Read between the lines

In the corporate world, communication is very indirect and words are normally pregnant. It is very important to be able to interpret the true meaning of any mail, conversation, statement. The more we understand the corporate language the easier it is to save our jobs and move ahead in our career.

For Ex :
Boss - When I was of your age I never used to be late in office. As a well wisher, I do not want you to get into this bad habit at such an early part of your career.
Actual meaning - Please treat this as the last warning. Be on time or I will kick your ass.

It is very important to read between the lines which will easily come from experience and alertness. It is foolish to take things on face value. One has to be diplomatic and sharp to tackle such things :)

Beyond Job Role

In our workplace we generally do not bother to learn skills or gain knowledge beyond the boundaries of our job role. Eg : If a person is in the MIS team, he or she never bothers to look into anything beyond MIS or even get into the depth of MIS like why this, why that, what if we change this etc...This slows down our growth because we limit ourselves.

I have always been very fond of reading about new topics no matter how irrelevant they might be to my job role. I started my career, in an Aluminium Foil Packaging company IFL - a part of Sterlite Industries, with a short 10 day stint in Finance and then was moved to marketing both domestic and exports. When I became fully involved in Exports I generated a lot of interest for the international non-ferrous market trends and started reading vigorously on the primary metals market which had absolutely no direct link to my job role. My boss used to tell me that I am wasting my time but I did not listen. In 10 months my newly developed passion bore fruit. The global markets became very very bullish and in one quarter the prices reached historic highs. This sudden turn of events made global benchmarking of prices a must and I was the only person in IFL at that time who knew how LME (the benchmark for non-ferrous metals) works. You must have guessed it by now - I became a very important employee :)

The above is just a small illustration of why we should continuously build our skills and should be very well read. Just knowing how to do your work well is not enough. Anyways after a certain time period you master your work, so to ensure faster progress one should always be looking at building new skills, preferably keeping in mind our goal in life. A career is like a jigsaw puzzle, we have the final picture in mind and all our moves should be directed towards putting the pieces in place.

How to take leave from Office for Seva

Many people have asked me this question time and again that how do I manage to get so much leave from office - the answer is 'I dont know'. People have told me that I am blessed with too much of grace...nothing of that sort. There are a few things that I follow religiously which might be the reason why I manage to get leaves -

1. Intention - Everyone must have heard this before. Your intention makes all the difference. If you really want to do seva, situations will be created in your favour. I have experienced this too many times. Keep your intention very clear and very strong.
2. Efficiency at Work - You have to be extremely good at your work. Being one of the best in office, if not the best, makes it easier to get approval for leaves
3. "You do my work, I will do your work" - This one of my favourite statements of Guruji....and trust me it works miraculously. You have an unfair advantage over others and you should use it shamelessly. A word of caution - it is very easy to get carried away by this statement, please do not be irresponsible at any point of time. Once you start getting involved in seva activities, of course with very noble intentions, you will see everything else just falls into place - orders start pouring in, customers become your best friends, seniors start noticing you etc etc.....so what are you waiting for - just start doing seva right now.
   
4. Have good relations at workplace - This is also very important. You should be friendly to everyone right from the security to the CEO. Be genuinely nice and do not go around buttering people unnecessarily. Being in the good books of the majority helps in building an overall image that in turns makes it easier for your bosses to give you leave.
5. Be genuine - Please be true to your bosses as much as possible. I have personally been very open about my involvement in AOL and it has worked for me. Speaking the truth increases mutual trust and improves your relation with seniors. This point is very case specific, but do make an effort to be truthful, if it works then bingo - you have hit the jackpot. If it does'nt, please follow other points :)

Well that covers more or less everything that I do to get leaves for seva. I have also noticed that sadhana makes a lot of difference. So please keep your sadhana very very strong and all the best to all of you. I am sure that if you really want to do seva, no force on earth can stop you :)