Random Ramblings, Random Reflections!!

“Sureshaa – onthu HRD quarteru, onthu pint UB, onthu pepsi, half kabab, pori & congressu”!! And you thought this happens in our branch office? And you thought all “Kudukaas” go there to drink? You cant be more wrong ladies and gentlemen! “Temptations” (bless the good old soul who suggested the name!) is nothing about drinking. It is all about helping one poor entrepreneur to succeed in his venture. It is all about helping our very own “Sureshaa” to make a living. Drinking thus is incidental! For the uninitiated, the place we are referring to is 2 minutes away from the office on Church Street Road, Opposite Hotel Empire and it’s a wine shop. And for those of you, perched on high trees, not wanting to get your feet wet, you are missing something! The ambience, the networking- words fail to express our emotions. Now let me put a question to you all. How come none of the media companies advertise in Ascent or in DH Avenues? Well, you are thinking on the right track- Temptations (and a ...

well, not the best of blogs, this one!- anyways, read on! I very often jump into things which are not my necessarily of my concern. Why does this happen? I got into a thinking mode the last few days- and I think I have an answer. I get too concerned by people and I get concerned about what is happening around me. I get too involved and try to help people make things better for their teams. Concerned? Inquisitive? Interfering? Words that I thought are part and parcel of the package. I’m confused. But my experiences last week proved that concern soon turns to inquisitiveness and then to pure interference. Concern reaches a level where your opinions are no longer treated as unbiased. Everything you say gets constructed as being biased and from one person’s point of view. It is true that for argument sake, we very often take sides. And it is also true that most of the time this is done to instigate someone to make comments which will help me get the view from the other side. Concern for an...

Theme continued from the last post on appraisals For most sales guys, a pat on the back, a small note saying you’ve done a great job takes him to heights and makes him so wanted in the organisation. Pats and commendations apart, the time comes when appraisals are done and increments are doled out. To be told that you are good is fine, but at the end of the day, how does it reflect in the appraisal form? Does it say that you have met my expectations? Or does it say that you have exceeded expectations of you? The issue is how do you rate the real performers- There might be hundreds of yardsticks that are printed in the HR manual- But how do you, as manager, recognize effort and the work put in of your subordinates? A very difficult question because I haven’t done it till now. But then I have my views- views which as like everybody have formed working under great managers and under the most difficult ones. Many managers tend to be swayed by how a subordinate reports to him, how he interac...

What makes some managers great? What makes some a pain in the wrong place? Questions which I feel every executive asks himself- questions which the same guy tends to conveniently forget when he is made a manager. To me, at this point in my career, I feel what makes great managers is the ability to build trust among the people who report to him. This ability to trust, the feeling that if something goes wrong, ill be backed to the hilt makes a manager a great guy to work with. Its so much a pleasure working with a manager like that. Well, why suddenly the thought on bosses? Well, appraisal time is on and it’s the time of the year when you love or hate your boss the most, depending upon how well he has rated you. Big Bosses? huh, forgot about them- they get all the money and the brick bats if we dont bat well enough!! Which reminds me of a net joke- "Executives play football and big bosses play golf- moral? the higher up you go the ladder, the smaller are the balls!! Well, guys and g...

For the last couple of months I have just seen Mondays turn into Fridays. A blink- that’s all it takes for the week to get over. There have been many a week where I have turned up to office on Fridays formally dressed- Fridays are our dress down days! In contrast to this, this week has been going at a dead pace- the grey matter has not for more than a week churned anything impressive- actually nothing at all, which is the reason why the week has being going slow- Its Wednesday and im desperately hoping the week goes at a faster pace. Lack of ideation- something on the same lines as writers hitting the writer’s block? Maybe. Or rather I don’t want to think that I’ve hit the ideator’s block! A very frustrating feeling arising from the losing confidence, losing the urge to call people and fix meetings-a complete lethargy! Maybe writing/blogging would help get me out of the depths. Reading the last blog and this one, I can feel the ‘blocked’ me writing- not the natural me- not the natural ...

It is not always bowels that have this syndrome. Many a times, the brain also catches the same disease. While an irritable bowel flushes out anything and everything it can, an irritable brain refuses to flush out ideas- it just becomes irritated and refuses to think! Today was one of those days- one of those days where the brain and mind got irritated and refused to think. An uncalled for day long lightning strike. I for sure don’t know why it happened. Maybe lot of factors, a lot of pent up frustrations; a lot of pressure led the brain to shut down completely. It would have been quite normal if it was just a shut down. This was something more than that. This was a brain and a mind that became so irritated with things around it. This was a mind that was looking to pick on everything that came its way. A man with lots of patience, today was a day when I snapped- snapped at everything – including clients, including the waiter and including colleagues. I don’t know why, but I still am set...