Navtej Kohli Business Blog

A bundle of sticks

Navtej Kohli says the best lessons in life comes through mistakes and personal experience. Here on Navtej Kohli Business Blog, he reminds us of an old story signifying the importance of unity.

Once upon a time, a father and his family of Sons lived in a village. The sons were forever quarreling among themselves, never paying heed to whatever their father said. Tired of this daily tension, he decided to taught his sons a lifetime lesson. He cast about in his mind for some very striking example that should make them see that discord would lead them to misfortune.

One day when the quarreling had been much more violent than usual and each of the Sons was moping in a surly manner, he asked one of them to bring him a bundle of sticks. Then handing
the bundle to each of his Sons in turn he told them to try to break it. But although each one tried his best, none was able to
do so.

The Father then untied the bundle and gave the sticks to his Sons to break one by one. This they did very easily.

“My Sons,” said the Father, “do you not see how certain it is that if you agree with each other and help each other, it will be impossible for your enemies to injure you? But if you are divided among yourselves, you will be no stronger than a single stick in that bundle.”

The sons realized their mistake and got reunited.

Moral:
In Unity is Strength.
Disunited families are easily injured by others.
United we stand, Divided we fall.

Know the real meaning Corporate Terms on Navtej Kohli Business Blog.

• 404 - Someone who’s clueless. From the World Wide Web error message “404 Not Found.”. Used as in: “Don’t bother asking him…he’s 404.”
• ADMINISPHERE - The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
• ALPHA GEEK - The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group.
• BLAMESTORMING - Sitting around in a group discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed and who was responsible.
• CHAINSAW CONSULTANT - An outside expert brought in to reduce the employee head count, leaving the brass with clean hands.
• CHIPS AND SALSA - Chips = hardware, salsa = software. i.e.: “Well, first we gotta figure out if the problem’s in your chips or your salsa.”
• CLM - Career Limiting Move - Ill-advised activity. Trashing your boss while he or she is within earshot is a serious CLM.
• CUBE FARM - An office filled with cubicles.
• DEINSTALLED - Euphemism for being fired. Voice mail message: “You have reached the number of a deinstalled vice president. Please dial our main number and ask the operator for assistance.”
• DILBERTED - To be exploited and oppressed by your boss. “I’ve been dilberted again. The old man revised the specs for the fourth time this week.”
• FLIGHT RISK - Employees who are suspected of planning to leave the company or department soon.
• G.O.O.D. Job - A “Get-Out-Of-Debt” job. A well-paying job taken to pay off debts, - they will quit as soon as they are solvent again.
• MOUSE POTATO - The on-line, wired generation’s answer to the Couch Potato.
• OHNO-SECOND - That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you’ve just made a BIG mistake.
• PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE - Whacking an electronic device to get it to work again.
• PRAIRIE DOGGING - When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people’s heads pop up over the walls to see what’s going on.
• SEAGULL MANAGER - A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps over everything and then leaves.
• STRESS PUPPY - A person who thrives on being stressed out and whiny.
• TREEWARE - Documentation or other printed material.
• XEROX SUBSIDY - Swiping free photocopies from one’s workplace.

Effective delegation of work decides your fate as a manager. Roping in right kind of people for the right kind of job is what the game is all about. Having mastered this game, Navtej Kohli brings to you a few rudimentary tricks of effective delegation.

Perhaps, this story on Navtej Kohli Business Blog will help you understand this point better.

A Wolf had been prowling around a flock of Sheep for a long time,
and the Shepherd watched very anxiously to prevent him from
carrying off a Lamb. But the Wolf did not try to do any harm.
Instead he seemed to be helping the Shepherd take care of the
Sheep. At last the Shepherd got so used to seeing the Wolf about
that he forgot how wicked he could be.

One day he even went so far as to leave his flock in the Wolf’s care
while he went on an errand. But when he came back and saw how
many of the flock had been killed and carried off, he knew how
foolish to trust a Wolf as he exclaimed. “I have been rightly
served; why did I trust my sheep to a Wolf?”

Moral:
Delegate your task wisely, and only to people you trust.

Navtej Kohli adds another leaf to Business Fable Category on Navtej Kohli Business Blog.

A new hotel employee was asked to clean the elevators and report back to the supervisor when the task was completed. When the employee failed to appear at the end of the day the supervisor assumed that like many others he had simply not liked the job and left. However, after four days the supervisor bumped into the new employee. He was cleaning in one of the elevators. “You surely haven’t been cleaning these elevators for four days, have you?” asked the supervisor, accusingly. “Yes sir,” said the employee, “This is a big job and I’ve not finished yet - do you realise there are over forty of them, two on each floor, and sometimes they are not even there..”

Wierd!!!!!!!

Navtej Kohli business blog brings to you another sarcastic piece of business humor…

How many work breaks do you get?

‘There is no education like adversity’ Navtej Kohli firmly believes in this statement.

A life without obstacles is as good as dead. Whether they are everyday problems or crisis situations, how we handle them will determine how good we are as a leader. The weak leaders crumble when the odds stack up and surrender even before any attempt to overcome the obstacles. The great and successful leaders on the other hand see adversity as a challenge. Against all odds, they rise above the difficulties and land up scaling greater heights than before. They do not merely survive the adversity, they thrive. Leaders should continually conquer adversity and, amid the chaos, look out for new opportunities to undertake and excel in. Like the old mule in our fable, once we have set our minds to clear all the obstacles, we will succeed in any endeavor.

Story:

Old Mule in Well

A farmer owned an old mule. One day, the mule fell into the farmer’s well. The mule brayed loudly and caught the attention
of the farmer. Upon assessing the situation, the farmer ruled out any possibility of a rescue as it was simply too much trouble to lift the mule out of the well. Out of sympathy for the animal, he decided to enlist his neighbors’ help to haul dirt into the well to put the mule out of his misery.

The old mule was hysterical upon learning that his life would thus end. However, as the farmer and the neighbors shoveled
the dirt into the well, a thought struck the old mule. He realized that if he could shake off every dirt that landed on his back, the dirt would hit the floor and he could step on the dirt.

Shovel after shovel, he continued relentlessly to shake off the dirt and step on top of it. He fought the sense of panic and
distress and just went on shaking off the dirt and climbing higher up the well.

With much determination and perseverance, the old mule eventually stepped out the well, battered and exhausted, but
otherwise triumphant that he had survived the ordeal. Through the way he handled the situation of adversity, the act of burying him in fact saved his life.

Moral:

There is a solution to every problem.
Never give up.
Adversity creates opportunity.