Posts tagged ‘attitude’
85% confidence, 43% Self belief and only 2.5% believe in Godfathers – Window to the Indian Youth – courtesy NHRD Youth survey
The youth of India don’t believe they need a Godfather! Self Belief and Good grades is all they need to get to success and their dream job!
Now where did I get that information from…
Steve Correa sent me a video link after the Awaken the Author within Session that Abhijeet, Prasad and I did at NHRD network Bangalore chapter Monthly meet.
Boy what a Sunday surprise. Apparently NHRD had surveyed young folks in school and college across urban centres and rural areas! The dire straits music insured I did not stop and move on but what the survey said had me riveted!
For 41% of them their parents were their career role model followed by Abdul Kalam at 8%! And interesting 22% had no role models – Wow!
38% of their parents have studied only up to school but 72% of them aspire to do a postgraduation or beyond!
For 62% Money is a MUST have in their dream job and at the same time challenging work was a prority. BTW most of them did not care about location and wanted to travel opportunities . A overwhelming 52% did not want job stress!
Only 3.67% believed they need a godfather, 44% believed self belief and 27% Good grades will get them to their success.
Guess what 86% of them were confident that they will get their dream job!
Wow… that is what I call optimism. Don’t stop with my rambling with the statistics, watch the video this is a terrific window to what the future workforce will be, what our children will aspire to and who our competitors at the workplace will be!
Awesome job by the National HRD Network in capturing this
It is a pity that such a fantastic survey has not received the airing it deserves. Pass it on, leave your comments but wait watch the video – that has more such interesting tidbits!
What do the Young in India think (Click on Link to watch video)
Bag full of chocolates
I was very upset a few weeks ago. I received a not so nice anonymous note in response to one of my blogs! Try as I may my mind kept straying back to this…i shared this with my friends they asked me to look at the tons of great notes i receive and one of them forwarded a very flattering note they had received when they forwarded my blog!
I moved on but this thought that one stray negative comment could upset me kept haunting me. I wanted to understand this phenomenon better- one where we overlook all the good and focus on that one negative aspect. I didn’t let go as i wanted to learn my lesson and didn’t want to fall prey to this again!
Around this time stuck in an absurdly long wait, due to delays and missed flights, i finished all my mails, made all the calls, and was really at my wit’s end! Just then i remembered i had my notes of conversations(work, external meetings and personal) with various folks over the last few months. I had started this a few months ago as i realized i could recollect only parts of the conversation, the ones that made an impact or presented well or contemporary.
I pulled out the notes, reading through was amazed at the variety of people, my bad writing and the number of people.
Maybe influenced by the mood I was in , i started classifying the comments positive and negative to be surprised – the negative things people spoke about far outnumbered the positive – 65% to 35% . Quite surprised, sliced it by personal and professional – the results were still the same except that personal was around 10% lesser than professional in negative outlook.
Intrigued and a tad disturbed by this finding i dug deeper – was there a difference in age group, degree of separation, place of meeting?.I stumbled upon an interesting statistic – those you met in seminars, networking events tended to be a lot more positive.
I classify negative comments broadly as statements such as difficult people to work with, things not working, disappointments, bad relationships, traffic,the weather etc…
I was intrigued, but soon caught the long awaited flight and got home,but the weekend had more in store.
The truth,hit home hard when i spoke with an old neighbor. They were married decades, raised three children and now retired rather comfortably. i slowly prodded her to talk of her life and her relationship, how is it living with the same person for 45 years! – the conversation started well… but what i remembered was her slowly complaining about how he has changed, should really watch his drinking, she wished at least now he paid more attention to her and not his library, she wasn’t getting enough time with her grandchildren and woes with her daughter in law!
Walking out just when I was saying gotcha see my data is right, my friend who was with me pointed out that we may have consciously only looked for the negative. We had our negative filter “on” because we wanted to prove our hypothesis right. He said why don’t we forget all the negatives and only focus on the positives. Come to think of it, there were a few… their first overseas trip, how wisely her husband had planned for their retirement and now it seemed she looked at his library as a delightful idiosyncrasy than a complaint! Wow… does this mean all my number crunching was a waste as i took those notes down with my filter “on”!
To help me solve this dilemma, the same wise friend suggested an experiment. Let us offer a bag of chocolates to a few children and ask them how they liked it. Surprise! Surprise- all of them spoke about the one bitter chocolate we had put in the bag! forgetting all those other lovely sweet melting ones!
This really set me thinking “do we really count our blessings?” or “do we just focus on that ONE negative? are we naturally predisposed that way? Or it is the environment, situations and/or upbringing that influences us and makes it a part of our personality?!
I don’t know the cause but my quack experimentation seems to show so. We don’t count our blessings! we only count and brood over what didn’t happen, could have happened, didn’t happen right – all the bitter chocolates. The many sweet ones are forgotten!
So, can we change the filter? I am going to try…
I have made a list of all things i am grateful for and stuck it in my home desk
I have made a get bugged by that one negative comment but balance it with those positive comments
Now i could become an exuberant, optimistic fool…i am ok to be that and not a pessimistic, cranky, difficult to please downer!
I should have seen this when i posted the “Happy blog on a noisy diwali”…. in November. It took a long travel schedule and a bag full of chocolates to remind me!
Happy Blog! On a Noisy Diwali!
I woke up this morning, reminded, very loudly that Diwali has arrived! Having missed my well earned beauty sleep on a rare Friday holiday.. I was all grumpy and ready to bite the first human that came my way!
All grumpy and treating it as yet another Friday morning, I continued to do the first thing i religiously do every morning i.e hit the blackberry and for some reason i opened this mail forwarded to me as the person who wrote the mail was shy and didn’t want publicity but was very keen on passing this message.
Now a forwarded mail and that too on my official id… I was a little wary & and don’t forget still grumpy… I was waiting to flag off a spam attack !!
Boy! Oh Boy was I in for a surprise! I read the mail once quicky, twice over…read it again smiling each time.
It was a note from a fellow Mphasian who had completed more than 5 years… writing in to say I don’t know who to thank, and I felt like thanking someone and therefore wanted this message sent to me! Wow thank you ma’me (now you know some info) you made my day! And really lit my Diwali nice and bright.… not by the message alone per se… but by the lovely thought behind the message … the thought of “move on, look at the happy, nicer things in life.. and smile on.. live on and lighten up”
I am reproducing the mail with modifications to protect the persons identity! But after this post if she says Yes I will let you know who it is!
Quote
“Hi
We are always so vocal about the things that we are not happy about and we make it a point that we express it to the highest designated person, so why not also appreciate in the same way.
I joined the company on 14th , November, 2xxx after initially being rejected in May and August.
When I joined the organization I was in need of a job, as the only aim I had then was to work for a year, save around a lakh rupees for the down payment of a 1 BHK house. This was my dream.
It will be x (more than 5 years) years on 14th November 2010 and I am still here, proud to be with Mphasis.
Also, my dream has come true with a lot of positive variations to it. Me and my husband saved enough to buy a 3 BHK duplex, I paid the down payment (much more than a lakh rupees!). I recently bought my own car that I drive in to office everyday, again with all I saved. My kids go to one of the best schools.
There have been a few challenges during these 7 years, which can be overlooked without batting an eyelid as Mphasis has given me and my family so much more in return!
Mphasis gave me a job when we as a family wanted one and for that I am emotionally attached to the organisation.
Mphasis has given me my ‘IDENTITY’. Thank you.
A few leaders that I would like to thank .. (deleted to protect privacy}
Unquote
OOOh! Did you notice…her comment “there were a few challenges but they can be overlooked!”
Is that why she is so happy and looking at the good things! She didn’t have to thank anyone, she achieved everything through her hard work, relationships and positive attitude. But yet… she did !
Is that why her glass if half full! I have no clue, I don’t want to pontificate but I am glad I read this note!
The cracker no longer sounds like an intrusion… it reminds me of children celebrating and of my own childhood. And I am smiling ready to welcome my sleepy family!
On that warm note – here is thanking all of you readers for being my rock of support! Reading the blogs, gently chiding when I miss and most of all your comments, emails and hallway conversations! THANK YOU – you insure I write.
Happy Diwali – go light somebody’s Diwali bright! Leave your comments as always