Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Letter to God

My Dear God

Thought of sharing something with you today that I have been thinking about for quite some time. Come to think about it, you must be doing something right on account of which people remember you during times of need. That means you have been able to develop a reputation of being dependable. And that too, you have been consistent over a period of time. It is not that you have been transactional, you believe in developing relationships over a period of time, and have delivered largely to not just meet but exceed people’s expectations. And that truly means you are a high performer who believes in results-orientation.

You seem to be having a vision of how you would like the world to be. That is truly reflected in the broad range of evolutionary changes that you incorporate in the socio-economic and political environment of various locations that make up our world. I am truly surprised as to how do you balance your time in managing the daily operational issues, and also work out strategic interventions.

Guess, you are fairly adept in translating your vision into reality through some gradual interventions and also are willing to take bold steps on the environment front to drive home your message to the world. There sure is one significant advantage that you must be truly enjoying – not having any competitors, but tell me don’t you ever get bored? On second thoughts, having so much work to be done, may not give you the luxury of time to think of boredom, right?

A significant achievement of yours over the ages has been the development of your brand. It is extremely commendable that you have been able to build and position your brand and differentiated the same by responding in a timely manner to various evolutionary developments. Over the ages, there have been countless wise men that have championed your cause, and have reinforced the importance of your role in the wider community and encouraging others to do the same.

I believe that you must be fairly open to change and that is reflected in the countless opportunities that you provide to people to redeem themselves. You do encourage people to question the status quo by encouraging change initiatives when proved necessary. Over the ages it has been proved that you are willing to challenge your own assumptions, and are willing to support people who wish to explore new possibilities and have new beliefs about your own self. You have encouraged people to adopt a range of ideas, and generate creative solutions to radically improve the impact of their evolutionary presence.

Guess, you do have an advantage of seeing the bigger picture, and understanding the interrelationships between complex issues when problem solving. But taking decisions in a timely manner and consistently anticipating the impact of decisions on all stakeholders must not be easy. It must be really tough having to accept the responsibility of all your decisions, since your delegated executors may not always be able to convincingly explain the rationale of some of your pragmatic decisions.

Your deep and insightful understanding of the environment seems to be reflected in the various interventions. It really is a wonder as to how you positively create value for your stakeholders, while balancing the tension between continually seeking and seizing opportunities to accelerate top-line growth in certain locations, and at the same time showing due consideration for costs and risks.

There is no element of doubt, when one looks at your ability to inspire trust within your stakeholders. You have treated people fairly and consistently with dignity and respect and have acted to encourage the development of trust and have justly rewarded those who have selflessly championed your cause and mission.

One thing, that I have never understood is how do you establish performance measures to evaluate the success of your interventions? Am very keen to know as to how do you manage to motivate your key people, and proactively enhance their individual contribution given the fact that you are also known to be empathetic towards poor performers.

You do seem to possess an efficient talent management system, by virtue of which, you are never short of people who are inspired and convey your objectives in a compelling manner that captures the imagination and engages many of us. But as mentioned above, am still keen to know as to how do you manage under-performance. One aspect that I truly appreciate is you creating and providing opportunities for your team to gain visibility and sharing the credit for the success of your vision.

Another aspect that I truly admire is your willingness to back your team to the fullest, and demonstrating the courage in taking tough interventions. You must be taking personal risk and having to accept accountability for all situations, and you have demonstrated an ability to take a stand on principles at all times. Going by today’s standards, it is truly commendable that you are willing to challenge entrenched attitudes and behaviors that impact living a complete existence full of love and peace.

You also seem to be very committed to deliver and demonstrate outstanding service orientation. You are fairly clued into understanding the needs of your target audience, and leverage your network across the globe to offer customized product offerings and services. We do keep hearing of examples where your imaginative customer propositions have enabled you to exceed your follower’s expectations, and only helps them become more loyal customers.

You do use your knowledge of human psychology to expand your follower base, and demonstrate a discerning judgment when using your existing customers to winning new customers. The strong and lasting relationships that your customers share with you are enough proof of your ability to develop tailored solutions as per need and relative significance in terms of priority.



There is not doubt about your capabilities, when it comes to listening attentively and empathizing with your customers. There are situations when frictions, conflicts or disagreements between your stakeholders become evident. However, you do facilitate an environment where there is healthy exchange of ideas and opinions, and people are able to build on each other’s perspectives and reaffirm relationships. It does help that your strong network across the globe helps in achieving the larger objectives.

It has also been observed that you are able to use a broad range of interpersonal styles to match the requirements of any situation, and/or local environment and culture. You do proactively support fairness, and consistently challenge behavior/attitudes that undermine cultural groups or diversity in the larger setting. More importantly, you are able to command attention and engage others when presenting your ideas with passion and conviction. Your enthusiasm plays a key role in shaping and influencing the opinion of all other key stakeholders while reinforcing your credibility through consistently taking decisions that place the universe’s success over local success. Of late, you also seem to be demonstrating an improved awareness of communication and knowledge sharing systems to champion your cause.

You do seem to possess a high level of understanding of self, and do seem to be taking the feedback of your followers and work on the same. Some of the challenging assignments that you have taken up recently further reinforce your ownership of personal development. It is highly noteworthy that you are able to focus on self-development along with attainment of the larger goals that you have outlined to achieve. It is commendable that you not only focus on short-term goals but also have the long term in mind.

One aspect that is beyond dispute is your boundless energy levels, and exceptional levels of drive. Your advocacy of a universe full of love, peace and prosperity, and achieving the same without ignoring the aspects of culture & values does inspire enthusiasm and commitment from your followers. Another aspect that I truly admire is your ability to maintain composure, poise and confidence when dealing with the ambiguous challenges of your followers. You have an appropriately calming influence on your followers in equally demanding and stressful situations.

To summarize your feedback, have written a couplet that you may like to reflect upon for your development plan:

The Universe of yours is just like the lake,
The still waters never reveal the depths in its wake,
Many interpret the universe as shallow and opaque,
Others welcome the necessity of living for its own sake,

There are those who in their journey routinely face a brake,
Others face the same by accepting the condition of give and take,
There are those who need to be woken up with a forceful quake,
Others proactively give themselves a routine shake,
There are those who make it a point to fight for their worldly stake,
Others who are satisfied with their little pieces of cake,
There are those who make an effort to mask their intrinsic spirit that is fake,
Others make the conscious effort to remain spiritually awake,

The challenge is to use your imagination, to manage the multiple situations,
To demonstrate your passion, and commit to your vision,
To enable fusion in alignment with your intended direction,
Enabling a universe of peace, contentment and spirit of compassion.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Dear Ravi,
Browsed through your blog which is fantastic! I was introduced to your writing talent when you posted your LCBC Course experiences including the one on our great tour of Tadoba and ‘Chikani’ episode I have bookmarked your blog and will go through it in installments!

Great to be your friend!

Prashant