Attitude and human behaviour….

Lots of have been discussed on the attitude. People give examples of different attitude and tag others either with positive attitude or negative attitude. However have we realized how attitude is formed in the person? As a HR professional, I always first think about the attitude and assess the person based on the same. I may go wrong if I really don’t understand how the person in discussion formulates his attitude. We must have seen many examples where the person is fired for his attitude, however he is much successful in another organization. We may be wrong in assessing the person if we don’t understand what attitude really means and how it is formulated in the personality of the person.

Perceptions… opinions and unfairness …

He was disturbed and frustrated. “It is unfair…he is unfair to me” he told me.

“How? What he did?” he explained me his story. There are always two perspectives; there are always opinions and most of the time perceptions. 

“It is your story, there may be his story and reality may be totally different.” I counselled him. I know, I was philosophical. But I wonder to understand how viewpoints are made. Sometimes these opinions and perceptions create problems. In professional life, if you make such opinions on perceptions, specially about the person, then person gets affected. Leader’s job is to really dig into and be fair on the assessment. As rightly said by  Hippocrates, “There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.”

If you are ignorant and make opinions based on certain assumptions, you are really not fair to the person. There should be the spectrum of acceptable opinion. The discussion should be within that spectrum. This spectrum should be created based on the incidents and facts and not based on the assumptions.

People give feedback and receive feedback. Sometimes feedback is based on the perceptions, perceptions are based on some experiences and when we have certain experiences we tend to justify ourselves. When you argue on justifications, and other person does not have the right justification, believe that next person is unfair to you. However your justification should be right and with examples.

There are perceptual errors that create bias or lack of subjectivity in evaluations & while giving opinions. This is all about the personality. If your mind is tuned to do the perceptual errors, you will do that, but your brain may correct, if you have the right attitude.

You may make the mistake by ignoring his good traits over one bad trait or vice versa just because you focus more on specific trait.  Sometimes just the next person is comfortable and listens you well, you tend to make the right opinion about him. You just label somebody based on one incident or  just targeting the person rather his behavior. Such actions of yours give the wrong signals and then you are stamp unfair, yes you are unfair if you do so…

According to me and based on the experience, I can definitely say, “sometimes somebody will be unfair to you, just ignore and move ahead… Someday somebody will be unfair to him also…”

Are you motivated?

“Dam it,” he punched on his palm (same like Mahesh Kothare does in his movies), “I am fade up with this monotonous job. I need some motivation” He was expecting some solution from me on his bored life. His second intension must be political. If you speak something with HR, at least it gets noticed. However, I have been selective in acting on such things and this is with experience. Yes. We have to listen everything, but you have to be selective about the issues on which actions are needed.

“Have you learned something different?” I asked him.

“My life is in numbers, I don’t know anything different.” He replied.

“Then better to find out the ways to enjoy this.” I suggested.   

What is motivation and what does it have to do with personal and business success? How can we become more motivated? Learning what motivates us and how to use our motivations is yet another key success factor. We say “we are motivated” when we feel driven to work for something we need or desire. We are motivated to attain something we are seeking, whether it’s material, intellectual, emotional or spiritual.

You are aware about different theories of motivation. The key is to find out what motivates us.  Our success depends on our motivation. If parents are unmotivated, their state of mind may have a negative effect on their work, which, in turn, could affect their present and future income. Their failure in that area could lead to negative effects at home and produce breakdowns in their most fundamental relationships.

Somebody asked the question, “What is motivation?”

“Motivation is the urge to do something.” I replied. The question is what is that urge?  

Emotions play a large role in whether we are motivated or not. How we handle events, based on our expectations about them, determine whether we feel calm or resentful, hopeful or resigned. We are the ones who choose motivation. As the owners of what we feel and what we think, we can use this power to increase our motivation to be more successful.

This urge can be find out by some simple methods.

1. Check your level on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Take charge of ascending from one level to the next, meeting your basic needs and focusing on your higher needs.
2. Create positive states of mind: Feeling optimism, hope and the certainty of being able to achieve your objectives will motivate you to prevail.
3. Be tolerant of “relative failure”: When something goes wrong, consider it as just another step on your road to success. Correct it and move forward.
4. Ask for help from people who admire, love and know you well: Successful people are motivated by the people around them. Their support provides them courage and strength to persevere.
5. Take inspiration from successful people: Observing how people, at times with little ability or resources are able to reach ambitious goals inspires us to be successful as well.
6. The last but not least is -believe on “the law of attraction”. You get what you are. You are what you think, what you imagine, what you dream. So be positive with everything. It will bring positive vibes.

It's up to you to give yourself the opportunity to believe in it and use it every day.

Chalta Hain Yaar

“I can not match your expectations sometimes; you are very perfectionist”, one of my colleagues was giving me the feedback during interactive session. His statement was contradictory to the statement of my wife,” you are messy, you can’t be perfectionist.” She may be right at home.

“I expect the corrected data, I expect no errors, blunders, I expect organized work, I expect you follow the system properly. Is this perfection? This is just basic requirement of the job. You are good in concepts but then what’s about the process. If I ask you to keep the communication right, if I ask you timely feedback, if I ask you to document the process which is mandatory for legal and legacy purpose, am I expecting more from you?” I asked so many questions to him. I am not crazy to be so perfectionist. I can not afford to be that. I insist we should not exhibit “Chalta Hain” attitude.

“Chalta hain” attitude is the problem. Last week I was at Singapore and Shanghai. These are great cities designed with perfection. On Mumbai airport there were tiles with no match. Just different shades put in between. It was not even by design. The contractor must have taken the liberty to put those tiles due to shortage in shades.

It is everywhere in our world (I mean in India). I always surprise how they maintain the roads and landscape with symmetry in whole Shanghai city. Singapore airport is the busiest airport; still they manage the beauty and perfection in design.

How they manage it? They are also human beings. In fact we Indians are more creative and talented. The only hurdle is this Chalta Hain attitude.

Messy files, bad housekeeping, spilled trays and bins are the examples in offices. I have seen the people who even do not bother to classify the details as per the logical sequence. Expecting the data with logical sequence, date wise, name wise, designation wise, customer wise (to give some examples) is not the perfection. Discipline, quality work is the perquisite of job.

Can’t we go ahead with little bit analytical and be passionate about the job we do?

Joy of giving

Two years ago, I use to take my son to bus stop for his KG school in the morning. There was lot of fun on bus stop with his friends.

One day, we saw a mid aged man sleeping at the corner of the street, just back of the bus stop. Nobody notices the poor man. After few days, the man made a little shelter with the help of some plastics material.

After few days, we saw the man cleaning the area outside his little shelter. The man was settled there.

One fine morning, my son asked me, “Pappa, why this man is staying here?”

“Beta, he must be alone in this world and he is poor, he can not afford to buy a house in the city.” I replied. “Ok, it must be very hard for him to survive during such winter” he spoke looking towards that man. “Yes” I replied.

“Then papa, why don’t we give him one rug which we are not using at all?” he innocently asked me.

I replied,”Yes, we will do?”

Next day, Dhanashri, my wife handed over the rug to poor man. The man was very happy and gave his blessings to my son.

After few days, I saw one old lady beggar who pulled the same rug. I asked the poor man, “It seems that you have given that rug to that old lady.”

“Saab, I saw that lady last month and she needed it more than me in such cold winter this year. I can manage myself.” He smiled.

I was surprised by the attitude of that person. He has easily given the thing which probably he also needed.

That day I realized the richness of the poor and the importance of “Joy of giving”.
I am sharing what 'I Saw and I Learnt' at BlogAdda.com in association with DoRight.in.