A Frog's Tail - The First Chapter - ( Building an Passionate Organization)

Chapter 1:  Humility…

The more you have, the better it is…. Leading is journey not a trip!!

“It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

I found this EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT definition as little weird and different than what I always thought. I could not digest the fact of helping the society; I asked the master “Sir, how do you think developing employees can help the society and the organization?

My boy, “A man who asks questions never gets lost”. I m glad that you are good at this, which most people hardly use and he continued” ( I murmured” thank you Sir”). We are like a frog in the well, and every company is frog in other words. They have great leadership quotes but they don’t know that only good humans make the organizations. The reasons behind all these scams are organizations make great employees out of a useless man but they don’t know how to make them a HUMAN. Humans have purpose, there is purpose why we are alive, and there is a purpose why we are born. Why we breathe, we eat, think, work, and etc.  “Anything without purpose is boring”. These words dripped like honey from my recently found Leadership Guru and a mystic wise man.

I was little surprised at what I was hearing, I felt as if I m a small kid and I remembered King Bhratruhari a poet, King, Philosopher once said “When I learnt a few things, I became puffed up, like an elephant in heat, as if I m a know-all, but when I came in contact with the wise, I suddenly realized that I m a fool, and my arrogance disappeared like fever treated by medicine”.

Now that I got to know one secret of making a great organization is treating your employees as human first not as machines. I realized my days as an employee of a well known organization and how I felt some times. I was a machine I worked like an ass without any purpose.

I waited for a while just to make sure that I won’t interrupt; now my curiosity grew three-fold. I politely asked “Sir, how do you define HUMAN”?

The witty old man started with the same passion and enthusiasm the more he spoke, the more I felt like listening to him carefully. I never wanted to miss even a single word. “Boy when I say HUMAN, I would like to tell you we all are filled with Emotions, feelings, passion, energy, intellect, knowledge, thinking. But most importantly we are humans who care for others and each one of us, have one other person in our life that we care and die for. HUMAN is a technique which you can use to build a passionate organization…. Everyone talks about great, good organizations but does any one talk about Passionate Organization.. Where people are passionate about their work… Boy I will teach you a technique today which I think must help you to build a passionate Organization.

While he spoke I could feel the real meaning of every word, and the way he was breathing was unusual I felt as if he was savoring every atom of air. Listen boy he commanded “H stands for HUMILITY in HUMAN”, now let me tell you more about humility. Humility can be simply defined as the showing same feelings, respect, caring towards all. If some thing is not good for you, then it is not good for others. Mother Theresa was a great lady who demonstrated utmost HUMILITY towards patients and served the community like an angel and she was rightly called as the “Angel of India”.

I was getting little confused and asked my new mentor on Journey “Sir, how does teaching Humility can help the company?.

He was quick to answer “Listen up boy, humility towards coworkers is the key to build an amazing environment, where innovation, creativity takes place. Remember what one great man once said “we will achieve and do more when we don’t bother who gets the credit”. Humility in employees makes them think like that, and Humility makes them feel each individual in the team is special. Hindus are taught to have humility. Ancient Hindu artists were never supposed to sign their names on their work, and temple artists, when creating statues of gods, are always supposed to leave a deliberate imperfection to show that they cannot really represent God. According to The Gita Humility is offering selfless service.

He stopped for while, before he could go on…. I said” I got that Mr. Wise… he smiled at me and said “Wise, come on I m neither Chanakya nor you are Chandragupta to over throw Nanda’s.

Slowly he opened the window, wind was blowing violently, and it was drizzling. I could see some villagers walking as if rain did not bothered them much, I saw a beautiful gal smiling at us. And some drops of rain were falling the wise man. I suppose it was first rain and I can feel what earth would have felt to get wet first time after a long. It might have been the similar feeling as a wife meets her husband after a long time. I have tried to feel what earth would have felt on that day in this small poem.

“Oh dearest love, I still feel can there be any love which is better than yours. Can there be any devastation and pain than loosing you. Oh my love I still dream about those days when you violently winked at me. I still dream of those days where you roared like a loin and made all the drains to run. Oh my love where have you gone? I cannot sleep, hot sun is burning me everyday, moon is flirting with me, he some time says that you will never return here you are oh my dearest love”

I asked the wise man “Sir, how can we teach Humility? Whats next? I posed this question because I have seen Aamir Khan holding a Samsung mobile and saying.. Next is what...

He smiled at me and said, boy Humility is within you, you don’t have to teach anything to anyone.. Its all within, Swami Vivekananda a great thinker defines education (Employee development) as ‘the manifestation of the perfection already in man.’ The aim of education is to manifest in our lives the perfection, which is the very nature of our inner self. This perfection is the realization of the infinite power which resides in everything and every-where-existence, consciousness and bliss (satchidananda).

He also said that the Education (Employee development activities) should help the employee to identify the skills, employer must help the employee to uncover the hidden treasure. He refers to growth of plant; one cannot do anything apart from watering the plant. Employers and leaders need to find out the area of interest and help the employee to attain the highest knowledge and wisdom.

Well by now my book was half filled with notes, I was flawed with his speech about education. I can recall a wonderful saying which I read in Kannada News paper and I have tried to Translate” Happiness is the greatest of all, being with wise is the greatest achievement of all and questioning is the wisest of all”.

He commanded I will share some of the greatest tips of all time so that you can teach people how to develop Humility?

I quickly grabbed another notebook and I was ready to listen to the greatest saint I had ever met. I could see his face he was ever smiling, with no worries, I felt as if I was looking at a fresh Kashmiri Apple. It was so delightful his eyes were blue and wide open. Well what a sight that was for a frog in the well… I wouldn’t know if I can ever be able to explain as he did?

He continued in the same passion and style, his commanding voice was all over the bus.  The problem with our culture, environment and education is that we wanted people to value us more than others. We are competing from the word go, competing within is good, provided we have team spirit. “And we are always better than he”. Each one of us must understand that the world is very complex and we must remain humble no matter how things are.

Ø  First thing you must teach people is to not compare themselves with others. To have humility we must stop comparing ourselves to others, as it is impossible to be humble while putting oneself above another. Let me tell you in Hitler’s Statement “Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world…. If you do so you are insulting yourself”…

Ø  Teach them not to take credit of any achievement and anything comes to them is not because of one person, its cause we all worked together.

Ø  Secondly teach them to listen and learn more than talk that’s why we humans have two ears and a mouth to talk.

Ø  Thirdly constant help employees to learn how to respect others and their ideas, Humility is being as modest as possible. Tell them to be as sincere as possible, keep the self aside and have we in the whole of heart.

Ø  Teach them to believe in themselves and others, Humility is not giving up your ideas, its does not mean underestimating once worth it simple means understanding everyone’s worth as a team than individual.

Ø  Last but not the least it teach them not to have an EGO, ego destroyed many and it can do the same damage anytime.

As I listened to these words, I say! I was enlightened and I was waiting to listen more. I felt how nice world would have been if we are able to care about others as we care for ourselves. I was thinking how great the working environment would be if we stop thinking about I and start thinking about WE. I still doubt if any company can do this but each one us surely can… Companies need to think and restructure their training and learning process if that needs to happen. Ralph Waldo Emerson said it wisely “A great man is always willing to be little.”

An organization operates from different countries; there is a difference between religion, spirituality, education, perception, family and environment. Now when you interact and work with different kinds of people we must understand that Humility is the greatest asset.