Enigma Solution

R ecession or boom time, employers, organisations and leaders always echo one sentiment, 'We can't get good people these days'. Good, means different things to different people. Unfortunately most leaders and employers rarely know what they themselves want. It is safe to say that employers want subservient employees who will do as told, deliver miraculous results and never give a dissenting opinion. Employers expect employees to never complain, be productive, always deliver high quality with a smile.  Typically bosses and colleagues only demand saying 'Give me, give me, …….  Give me this and give me that'. Everyone wants but no one wants to give. People resent this unilateral approach preferring rather the relationship to be bilateral. They would be delighted to hear from employers and colleagues, 'I want to do this for you and I want to give you this'. * Image by Ben Heine As social creatures most human endeavour requires ...

Last month I dropped in at a friends manufacturing plant in Pune recently. He was both happy and very busy, and why not? They were doubling sales every two years. He and his family reflected visible aspects of the India growth story. I was happy for him. We were having a cup of tea when a senior member of his team walked into the cabin. I was surprised to see that the gentleman was an old colleague of mine. We chatted briefly about things in the industry and also about former colleagues etc. I knew him to be a very good engineer and manager. During his tenure with my company we had undertaken many path breaking initiatives in technology and management. I asked him if he was still undertaking industry benchmarking studies like he had when he worked for us and which had been extremely useful for us. My friend immediately butted in and retorted; "we have a policy here not to concern ourselves with others, we are preoccupied with our own internal issues." I was aghast ...