Today I seem to have a lot of things on my mind to write. It’s always a lot after a weekend. There are so many things that one notices and promises to… well… make a note of. To start with I have always seen a lot of women crossing the road on a lark. Most of these kind are in their own world while crossing the road. No left no right just cross and then look at the incoming car in their path with horror as it swerves to avoid them. Aaiiii. Its not that I have anything against women (for those who accuse me of type casting), there are many men who seem to do this as well but the sheer numbers of women who do this is unnerving. The man will always at the last moment jump out of the way but the women will just stand there and scream. This thing is going to get worse. Why? Because of the earplugs that are now in their ears perpetually as they listen to their iPods or the music from their FM/MP3 phones or they are simply merrily talking away. This way they won’t even notice the most blaring of all horns. The numbers of iPod accidents are set to rise before we see an outrage in America calling for banning them due to this increase. Or closer back home I assume some fanatic mob will break the shop of the nearest iPod vendor blaming them for the accidents.
I put another call to the bubbly content editor at Oxfords (random) and was pleasantly surprised to get a warm bubbly conversation at the other end. This is the same lady whose service paeans I was singing. I remember reading one book that said that customer service people are inherently a different breed of people who are naturals. There is nothing you can do with the rest of the sad people. You have no option but to recruit only the good ‘born with the attitude’ guys. Hmmm.. I am beginning to believe he is so right. You either have it in your blood or you don’t. People who are cynical or skeptical of all around and believe that the world is out to cheat them make for lousy customer care people. I think people with inborn trust and cheerful disposition must be kept for these roles. Thank you Ms Ray for teaching me more.
People teach by just being themselves.. what say?
I went to attend a wedding of an old kid who used to report into me. She and her team will always be special to me. This was the first team that I led purely by following Theory Y. I refused to get angry, always believed that they were right, treated them with love and affection and protected them from the horrendous sales guys. They were the customer service guys who used to get smashed left right and centre. They had no leadership, no standing and were generally bad on delivery. I was heading marketing then. I was given additional charge of the team. Past sales experience always taught me to crack whip and kick them into performing. I remember changing my mental note when I took them on. I transformed them slowly but surely into a team that believed in themselves and gave the sales guys back when they deserved so and also built a sales focus so as to not unnecessary kick the sales guys as finally that’s where the moolah came from. So coming back. The head of that team was Kavita and I took a particular fondness for her. When she was given to me she was broken, her review had just gone very average and she was bypassed for a promotion. Her morale was down. I worked on her, gave her ‘teeth’, and energized her. The result that at the end of the year she got her promotion, performed phenomenally, and a huge raise and bonus. She almost had tears in her eyes when she got that letter. More than that the best compliment came when the operations head (a person I really respect) told me that Kavita has come of age and she now has the confidence she required. She and I have now gone on to many more milestones in our respective lives. I was attending her reception on Saturday. There was a queer sense of pride in my heart while I saw the couple arrive. I don’t know but I found myself grinning from end to end. I felt so nice to see one more milestone in a nice person’s journey.
There is more that I want to write but generally I try to limit myself to not more than one page. So tomorrow I shall some more about the experiences about the weekend.
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