SPEECH DELIVERED AT GKD COLLEGE, COIMBATORE FOR THE BBM STUDENTS

Good Morning to everybody. I am very happy to be in the midst of so many young leaders and entrepreneurs. However, this makes me slightly worried also - I on the wrong side of 40 and you all on the right side of 20 - will I be able to connect? What I have in mind out of my experiences - will it make any sense to you? Further, I have spent my years in a strange field called police - which is quite far away from business - what could be common between a police leadership and business leadership?

2. With all these apprehension in mind, I must get down to the task which has been given to me - to share my thoughts on leadership and motivation. Here again, I will be talking at random - not in any sequence - because I am not a teacher and I have never studied these subjects in any college. I will be talking from my experiences and the thoughts that have been generated in about 2 decades of my working life and over 4 decades of living on this planet earth.

3. The world looks the way we want to look at it. If we put on red glasses - every thing looks red, if we put on green glasses - everything looks green. If we think the world is full of opportunities - it will appear to be so. If we think the world is full of problems - we will encounter problems everywhere. A positive attitude helps in facing the world better and cheerfully. In any given situation, let us look at the positive side - let us try to solve the problem instead of becoming part of it. Let us not find a scapegoat and fix him or her up - let us find out what can be done now to salvage the situation - We encounter such situations everywhere - at home, at work place, in relationships. I have seen mothers scolding the child when he falls sick - I told you not to eat so many ice creams or not to play in the rain etc instead of comforting the child and taking immediate steps without being critical. At work, it happens all the time - I will tell one incident which happened just few months back - in a village called Salarapatti in Udumalpet - there was a problem simmering between two communities. We had posted police pickets and were taking action to solve it. Meanwhile, suddenly one day, a clash broke out between two communities and few people were beaten up and few houses were damaged. The usual practice would have been - how was it allowed despite police picket? - what were police people doing there? Instead of asking these questions, we immediately took steps to contain and solve the problem - re-enforcements were rushed, further clashes were prevented, offenders were arrested immediately and later this question was also addressed – whether it was possible to prevent the clash?

4. Leadership is all about working with people and taking them along. People also respond in the way you think of them. If you think people (i.e. who are working with you) are lazy, not interested in work, not interested in putting in sincere efforts, not trust worthy – surprising they will turn out to be like that. If you think they are sincere, they want to work with responsibility and are trustworthy etc - they will behave accordingly. In fact, in one of my assignments, my boss had a notion that all of us must be present in the office by 9.30 – no one minute delay on any single day - because he thought if he did not insist we will not be on time. He ridiculed me for being late by 10 minutes or so two times. And you know the result - even a senior officer like me used to feel like really coming late or alternately one had a feeling - you can only make us come by 9.30. You cannot make us work - we will start working whenever we feel like. All he needed was just to trust us and leave us to do our job - and we would have done that gladly. I have seen that to trust others, we should first be trustworthy.

5. Let us make the work place a pleasant place where people want to come, work and contribute. Money is not the only motivator - though its importance cannot be denied. There has to be a sense of purpose in what one is doing. If we are offered Rs. one lakh per month just to dig a pit and fill it - how many days do you think we can last in that job? This of course may be an exaggeration but I think it drives the point home.

6. As a person in senior position, our job is to create atmosphere where our juniors can give out their best. We should be able to solve their problems - we should empower them to solve their problems - please remember - our juniors should listen to us - not because we can harm them if they don’t listen to us - but because what we say is worth listening.

7. In business or in life - it is very important to look at things from other person’s point of view. Most of the problems in relationships arise because we fail to look at things from other person’s point of view - I think many of you would have been ‘Santhosh Subramaniam’ - how father and son failed to see things from each other’s point of view while meaning good to each other and nearly brought disaster in so many lives. In business, it is all the more important. If I am manufacturing or selling something - it should meet the requirement of the customer - and not just satisfy my wishes. Otherwise, whatever beautiful or best quality our production is - it won’t sell. Let me again get back to‘ Santhosh Subramaniam ’ - the shirts the father bought were nice - the girl he chose was nice - but son didn’t like that. Looking things from other’s point of view is not only a good policy in life but also a secret for commercial success.

8. I would like you to remember there are many ways for success like there are many paths to reach the god. Each one of you have to find your own path. Likewise, in real life there are many facets of truth. For us to be right - somebody else need not to be wrong. Even two people of differing opinions can be right. I may remind you of the famous story of few blind men trying to discover the elephant and coming to totally different conclusions. They all were true ( at least partially ).

9. I would also like you all to subscribe to abundant mentality - somebody else’s success is not my failure - I don’t have to reach the top by pulling down somebody - in real life, there is enough space at the top for as many people to stand.

10. A few words on the time management - working hard is all very well. But a lot of times, hard work can be substituted by planning. All those who are little familiar with cooking will appreciate this - If we want curd for lunch, we have to put little quantity of curd in warm milk in the morning and just leave it to set. This whole exercise may require 1-2 minutes. But, if you have failed to do that in the morning - what ever else you do including standing on your head - the curd can not be prepared ( of course, you can buy it from a shop ).

11. Similarly, if you have to make a train trip - if you book the ticket well in advance - it will require few minutes and no tension and at the given time you can simply board the train. But, if we have failed to do that till last minute, the reservation may not be available and any amount of hard work may prove futile.


12. I would like to emphasize that - the time can be best managed by prioritizing - for that, one should first know what is one’s priority in life - just to make money - to live happily and fully - or whatever. The time for everyone is the same - 24 hours a day. If we cut down on unnecessary work, we will find time to do the more important work. Delegation and empowerment of subordinates also helps in reducing the work load.

13. I can go on and on like this. But let me now wind up by wishing you all the success in your life. Let all your dreams come true. And you lead very happy and successful lives. Thank you.