I spoke these words in one of our recent podcast episodes. One of the emotions that I am inclined towards post-pandemic is the word Empathy. I know that it is and will be the most abused business term in the coming future. Like the one to be authentic. People will add it to their bios, put it on the banners, quote it in their speech etc. I am grateful that we have crossed the most stressful two years of our life. I am sure we all had our share of struggles in the past this must have been one of the longest, especially on mental health.
I was speaking with someone from London and she was asking about the situation in India. We had a conversation about profits and sustainability. I shared with her how I had to change the way I work post-pandemic by adding empathy. Human Life is so fragile that we have to be very careful to choose our fights. I named it as adding a Human Filter in every conversation. Looking at every situation by adding a human filter into it. You will be ambitious, outspoken, result-driven, aggressive, optimised and innovative. There will be all sorts of emotions like anger, fear, frustration, disappointment, worry, confusion, upset, panic etc. You have to choose if the human relation is more important to you than the numbers, results or outcomes.
This doesn’t mean we don’t work with ambitious goals. It means you will put human needs ahead of chasing an arbitrary number. It means every deadline is negotiable. It means you will make mistakes. It means people will have unforeseen emergencies. It means you when you see a dog during a sales pitch it’s not unprofessional. It means I don’t have to sugar quote my mistakes. It means losing a deal is not the end of this world. It means having a break-even year doesn’t make you sleep empty stomach. It means if you have a glitch in your product accept it without coverup. It means having a goal of serving 100 clients is audacious for you. It means celebrating having 1 raving fan as your client. It means having a laugh during a hiring interview. It means if you make losses you roll back a few of your initiative. It means during the tough times you lean on your team and ask for help. It means you make sure the calculated risks you take has low to no downside. It means shameless use of proven working ideas from the world. It means using effortless techniques and bringing the same results even if it does not add profits to your company. It means leaving money on the table so your clients always feel they win with you. It means saying sorry in the way that you mean it.
I think it’s better to have happy days, even if it means you make 20% less money today to make 200% more money next year
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Sorry for the rant. However, there are new ways to build a business in the digital world. Which one will you choose? Do you want to build the business like a game?
In any game, there are always two currencies required to play- will and resources.
Will, in contrast, is intangible and harder to measure. When we talk about will, we’re talking about the feelings people have when they come to work. Will encompasses morale, motivation, inspiration, commitment, desire to engage, desire to offer discretionary efforts and so on. Will generally comes from inside sources like the quality of leadership and the clarity and strength of the Just Cause. Will represents the sum of all the human elements that contribute to the health of the organization.
from the book The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
Vikram Shetty 