Author: S Ramesh Shankar

Born in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India, I have been brought up in different parts of India. Graduate in chemistry and post graduate in personnel management and industrial relations. Have been a HR practitioner for 38 years in the industry and have experience in working in steel , automobiles, FMCG and engineering industry. Was head of HR for Siemens in South Asia based out of Mumbai till March 2019. Currently founded hrishti - joy forever, a social enterprise to give back to society and work as Chief Joy Officer.

Racing against time


We all try to live life as if tomorrow does not exist.  Is it good or bad ?  I do not know.  Sometimes, I feel that life should be enjoyed everyday as if tomorrow does not exist.  But, at other times I feel bad that we are in such a hurry that we do not have time to sit and reflect on life every day.  Its a dilemma for me and may be true for you too.

We are aware that time does not stand still for us.  It does move on irrespective of whether we want it or not.  But to lead a life as if we are about to miss a train is in our hands.  Nothing stops us from getting up early and admiring the sunrise.  There can no melody, which is sweeter than the chirping of birds at dawn.  The formation of the clouds, the chillness in the air are for us to sit back and enjoy.

What do we do in real life ?  We get up late and sometimes are willing to sacrifice our breakfast since we may miss our bus or train to work.  Then we have a busy day at work and put ourselves on stress as if the whole office only depends on us.  We rush back home to beat the traffic on the way.  The pollution around us makes us tired and house hold chores leaves no time for us to relax and enjoy.  We skip the evening walk on the pretext of being exhausted at work.

Life goes on this way.  We do not plan a holiday with family or friends.  We think if we take a holiday we may lose our competitiveness at work.  The belief that employees who do not take leave are valued more than others is our own making.  After all these sacrifices, when we do not get a promotion on time or get an increment less than what we expected, we are stressed.  This adds to our health issues and we are physically and psychologically strained in life.

We postpone our holidays to be recognised at work and also to help our children be successful in school and college.  By the time, the kids grow up, we grow in our career and believe that we have to lead by example in not taking leave and working 24 x 7, 365 days a year.  I sometimes wonder what motivates us to believe that we are being the right role model for the younger generation following us.

We have given up our hobbies, the games we enjoyed playing and even listening to music or admiring nature.  Life passes on at such a speed that we do not have time to even realise what we are missing.  Then we have responsibilities of the family and friends to shoulder.  As we grow older, we want to give back to society as we have benefited a lot from it.  This is a noble thought but again does not tell us not to relax and enjoy life every day.

By the time we realise that we need to sit back, relax and enjoy life, we develop health issues since we have never bothered to take care of own health.  We spend more time visiting doctors and gulping medicines.  We still do not get into a habit of daily exercise and healthy food.  We believe we can make up for the same in the future. By the time the future arrives, it is time to hang up our boots and prepare for retirement.

Now is time we realise that life could be slower and wish we had the time to rewind and relax.  It may not be late even today.  Let us spend a few moments to reflect on our own lives.  Are we racing against time or can we learn to live life the way we want to.

Let us give life a chance.

S Ramesh Shankar

Inspiration versus Perspiration

In simple words, inspiration is when someone  motivates you through their actions or words to do something. Perspiration is sweating it out after a physical activity.

In life, we need both perspiration and inspiration.   Managers learn to work hard as they grow up the career ladder. They not only learn how to perspire but master the art of making their team members also perspire.  This is a critical attribute to succeed in career and life.

However, as we grow in the organisational hierarchy, we have to grow from being a manager to a leader. The manager focuses on tasks while the leader focuses on people. While accomplishing your task is a basic necessity in organisations, motivating your people is critical for success and growth.

In my books, when managers get their jobs done they make their team perspire. On the other hand, when leaders create an environment for their team to give their best, they inspire them. Thus managers focus on perspiration while leaders on inspiration.

Is perspiration necessary ? In my view, we need to focus on tasks and hence it may be necessary to work hard and perspire. But beyond a point, when team members feel empowered and are able to accomplish their tasks without any guidance they need to be inspired to move to the next level.

So, in the organisational context, we have to strike a fine balance between perspiration and inspiration. It may be worthwhile to conclude that as we grow in the hierarchy, we have to evolve as an inspirational leader rather than be known a perspirational manager.

This may be equally true in life. Even in our own families as children grow up we need to inculcate the value of hard work. We may call this as perspiration. But as they approach teenage and grow beyond, we as parents have to be a role model so that they are inspired by our actions.  We may realize sooner than later that teenage children are no longer interested in our advice. They may follow our actions more than  our words.

It may be worthwhile to conclude that as leaders, managers or parents we have to lead by example. Our actions speak louder than words. So, according to me, perspiration may be getting things done whereas inspiration may be role modelling what you expect from others.

Time to strike the right balance between perspiration and inspiration. Try yourself as you are the best judge.

S Ramesh Shankar

Uncertainties of Life


I was travelling back from Seoul to Mumbai after an official meeting last week. I was waiting in the lounge for my next flight for Mumbai.  When I opened my phone, I got a message that our employees’ union president had died.  He was a progressive union leader and a thought leader.  He was physically fit and used to run marathons every year.  He recently retired from our company after working for 40 years.  A rare feat for any employee.  He goes for a morning jog, then gets admitted to a hospital and is declared dead.  Life is so uncertain – you have to experience it to believe it.

If we look back at our own lives, it is no different.  We begin the day with some plans and end the day with something else.  Many a time, we have to manage the change without necessarily creating it.  Such is life.  We have to accept it and move on.  While it is easy to reflect on it,  it is very tough to face it.  Imagine being in the family of my union president.  He was a wonderful human being and physically and mentally fit.  I met him last week and we discussed on how we can further strengthen management and union relationships.  Such was the vision of the man.  Then one fine day after a morning jog, he collapses in a hospital bed.  How can one digest it ? Its unthinkable in anyone’s life.

However, such is uncertainty of life today.  I was reading an article on the flight of a very successful professional in the USA.  He was the envy of all his colleagues.  He had done excellently in his career and had a great family and enviable wealth. One fine day he gets up and gets the news that he has lost his job.  Can we think this was a bad dream ?  It is not so.  It is the reality of his life , that day.  Whether one likes it or not, one has to accept it and move on.

It happens in professional life and it happens in sport and in our personal lives too. We had a captain of our national hockey team.  He is prolific player and a great backbone of our team.  He had some personal issues and lost his captaincy one fine day.  One does not know if the personal issues led to his loss of captaincy but the fact that a successful player loses his recognition at the pinnacle of his career shows how uncertain life is.  An olympic aspirant was dropped from the national team when she had gone home to pack her bags for the trip.

The photo above was Uday Mahale, the president of our union, who was running marathons every year.  But after his morning jog, he collapsed on the jogging track and was declared dear on arrival in the hospital.  Such is the uncertainty of life.

Most of us postpone to live life to the fullest.  We think we can do that in the future.  We think today is not the right time to be happy.  We have a lot of responsibilities in life so our celebrations can wait.  We need to realise that tomorrow is today and today is now.  Lets try to live each day as if a tomorrow does not exist.  Lets try to do all the good we can today without waiting for that elusive tomorrow.  If we postpone for tomorrow what we can accomplish today, we can never be sure if we can make it.  We need to learn to live life as if it exists only for today.

The best time to live life to its fullest is now.

What do you think ?

S Ramesh Shankar