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.

“Goal” or “No goal” – which is better ?

I was reading an article recently on whether having a goal for anything is better than not having a goal at all. This was insightful. I always believed that it is important to have a “goal” in life and at work so that we have something to look for.

The author of this article challenged this mindset of mine. She said if you have a goal, you may get limited in your thinking. You may think if you have achieved your goal, then you have arrived in your life. However, if you do not have a goal, your search for excellence never ends. It is an unending quest to improve yourself.

I liked this idea and hence decided to reflect on the same. I love driving and always plan for the same. I am clear on my destination and the stops on the way. I book my accommodation and even plan where I would have my breaks for food and so on. This is like setting a goal in life or work.

However, on the other hand, imagine going on a drive without a destination in mind. Just take your car out and drive on any road which you like that day and let it take you to an unplanned destination. Isn’t this exciting ?

I recently was driving from Chennai to Bangalore in my car. Both me and my wife all of a sudden decided mid way that we will divert our journey to Salem and take a break. We neither had planned for it nor were prepared for it. We bought some clothes, booked a hotel online on the way to Salem and spent a few days there. This was one of the most exciting holiday of ours.

Life is no different. It may be a good idea to plan a goal and put in all our efforts to achieve that goal. But once we achieve that goal, we may sometimes wonder what next and set another goal. Sometimes on our new year resolutions, we keep resetting our goals to suit our needs. This way the goal itself may become infructous.

Even at work, it may be a good idea to set our goals and strive to achieve it in our given time frame. But then if we reach a stage of life or work when we are able to excel without even setting a goal, we may have achieved “nirvana”. A stage where we are able to thrive in life without any goals, we may reach self actualisation.

What I enjoyed about this article was it challenged and changed my mindset. We sometimes start believe in everything to be structured and finite. Sometimes a pandemic may challenge the way we live and work. It may be a necessary situation to challenge our mindset. For eg, the pandemic made many CEOs & CXOs believe that “work from home” is a viable flexible option and need not hamper productivity at work.

Everything in life is similar. We start believing that what has worked for us over the years and what we have learnt from our elders and seniors are the only way to do things. An alternative view may shock us sometimes but if we are willing to be open and challenged, we may look at life with a whole new perspective.

Lets us keep the windows of our mind open always. Life is fun this way.

S Ramesh Shankar

16th Oct 2022

Employee wellness to wellbeing

World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (illness).” WHO defines wellness as “the optimal state of health of individuals and groups,” and wellness is expressed as “a positive approach to living.”  After having worked in the corporate world for more than four decades I have experienced the same and cannot agree more , to this concept of the WHO.

If we look back at industry, we realise that organisations primarily focussed on physical health of their employees.  This was starting with pre-employment checks, routine medical check ups ,to maintain good physical health and ensure employees are able to give their best in their roles, within the organisation.  This was also stipulated by labour legislations, which mandates periodic medical check ups for certain roles.

However, as organisations became more pragmatic and grew beyond the narrow lanes of what labour legislations mandates, they started looking at employee wellness in a more holistic manner. Many progressive organisations in India and outside employed counsellors and other healthcare professionals to support employee wellness.  They realised that employee wellness was an optimal state of health of individuals and groups , as the WHO has proclaimed.

As a next step, organisations realised that employee is an integral part of the family as a social institution and hence we need to care not only for the employee but for the family as a whole.  This led to periodic medical check ups of spouses and other family members.  Many leading organisations also tied up with external wellness organisations to provide support to employees and their family members to tide over physical, mental, emotional and social stress through professional help.

The pandemic has helped organisations and individuals to realise that apart from physical and mental health, emotional and social health are critical for the well being of the employee.  This has led to organisations moving beyond their boundaries and providing support for employees, family members and communities ,for overall well being.

I personally realised during the pandemic and thereafter, the value of emotional support to the vulnerable  individuals and groups.  I volunteered for a support group called “the goodwill tribe” and wrote “letters of love” to help individuals to tide over emotional distress in different forms.  This was not only an awakening for me ,but made me realise the value of emotional anchoring as a role for managers and team leaders in organisations.

It is now the time to realise that employee well being is much beyond employee wellnesss.  All of us and especially team leaders and managers have to evolve as “emotional anchors” to employees , as their health is beyond physical and they need emotional, psychological and social support in different forms ,to survive and grow.

This concept of well being beyond wellness ,has to applied by individuals and groups within families, in the communities they live and society at large.  After all, we never know who is in distress , when and what type of support individuals or groups need at any time.

Let us together resolve to work on overall well being of society from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

7th July 2022

Role conflicts

We play different roles in our personal and professional lives. At home, we play the roles of parents, children, siblings , cousins or relatives. At the workplace, we are employee, manager, colleague, customer or supplier in different roles.

We inherit some roles while others are imposed on us by virtue of position or time. Either way, our roles keep changing over time. Let us examine the roles we play in our personal lives and how it changes over time.

We are born as children in a family and then become siblings when we have brothers or sisters. We then get married and have spouse and also have our own children thereafter. As we become parents, we become mother or father and so the chain continues.

Similarly, we join an organisation as an employee and then become a colleague, boss, supplier or customer to another function. Each of these roles are by virtue of the position we hold or by virtue of time and changes which happen over time due to promotions, transfer, attrition etc.

Let us first try to understand how role conflicts occur in our personal lives. We as children , want all the freedom in our lives. But as we grow up and become senior members in the family , we want to boss over our younger siblings and tell them that freedom needs to be earned.

Then , as we grow as adolescents, we defy the control of our parents. When we become parents after getting married, we feel bad when our children defy our diktats.

We tend to rediscover our roles when role changes happen and we experience what we saw in others. What we thought was wrong becomes right for us and vice versa. Welcome to this new world of family.

The role conflicts in the organisation are no different. As an employee, many a time ,we feel that our bosses are peeking over our shoulders all the time and do not allow us to breathe. When we become bosses, we tend to do the same and realise why bosses always kept an eye on us. As supplier departments ,we feel the pressure of our customers and when the role reverses ,we fail to be empathetic to our suppliers.

Life is a full circle. We get back ,what we give others. We realise the value of different roles only when we experience them. Otherwise, we tend to believe that other role holders are there to disturb our life and living, and enjoy themselves.

Even in the public sphere, roles keep changing and reversing. Let us imagine a prime minister becoming a leader of the opposition and the reverse happening. As a leader of the opposition, we tend oppose everything irrespective of merit. But as Prime Minister, we want the opposition leader to support us , in all our initiatives.

Role conflicts are a part of our lives. We need to learn to experience roles and empathise with other roles to minimise such conflicts. The day we realise that our roles are transitory, we may evolve and grow as human beings. What goes around, comes around.

Let us learn to play roles and respect other roles to minimise role-conflicts in life. Our tomorrow could have been somebody’s yesterday and someone else’s today.

S Ramesh Shankar

15th February 2023