In the persistent chatterbox of life we find it difficult to pause, to wait, to give a moment, to reflect. It’s a race to constantly move on, quick decision making, A after B after C just running around from pillar to post and pfff… the day is over and so is life. This constant pressure to move and decide is taking its toll on quality of life.
No amount of modern education is teaching us the importance of just sitting quietly and reflecting. Even most of the time leisure holidays are also packed with 3 cities and race to cover more and more. This run from one city to other, one hotel to other, one monument to amusement park and see as much as possible, do as many activities as possible. The race doesn’t even end on a holiday. By the time it’s over we are exhausted; where in it was a recreational activity, which again turned out to wear us down a bit more.
The joy of small things, a flying butterfly, an unknown kid playing by itself, the formation of cloud in sky, watching the life as it is, all have gone missing in this race. It’s giving us lot of material gains, big houses, nicer cars, some money in bank and may be loads of gadgets which are designated to provide us more comfort(which may or may not be true) but we are more stressed compared to any past generations. We are more comfortable in all worldly sense but more stressed and worried. My kid has got only 90% marks to neighbor’s got 92% we tend to forget to appreciate both kids for their praise worthy hardwork.
For leaders and for everyone else it’s very important to practice pause, more for leaders as they have achieved a lot of material gains by the time and they are designated to lead the others and Organization. Unless we learn to truly appreciate the smaller things in life our saying “Good Work” will sound hallow. It might not carry and convey true appreciation to team members. We need to find meaning in little things.
Everything has a purpose and no matter how small it may seem but all those big rockets don’t fly without a reverse countdown which we learnt in kindergarten. Big super computers run on 0 and 1 which we learnt before we even went in preschool. The contribution of receptionist to lift man is also there in making our Organization successful. They also pour in their 8-9 valuable hours everyday to make us work smoothly on bigger stuff.
We all are hungry of true appreciation, true acknowledgement, atleast to be known, at times we need to just be reminded off that our contribution is also important. It’s a 2 way street. The more we give more we receive and it brings a sense of fulfillment. A leader is known for his attitude towards people. Those who master this art of reflection taking pauses to even appreciate the problem for it’s daunting nature are successful in finding the natural solutions. They tend to reach to the core of the issue, penetrate and gaze the deeper causes which at times might be very petty and small.
Project time lines are getting blur and there is a delay in various legs might be because the Project lead is feeling stressed, demotivated, unappreciated and even frustrated and the same is getting percolated in whole team. Just a detailed empathetic discussion might do wonders rather the reprimands of getting delayed and not being up to the mark. It can cure the timelines tremendously rather taking bigger steps, putting more manpower, experts or even replacing a competent project lead. “Smaller things.”
For leaders it’s very important to come out of their routine often and just reflect on the business with a 3rd person perspective. Like a spectator watching the game often tells the mightiest of player how they should have played that ball or dodged that punch. It’s not that spectator is a better player or have better strategy but because he is uninvolved and his view is seeing the whole arena and game in it’s totality. We as player miss that view. We see just a small part of the whole as we are in the ring facing punches. It’s imperative to pause and come out of routine at times to see the whole picture from a 3rd person perspective.
In the hustle bustle of life and buzz of activities we should not miss the finer prints of life as often joy is written in small fonts at the bottom of big size achievements and success stories in asterisks which we seldom read. Getting conscious about finding happiness in trivial, attention to details and genuine empathy paves the way of bliss and success in life in true sense.
Leadership Insights 