Friday Reflections

What Keeps You Awake at Night?*

POINT TO PONDER

 

"A well-spent day brings happy sleep."

                       

                            - Leonardo DaVinci 
 

 

STORY LINE by Anand Shah

 

In last few years, I have encountered some work situations where people have asked questions to others, “what keeps you awake at night?” That question has always puzzled me as I get very good sleep at nights (except at times when I have eaten exotic foods and experienced the subsequent turmoil). Initially, I felt guilty wondering if I was doing something wrong by not keeping up with the Joneses or whatever in our highly competitive world.

 

Then I realized that I had to be honest and confess the reasons to why I am sleeping well at night; even if it means risking my job.

 

Here are the few reasons I get a good sleep a night:

 

1. Knowing that I have a lot of problems at work and when I wake up in the morning I will turn them into solutions that provide value.
2. Knowing that my employer sees this value in my work because I have been invited to the meetings that deals with creating even higher value for our customers, investors and employees.
3. Knowing that I am working with a great team of passionate, focused people who believe that, “the real measure of their performance is by their customers in value chain.”
4. Knowing that our team is a functional family.
5. Knowing that the people I work with never rest on their laurels. They are on the never ending journey of being the best and then better than the best.
6. Knowing I have a wonderful loving and caring family that I look forward to once work is over.
7. Knowing that the world is so big with an abundance of opportunities and there is always room somewhere in this world for my talents. 
8. Knowing that my life has been fulfilling with the people I met, the places I visited, experiences I had and contributions I made. 

 

REFLECTION

What gives you GOOD sleep at night?

*Reposted from 09/05/2013 with minor edits.

Keep Your Garden Green

 Original post October 28, 2011. Repeat due to readers request. (A lesson is repeated until learnt)

POINT TO PONDER

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

                                                                -Theodore Roosevelt

 STORYLINE

My neighbor came by my house the other day and asked if I could recommend my gardener to her. Apparently she had a hard time retaining them, explaining that her gardeners never arrived consistently or at the same time. She would follow them in the garden as they worked, barking instructions as they went and many would quit on her. She needed a gardener she could rely on and asked if I would recommend mine. She liked the job he did with our landscaping, as do I, and asked if I could pass along his number.

I said I surely would - that I had been very happy with his work - but that my gardener might not fit the criteria she wanted. She asked me if he was punctual. I said I wasn't sure. She asked me when he comes to garden and I said I didn't know. Most of the time he came to work on the garden when it needed it. I admitted there were weeks when he didn't come because he felt there was no work to be done. She asked if he stayed the full hour and I said I didn't keep track of that.

She asked me how I could stick with a gardener like him for so long. I responded that I allow him to complete the job in whatever way he chooses. Then she asked me how I could tolerate that and didn't manage him more closely. I said I didn't need to - I trust his skills as a gardener - and that he knows what he is doing, “because at the end of the day, he keeps my garden green.”

 

REFLECTION Three mistakes a leader/manager should avoid: 

        1.Having good people and not know them. 

        2. Knowing good people and not use them.

        3. Using good people and not Trust them.