Article -63 Week 21 ANGER MANAGEMENT:

ANGER MANAGEMENT:

Remember the famous movie of this name. There are times when emotions take the better part of our reasons. We pay less heed to the problems on the other side, especially so when we feel wronged blatantly. Tempers fly high. Irrevocably damaging words spill out. Menacing demeanours, gestures and other animalistic offensive mechanisms vitiate the problem further, some times to the points of no return. We are human and are prone to be swept up by this torrent of  evolutionary blinding of our senses.

The malady can only be handled with the help of a magic wand. This can be anything that you carry yourself all the time. Like your favourite pen. The rule is to hold the pen in your clasp and not to speak till the pen is in your hand. Just listen & listen. Until the other person who barges on to you with a mauled emotion completes his tirade, you need to hold on to the pen and just sit up to listen and try to soak in his view points. Focus onto what he babbles and make sense out of this. Once he keeps quiet - that could mean from a burst of 10 minutes to a melancholic parroting up to 30 minutes - you hand over the pen to him and tell him the rules of the Magic Wand. And then you take off. Once you are finished with, take back the pen and follow the rule.

You will be surprised at the pleasant and amicable outcome. In case you are the first to burst at your seams, you need to go there to the other person and hand over your pen. Explain him the rules. And start. This prevents a violent collision of reasons with emotions and sets the platform for an effective communication.

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For more & unedited versions, please visit & leave your opinions on, http://ourships.blogspot.com/

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Brgds

Capt Rath

Article -63 Week 21 So They Speak

Article -62 Week 20 The Monkey In The Balance Sheet

Article -62 Week 20

The Monkey In The Balance Sheet

Born to live a life of lies : officially speaking! I am sure that we can have a more wholesome officialdom than this shallow one. I have had many discussions with wise experts on the issue of reflecting the bribes paid to government servants and kick-backs paid to individuals in private companies in the general course of business transactions in the books of account. My contention is to reflect them the way they actually are - not as incidental miscellaneous expenses of such monumental disproportions. Even though the Indian Court vindicates my stand, it is impossible enough a task to represent truthfully in the books - I've been strictly warned! Incentive, Bakshish, Kick-backs, Speed-money, Incidentals, Grease Money, Bribes, Inducements, and Sweeteners etc - are bad words in our account books!

Because the very act of giving bribes is against the law. Therefore, an entry to that effect stands illegitimate and punishable admission of culpability.  The Income Tax Authorities shall not admit this as an expense in the books that easily. There are no receipts, invoices or names in the transaction. You can not prove it to be bonafide in any case. If you show it as a miscellaneous expense, then the amount should not be eye-catching. The Service Tax authorities have no qualms on this issue, since they would slap a 10.2% Tax on these expenses of miscellaneous ledger heads.

So the pragmatic solution lies in cooking the books to show these expenses as some other direct expenses. It is not that tough to fabricate a lie. The other option of doing it truthfully with the spirit and idealism of a novice is akin to sticking your neck into the lion's mouth. Then the most obvious question that is cannonballed on to the pragmatist is : "Why did you pay bribe in the first place? Is that not a culpable crime? Your second right is not going to exonerate your first crime!"

That's a loaded cannonball! To simplify it further " Can we do business successfully in India without paying a bribe to Babus or Politicians ?"  The nation broods, while business goes on with heavily cooked books.

For more & unedited versions, please visit & leave your opinions on, http://ourships.blogspot.com/

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Brgds

Capt Rath

Article - 61 Week 19 A GOOD MANAGER IS ONE WITH AN OPEN MIN

Article - 61  Week 19

A GOOD MANAGER IS ONE WITH AN OPEN MIND:

Dukhiram - You don't understand. Every thing was a mess right from the word go. The costs are rising and there is no profit in my business. And all you can do is preaching me! Be practical.

Sukhiram - Go on. I am listening. My intention is only to help you do better.

Dukhiram - The salesman can bring in no business. Says, the market is down and shall pick up next month. He has been saying this for months now. I am giving so many advertisements and can not get a good sales person. I am frustrated. There is no money coming in and only going out. I want some money  to come in to manage the costs.

Sukhiram - I am afraid to open my mouth, because you would see that as preaching!

Dukhiram - No No. Go on. I am in a fix anyway!

Sukhiram - Your sales manager is bringing you no business. Right?

Dukhiram - I told you! Yes.

Sukhiram - Since how long?

Dukhiram - Right from the beginning. And I don't know what is wrong! He seems to be very assuring. But nothing comes in.

Sukhiram - That means there is a difference between what seems to you  and what actually is.

Dukhiram - I hate to admit it. But yes!

Sukhiram - Why don't you go to the market yourself to see the difference between 'what actually is' and ' what seems to you'.

Dukhiram - I am not a salesman & that's not my job! Don't expect me to be knocking on the doors leaving all else in neglect!

Sukhiram - The fact is you have no 'all else' without any sales being made! Besides, your salesman was not born knocking on the doors. You are putting limits on yourself by claiming that sales is not your job and 'all else' is your job. If you remove the limits and sincerely try to understand the bottlenecks, you would see things with more clarity! 

Dukhiram - Correct. Since I am in a fix, why not go and try it myself. I am not going to lose any thing by doing sales or any thing for that matter, so long as I know 'what really is'.

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For more & unedited versions, please visit & leave your opinions on, http://ourships.blogspot.com/

Brgds

Capt Rath

Article - 60 Week 18 Fear Vs Productivity In Our Workplace

Article - 60 Week 18

Fear Vs Productivity In Our Workplace

Fear is a natural emotion for our self protection. Self protection again is a learned process - through real own experience, watching others experience or being told by others. As a child, when we burn on our finger on fire, we fear any flame. When we see our younger sibling getting an electric shock from a naked electric cable, we stay away from it. Or when our grand mother tells us of an ugly ghost behind the house to swoon down on lone children, we stay away from the place. Therefore, this emotions called 'fear' is mostly a matter of nurture, away from the realities of its consequences. We continue to dread a ghost having experienced none nor seeing others experience a ghost.

In our workplaces, this conditioning has been overdone to the point of scuttling our creativity and productivity. Growing from the ashes of a feudal, imperial and caste system, there stands a culture of great divide between the ranks in our work places. The juniors are implicitly conditioned to keep their free minds and opinions to themselves and speak what the higher rank-holder expects to hear. 'Speak when you are spoken to or get the hell out' is the binding philosophy. So a senior would clobber any voice of dissent if it remotely challenges or is perceived by him to challenge his authority. This control virus affects the entire chain of command making it appear more like a Mogul durbar's intrigues.

The problem is that this virus is hard to kill in a society where age, caste, pedigree, schooling, connections, and even the language or accent is revered, simply because it is being passed down as the unquestioned tradition. When you kill this at the top, it mushrooms at the middle or at the bottom of the pyramid. The only way to eradicate this virus is through celebrating merit and completely ignoring the other ghastly parameters conditioned in our heads for millenniums. 

For more & unedited versions, please visit & leave your opinions on, http://ourships.blogspot.com/

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Brgds

Capt Rath