God has been described in many ways by many. That he is omnipresent, omnipotent, invisible yet visible and so on. But to me, one singular attribute of God is that he is the greatest democratic entity in the sense that he has given exactly 1440 minutes or 24 hours to every human being. He also says that I have given this wonderful world at your disposal and now it is up to you to make the best out of it and evolve yourselves in that process. Yet we find many cribbing that they are not able to accomplish things as time was not sufficient. I strongly feel that this has something to do with our attitude and approach towards life. Effective people are able to accomplish what they set out to do daily while many use times as an excuse for not achieving anything worthwhile.
How do I ensure punctuality at my workplace? For the past 40 years, I have always made it a point to leave for work at 7.30 am. This is irrespective of the time of the workplace. Usually, I am the first one to enter the office. This gives me an uninterrupted hour to go through my emails, plan for the day and week as well some reflections. By 9.30 hrs usually, everyone starts arriving. Since I am the first one they avoid coming late. I also trust them to have valid and genuine reasons if they reach late. I do not believe in micromanaging them. Once you start trusting them they start reciprocating the same. By 9.40 am we used to meet for 10 minutes to take stock of everything and discuss any pressing issues. Then everyone is free to do their work. Since the staff has been well trained in using mail and other forms of electronic communication there is really no need to have face-to-face communication. I believe, as mentioned earlier, in openness, mutuality and trust. I am happy to state that this approach has always been extremely valuable in nurturing relationships. I also help them in a very authentic way if they face any issues. Let me illustrate this by giving a personal example. Way back in the 80s, I had a junior colleague of mine in Hyderabad who had delivered a baby and was facing some domestic issues. She was also a bit high-strung lady by disposition. She came to me crying saying that she wants to put up her papers as the tensions at home were making her work life difficult. I had a short discussion with her and asked her if she would like to work from home. She could not believe what was told. Please remember in the early 80s flexi time was an unheard concept. I asked her to stay at home and meet me once a week with her work. To cut the story short my colleague later became the global HR head for a company in Singapore and now heading the largest software company in Hyderabad. What was critical was my trust and confidence in her.
Unfortunately, many times we follow the management by-exception rule. That means if 9 good things are done and someone falters on the 10th thing we tend to pick up the last one to point out the mistake. To me, that is not on. I firmly believe that managers have the unique ability to transform every flower girl into a princess by giving them positive feedback. This is the principle of self-fulfilling Prophecy (SFP) that was so beautifully depicted in the epic film My Fair Lady and George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. Effective managers have the unique ability to convey high-performance expectations that the subordinates fulfil. Ineffective managers operate by the above-mentioned management by exception and spend their time picking holes. I am reminded here of the beautiful approach followed by the gifted Sculptor Leonardo da Vinci the greatest Italian polymath of the Renaissance. It is said that when he used to look at the marble rocks he would not see the bare rock but visualise a beautiful sculptor hidden inside. He would then just focus on removing the unnecessary rocks to liberate the beautiful creation. We need to cultivate this approach and not fault-finding all the time. Picking holes and demeaning others neither helps in maintaining punctuality nor facilitates human resources development. Let me end this by narrating what Eliza Doolittle told Professor Higgins in Pygmalion…. ‘You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (like the dressing and the proper way of speaking and so on) the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves but how she is treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins because he always treats me as a flower girl and always will, but I know I can be a lady to you as you always treat me like a lady and always will.
