What is India’s “Unique Selling Proposition” (USP) ? I have pondered over this question for years and have at last found my answer ? I was born in Trichy in Tamil Nadu and brought up in different parts of India. I started my schooling in Kolkota in East India, then further education in Jabalpur – Central India and finally collegiate education in Chennai – South India. I started my career in Bhilai – central India, then moved to Indore, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and now in Mumbai – Western India.

Having grown up all around India with each state speaking its own language and having its own tradition and culture – I have wondered what is that unique thing which binds us as a country. I think each state of India is more diverse in language, culture and living than many of the countries around the world. But there is something unique which is like a glue binding us together as a nation.

In my understanding, this binding glue is our emotional connect. We care for each other and are always there to support each other in a crisis. We live in families and communities and share festivals and festivities amongst us.

I always tell my foreign colleagues, when they come to India the first time that they may take at least a year to adapt to the Indian conditions. Our physical infrastructure is not the best in the world although we are improving every day. But after spending a year or two here, you will find it difficult to leave India because of the emotional infrastructure. Here , people care for you and connect with you. Whether it is your neighbour or a person on the road, one always feels cared for. You are never worried when in a crisis. It may not always be your relatives by your side but your friends and neighbours will always be there for you and support you in every possible way.

The warmth and hospitality of people in India has to be experienced to be believed. You always feels welcome and even strangers would be hosted, fed and taken care of if a need arises. This value of caring for others and living for each other rather than with each other is unique in our social system.

In my view, it is this “Emotional Infrastructure”, which is our USP. We not only should be proud of it but we need to preserve it. I am not sure there are not many countries in the world, which can match us in this emotional connect. One should also remember that money cannot buy emotional connect for you. Money can buy physical wealth and infrastructure only.

Sol, let us be proud of our “Emotional infrastructure”. Let’s us preserve it. Let us nurture it so that it grows and spreads all around the world. As an old Indian adage says – ” Vasudeva Kutambakam” ( Whole world is one family) should be our message to the world for peace and prosperity of all human beings.

S Ramesh Shankar

   

  
“Let go”
  I have often been asked as to why people do not grow up in spite of age. It is true for some of us and the reasons could be many. Let us first reflect in our personal lives. We are born, grow as kids and then mature as adults. We study, work, then get married and settle in life too. But, do we always behave like grown ups. May be not. We may justify our behaviour in the context in which it happens. For eg., when your child has to make a career choice, you impose your views on them. If you are an engineer, you tend to believe that there cannot be a better career choice more attractive than engineering for them. This means that if your child chooses anything other than engineering as a career, it may not be valued by you as a good decision. So, we tend to wane away the interests and passion of our own kids by imposing our views on them even in choosing their career.

   Now, if we move to the work place, we find that people start a career as an individual contributor. We work hard and exceed the expectations of our job. We are promoted as team leaders and are expected to lead the team. What do we end up doing ? We end up looking at what each individual is doing and how he is doing. We do not invest our time in creating an environment for everyone to excel in whatever is expected of them ? Why do we do that ? We do it because we feel that nobody on earth can do a better job than us as individual contributors and hence it is our right to review everyone’s performance and also tell them the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of doing their job.

    Then, we move to the next level, when we become leader of team leaders. Do we give up the job of the individual contributor. We don’t because we still do not trust our team leaders, who have enough experience and capabilities to lead their teams. We will get into micro details and also resolve intra team conflicts if needed.  

    Why does all the above happen ? This is what I would term as the “hang over effect”. We cannot give up something of the past, which we think we still are the master of. This happens because we are not willing to “let go” of something which we did well in the past and do not have the magnanimity of trusting our successors. It is time to reflect on this issue. Why not we give it a try ? Let us trust our children to take care of themselves ? May be they have grown up and know what is best for their careers !. Similarly, let us empower our teams and focus only on creating a conducive work environment. You may draw the value boundaries, which your team members should not cross. But kindly give them the freedom to innovate and excel in whatever they do and see the magic. You may be surprised that they may exceed your own expectations. I have experienced that my team members have always excelled when I have least interfered.

   If I get back to our personal lives, we may have become grand parents but we still would like to force our views on the choice of life partners for our grand kids even though they are grown up adults today. This is what we need to reflect on. Can we let them decide what they want to do in their lives and we contribute only when we are invited to do so ? As Manu niti says, give advice to an adult, only when asked for.

   So, it is time to look within us. “Let go” has to be the mantra at home and at work.

S Ramesh Shankar

Of late, a common topic discussed in workplaces is how to maintain work-life balance. To be honest, I have found it difficult to draw the line between work and life. In my view, all work is life and life is work. It is like a continuum.

I think the first question one should ask oneself is ” Are you enjoying your work ?” If the answer is no, then you need to deal with that first. I believe that everyone of us should try to do something, which we enjoy. It may not be easy to get a job or a vocation, which you enjoy doing. Sometimes, we are not sure what we enjoy too. It takes time to figure out what you want. Then, once you have a better idea of what you like, you may not get it that easily. So, the first step could be to find something which you enjoy so that you are happy doing it every day of your life.

The second part could be where does life end and work begin or the other way around. In my experience, it is not possible to demarcate work and life with a barrier in between. It is like we cannot demarcate where day ends and night begins. Daylight merges into dusk and then night emerges as the sun goes down the horizon. Further, the time for the day ending is different in different parts of the world. Similarly, work and life blend themselves in inseparable ways. We have to draw the line whenever we can by our conscious actions.

I would like to share two instances in my work life as my learning experiences. In the first instance way back in 1996, I was working hard in preparing for budgets at work. I used to be late every day and my spouse with two kids was balancing all work and life at home. I thought I was working very hard and hence was oblivious of what was happening at home to my spouse and kids. One day, when my wife broke down because of the overload at home, I realised that over working at office and ignoring my home responsibilities would not give me balance in life. I took leave for some time and after a break with my family, I realised there is always a need to strike a balance between work and your personal life. You have to know where to draw the line.

One good practice I have followed almost throughout my career is that I have tried my best not to carry work home. I would very rarely work at home and carry office work over the weekend. Recently another incident happened, which made me realise that I can have better control of my balance in life through my everyday actions. I was leaving office on a weekday and was carrying my laptop with me. A senior colleague asked me if I worked at home after office. When I said I don’t, he asked me as to why was I carrying the laptop everyday in the evening and brining it back the next day. Since that day, which happened in 2014, I have stopped carrying my laptop home every day. I carry it only during weekends and generally do not open at home unless there is an emergency.

One more learning is that as far as possible we should not carry office issues home and home problems to the workplace. If at all, we want to share, we could share the good news at both ends like rewards and recognition etc. This ensures that we do not add to existing challenges at work or home and make them more complicated. This may be easier said than done but worth a try.

Another important thing one could consider is to go on leave with family or friends at least once a year. If possible more often then once. You build a bond with your family or friends and get quality time with each other. You may never get to spend time with them if you keep postponing it on the pretext of work and more importantly you will not even get an opportunity to regret or compensate for the same in your life time.

If I may summarise my learnings, I would say that balancing work and life is in our hands. We should realise that none of us are indispensable at work and we have equal responsibilities at home. Where to draw the line and how to balance your life is in your hands. If we are willing to learn, we get enough indicators both at work and at home that we are crossing the line and we need to change ourselves.

So, let’s balance our life and work from today,

S Ramesh Shankar