Principles at Stake

Contributed by: Kamzason Hangsing
Dated: 5th June, 2013

KHEL, fortunately happens to be my first job. I am happy that KHEL serves me so well, say it in terms of inspiring, motivating or even a means for coping with my emotions, etc.  My friends would usually say, “aap ka toh mast hai” or thanks to Facebook, that they would keep on reminding me how lucky I am. However, like every hero has his own share of challenges, despite all the fun that I have had, there are questions poking my inner being ever since I become a KHEL-adi. Still then, KHEL has been constantly guiding me to improve the skills that I have often preached and gives me an opportunity to widen my perspective and polish my principles.

All the Moral Science of schools and the Conscience of Sunday school have helped me imbibe a lot more than I could have imagined. But little did I know that there were a lot more to learn, and more importantly to apply, consciously. With every passing day, with an urge to grow and reach a greater height, I reflect on my inexperienced working style. Though I stumble everyday, with my sweat and tears telling me to shed no more and head back home, but another voice of me tells to fight the fight and never to give up. It’s a tough job to “live your words and speak your action”, to quote Che Guevara’s.

I consider myself lucky to be in KHEL, as I have constantly been guided not only to help KHEL grow but also help me to reflect on my own principles and values, and grow as a professional. I have been taught to be truthful and faithful since my childhood. I tried my best to live by them and thought I was doing so, until recently I got awaken from my slumber. There was more to these principles than just to be the GOOD GOOD person to random people. Being faithful was also about being punctual and meeting deadlines (may be even performing beyond expected tasks). Put simply, being forgetful or careless can cause others to lose their faith in you, which does not mean you are a BAD person but rather a person who is unreliable or undependable. I have also realized that when you devote your time to your work, but lose track of the time or are not as productive as you should be, then, your sincerity could be questioned. Though you know in your heart how committed you are, but your inefficiency proves you to be insincere. I believe efficiency comes with practice, I wish I could go back to my student life and use it to practice and improve my efficiency.

Though I get very irritated when I happen to be the person to wait for others, but many a times I happened to be that other person for whom other people would be waiting. Lot of times, when I was the one who was late, I hardly pondered upon it. But being in KHEL helped me realize that by being on time or being late shows how respectful you are of others. We tend to overlook this aspect where time management would actually mean respecting others as well as being respectable. I could have never imagined that the amount of time I make others wait for me would mean that I have deducted that much amount from his/her 24 hours. It is an issue of interfering in other’s productivity or may I say, messing with the most precious gift of mankind, TIME. When they called for Bharat Bandh, the next day we see in the News is how much income have we lost because of it…in the same way, I think we should ask ourselves how much have we wasted other’s income or productivity by imposing ‘bandh’ on them by making them wait for us.

Communication has always been one skill which a soft skills and life-skills trainer would focus on. Being a life-skills trainer, never has it ever struck me that by being a bad communicator, it could mean how unempathetic a person could be. Take for instance, the importance of reporting (which is indeed one way of communicating). It is essential for an employee to report properly to his/her co-workers or authority concerned. Not for the sake of reporting (as a rule) but for the sake of empathy, so that everybody knows what is actually happening and better/necessary steps could be taken further. We live in a society where each one of us is inter-related to one another. One’s action has an impact on the other. So, when there is a gap in communication, there is also a gap in the way people function. Are not our parents worried when we reach back home late, and they have no idea where and what are we upto? A simple SMS could have solved everything. But we did not go for that option because we never trade places with them, in other words, we were not being empathetic.

Another thing I have learned is, if you want to be known as a dependable person, communicate. When you are working, communicate when you complete your tasks. When you are trusted for something, acting responsibly could also mean communicating effectively. Say you are seen to be online during the office hour. But for some personal reason, if you had been taking a break/nap even for 5 minutes or so… and get caught… Though it was not the usual you but you had created an impression that is going to eat you up slowly. Fortunately, in KHEL, taking a nap or time off for personal work is not frowned upon as long as this is communicated. So the only way to get “caught” is if you don’t communicate. Do reflect on your working styles and ask yourself if you had been living by your principles or are there things that need to get fixed. I do have many things to fix and still learning. Hoping to be a person living by my words and speaking my actions, I still press on…