The Darker Side of Being Judgmental

Judgment is an activity that we unconsciously do, at every moment of our life. It is said, that the moment we meet a new person, our mind just takes 10 seconds to form an impression about the person. He might not have even spoken a word or shook hands with us. His face, his dressing, the colour and texture of his skin, his body language, communicates something about the person to us, based on which we make our  judgment.

This process of continuous judging has greatly contributed to what we have achieved or where we have reached today. All the choices we have taken in our life are a result of our judgment. We judge a person, before making him our friend. We judge an education programme, before making a career decision. We judge a company, before making a job decision. So every moment of our life, we are judging.

This process of judgment is good for us, but what happens when we pass our judgment to others. Is it right or wrong? For example, many a time, we go for a movie and come out saying that the movie was horrible. We go to a hotel and come out saying the food tasted awkward. We go to a garment store and say the collection was not good. We make bold judgments, not realizing the negative effects it can have on people and business. We need to give room for perception. The way we look at things is not the only right way. People may have different tastes and different preferences. Of course, we have all the right to say, that I did not like the movie; I did not enjoy the meal; the showroom did not have the garments with colour of my choice, etc. But quite often we do not do that. We just give our verdict, without a second thought.

It is not right on our part to ruin somebody’s business, by our negative comments. Our words catch up like wild fire. Negative comments reach out faster than the positive ones. You would have observed this.

Now, imagine someone telling something negative about your business to others and think about the impact it could have on your business.

This might be a fitting job to do when we encounter an unpleasant experience or an unsatisfactory experience. Leave your thoughts and feelings, there and move on. If he changes, it is good for him and if he does not, let him decide his own dooms day. Why should you? Most of the time, it would be resolved. Because any sensible business owner, who wants to improve his business, would look forward to these type of negative feedback from his customers, which will give him an opportunity to improve and make his products or services likeable to his customers. In a highly competitive business environment, only those who adapt to the customers can survive.

I have found in a few restaurants this caption written on a board or a wall, “If you are happy with our service, tell others. If you are not happy about our service, tell us”.

So next time, before you pass a judgment think. It only takes a few seconds to make a comment, but its effect may be drastic. Let us imbibe the virtue of “Live and Let live!

 D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

No Job is a Mean Job, if You Can Add Meaning to It

No Job is a Mean Job,
if You and Add Meaning to It

I attended a SKILL SUMMIT, organized by CII at Bangalore, a few years back. There were renowned speakers from different industries, government agencies and training field as well, who threw light on the subject “shortage of skilled labour.“ Some interesting points emerged out of the summit.

 

According to a Survey, it says that, in the year 2020, the world will face a shortage of 57million skilled workers and only India and China, because of its huge population would have the capacity to cater to this demand.  However, the irony is as of now, only 10% of the India’s workforce comes under the category of skilled workers. This is comparatively very low, to most countries were 60 to 80% are skilled work force. Korea tops the list with 96%.

 

The greatest strength of India today is that, we have about 55% of the population who are below the age of 30, but the big question is what type of aspirations these students have? A good number of graduates pass out of Indian colleges every year, but still there seems to be a shortage of skilled work force in the country or rather there is a mismatch of the needed talent versus the available human resource, and hence the gap. Now, how do we bridge the gap?

 

Let us say you go to a high school and ask the students there, what they want to be. You would find that 7 out of 10, would either say engineer or doctor, and the other 3 would say something different such as a lawyer, policeman, teacher, pilot and so on. This is a clear indication that a majority of our students are glued to the idea that no other profession is worth pursuing.

 

It is either the influence of the parent, teacher or society that plays a strong role in his decision process. It is not a matter of willful choice, but a matter of acceptable choice. Now we talk about shortage of technical workforce like the mechanic, electrician, plumber, welder, gardener, carpenter etc. 

 

In advanced countries like USA, Europe, Japan and Australia, 80 to 90% of the youth opt for Vocational Educational Training, whereas in India the number of students who opt for vocational training is very low. In India, there is not much emphasis laid on this, in our current system of education. In India today, an ITI Student is looked down upon and does not get due respect. This attitude has to change. If this attitude continues, the country would witness a steady increase of unemployable graduates, in the days to come. With the migration of hand skilled workers to knowledge workers, we are in a crisis.

 

It is recommended that students should be exposed to vocational training right from their 6^th Std. They have to learn to work with tools. Tools, like toys may fascinate their interest. This may create an interest for them to pursue a vocational training of their chosen field of interest, rather than having to restrict to conventional academic choices. The parents have to play a supportive role by accepting the choice of their children, rather than trying to brand them to a desired profession.

 

It may be a surprise for you to know that only 7% of the Indian working population is educated up to Xth Std. The balance 93%, are either less educated or uneducated. But it is this 93% who work in the farmlands cultivating the food we eat, the weavers who make the dress to wear, and construction labourers who build the houses, we live in.

Let us treat everyone’s job with respect and consider no job a mean job. Let us be grateful to them and treat them with dignity. Just imagine, if not for them, what would we do?

 

  D. Senthil Kannan,

   Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

 

Shared Vision

I attended a learning programme titled “Leadership Coaching and Organisational development” by Dr. Bernd Schmid of Germany. During the 3 day programme a lot of concepts were discussed.  One of the concepts, which I found very striking impressive was about having a “Shared Vision”.

 

So what is the difference, between “Vision” and “Shared Vision”? Let us explore.

 

We have always been looking at Vision as something which is driven down from the top management to the bottom. A leader or the founder of the organisation has a vision, which is explicitly expressed as a Vision Statement for the whole team to follow. It is quite common to see Vision boards, placed at important locations at Corporate offices today, but how much of it have the people in the organisation imbibed is a question that needs to be asked. So the limiting factor here is that the Vision is that of the leader’s and the team members just expedite the roles they are expected to perform.

 

On the other hand “Shared Vision” is much different to the existing paradigm, of leader imposed vision.  In the context of “Shared Vision”, the leader has a vision, which he explicitly shares with the entire team, so that everyone understands his vision and see if they find an alignment with the same. Those who find alignment of their personality or personal vision to that of the organisational vision, commit to work towards realization of this vision. By doing so they take part ownership of the vision, rather than looking at it as someone else’s vision. They develop personal affinity to the vision and identify themselves with the vision. In other words, they become role models of the Vision. When a person chooses to work for an organisation, wherein he finds this alignment, it will in turn enhance his level of commitment and contribution to the organisation. This is the power of “Shared Vision”.

 

If the Vision of an organisation is clear, everything will fall into its place. There will be less reasons for disputes among team members. So, when the vision of an organisation becomes the second skin of the people working towards it, they instantly know what is to be done, keeping in mind the vision.

 

If we look at organisations that have lasted over 100 years, we will find that most of these organisations have a shared vision. This makes the organisation continue to thrive irrespective of change in leadership, change of employees/ team members or change in economic and market conditions.

In yet another programme I attended, I had the opportunity to listen to a speaker from Bosch India. He told us, how seriously their company takes it founder’s vision, when making any decision, big or small. He said that the founder, Mr. Robert Bosch, was by nature a perfectionist with an eye for detail. He was a highly quality conscious person, who will not compromise on quality for any other factor such as cost or time. He was also constantly looking at ways of improving upon his existing products. This temperament of the founder, became the guiding principles based on which the company formed its Vision, “Creating Value - Sharing Values”. This he said is the reason that the company is successful for over 125 years in over 50 countries.

The idea of “Shared Vision” is now being practiced in many companies abroad and which looks idealistic in the perspective of how organisations in India, can function in the future.

 

Another classic example is Walt Disney. The vision he shared is to “Make People Happy”. All his creations right from the cartoon characters, theme parks, hotels, retail stores and movies have created the magical experience to it’s customers, because of its single minded vision of making people happy.

 

So, it becomes obvious that if the company succeeds, it means that its vision has succeeded and if a company fails, it means that its vision has failed.

 

   D. Senthil Kannan,

   Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com