Management lessons from spiritual traditions (Part 2)
– Lessons from this story
While it is advisable that we should listen with an open
mind to any suggestion or view point, we should always use
our discretion and not be “influenced” by the views
of others. How many Human Resource Managers rate other
employees very poorly based on “office gossips”
that are spread by jealous coworkers and thus wreck careers
prompting the innocent talented employee to seek other avenues
(thus causing a loss to the organization in terms of invaluable
skill-sets of the employee concerned)! How many investors
have wrecked their fortune by listening to “expert opinions”
and “trading calls” of “so-called” experts
in spite of the fact that their own hunches had something
different to prompt them! How many persons have landed up
in the wrong careers (careers that don’t suit them) because
they have tried to live up to “other’s image”
of them and hence enjoy material success, but lack mental
peace and satisfaction!
All these pitfalls of our human existence can be overcome
if only we stand by our convictions and avoid falling prey
to irrational fears. Just as the harmless sheep was
feared by the gullible Brahmin of this story, many a time,
people in the higher management do tend to misjudge the
loyalties or hard-working of subordinates prompted by feedbacks
received by jealous coworkers and thus lose valuable team
players, which eventually reflects on the quality of the
team.
A team leader who is surrounded only by sycophants and
has eliminated all real talent from his/ her inner coterie
will one day wake up to the fact that the performance of
the team has come down drastically to an extent that his/
her own credibility becomes at stake!. It is quite natural
to get reports like “That young man has an ‘attitude’
sir; he is not a team player”, “Oh….My! He
has a big mouth; see how he talks back to you during the
meeting without any respect. He thinks he is brighter than
you!”, “Oh Sir! This project is a highly risky
one with possibility of failure; do you want this to wreck
your winning streak?” etc. It is a fact that whatever
we hear from others does impact our mental state about the
matter, at least to some extent – regardless of whether
the matter is true or not. This is called “Halo Effect”
in Psychology.
A Real winner and a competent Manager never allows this
“Halo Effect” to dominate his/ her judgment.
Understand that each person who gives a feedback may have
his/ her own reasons for that (sometimes people tend to
give wrong opinions genuinely without any mal intention!
So, just because the suggestion comes from reliable sources,
it need not be always correct. People are prone to mistakes
– and even you are! But, is it not better to pay your
own misjudgement rather than pay for having listened to
the wrong ideas of others?
If just one person says something contrary – you
will ignore it. This is not great. Most of us have the
capacity to ignore a stray adverse feedback. But, do you
have it in you to ignore consistent contra-feedbacks and
check the veracity/ authenticity of the feedbacks each time
objectively, and then come to a decision? Do you have it
in you to pursue your dreams – no matter how many times
and by how many people you have been told this cannot be
done? If you have it in you….you are a natural leader
and a winner! You are right on course to enjoy the fruits
of your hard labour in the form of sweet success in many
things you do. Otherwise, you are one like that foolish
Brahmin who changed his opinion about the sheep and gave
in to irrational fear which led him to abandon the sheep.
Many of our goals and dreams are attainable and are actually
harmless to our prospects…but, we do give into fears
when our irrational fears are aroused by the contrary opinions
of many persons. Just like the Brahmin in this legend, many
times we abandon our golden projects or cherished dreams
or Blue-eyed trainees assuming we have avoided a great danger/
failure possibility, while in reality the ghost exists only
in our minds (just as the Brahmin imagined the ghost here!),
and we might have actually missed golden chances due to
our irrational fears. If we had kept our own counsel, in
all probability, our decisions would have been different,
and probably more appropriate.
Listen to what everyone has to say; analyze every opinion
objectively, and then come to your own decision. Back up
your decisions with your full confidence, and you will be
a winner and a much admired person.
“In the vast multitude of ambitious persons who abound
in the world, the successful ones are those who refused
to listen to ‘nay sayers’ and carried on with
their pursuits. Those who have achieved great things have
always done so – because they believed in themselves
and their dreams and refused steadfastly to listen to naysayers.
Those who allow their decisions to be dictated by opinions
of others rarely achieve what they wish to achieve, and
the pity is that they don’t even realize that!”
Click
to read the Part One of the Article
Article by Pandit R DAKSHINAMOORTHI
