outsider suddenly is been looked up to and heard of as a leader, a savior. Reason – we feel the person is important, possess power and authority and can help us gain benefit. Authority is a decisive adjective and that is why people in authority shall be chosen with great discretion and in full faith. While Shiva coined the term ‘Har Har Mahadev’ for his team, he wins hearts and trust of his team. Because he embraced authority with great liberation and he shared his power with his team by delegating the authority and empowering the meritorious. In the mentioned Dharamyudh its ‘Drapaku’ who is made the leader by Shiva for his pure talent & patriotism for the state. People Empowerment The above two are only considered worthwhile if they are used for the growth & up-liftment of the team, the resources and are made to work towards a goal which will yield results that are good to the people, the organization at large. Where it is the contribution and the result that matters most, the delegation of the team is done as per the skill-set possessed by each of them and where the sense of belongingness is inculcated deep within. The story about inception of the phrase ‘Har Har Mahadev’ guided me to the base of this human resource practice. It is about the following qualities which enable employee empowerment. When Lord Shiva told his team that it is not about him being a Mahadev but it is that each one around is a Mahadev in himself. Here, he is bringing in the concept of people empowerment and bringing in the sense of belonging which is currently practiced as ‘Employee Management & Industrial Relations’. This is what the current day HRM practices aspires for. Team, group dynamics and synergy are not just terms – they really carry a lot of meaning & weightage. The age old literature, the history vouches for it and the present day start-ups seems friendlier towards it. They value individual traits, personal skill-set, personality and interests more than the KRA, the task at hand and the targets on paper. The ancient mythological philosophies certainly carry a lot of management lessons and this is what stuck my mind when I read about ‘Har Har Mahadev’. Particularly if we talk in context of team empowerment, participant leadership, passion & compassion before rules, Lord Shiva gives me so many relevant stories.

Guru Dakshina- Proudest Moment of a Trainer

Today was the last day of my training program for Kolkata Shoppers Stop. Though I was not well for last couple of days I worked hard to make it a success. Post my session while I was packing my laptop, I saw my students discussing something and they asked me to wait for some time. I was to meet a friend on the way back to airport and it was not possible for me to wait for long. I told them about my plan and left the training room. When I was about to enter the lift a couple of students asked me to come to the training room. I walked back to the training room and to my surprise there was a big cake which they arranged as Guru Dakshina for successfully completing the training program. I invited everyone to hold hands and cut the cake together. Post the cake cutting ceremony they gifted me a big greeting card and a couple of gifts. I was in dilemma as I can’t accept gifts from my trainees. Shoppers Stop Unit Head and Unit HR asked me to accept the gifts as Guru Dakshina. Usually I don’t accept gifts from my trainees but on my colleagues from Shoppers Stop’s insistence I accepted the gifts. While I was about to leave the training room a couple of students tried to touch my feet. I stopped them from doing so, hugged them instead and thanked everyone for their kind gestures and left the training room. Guru Dakshina for me I started my journey for the hotel and all my way I kept thinking about my students, the respect they showered and the ‘Guru Dakshina’. As a professional I get my professional fees for the training programs. Do I have any moral right to accept such gifts as ‘Guru Dakshina’? I don’t have the answer and I doubt there can be any answer for this question. The only thing I want from my students as Guru Dakshina is wherever they go and whatever they do, they must do it with Belief, with Passion, with Enthusiasm and with keen Desire to excel in their lives. My proudest moment would be to see all of my students having accomplished their life goals and helping others accomplish their goals as well.

Delegation in Ramayana (Mythology & Management)

Stories are the best ways to overcome obstacles of learning. While I was working on a leadership program I came across two stories from our mythology which helped me to explain the concept of delegation to my trainees. In this blog, ‘Delegation in Ramayana (Mythology & Management) I’ll share both the stories and how these stories explain the delegation. First Story Lord Ram helped Sugriva to regain his honor and made him king of Kishindha. Sugriva and vanars decided to help Lord Ram unite with his wife Mata Sita who was abducted by demon Ravan. The entire Vanar army was divided into four groups and sent in four directions to find Mata Sita. Hanuman, Angad and Jambavantha with their group reached the southern seashore. They met Sampati, a vulture, who tells them Mata Sita was abducted by Ravan and is sitting under a tree in Lanka, which is on the other side of the ocean. Upon encountering the vast ocean, every vanara begins to lament his inability to jump across the water. Hanuman too is saddened at the possible failure of his mission, until the other vanaras and the wise bear Jambavantha begin to extol his virtues. Hanuman then recollects his own powers, enlarges his body, and flies across the ocean. After he finds Sita in captivity, Hanuman reveals his identity to her by giving her ring of Lord Ram. He reassures her that Lord Ram has been looking for her. He offers to carry her back to Lord Ram, but she refuses his offer, saying it would be an insult to Lord Ram as his honor is at stake. She gives her jewelry to Hanuman Ji and asks him to give it to Lord Ram. Second Story To seek a peaceful solution, Lord Ram sent Angad as messengers to convince Ravana to return Mata Sita peacefully. As this was the only way to avert the war. Angada tried every means to convince Ravana, but he was firm to face battle instead of returning Mata Sita peacefully. Angada planted his foot firmly on the ground and challenged anybody in the courtroom to uproot his foot. If anybody were to accept the challenge and was successful, Lord Ram would concede defeat and return without Mata Sita. All the commanders of Ravana’s army and even his son ‘Indrajit’ tried to lift Angada’s leg but none succeeded. Feeling humiliated by this failure, an infuriated Ravana slowly walked towards Angada’s planted foot and just as he was about to hold Angada’s leg to attempt the challenge, Angada moved away and Ravana fell down. Angada explained that the challenge was for Ravana’s commanders and not for Ravana. He told that Ravana was prepared to fall on his feet but instead he should choose to fall on the Lord Ram’s feet, for those are the ones that remove fear of cycle of life & death. He then picked up Ravana’s crown which fell down on the ground and threw it out of the palace. Ravana ordered his men to kill Angada. But he took a jump and flew back to the place where the Vanara army was gathered. Lessons: Mythology & Management These two stories give us very important lessons of management in purview of Delegation. See Lord Ram as CEO of company and observe the power of delegation being expelled and carried off by him. When the thought struck my mind, I got another reason to reassure myself that management certainly is a derivative of mythology. Lord Ram, put across the problem and took up a discussion to suggest solutions. He was aware of his team strengths and weaknesses.  Lord Ram also knew about the importance of each task to their organization and the task @ hand. Accordingly as per the skill set and the importance of task – he further went on to strategic delegation among the team. That is the reason why Hanuman in story 1 was assigned the task to find Sita and to reconfirm her presence at the Ashok Vatika. He was assigned the task based on this physical skill set and presence of mind. And Sita like an ardent associate understood the importance of task delegated and din’t asked for any further help or assistance. In management context, an extension further to delegation leads to imbalance and hence grievance. And that is why the delegation holds lot of importance. Coming to the second story, Angada was delegated a task of authority. He was a messenger deployed to discuss the suggested way out, to avoid war. His skill set included assertiveness, authority, communication skills and he knew temper control which wasn’t a case with Hanuman as he was an emotional devotee of Lord Ram and would never listen to any ill words for Lord Ram. Lord Ram knew of his skill set and his power. And hence the delegation was done accordingly. These two stories embark all the 5 Stages of Delegation. Where Lord Ram, observed and realized the strengths of his team members including Hanuman, Jamavanth and Angad. He evaluated the situations and the employee skill set, he made sure of the circumstances and allowed his team to collaborate and that’s how he delegated.