Ever wondered why idol worship as a concept came into existence. If as our scriptures say that GOD is omnipresent then why was a place of worship created and why inside that a figurine of God put ?

I think it was done because to imagine God and pray in open space was not working out for people, they needed a face to imagine and a symbol or idol to look at and then attach the same reverence and awe that they had for the internal belief called God. In short we as human beings externalized our internal belief and source of inspiration so that we can easily connect with it on a frequent basis.

Point is why am I saying all this ?

I wanted to draw a correlation to another place (which is also called as a place of worship) and the need to externalize our social recognition so that we derive pride from it easily and regularly. All of us work at some place or the other and might be all or some of us would be proud to be working at that place. We are convinced that it is a good place to work and we feel proud to be there. Problem or insecurity creeps in when the name of the work place is not famous in the outside world. Whenever you move out of office and talk about your workplace and the work that you do and do not see the respect or pride in other persons eyes or behavior your social ego is badly hurt. Some of us who are more mature and who do not need someone else's appreciation to move on in life and be happy, manage easily but for the rest of us self doubt and frustration creeps in. We tend to distrust the company/office and feel cheated or we might just decide to leave since it does not give us the recognition that we are craving for. Hurts all the more when your near and dear ones hesitate talking about your workplace because they do not feel proud saying it.

Here comes the need to externalize the brand and the values or things that you like about your office or workplace. As the brand building gathers momentum and becomes famous in itself you realize that it makes your life all the more easier. Now your social ego is massaged nicely – you just say the place you work and rest of the things are taken care of by the person you are talking to.

Even though technically it is still the same place and the same values and work standards that you are maintaining but suddenly you feel more worthy because others feel that way. Of course for the persons who were matured enough to feel good without the brand externalization hardly see the difference, they felt good earlier and would continue feeling that way.

The intent of my writing this article was to explain the concept of brand building keeping in mind the effect it has in boosting morale of people. Of course there are a host of other areas for which brand building is used for but I have tried to explain only one aspect of it.

Now the question I want to ask is – do we actually need to externalize our self respect so as to derive social recognition or just let the way things are and convince ourselves that it hardly matters what others think about us ? Please share your views.

I and We

Most often you would have come across articles or people saying that good team players always believe in saying “We” rather than “I” , together we can achieve more etc etc. The fact is it is true but most often interpreted in a wrong way. A bunch of mediocre people would pull down a talented guy just thinking that we should perform and grow as a team not someone growing faster. They would brand him selfish, mean , arrogant etc.

In some cases he could be all those – I am not talking about that lot – the ones I am going to discuss are the good intelligent ones who suffer because they happen to be among a lot of average people who have twisted team spirit to such an extent that running faster that the rest looks like a crime.

How often have you been stopped by your team from completing a task early because rest will have to work equally fast, how often have you been criticized by your team members for coming on a Holiday because they all had decided not to come. You would have been made to feel guilty for not complying to the team decision and those who succumbed to team's whims and fancies were liked while those who did not were made fun of or plain ostracized.

To all these people all I have to say is hold on – to your convictions ,to your self belief, to your intelligence – it's just a matter of time that these mediocres will wane away. You deserve to win and get respect and recognition for being who you are.

Team work does not mean you wait till everyone else reaches the same level and then pull the rest and move together. Then we get into a situation where the bad ones are having a good time and the good ones are being punished because they are good. Just because you are good does not mean that you will work more than the average guy and still get paid the same. The system should be designed such that the good ones get more than the average ones and if still the average ones are a drag then they should be left – that way we always ensure that system is fair.

Let me give an example of team work – hope this gives a clear idea on I and We and we learn to appreciate both.

Just have a look at a pack of lions when they go for hunting – everyone works as a team because they know individually they cannot accomplish anything,that is the We part. But that does not mean someone just rests and gets free food or runs slow because anyways the food will be distributed equally- no. Every single lion knows his/her responsibility and works aggressively to achieve it – everyone performs their part with the zeal ,as if he/she is the only one hunting. The I of every individual is at it's peak then and all get their share based on their strengths. That is true team work where everyone contributes to the best of his/her ability and together achieve more.

From a company perspective :

The company wants to grow and be big but what the company actually comprises of is individuals – you. The best we can ensure that our company grows is by focusing on our own growth, lets be 100% selfish. When the I's start improving their competencies, everything else falls in place. When every individual develops enough self respect not to do sub standard work and as a step to achieve that starts focusing on his/her competency development then organization as a whole improves. It's so easy right ?

Appraisal Blues :-)

"Usually towards the close of appraisals people tend to go through a lot of stress. If you ask them what their appraisal would be majority would answer in the negative - their answers would range from "I will have zero hike" to "I might lose my job" . These are the set of people who have not done anything significant during the year (not everyone though - some people who have done good work forget that part because what they lack is self confidence - they are a little low on self esteem) and since they themselves realise this they tend to get anxious.

This is the time you would find people thinking a lot about their career, meaning what skills they need to learn, what career they need to have after few years etc etc. Two category of people do not go through this - first one, people who are very close to the movers & shakers of the company and by some means have a fair idea that they will have a good appraisal (infact they have ensured through their work or interpersonal skills that they will have a good year) second category of people who are immune to this anxiety are the ones who have lost hopes from the company and thier career, these are people who know anyways they do not have much of a future here.

Rest everyone else I think go through this phase of stress and career planning :-) . So far so good ! People can use this stress for their benefit if they continue this tempo of self learning even after the appraisals get over and their worst fears have not turned out to be true but what they do is they start taking it easy after that. Forget self learning they get into the habit of complaining and cribbing about company resourses and all. Post appraisal you would find these people involved in a lot of company bashing, somehow they are now self assured that job is safe so no need to bother about learning, time to find gaps in the company.

This goes on till next appraisal and the cycle keeps repeating :-) . How I know this ? I learned it through observation - both by observing others and my own self ;-). "