There are another set of leaders in the society, who are the businessmen, bureaucrats and social leaders, who have a solid 25-30 years to make an impact, unlike the Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers who go after five years.
Considered among India’s 50 most influential people, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, bestselling author and a poet. Absolute clarity of perception places him in a unique space, not only in the spiritual matters but in business, environmental and international affairs, and opens a new door on all that he touches.
Sadhguru's talks have earned him the reputation of a speaker of international renown. He was also conferred with Padma Vibhusan, the highest annual civilian award. He has been a lead speaker at the UN General Assembly and a regular at the World Economic Forum, besides speaking at establishments such as the World Bank, House of Lords (UK), World Presidents’ Organization, MIT and Google to name a few.
Sadhguru at TRRAIN Retail Awards 2016
Sadhguru graced the TRRAIN Retail Awards for customer service with his presence in the 2016 edition. In a conversation with event moderator Piyush Pandey, he spoke on various topics related to employees, organisation relationship and bonding such as stress, respect, and leadership. Here are excerpts from the interview:
On Time and Stress Management
Q: We would like to know how you manage your time and what advice you would give us, so that life beyond work is a lot more meaningful?
A: Most people, in the 24 hours that we have per day, are more pre-occupied than busy. Their own thoughts and emotions are such a big issue, that most of their time is spent dealing with that. They may be working but there are experiencing tremendous struggle within themselves. If you were in sports or a creative field, you would know that even a slight amount of struggle would cause your game or painting to go somewhere else – nothing productive would happen. Or in other words, what could happen very simply, unfortunately happens with a lot of difficulty. This is mainly because they have been given this phenomenal gadget or machine, which is the human mechanism, and they are trying to operate it without reading the user’s manual.
My effort is to bring this possibility into people’s lives, that you can live life with ease, not with struggle. No one told them that they must work joyfully. No one told them their work should be an expression of their joy. Generally, people have been taught that they must work hard. If you work hard, life will be tedious. You will do something hard only because you do not know how to do it. If you knew how to do it, you would do it with ease. So without investing enough time in perception, if life is all about expression, then it becomes a struggle.
My fundamental work to see that at least your body and mind should work for you. No one else may work for you – that doesn’t matter. At least your body and intelligence must work for you. If this one thing happens, then living blissfully, gracefully, and effectively is a natural consequence.
On Brand Loyalty
Q: A lot of people work in huge outlets today, where each counter is selling something different.
How do they stick to their loyalties and beliefs?
A: It is the customer’s business to be loyal to a product. A salesperson should have no loyalty to any product. They have no business doing that. They should sell whatever is in demand. Only thing that they should keep in mind while selling is to sell in the right way.
On Respect and Recognition
Q: What would you say to people who feel their efforts do not find recognition? How do they motivate themselves to say, “I don’t give a damn what other people think. I have to keep doing what I’m doing.”
A: These are two extremes. “I don’t give a damn” is not going to work, especially if you are in retail. If you say, “I don’t give a damn”, you are out of business. At the same time, I think a whole lot of people feel that their efforts are not producing the necessary results. In your assessment, you may be doing great, but someone else has to see the value in what you are doing, only then it will find recognition.
If you feel what you are doing is valuable, then don’t bother about other people’s recognition. If what you are doing is useful to them, they will say, “Oh, this is wonderful.” Whether other people recognize you or not depends upon how useful it is at a given time. That depends on the type of job we have taken up.
If your work is an expression of your joyfulness, whether recognition or no recognition, what does it matter? You are finding an opportunity to express your joy. If you look at yourself and see, the best moments in your life are whenever you are expressing your happiness or joy. If your work is an expression of your joy, your working moments will be the best moments of your life.
On Being a Leader
Q: Any tips you would like to share about how a team is made, beyond being a great individual player?
A: Essentially, a leader means in some way you are willing to confront problems. You are willing to seek out problems and fix them before they happen. But that attitude is very rare in this country; as a result we have not been able to build great leaders. Another reason is the occupancy, we as an occupied nation, we have no time to create layers of leadership.
If a good leader comes up somewhere, everyone will start worshipping him. A leader does not need worship. He or she needs many tiers of leadership to find traction and do something meaningful. But generally, when a good leader comes up in our society, people will start building temples or doing pooja for them – all these things start happening. We have to shift from this attitude. Looking up to a leader for inspiration is good but losing all sense about them is not.
What is needed in this country is to develop many tiers of leadership. I am not talking about Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers because generally their tenure is five years and after that they are gone. There is another set of leaders in the society, who may be business leaders, bureaucratic leaders or social leaders of various kinds, and they have a solid 25-30 years to make an impact. Because if you are thinking of any kind of serious impact,you have to think of at least 25 years at a time, otherwise nothing significant can be done.
A revolution is not about “I want you to change.” This is not a revolution, this is a problem. “I am willing to change” – this is a revolution. This is the revolution that we need in our country right now because everyone is stuck to their own mindsets, castes, creeds, and other things. Everyone is an activist for his or her own cause.
There is no cause good enough in this world, except human well-being. There is no other cause which is worthy of human attention. If we dedicate ourselves to that, everyone in some way will become a leader.
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