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Are you in comatose state? Learn the HR wisdom of Shrew
Highlights
Are you in a comatose state serving the needs of someone or are you after your needs by being extra smart like the ‘shrew in winter’? Answer to this question, both the corporate leaders and the employees must search out.
Are you in a comatose state serving the needs of someone or are you after your needs by being extra smart like the ‘shrew in winter’? Answer to this question, both the corporate leaders and the employees must search out.
The shrew is a small mammal. They are voracious eaters and have very high BMR. Naturally the animals that have very high food have to live in a place where the food is abundant. But throughout the year, food availability cannot be the same for any animal. Especially during winter, the food availability will be scare and less however the food needs of the shrew will not be less or it’s BMR, even during winter. It has to eat a lot even during winter otherwise it would die of starvation. The interesting question is how shrew manages to get enough food during such pinch season.
Nature has favoured the animal. The shrew has venom and they use the venom while biting the prey and kill them and eat. When food is not available during winter, what is the use of such venom? The shrews are indeed smart as well besides being venomous. The future planning and forecast are indeed amazing. Pre winter, the shrew use their venom to make the prey to go to comatose state and store the tranquilized prey animals carefully for the winter. During pre-winter, they will not just hunt to eat but also store the prey for the forthcoming adverse period.
Imagine how smart the shrew is. If the prey animals are killed and stored, it would decay and will not be palatable and such food also will be harmful to its health. So instead of killing them the shrew capture them and bite the venom and make the prey animals into a coma state.
The message is that adversity certainly will give advantage to those who know to sense them and use their intelligence. But one has to be an experimenter and an explorer. When we run after meeting our needs, we have to stop for a while and must ask, are we increasing our speed to search our needs or increasing our capability, smartness and strategies to fulfill our needs?
If we do not develop smartness and only focusing on speed, we would soon enter into comatose state to meet the needs of others. In corporate both the people like shrew and the prey animals of shrew in comatose state also can be seen. When one is running after ones need, must include the ingredients of future vision, strategies, smartness besides being workaholic or hardworking. Do not try to sell your hardworking traits in corporate. Also sell how smart and shrewd you can be. Also exhibit your strategizing capabilities especially during adverse and difficult period of the corporate. Corporate also must look for such leaders.
Unfortunately, the corporate that are family centric and those revolves around the entrepreneur like how electrons revolve around nucleus in an atom, always wants the ‘employees in comatose state’ because only such employees never revolt and refuse. Further such people also show high level of devotion to the owners, so the ego of the owner is heightened and boosted up. These people also can continue in comatose state and the owners of the company also can also continue to be happy with such people.
Shrews need is only food. So it has adopted the technique of tranquillizing the prey and stores them for winter. But for organizations, whether employees in such comatose state would really add value, corporate must introspect. Another fact is that the owners of some company appreciate people for high level of flexibility. According to them, flexibility means, an engineer doing the job of electrician, plumber and other odd jobs. The employees who are in a comatose state will never disagree for such jobs.
The question is whether you have appointed people to praise you and speak high about you or to accomplish the task. Have you appointed them to do whatever you say or a specific task that is already identified for them, their fitment is assessed and then they are appointed?
If the former is your objective, then change your strategy as it will do no good to your company. Be a motivator and not a beggar longing for motivation.
Learn to be as wise as a shrew in your business.
Dr S Ranganathan
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