All posts by : ShyamalB

We are created by the almighty with a mouth and two ears. Does it make any sense or ring a bell!!!!

In school we were taught about three (03) monkeys of Mahatma Gandhi. I remember the picture our teacher showed to us, first monkey was covering the mouth, second one was covering the eyes and the third one was covering the ears. We were taught that we must not speak no evil like the monkey covering the mouth, see no evil like the monkey covering the eyes and hear no evil like the one covering the ears. 

Later on with the help of #Google I came to know that “the inspiration for most monkey groups comes from a carving above the portico of a 17th century temple in Japan called the Nikko Toshogu Shrine which includes a carving of the three wise guardian monkeys in a representation of a sacred stable.  In Japanese ‘don’t see, don’t hear and don’t speak’ (‘see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil’) is translated as ‘Mizaru, Kikazaru, Iwazaru’.  (Ack.: Emil Schuttenhelm, https://oldcopper.org/special_topics/three_wise_monkeys.php)

The significance of our one mouth and two ears is that we should listen more and speak less. This belief was inculcated in our childhood by our parents and wise teachers which has helped in the present day job performance. But, many a times listening to certain rubbish talks in meetings/discussions mostly spoken by the #Introverts for proving themselves makes me remember the 3 monkeys, by alas, I could not cover my ears. It so happens that people like me who are normally #Extroverts, who opines only when asks for, misses out the opportunity to speak or express. Maybe, we need to take more initiative. But, for the direct words that we speak anguish others because we cannot use a lot of adjectives and limit ourselves to #less talk and more listen. So many a time, people like me lose out, gets hurts and also marked as inefficient until the leader tries to understand us and observe our on the job performance keenly.

The good encouraging aspect of adhering to our universal creation is that you #Google out to find the leadership traits, what one must do to become a good leader amongst various qualities one important quality that one needs to develop is to # “Listen More” or # Active Listening or be #Good Listeners or #Listening Effectively etc. . If you are a person who listens more but talk less, you may not be a great leader but in the long run you will have a # Fulfilling LIFE, both professionally and personally .

So, behave naturally, as you are being created, # Two Ears and a Mouth.

“Respect: a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.” Oxford Dictionary.

Mutual Respect at work is the foundation of establishing a healthy working environment as it when we have mutual respect for one another we can value and appreciate the qualities, abilities and achievements of others. We feel happy, loyal and are motivated to contribute our best in our organization if we feel we are valued, appreciated and belonged. In simple terms, we respect others only when we feel we are being respected.

If we have mutual respect in our workplace we tend to create a conducive working environment which leads to enhanced productivity, efficient operations, more communication leading to more collaborative approaches leading to happy and satisfied workforce. A happy and satisfied workforce is more engaged and this is the need of the hour for all organization striving to be the best with competitive advantage.

An environment of # Mutual Respect leads to employee satisfaction resulting in enhanced employee engagement which in turn reduces stress, enhances share and care.

Statistics Speaks; in the # 2018 Gallup Study of more than 350,000 American employees it was found that only 30% were engaged at work.

# HBR survey found that out of 20,000 employees, # respect was the leading behaviour that encourages greater commitment and engagement.

The goal for each one of us is to create an environment of # Mutual Respect. We can do wonders if we imbibe it in ourselves.

In my capacity, I try to treat each person, no matter what he/she might be with respect. When we treat a person of low social status with respect, the brightness in his/ her eyes speaks and it makes me so happy that can’t be expressed in words. Lets try or continue…

Why we need to smile???

That day I was talking with my kids and was explaining to them the need for smile. How a smile can make a great difference. When new people come to join my organization as a first point of contact, I have a session with them, sometimes in small groups or sometimes individually. I have felt that a few words at the start of their new life which may be their point of transition from college life or change from unemployment to employment etc. these works or the interactions really works. One of the most common thing I explain to them is the need for smile. The smiles do not come to their faces even if they are informed about the benefits of a smile. But, when I give an example that relates directly to each of them, immediately the situation changes and #SMILE flows and this is the #SMILE from within.

I start telling them, Imagine you are going to buy vegetables from the market. As you enter, out of the many sellers one or two welcomes you with a smile followed by some encouraging words, words of respect “Sir”, “Madam”, “Brother”, “Sister” etc. . Your brain acts immediately and you are inclined to go to that person who smiles at you with those encouraging and respectful words, even that person may not have the best of the vegetables with him or her or may be at the far end. A relationship starts and it remains for long i.e. the #SMILE has made the breakthrough, a beautiful business strategy. “Why, why you go to him/her?” Because you liked, felt happy and comfortable. So, my question to you all is now “Why can’t you be like the vegetable seller???”, “What stops you?”, “Does a smile cost you something?” So now, #SMILE and the job is done.

I liked the “Top 10 Reasons to Smile Every Day” by Mark Stibich, PhD, https://www.verywellmind.com/top-reasons-to-smile-every-day-2223755

1. Smiling Helps You Live Longer

2. Smiling Relieves Stress

3. Smiling Elevates Mood

4. Smiling Is Contagious

5. Smiling Boosts the Immune System

6. Smiling May Lower Blood Pressure

7. Smiling Reduces Pain

8. Smiling Makes You Attractive

9. Smiling Suggests Success

10.Smiling Helps You Stay Positive

To sum with a beautiful quote of Peace Pilgrim…

Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard in the 60’s came out with the explanation, “handing off responsibility from a leader to a worker” which later came to be known as the Delegating Leadership Style.

It is also known as laissez fair (non-interference in other people’s affairs, French Term), as the leader places greater responsibility on his subordinates. 

“Successfully using delegation of authority as a leadership style would take more energy and time, but it is worth to make employees involved and empowered. It is good to know that you have helped them develop, succeed and meet your expectations, while building their confidence.” (http://www.josephchris.com/6-delegating-leadership-style-examples)

While working as a Team Leader, I have effectively utilized the Delegating Leadership Style. The results were Awesome. We, as a team were able to complete the assigned tasks effectively on time and in several occasions before the stipulated time. The most satisfying aspect is to observe the high level of zeal and passion of the contributing  subordinates/ team members. It generates trust and confidence, motivates and empowers people. 

One can become a delegating leader only if he/she has the capability to judge his/her subordinates effectively, have a firm grip on the subject, believes in empowering and motivating his/ her subordinates or team members. According to my practical experience, before applying this style, one should

· Critically assess the capability of the team (skill & knowledge of team members)

· Understand the readiness of the team

· Plan for the task

· Set clear deadlines

· Pinpoint responsibilities with accountability

· Review in regular intervals

· Scope for mid-term corrections

· Regular Interaction and Feedback

A person can effectively adapt the Delegating Leadership Style only if he/she has a high level of:

· Trust

· Good Communicator

· Effective Planner

· Excellent Communicator

· Time Management

· Believes in Empowering Others

My motto  and firm belief of “Successful Task Accomplishment (STA)” has always been a major contributor in the positive and effective contributions. 

In plain-speak, I prefer to say it as “Sharing and Caring Leadership Style.”

“Celebrating Success is a big moral booster and motivating factor in this style.”

References:

· If You Want It Done Right, You Don’t Have to Do It Yourself!: The Power of Effective Delegation by Donna M Genett 

· To Be a Great Leader, You Have to Learn How to Delegate Well by Jesse Sostrin

“Sunk Cost” is the cost that have already incurred and cannot be recovered. 

The money has already been spent and it cannot be recovered and hence it should not be a factor in future decisions.

The sunk cost effect is manifested in a greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made. Individuals commit the sunk cost fallacy when they continue a behavior or endeavor as a result of previously invested resources which may be time, money or effort. (Arkes, H. R., & Blumer, C. (1985), The psychology of sunk costs. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 35, 124-140.)

“Sunk Cost Fallacy” –  People have stronger emotional connections to things they’ve lost and the urge to recover becomes a strong motivator; resulting in bad decisions. than they do to the things they’ve gained.

A simple example may be that you have spent time, effort and money to buy a Pizza. However, as you start eating it, you do not like the taste, not enjoying it, but you continue eating it and finish it since you have already spent your time, effort and money. So, not eating it may be a loss to you and hence you have fallen prey to “Sunk Cost Fallacy.”

Remember the Concord Project which lead to the term “Concorde Fallacy”. Its a great example. The Concorde Fallacy refers to the fact that the British and  French governments continued to fund the aircraft even after it became apparent that there was no longer an economic case in it.   

“The idea that you should continue to spend money on a project, product, etc. in order not to waste the money or effort you have already put into it, which may lead to bad decisions.” (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/french)

Interested readers may visit the like to know more  https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimblasingame/2011/09/15/beware-of-the-concorde-fallacy/#ae25b6a4e226

If we try to remember the effect of Sunk Cost Fallacy in our life, we may make better and fruitful decisions by exploring various available options; leading to a better utilization of our effort, time and money.

Thank you for reading… any views, comments shall add value and motivate.

Anchoring Bias is a Cognitive Bias in which an individual’s decision is influenced or depends on the first piece of information or initial information received.

A common susceptible candidate to the anchoring bias are physicians when diagnosing patients where the initial impression about the patient often create an anchoring point. This may also lead to incorrect assessment of the patient’s problem.

Tversky and Kahneman in their research concludes the cause of anchoring-as-adjustment. 

After an anchor is set, people adjust away from it to get to their final answer; however, they adjust insufficiently, resulting in their final guess being closer to the anchor than it would be otherwise.

Tversky, Amos; Kahneman, Daniel (1992). “Advances in prospect theory: Cumulative representation of uncertainty”.Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. 5 (4): 297–323.

Anchoring Bias influences our decision while purchasing new things like car, house etc. Someone tells you that a 5 year old sedan cost X and you do some research and find out that the rate is nearly around +/- 5% of X. So, you make up your mind accordingly and when you get a car at that price you are biased and is willing to pay and buy the car. In fact, you go on with your decision and purchase the car. You fail to look more options/ deals which may latter affect you negatively.

Next time, before deciding just PONDER…

Anchoring Bias has a powerful impact on the various decisions we make, for which we must give it a due diligence.  

False Consensus Bias is the tendency of people to overestimate the level to which other people agree or share their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours which leads to people thinking that others agree with them.

People also tend to overvalue their own opinions due to this bias. Since, people live or grow up in family or society where the thinking of the people are mostly similar, this bias starts developing. Further, if we are too much confident on an idea or viewpoint we fall prey into False Consensus Bias.

Researcher Lee Ross and his colleagues studied and came up with the term “False Consensus Effect or Bias”.

“The False Consensus Effect: An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution process”,1977 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/002210317790049X). 

They asked students at Stanford University to walk around the campus for half an hour wearing a large sandwich board that read “Repent,” counting the number of people who spoke with them while they walked around wearing the sign. They wanted to compare the students who said yes and who said no. They found that students who agreed to do this unusual request believed that a clear majority of other students would also agree to do so. But the students who to do so believed that a clear majority of other students would also refuse. This tendency is known as the False Consensus Effect. 

It was concluded that people often believe that there is more consensus—that is, more agreement—for what we say, think, and do than is really the case.

When we talk with someone, say about the performance of a team in a football match, we share our opinions and also thinks that the other persons also agree to our views. This is in simple sense nothing but our False Consensus Bias

Politicians and Leaders are normally the victim of False Consensus Bias as they think that people support them… 

Ross, L., Greene, D., & House, P. (1977). The false consensus effect: An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 279–301.

The hindsight bias is a common cognitive bias that involved the tendency of people to see events, even random ones, as more predictable than they are.

Hindsight Bias or knew-it-all-along phenomenon; It is the tendency of people to look back on events and believe that we “knew it all along”.

Source: “I Knew It All Along…Didn’t I?’ – Understanding Hindsight Bias”. APS Research News. Association for Psychological Science. Retrieved 29 January 2019.

This tendency to is surprisingly prevalent.

Research suggests that the Hindsight Bias occurs due to the following three variables :

1. Distortion or Misremembering the earlier prediction about the event.

2. Tendency to view the event was to happen; inevitable.

3. Assuming that events could have been foreseen prior to occurrence.

While watching a tense game between a league topper and a bottom rung team, somehow the underdogs holding on to a draw till the last minute, and suddenly one comes up with the remark, “I knew beforehand that the match will end in a draw.” Maybe in reality that person was thinking otherwise.

This leads to overconfidence, strong belief for success. It happens while investing in stocks and it leads to taking too much unnecessary risks.

Hindsight bias has been found to occur more likely when the outcome of an event is negative than positive, [Schkade, D.; Kilbourne, L. (1991). “Expectation-Outcome Consistency and Hindsight Bias”. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 49: 105–123] a phenomenon consistent with the more general tendency for people to pay more attention to negative outcomes of events than positive ones. [Fiske, S. (1980). “Attention and weight in person perception: The impact of negative and extreme behavior”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 38 (6): 889–906.]  

Researchers Roese and Vohs suggest that one way to counteract this bias is to consider things that might have happened but didn’t. By mentally reviewing potential outcomes, people might gain a more balanced view of what really happened.

We meet many such people in our day to day life, sometimes we too become victim of Hindsight Bias, knowingly or unknowingly. So, better be careful. This will help a lot…

Dunning-Kruger effect is a Cognitive Bias, in which a person thinks or believes that he or she is more smarter, capable and effective i.e. they are unable to make a realistic judgement of their own self and overestimate their capabilities.

This was developed after extensive research by two social psychologists, David Dunning and Justin Kruger.

A simple example is the marks scored by a candidate in an examination. Most of the candidates who feels that they scored less but were supposed to have secured more marks is a perfect case of Dunning-Kruger effect. Such candidate not only overestimate themselves in terms of their knowledge, capabilities etc. but they are also not doing a realistic assessment of their performance. They are never to succeed in the long run and will remain poor performers throughout unless they make a true assessment of self and are able to realize their own potential.

A simple way is to look at the results, do a self introspection, a detailed analysis on the outcome, accept the shortcomings and move ahead with better planning and more hard work.

It has been proved by various researchers that incompetent people are unable to accurately assess and recognize the quality of their own work and hence are poor performers, they are also. Further, such people think of themselves as better, capable, knowledgeable, more competent than others and are unable to recognize or assess or accept the good things, more competence people, resulting in the Dunning-Kruger effect

Dunning and Kruger suggest that this phenomenon occurs due to “dual burden.” 

People are not only incompetent; their incompetence robs them of the mental ability to realize just how inept they are.

A person may have little knowledge on the subject but due to Dunning-Kruger effect he/ she may think of himself as an expert and starts delivering the expertise!!!!

In today’s world, we come across many such ‘knowledgeable’ persons, basically who knows the “various dots” but are “unable to connect these dots and make a line.” However, the annoying fact is that they never understand and start delivering the ‘dots” and often become a irritating factor.

Next time, when you meet such a person, just remember the Dunning-Kruger effect and make a plan to relieve yourself.

Better luck for the next time.

Grateful to Kendra Cherry for the article published June 14, 2019 which motivated to pen these lines…(https://acikders.ankara.edu.tr/pluginfile.php/159198/mod_resource/content/1/Dunning%20Kruger%20Effect.pdf)

If you want to be happy, Be…Leo Tolstoy

Happiness is our own; no one has control over it. But, we ourselves are to be blamed as we find each and every reason to be unhappy. In our day to day life it may not be always possible to be happy all the time, but if we try we can limit on our reasons for unhappiness and move into being a happy person.

Let’s try to be happy no matter what. A few steps may be to read various literature available;

One such good book to start with…

Steps towards happiness:

· Positive Mindset: Try to be in a positive set of mind. It’s difficult, but remember that when we discuss our pain with others, it only multiplies. So, share such only if there is a need to be happy, share with someone who can feel it, support and most important is that you feel like sharing i.e. to lighten your burden or source or reason of unhappiness and you expect some positive encouragement in return.

Remember to what Leo Tolstoy said, “One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken.”

· Be at One with Nature: Learn from Nature. No matter what, how much we give sorrow, try to harm, disturb nature, we fail as Nature remains the same. The trees again grows after we cut, the flower still bloom even after we pluck, river flows even stopped and so on. So, we must learn from nature; be happy by setting asides our sorrows. Look forward..

· .Change Attitude: It is said the we try to change others than to change ourselves. The irony is that, if we are not able to change ourselves, how can we change others. Let out change our attitude, be positive and try to change our negativity with positive thoughts, action; somewhat an introspection of self in the positive direction.

· Be content: Another important aspect is to be content. If we are content, we are happy because we have all we want. Our desires stop and we do not look at others, compare and let the material possessions become the reason of our unhappiness. Be content with what you have and enjoy happiness forever.

· Gratitude: Just be grateful to everything; health, wealth etc. and be happy. I am grateful that you will read it, like it, comment and it will make happy. Even criticism, will make me happy after momentary anguish as it will help me to be a better person…

Please stop by and offer your valuable thoughts… SEE YOU SOON.