Lessons from my Life and Work
Happiness is a choice; a decision and an ability to not to get upset fast. Life and work is a balancing act.
Many people ask me how do I help building organizations. Over the last thirty years, I have helped to build more than ten organizations in India and beyond. And the fact of the matter is I am not running any of them. And I try my best not to build organizations around me. Because I want them to outlive me. My whole approach to organization development is enabling, empowering and building a team that slowly take ownership and take forward the dream.
Developing an organization is all about nurturing people, team and leaders in a gentle and caring way. And I love my people, team and the dreams. I make a point to ensure I have zero vested interest in the organization I helped to nurture. My approach is to give as much as one can give and don't take money or resources from an organization for your own personal interest. Many people may not even know I happened to be the founder of many organizations . Because organizations are not about a person. Organizations are about a vision larger than you and beyond your own immediate interest.
Organizations survive when it takes a life of its own, though you may leave your DNA there. And allow them to make mistake and learn from them and instill positive values. Whenever I visit an organization I helped to nurture, it is like going home and I love meeting my people and they love me too. We hardly talk work and we talk everything under the sun.
My approach in organisations is to work on the strengths of the people and help them to overcome their limitation in an empathetic manner over a period of time, rather than sitting on a pedestal and making quick judgement. Be always helpful to people. Try to be proactive than reactive. Try best to forgive and try not to get upset as much as possible. Don't spend time gossiping about others and don't listen to gossips. Develop our own analysis based on observation, and facts rather than what people 'feed' you. Try not to be judgmental on people.
Every person is unique and he/she will have his own strengths. Discovering those strengths is a part of leadership capacity. Take people as they are - rather than they 'ought' to be. Patience matters a lot. Give people time to change, rather than force change. Be gentle with people rather than aggressive and abusive. It is easy to find a problem but not easy to find a solution. Evolve solutions. Take every stakeholder in to confidence when you take a decision that affect them.
Everyone makes mistakes. And what matters is whether one realize such mistake or lapses and take corrective measures. And leadership of joy requires self-reflection, introspection, correction and an ability to say 'sorry'- and not to make a mistake again.
There will always be skeptics. There will always be people who speak ill of us. There will always be people who do not appreciate what good we do. There will always be cynics. There will always be people who are jealous. There will always be people who speak nice things in front of you and bitch about you in your absence. There will always be people who seek to undermine you. There will always be opportunists who want to make use of you and then forget you. There will always be ungrateful people.
That has been the story of life and work. But what matters is how we handle all these people without any malice.. What matters is how we are honest to ourselves and to others who work with us or live with us. How do we continuously listen and keep on learning. How do we move forward with sincerity, commitment and courage of conviction to make a positive difference wherever we are.
I keep my peace by spending time with people who think, act and move forward with positive spirit and try to not get bother too much about negative people and those who spread negativity. Because happiness is our choice. And we create our joy and peace..Love, peace and joy reinforce each other. When we learn to love people, when we learn to forgive people, when we learn to forget bad incidents, we learn to live with joy and peace.
What makes life worth living is how do we earn love, joy and peace through our thoughts, words and deeds. Smile at people, They too smile at you. Smile at life and life in turn will smile at you. When we work and live with love a magic unfolds within us. When we live and work with love, we become creative. When we learn to live and work with love, we begin to make a difference. Then life is indeed worth living. That is what I have learned in life and work.
Love, Joy and peace are what we all can aspire for. All other things can be purchased from the market place!
JS Adoor
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