Well many a times a man is known by the company he keeps.Or is it at times by the way he runs the company.There are many a kind of Myths that pervade in every organization & teach the employees,what sort of behavior is acceptable & what is not acceptable.Myths can be positive or negative,may be true or may not be true,but one thing is for certain,if the behavior that is demonstrated within the organization does not match with all the glossy advertisement & notices put up on the board,there will be no credibility & the only lesson to be learnt will be,not to trust all that we hear or see or smell(LoL).Recently I did get an opportunity to understand these facts.
As a professional trainer,I do get opportunity to visit some of the company locations & one such visit,I came across a large construction company managed by well know personality of Hyderabad,whose advertisements say that customer are the most imperative people are to his business.
The first impression that I received when visiting his company office is being confronted by walls,mud,bags of sand barriers,concrete & broken glass all around the site,but above all,there is was no sign to indicate neither the name of the company nor the directions of the office.Well thanks to the helpfulness mobiles,I could land at the doorstep of the building.Is my commotion over? Nope,not yet.We had to get out of my car & walk up to the security office to find out if we have reached the correct destination.By the grace of our navigational skills,we did reach the right place & the security man confirmed it.
The next task for my intrepid team is to find the visitor's parking space,Yep; it was not the easy way to gain access to the parking lot.It is the roughest,muddiest corner of the site,a good 300 meters from the main reception building & not inside the building.I drove down all the way down to park my vehicle.And to add an affront,I was lucky to have survived the long walk back through mud,gravel,slush to arrive at the main building.Luckily I left my team at the security office.
After the security drill of checking,who we were,what the purpose was,what was going in,etc,we were ready to enter the building with visitor tags hanging around.Now What,It is almost impracticable to walk up the flight of steps in front entrance.Why? because the MD's imported car was parked right on the edge of the narrow steps leading to the reception area,which means that any one who has survived the ritual & have still retained,the will to survive the harsh world,will have to squeeze down between the side of the car & the border edge of the wall to gain access to the front office.Well,we did manage to squeeze ourselves in.
Now,at last as you try to catch your breath after the ordeal,you find that the receptionist is not at the desk.Well she is cleaning her self off in the adjusted cabin of the material she carried all the way in.Ah At least she is trying to look presentable after the daily routine.We had to take a flight of four stairs to reach my training centre,as the lift is reserved for the MD & His personal staff.
After all these adventurous battles,we reached the training centre,huffing n puffing & after putting together our gear n teaching aids,I found half of the participants missing.There are fanatic calls to all sundry enquiring where they are stuck,hopefully not in the muddy entrance.And the rest is another story of its own.
Everybody needs a role model,someone whom we can emulate to a small extend.But in reality without tapping the knowledge & experience of the person who has success before us,we are likely to fall into the same pits that they could have fallen into or have difficulty clearing the same hurdles & obstacles.In this case,I have learned from this role model,what things I should not be emulating.I have learned an invaluable lesson of the pit falls.Well was Maradona,a good Role Model or Not? We all know the answer.I could just recall him,as I am watching Football.
“You should be the change that you want to see in the world.” - Mahatma Gandhi
Now would you blame the member of staff of this company for their devil may care attitude to customers & others vendors or external agencies.For in spite of all the ostentatious mission statements in public & quality policies,they know what their MD really thinks.He in his own subtle way every morning tells them as they come to work.They gain knowledge of far more from that demonstration from him than they ever did from any customer care training classes or for that matter,even from the one they had undergone under me.
