Acting In Wisdom

Life, says Amit Varma in his column in the ET Panache, is a positive-sum-game. It is not only when you do an action that you benefit from it, but you also benefit when others do too. For instance, when two people transact a business deal, they do so because both gain value from it. When lovers kiss, the net happiness of both goes up.

Could this be true all of the time? Is it a rather idealistic way of  looking at life? Or, is it that, to have this belief, one needs to be the kind of wise person whose undertakings, the Bhagavad Gita says, "are free from desire and thoughts of the world, and whose actions are burnt up by the fire of wisdom?" 4(19).

 And how easy or difficult is it easy to gain this wisdom?

Backing Your People

An industrialist complained to Modi about a few bureaucrats who he felt were "not working properly and should be changed." Modi's rejoinder was scathing: "You manage your company, and let me manage my government."

 Leadership Lesson :
Standing up for your people instils in them the confidence to take initiative, undertake and innovate in their duties.

Are You Promotion Focused or Prevention Focused?

According to Columbia university professor and author Heidi Grant Halvorson (2), there are two types of people; the promotion focused and the prevention focused.

Promotion-focused People: These are people, say psychologists, who see an opportunity for achievement, reward and success everywhere. "They look for people are looking for why the perceiver should say yes and are apt to adopt the mantra of  "nothing ventured nothing gained." Life for them becomes about "maximising gains and avoiding missed opportunities.

Promotion focused people:

• Tend to think more in the abstract and approach ideas with an open mind
• Are often quick workers, sometimes prone to error
• Are usually optimistic and they're comfortable taking risks
• Have strength in creativity and identifying opportunities.

Example: Richard Branson

Use your lens to navigate the world

Prevention-focused People: These people, compared to the promotion-focused, are more interested in preventing loss and maintaining the status quo.The prevention lens is searching for reasons not to say no.

Prevention-focused people:

•  Have a more concrete and detail-oriented thinking style.
• Can be defensively pessimistic and risk averse.
• have strength in their analysis, evaluation, preparedness and reliability.

No Right or Wrong Way: Both lenses are equally good ways of looking at the world, and one way of thinking is generally not better than the other.

References:

1. businessinsider.in

2. Author of No One Understands You And What To Do About It

Picture source: Pinterest.com

The Right Place at the Right Time

When they first started making cars, Sir Henry Royce, and his partner, Charles Rolls, would build them near Savile Row, the London street where the city's top tailors had their establishments. They would urge their customers to have their coaches finished with trimming to match favourite suits and gowns.

Source: http://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing

Management Learning: Whether at life or work, being in the right place at the right time, with the right product, increases the chances of successful outcomes to your endeavours.