Why relationships matter in corporate?

Eshwar and Raj are two engineers working in the same team in a company. Although both of them have similar qualification, the personalities are completely different.Eshwar is a merry go loving friendly guy with an open mindset. He works smart at his job , has his share of fun with his set of gang at work. Raj is a conservative, shy person. Although he is good at work, he finds opportunities to put down others and boost his self image with the higher management.

    During recession, as projects were being cancelled and people were laid off in the company, Eshwar and Raj look for opportunities outside their organization.

  

     Raj finds a prospective job, resigns the current organization and joins the new one. Eshwar also eventually finds a promising offer and lands in a new company after a short span of time. To their surprise , Eshwar and Raj ends up being in the same team in their new organization. With background familiarity and being strangers in new office, both exchange greetings and hangs up with one another during breaks and share the work details often.

    As Raj joined the new organization quite ahead of Eshwar , He was bit more familiar with the new set up and people. To his favor, the  team leader resigns due to personal reasons and as there were no one other candidate other than him with similar experience Raj now gets the opportunity to lead a new team. Raj was always waiting for such a moment and makes use of this opportunity completely. He puts in  more  effort at work, projects his work to his manager and establishes his control in the new setup.

   Eshwar ends up in a project activity that is quite stable with good learning and not very high on visibility.He starts his work with his own style and delivers what ever is required for the job.

   Raj feels accomplished as he is in a better position compared to Eshwar. He gradually adapts to bossing instincts, works less and concentrate on monitoring people and spying about his team to his manager. His attitude towards Eshwar also changes and both of them turn hostile.

    Though initially new members of the team are unaware of his nature, they gradually understand the kind of person he is and limit their talks with him. Over a period of time, the project activity which Raj was responsible for is delivered. Raj's team is split due to completion of activity and now Raj has no team member to monitor for.

   Because of his untrustworthy nature, not many colleagues exchange friendly greetings with him on a day today basis. Also, Feedback of unsupportive leader is provided about him by one of his team member.

His manager who had promised him a promotion and a rosy picture of the organization now is unsupportive of him. He encourages another new member who has just joined the team and openly criticizes Raj to contribute more for the team. Raj now has all his hopes of being a manager doomed.

Meanwhile Eshwar takes a up new activity and establishes himself as a go to person in his team. He slowly builds the team, develops good rapport with his seniors and brings more work to his manager both in terms of quality and quantity.

Being good natured, he develops a cordial relationship with all team members and he solves issues quickly when ever support was required. He also receives good feedback as a trust worthy person among his team members. Now Eshwar is a prospective candidate for the next promotion.

This situation strongly send out a lesson

No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team

Hence

Relationships matter to your career no matter the organization or level of seniority because every job boils down to interacting with people

Its 9:30 AM

Its 9:30 AM, 
DTL meeting started as usual in our team with all my fellow colleagues. As a routine each one of us brief about every day activities. I was surprised to get an update on social psychology course in one of my meetings. From a team that does core electrical work pertaining to micro controllers, it was a very different experience to understand human psychology and behaviours associated with it after work hours.

        A short face to face interaction with every colleague gives good start for the day. It’s important to come out of one's cocoon and understand others work to lay hands beyond spectrum of one’s own work.

       Many personal growth books have an overwhelming focus on efficiency which is self-focused and includes vision creation, goal setting, being disciplined but it’s only the relationship that takes one forward along with one's efficiency. As we spend most of the time around office space, it’s important to build valuable relationship that takes one beyond the length of work and create a value system and synergy in the organisation.

     

  Emphasizing a famous quote that says it all "If You Want to Go Fast, Go Alone. If You Want To Go Far, Go Together"

   As I drive to my office every morning amidst personal calls, traffic jams, pot hole filled busy honking roads, one thought continues to be in my mind, 

“Reach office by 9:30 AM”

Made My Move!!!

Thinking on what to move next, I was fully engrossed with my game of chess.

it was my second round and my opponent was Raghavendra. it was 5:22pm when the match was started and at 6:15 pm , both of us had hardly any powers left out to attack with just a horse and rook and few pawns. After 15 more mins, I got an edge on the game when my pawn was promoted to Queen and it was very close finish. Oh what a match it was!!!!

As an adage states Journey is more important than destination, i thoroughly enjoyed the game as it was being played with complete intent and focus with many of my colleagues as audience. The game just uplifted my spirits for rest of the day and I was revived of enthusiasm.

As the experience in the job increases, somewhere monotony sets in and it drains one's energy levels. At that point, we start to drudge about the regular routine work and kill our creativity in our day today hectic schedule of deliveries, meetings and more deliveries.

Once in a while a fresh breeze to instigate creativity is so refreshing and sets the tone for next set up regular activities with enthusiasm.

Appreciate the coordinators and all participants of the employee engagement for creating such an ambience.

In the beginning Woman was the Sun- Happy Women's Day 2014

Supervisor:    Where were you during lunch break?

Vijaya         : I was outside office premises to visit my 5 month old baby

Supervisor:  Who gave you the permission to step outside office    premises? Who will compensate for hours outside office during lunch?

Vijaya        : I come back within an hour during lunch break. I will apply earned leaves for uncompensated hours.

Supervisor: Who gave you the permission of applying leaves? Do you think this is school to come and go whenever you want?

Vijaya     : OK I will compensate by staying back every day extra

        Its Jan 19th 2012, Vijaya, An engineer working for an automotive MNC is all set to get back to work after her 5 month long maternity break . She informed her manager about her joining couple of days earlier who reluctantly nods for her decision. But within days of joining she confronts such words from her supervisor which makes her very upset.

       Being career oriented, she is unwilling to compromise on her job and yet strikes a balance to carry out her motherly duties. She puts her complete focus on work during the time in office and gets her job done every day. She quickly masters the skills required for the new project she is put in. She never thinks about the discouraging boss she has. All she has in mind is to give her job her best and be there for her baby. Within couple of months, her immediate colleagues recognize her potential. She gets a customer appreciation and an award for outstanding performance in her team soon. She proves her technical expertise by filing a patent in the male dominated automotive domain proving the engineer in her.

     As we unfold the year 2014 for another woman's day celebration, it is important to realize that we don’t celebrate womanhood by just a day dedicated for woman and have some activities stereotypically considered feminine. There are thousands of Vijayas out there struggling to raise the bar, break the glass ceiling to prove themselves in spite of odds and balancing to meet their bonds with the family.

    Mary Barra, the highest ranking female executive in the automotive industry leading a hundred year old pioneer proves that women have come a long way. Yahoo's Marissa Mayer, IBM's Virginia Rometty are all leading a tech savvy industry with their innovations for the next generation. With multitasking abilities, empathy for team, good consumer insights, Women form a creative work force challenging others who look down upon them for biological reasons.

Going back to philosophical roots,

'Ahalya, Draupadi, Sita, Tara and Mandodari tatha

Panchakanya smaranityam mahapataka nashakam'.

 

Meaning

Ahalya, Draupadi, Sita, Tara and Mandodari

One should forever remember the panchakanya who are the destroyers of great sin even those God cannot forgive

    They are the panchakanya's of Hindu mythology with utmost personal tragedies yet never lose their inner light, achieve self-actualization in their own terms, represent the epitome of feminism and change the course of history.

     As Nature has created male and female to be complimenting with both these forces present in all creatures in varying ratios, it is only disappointing to see the latter being subdued by the former.

    Since time immemorial as a daughter, wife, mother -> woman has shown path for generations with their thirst for knowledge, quest for better quality of life, compassion and human values. With Inner and external beauty, Woman form the epicenter of mankind.

Let me reemphasize in the words of a famous actress Deepika Padukone:

"Feminism isn't about being aggressive; it's about reaching the top yet being soft. It's about being YOU — FEMININE, STRONG and FULL OF WILL POWER.”