In the hectic and frenetic professional life, do we take a moment to pause in order to reflect upon the good work put in by our colleagues? Do we stop on our tracks for a short time to appreciate how our subordinates are accomplishing their tasks while juggling priorities, at times even important personal ones? You may wonder what got me pursuing this line of thought. It was a casual conversation with a professional acquaintance which put in this path.
The conversation happened last Friday in one of those least likely places. After dropping my daughter at school, I was hurrying back to my desk when I bumped into this acquaintance. Since I knew the initiatives, he was working on and also his unhappy state in being associated with these seemingly impossible ones, I was quite surprised to him in a cheerful mode. In the next 30 minutes while other parents were hurrying back to wherever they were planning to go, the acquaintance animatedly, and happily, described what was going well with his initiatives. The customer was finally seeing changes in the many initiatives that had been going nowhere for a long time. They had expressed their happiness in the sudden turn of events in front of his colleagues, his superiors and also his competitors.
Needless to say, I was late when I got back to my desk. But the whole event made me wonder. Why did the conversation take such a long time? Normally, I would have expected the pleasantries to last a couple of minutes. But I had spent half an hour talking to this acquaintance. The whole point of 30 minutes of conversation was about how the acquaintance felt good while delivering a difficult task. Are we so lost in the pace of doing business that we don't have time for simple pat on the shoulder? Are we so driven to make super efficient professionals out of everyone that we forget to give a minute break to bask in the glory of accomplishment, regardless of the size, before giving out new assignments?
Tags: Musings,Acquaintance,Colleagues,Subordinates
It is a very sensible question Nona. I think the answer sometimes is yes, maybe at times we think that our lives are so busy that we don''t have time to sit back and reflect and see how much of a difference the small things have made in our life..
ReplyDeleteSometimes, it is good to hit the brakes. It helps you to think about the route taken by you.
DeleteThat is the sad part. We are all busy chasing things that we don't get time to appreciate each other!
ReplyDelete