Tanya SachdevIt was November 1998 when I left my wife, children & mother and went for a forced change of job to Mumbai. Just after reaching the Delhi airport for my onward journey, I started praying to God to transfer me back to Delhi. Weeks later my prayers were same, years later the prayers were still the same .
I never ever changed my wish list to get intrinsic rewards, such as achievements/accomplishments or intrinsic rewards as pay & promotion as they were part of my daily routine capabilities. I excelled the benchmarks for better productivity, no stoppage in production, never let the market go dry ,i.e. no shortage of products in the trade from warehouse to distributor to retail shelf. Always ensured brand, pack, to be available as per volatile dynamic market requirement. In monthly ORMs (operation review meeting) I was the star of marketing team as I not only produced, but took care of the logistics of supply for up country markets & key accounts .
I was fortunate enough to be part of my marketing impact teams to go to the trade, educate the customer to merchandise the product, display on the shelf, ask my operation team to adopt the neighbor store/shop & spend time for better merchandising before going home from bus drop to house. All efforts were to introduce BAL (in hindi expanded –Belonging,Advocacy,Loyality for the product )in my team. All results were positive but I never prayed for this (operation) success.
My prayers were for single goal, wanna get back to my family, Delhi.
The journey from Mumbai was approximately 1300km & took two hours to reach Delhi & mostly I used to travel once in a month & cover twenty six hundred kilometers & spend four hours reaching & leaving home from place of work & back.
My prayers continued focused only on “wanna get back to family & Delhi”, never ever thought of children growing up, their needs, wife ageing- her desires, mother getting old- her wishes.
Lost ten & half years with one prayer, in commercial terms one objective, mark on the bulls eye, striving for perfection & not accuracy, yes God heard the prayers & I landed in Delhi.
Reaching Delhi, I started working for a group based out at Gurgaon and the journey started of covering fifty kilometers in the morning, taking two hours to reach the office & two hours in the evening to get back. Total commuting time daily four hours, the time it took me from Mumbai & back, total monthly journey of two thousand six hundred kilometers, the distance I used to cover to meet my family. But yes alas I was back home with the family.
Where did I get wrong, why did I still had to cover the same distance, the same time, also same monetary amount in commuting, by air or by car, I was focused on the end result & not the peripherals .
Never did I pray in detail that O Lord God please take me back to my family & ensure I do not spend same time and travel same distance in the month which I have to spend now. Then, I was focused on the bulls eye & not on the bull board. I was vague in praying, not covering all details and Lord God was right as the request was specific so was the answer.
Now after many years I’ve learnt that Lord God is also like Boss. If we just ask promotion, he changes the designation & not job profile, does not enriches the job description or support with additional training. Boss gives the same instructions & expects more to be accomplished, changes his perception, but does not add value, changes his intentions ,not preferences, entrusts more accountability but not authority, changes his perceptions not attitude, grants extrinsic rewards, pay & promotion, but does not influence intrinsic rewards for achievement /accomplishments .
The promotion asked by subordinate & fulfilled by Boss, does not benefit on either side. IF the subordinate on being granted promotion, does not change in attitude, does not takes the responsibility with more autonomy, does not widen the thought process & take things with better stride, in the process the company loses a good executive & individual. Similarly when Lord God fulfills some expectation, wishes, it is the prayer which does not put the right complete perspective & only asks for immediate relief without thinking the repercussions of unorganized approach the result is thanklessness .
The moral of the story is, never be specific for single goal with Lord God & boss, leave it to them to think what is best & deserving for the individual. Put effort & do your best, things will be as per their wishes & accept it , as it is said in Gita, “jaise karam karega waisa phal dega bhagwan” .
Tanya Sachdev
