Balancing your dealings

I am surprised how much biases we at times have about other people. We believe so much in ourselves that we do not even consider if other peoples' opinion matter or even count when a decision is to be made. Even in an organisations the leader/ supervisor thinks that his/her opinion and beliefs  are supreme and relevant and another idea from a subordinate is absurd. Often times people's minds are so full with their own opinions about everything that they simply refuse to listen to a second opinion.

Often I am reminded by colleagues that I am too lenient and flexible. I have reflected about this and I have also compared myself with some other people who are more dictatorial than me. Some of them are more successful than me while there are also others like me who are equally or more successful. To me the most important thing is TRUST and I would like to believe that all professionals are trustworthy.

I am convinced that I will not change my opinion about people that I work with or for that matter about those I interact with. I do not wish to prejudge anyone or even wish to judge in a rush. Essentially every person, including a criminal,  has a great deal of merit hidden within. And we can work on to bring out the best in every individual.  This, of course, does not mean that defaulters or criminals should go unpunished.

Bidding a farewell to yet another batch of graduates..

WHAT I LEARNED THIS YEAR

As I step into my 50s, I have realized that I still have a lot to learn. And I could learn from my students, my colleagues, seniors and subordinates all alike. One thing that I have definitely learned is that the time is rapidly changing and unless you continuously learn, change, modify and adapt, the rest of the world will move ahead of you and you may be miserably left behind. While this is my dilemma, I can imagine what should be that of the young people.

The university graduates of today are smarter, ahead of time, IT savvy and well informed. Information flows all around them on their computer and mobile screens, Tabs and Televisions; social media, besides the conventional sources like classrooms and other media. They have not only the luxury of choosing but also have challenges of screening and making right choices. There are more graduates every year but there are also far more opportunities as well as far more youth related issues than what we had 25 years ago when I graduated. I could never think of becoming IT officer, or a graphic designer, media person, or an entrepreneur or even a freelancer!! My choice was easy – either become a teacher or a civil servant.

The challenges for today’s graduates are completely different. They need to have far more skills to become independent, to take risk, to be open and flexible. They must be willing to start small and not immediately run after money and fame. While the communication skills are at the center stage of their lives, global skills are requisite to come out of their comfort zone and venture out into more challenging but exciting international opportunities.

Here at RTC, we all are very consciously providing these life skills to the students through more interactive classes, OCL, LRC, advising, class projects, talk series and wide varieties of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. I am hopeful that every graduate coming out of RTC has internalized some of these unique skills which will find them aside in the crowd of university graduates.

I wish every one of them a great success and remind them again that the learning never stops.