A Dog's Tale

These lines from Mark Twain's famous book " A Dog's Tale" are so inspiring and show all of us the way in which we must lead our lives.They are reproduced here verbatim, as they have been expressed so succinctly in the author's own words.
"When I was well grown, at last, I was sold and taken away, and I never
saw her again.  She was broken-hearted, and so was I, and we cried; but
she comforted me as well as she could, and said we were sent into this
world for a wise and good purpose, and must do our duties without
repining, take our life as we might find it, live it for the best good of
others, and never mind about the results; they were not our affair.  She
said men who did like this would have a noble and beautiful reward by and
by in another world, and although we animals would not go there, to do
well and right without reward would give to our brief lives a worthiness
and dignity which in itself would be a reward."

HBR Blog

Before you proceed, grab a pen and paper and take a moment to do this quick exercise: Write the name of the best leader, teacher, or coach you've ever had. Write the name of the individual who made a difference in your life, who seemed to care more about you than you cared about yourself.

You'll find that if you're over 40, you are able to name at least one person, and often two or more. Typically, one of these individuals is a former boss. If you're younger than 40, however, you may come up with one name, but it's rarely someone with whom you've worked; you name an athletic coach or a high school teacher. Having administered this exercise to executives of many types and ages in recent years, I can tell you that this is almost always how the answers skew.

We have a vicious cycle operating in many organizations. Senior leaders blame the young MBAs for being naive and entitled, and assume that the younger generation arrives at the company with "negative" attitudes intact. These younger employees, however, form this attitude only because they are in desperate need of someone who cares about them, who communicates that they matter, who lets them know they make a difference. They don't need positive feedback when it isn't deserved. What they need are managers and leaders who are aware that they want to feel significant and who make the effort to communicate this fact in small as well as big ways.

I'm not absolving you of responsibility for finding your own significance in a career or a job. No matter whether you're a young, middle-aged, or older professional, if you're driven to achieve, you also need to be driven to find your place in a work setting. You can't depend on an organization to make a concerted and consistent effort to imbue your work with meaning.

Recognize that the challenges of finding significance are in part based on your age, in part on your social motives and values, in part on your mental makeup (e.g., are you in the midst of divorce or other life crisis?), in part on your work situation (e.g., a massive downsizing or culture change), and in part, on management's approach to this issue. While you can't control some of these factors, you can control your response to them.

You need to define and redefine what type of work you want to do, what type of organization and culture you want to be part of, and what goals you want to strive for. And you need to do this regularly, since what's significant now might not be as significant a year from now. For some of you, working for the leading organization in your field may be of prime significance. For others, working in a smaller, closer-knit culture is what matters.

Finally, if you want to increase the odds that your organization will help you find significance in your work, look for the modern equivalent of the apprenticeship model. Seek work in companies where young people, those new to an organization, and even some veteran employees starting out on new jobs and tasks essentially serve as apprentices to "master craftsmen." This entails a lot of learning on the job — following senior people around, asking questions, being questioned, trying, failing, and then succeeding. Apprentices naturally feel significant, since their master is responsible for them and their education. They receive continuous feedback, their learning and progress is monitored, and when they are ready, they are promoted into positions of responsibility. In this way, they achieve significance.

You want to find an organization where senior people enjoy mentoring rather than resent the time required and billable hours lost. You want to work for a company where your learning and growth is valued, where you are treated as distinct individual rather than a replaceable part. Finding this type of company is more challenging today than years ago, but it's worth the effort, since finding it will go a long way in helping you find the significance you seek.

Copper Prices

A colossal battery of economists and analysts across the globe put in hours every single day fussing over loads of data and charts. What they all try to do is to figure out the best way to predict the future of the global economy. And they often err.

For once leave them aside and instead  try listening to these two metals: gold and copper. If you heard carefully, they say a lot about the health of the economy. Of course, they both have their own areas of specialty. Gold Prices usually gives a prompt diagnosis of monetary disorders and government failures. On the other hand, copper prices are a good barometer of industrial health.

The reason for the same is simple. Copper is widely used in the manufacturing of goods ranging from autos and plumbing pipes to semiconductors and telecom and cable wiring. Hence, a sharp dip in copper prices could mean a slip in industrial demand. Two years ago, when worldwide growth picked up after the crisis, copper had led the rally. And what is happening at the moment? After reaching the peak in mid-February, copper prices have fallen by almost 10%. And guess what? The recently announced US economic data is not really encouraging. And it is not just the US. Surprisingly, China has reported a trade deficit for the month of February. Certainly, this is largely attributable to the Chinese New Year slowdown. However, there are other signs of slowing demand in China as central bankers are nervously trying to combat the rising inflation.

Of course, one should not take metals prices blindly. They cannot be foolproof indicators all the time. There are times when they go to extreme ends. Nonetheless, they can at times predict what humans cannot. Copper especially can be a better indicator than gold because of its early warning signals as compared to the latter.

True Love-Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds	Let me not declare any reasons why two
Admit impediments. Love is not love	true-minded people should not be married. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,	which changes when it finds a change in circumstances
Or bends with the remover to remove:	or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark	Oh no! it is a lighthouse
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;	that sees storms but it never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,	Love is the guiding north star to every lost ship,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.	whose value cannot be calculated, although its altitude can be measured.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks	Love is not at the mercy of Time, though physical beauty
Within his bending sickle's compass come:	comes within the compass of his sickle.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,	Love does not alter with hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.	But, rather, it endures until the last day of life.
If this be error and upon me proved,	If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.	then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly] loved.

The Great Philospher

On Children
 Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Delegation

• A lot of managers and supervisors frequently complain that they have too much to do and too little time in which to do it. Unchecked, this feeling leads to stress and ineffectiveness. In many cases, executives could greatly reduce their stress by practicing a critical management skill – Delegation. It is the key that allows you to spend more time managing and less time on repetitive, non-essential tasks. Delegation also prepares you to be delegated to…Preparing you for greater responsibility and higher levels of experience.
• Historically, delegation has been a vertical process, with managers delegating to subordinates in a clearly defined hierarchical structure. Today’s successful leaders are emphasizing both horizontal and vertical delegation. With the growing emphasis on teamwork, the ability to influence and delegate to others over whom you have no direct control is critical to the team’s success.Further, delegation trains others for the opportunity to move into your job when you are on vacation or for other reasons. Perhaps most importantly, it prepares your possible replacement for the time when you are ready to move up or out for more responsibility. Delegation may be the most important skill a manager can develop.
• Poor delegation can negatively affect the overall productivity of an organization. Both leader and employee are likely to suffer. Some leaders “over delegate” and are prone to ‘abdicate’ all responsibility onto their team regardless of capabilities and resource constraints. Delegation is not abdication. The manager still has the ultimate accountability for the assignment. That’s why it is important for you to establish appropriate controls and checkpoints to monitor progress. Besides, managers should give delegatees the appropriate authority to act along with clear expectations including any boundaries or criteria. The manager, however, should try to avoid prescribing HOW the assignment should be completed.Some leaders “under delegate” thereby giving their teams no room to grow and contribute to the welfare of the firm and creating an unsustainable workload for themselves in the process. Other leaders delegate the wrong task to the wrong person resulting in mistakes, inefficiencies and feelings of self blame and uncertainty amongst team members’ vis-à-vis their skills and capabilities. Organizational morale suffers, productivity drops and chaos and inefficiencies are often the result of poor delegation.

• Delegation must be accompanied by effective coaching. Delegation will not be effective unless managers and other designated supervisors and coaches work with employees to help them develop the skills needed to get the job done. Effective delegation also requires good communication and a high degree of trust between the two parties.

• Delegation is not “dumping.” Managers should take special care to make sure that the employee does not think he is trying to “dump” unpleasant assignments on him. If delegation is not done properly, employees feel put upon and resent what they perceive as ‘I’ve to follow the boss’s order ’.

• The process of delegation accomplishes two tasks that are essential to becoming a better manager. The first is that it gets your desk clear for you to perform more managerial and fewer clerical or routine tasks. Second, it creates an opportunity for you to interact with your employees on a less structured and routine basis, opening the door for more motivational interactions and training. Needless to say, there is no effective delegation without proper follow-up. You will need to evaluate the improvement in your delegation skills on an ongoing basis.

To Dianeme

SWEET, be not proud of those two eyes 
Which starlike sparkle in their skies; 
Nor be you proud that you can see 
All hearts your captives, yours yet free; 
Be you not proud of that rich hair 
Which wantons with the love-sick air; 
Whenas that ruby which you wear, 
Sunk from the tip of your soft ear, 
Will last to be a precious stone 
When all your world of beauty's gone.
                                 -Robert Herrick 

Expression

There is a world within all of us, hidden from almost everyone, that is looking for a way to find expression. While some of us are able to express our true feelings the way we really feel, the majority of us lack that ability. When I listen to Galib, I wonder not only at the depth of feelings that this man possessed, but I also marvel at the beautiful manner in which he was able to put it all across. Was this man able to do it impromptu, or did he write, edit and then finally refine. I for one would like to believe that he must have been able to do it without really doing what most of us lesser mortals need to do. Richness of Urdu language, besides the fact that he wrote in a language that was his mother tongue must have helped for sure. Same was the case with Shakespeare, Keats, Wordsworth, Milton and many others. Does that mean that we can do better if we restrict ourselves to one language, preferably the mother tongue? Is this also the reason for there being so much of creative writing by people who write in their mother tongue? We mess it up, or at best do a sub-optimal job every time, because our thoughts are in the mother tongue, while we try to write in a different language.But then, what is our confidence level in the mother tongue itself? 

I Pulled the Chain!

Being jettisoned into the hot and humid weather of Coimbatore was not the only misfortune to strike me, after I left the salubrious climes of Wellington behind, on completion of the Air Staff Course in the summer of 2006. On this warm balmy day in April, I was to catch a train from Coimbatore for Bangalore. I had spent the previous night at Air Force Administrative College, and awaited the arrival of an auto rickshaw that was to take me to the railway station. As often happens in this part of the world, the auto came late, and we had no choice but to rush to the railway station at a breakneck speed. I was heavily loaded with luggage, and the burden appeared even more, because I was recovering from a broken knee that was a result of the misplaced composure of the steed, during one of the hack rides in the virgin Ooty hills. I reached the station about 2 minutes late, and as I entered the platform from where my train was to depart, I saw a train rumbling along. Considering myself extremely lucky at having executed the RV despite being late, I struggled on to the train with a limping gait. Since the bogies were connected, I decided to find my way to the AC coach later, and therefore boarded the first bogie that was rushing along. I was much relieved at having made it, or so I thought...

The train would have just left the station premises, when in an effort to strike a polite conversation I asked a fellow passenger the arrival time at Bangalore. “Bangalore, what Bangalore? This train doesn’t go there ...”The impact of this statement was nothing short of a ton of bricks falling on my head. “Oh! My God!,  I have boarded the wrong train...and that too at this stage of life”, I thought to myself. I could never ever imagine myself doing such a stupid thing. But then life has a way of reminding us that you can never be too smart. So what next? Well, I decided to pull the chain and that too with all the passengers looking at me.  The train screeched to a halt-thankfully. I managed to get down with a lot of difficulty, since the ground was lower now without the platform. The broken knee only complicated the matters. I wonder if the brains of Faujis reside there. Mine for sure on this day must have been there, and I do not know if it was still there, as the knee was broken...

 I had a hearty laugh over myself, but then I had to worry about boarding the right train. So, here I was once again limping along towards the platform, though at a faster speed. The platform would have been about 300-400 meters away, and was fortunately in sight. As I was making my way towards the platform, I saw the TT and the Guard making their way towards the bogie from which the chain had been pulled. They were hoping to catch the offender. After they had crossed me and were at least 50 metres away, my conscience pricked me and said, “Have you not caused enough inconvenience to the passengers by doing what you did. Why don’t you own up now, and reduce this pain for the Indian Railways?”So I turned back in the opposite direction, called out on top of my voice to the guard and said, “Excuse me, I pulled the chain.”

On hearing this, the TT probably experienced something which he would have never ever experienced in his life. His joy knew no bounds, while I was about to face the impact of almost falling from the top of a skyscraper. The TT lost no time in snatching my ticket, and decided not to give it back to me, despite all my pleadings. By this time the right train that I was to board had just pulled in. Well! By now I was all drenched in sweat from head to toe, more from the worry on account of missing the train that I was to really board, and less from the heat.  The TT had missed seizing me for good, and wouldn’t have been able to catch me if I had not owned up. But he didn’t seem to appreciate this fact, and was intent on showing me his power. On seeing my helpless situation, a Good Samaritan who looked like an NRI intervened on my behalf, in what seemed to be chaste Tamil to me, and only then did I get my ticket back. I was really relieved and thanked this angel who turned up out of thin air at a time when I needed him the most. I thanked him profusely. His parting advice to me that I have still not forgotten was, “Why did you have to be so honest. This is India and honesty doesn’t work here.” Well! It will remain a moot point whether honesty works or not. My own experience barring this one has been that it always does. But whether a person should own up after pulling the chain, lesser said the better.........

Atttachment

Buddha has said, and so has Krishna that attachment is the cause of all sorrows, and if a person wants to live a happy life, he must learn to be detatched.Many years ago when our son was under treatment for a heart ailment and we used to find ourselves absolutely helpless, I often used to wonder that is it really possible for  a person to be detached from what is happening to his world. I have realized over the years that although a person may cultivate a degree of detachedness towards the material aspects of life , and I feel that I have been able to do so to  a great extent,yet doing the same towards those whom you love is next to impossible. It is like one of those advices that are so impractical. If it were so easy to be detached towards your kith and kin, won't you attain Nirvana?