ASK-Dr Pramod Kumar

ASK-Dr Pramod Kumar

All human beings have been endowed with various physical and mental capabilities by nature. In the present competitive scenario, it has become imperative for us to develop, strengthen and refine those capabilities to mould our self competent enough to achieve our personal, social and institutional goals. We can't feel good if we are not capable of doing a job in excellent way. It gives us satisfaction if we complete our work efficiently.

A. Stages:

Success in life depends upon our competencies. We all pass through four stages of competence building in our life-

1.      Unconscious incompetence- when we are ignorant about our strengths and weaknesses. We observe such stage in our childhood.

2.      Conscious incompetence- when we become aware about our incompetency.

3.      Conscious competence- when we are conscious about our competency and try to plan for its development by setting benchmark.

4.      Unconscious competence- when we are competent and perfection has become our way of life.

B. Components:

     There are mainly three components of competence building- Attitude, Skill and Knowledge (ASK).

1. Attitude: Attitude is a mental outlook-a frame of mind. It is how we think. It reflects in our behavior. Every thing we do is affected by our attitude. It is a force behind our actions. It set the wheels in motion and then moves us in a particular direction.  By positive attitude, we can direct our thoughts to work for us. Positive behavior improves our chances for success. Some of the positive behavioral thoughts, which may directly contribute in strengthening our personality, are discussed below:

a. Not to allow problems to empower: We come across three behavioral problems in our life. i. Direct problems- (own behavioral problem), which can be solved by changing our behavior. ii. Indirect control- (problems involving other people's behavior), which can be solved by persuasion only. iii. No control problems-(problems on which we have no control) which may be accepted by us and we may learn to live with them, even though we don't like them. In this way, we do not empower these problems to control us. Whether a problem is direct, indirect or no control, we have in our hands the first step to the solution, i.e. changing our attitude, changing our way to see them. Never develop the tendency to worry about things that can't be changed or corrected.

b. Not to be re-active: Re-active people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. They blame outside forces- others, circumstances, even the stars- for their own situation. They focus their efforts on the weakness of other people, the problem of environment, circumstances over which they have no control. Reactive people build their lives around the behavior of others, empowering the weaknesses of other people to control them.

On the contrary, the ability to sub-ordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the pro-active person. Pro-active people are driven by values- carefully thought about, selected and internalized values. They do not blame circumstances, conditions etc. for their behavior. They live in present and don't blame past as an excuse for their life conditions today. They actively involve in the present,taking charge of current lives and rejecting the self-limiting beliefs of the past that govern the present- move forward and live more fully today. Their behavior is a product of their own conscience choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feelings. They do not affect by physical environment. Bad weather does not affect their attitude and performance. They carry their own weather with them. Whether it rains or shines-makes no difference to them. They don't affect by social weather also. 

c. Not to be afraid of failures: Failing is a fact of life, a necessary part of the process that no one can escape. It is not whether we fail that matters; it's how we fail. When Edition was looking for ways to keep a light bulb burning, he tried more than one thousand different combinations of materials that flopped. He had successfully identified over one thousand ways that did not work and that each attempt brought him closer to the one that would. Einstein said," I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right." Both of them failed many times but were considered as genius by us. We grow with an experience of failure. At least we can learn not to repeat the mistake.

d. Be positive: We must maintain a positive attitude toward life. Look good in others and in the world. See life as a series of opportunities and possibilities, and always explore them. Successful people build good relationships. They love others and subdue thoughts of hatred and anger. They are sensitive to the needs and feelings of others. They have a way of bringing out the best in other people. They never feel jealous. They set goals and accomplish them. They are action-oriented. They don't waste time in unproductive aimless activities. They have strong desire to learn.  They maintain high standards in their personal conduct. They never think anything impossible. They learn the thing, which is not known and develop the skill, which they do not have. 

e. Be honest: Dishonest behavior is at the root of most of our psychological problems. It is a vicious circle. One dishonest act leads to another. Rarely does a person lie, cheat, or steal one time. If something is gained from it, the temptation to do it again is almost irresistible. Then there is a need to cover the trail, and another dishonest act is used to do it. If the process continues, dishonesty becomes almost a way of life. Is not it true that we usually know when someone is lying to us? People tip themselves off. Their words say one thing, but their bodies say another. And we pick up the signals. The same must be true when we lie. Other people are picking up the same signals. We are fooling no one but ourselves. In the process, we damage our reputations and destroy our credibility. When we lie to other people, we make it hard for them to believe us in the future. Violating the trust of another person is a sure way of damaging a relationship. And it's more difficult to restore one than it is to form one. Without trust, good relationships are impossible. Deceit has a powerful psychological effect. A false intention places an enormous stress on the body's nervous systems. We literally stir up inner turmoil when we are dishonest. In essence, we punish ourselves.

2. Skill: As an employee, we require mainly three skills- namely, communication skill, team-building skill and time management skill.

a. Communication Skill: We communicate with others through our speech or writing. Successful communicator conveys the receiver exactly what he intends to communicate. Communication is a skill, which we may develop through practice. Command on language is always helpful in effective communication.  Without communication skill, knowledge has no meaning. Knowledge is only useful if it is applied and expressed for giving benefits to others. We are what we communicate. Effective communication skill plays a vital role in it.

b. Team Building:  The fact is that quality of life is, by nature, interdependent. Even the fulfillment of our fundamental needs and capacities is interdependent. No one has all the talents, all the ideas, and all the capacities to perform the functions of the whole. Vital to quality of life is the ability to work together, learn from each other, and help each other grow. No one can be a master of everything. Accept it and take the help of specialists. Promote team spirit.  Develop relationship and enrich your emotional bank-balance. It is illusion that personal gain is made up of crushing others.

c. Time Management: All we have 24 hours in a day. The question is - What priority we give to which activity?  We should, therefore, identify our priorities and plan our day to make the best use of our time, despite all the difficulties. Identify the time wasters and avoid them. Learn to say "No" where necessary because over commitment is a deterrent to effective time management. We must understand which of our habits are deterrents to effective time management and improve upon them. Lack of priorities, objectives and deadlines can lead to bad time management.

3. Knowledge: We require basically two type of knowledge. i) General reading for improving our overall personality, and ii) structured knowledge in particular field for specific purpose, such as MBA, MCA, training on particular technological or specialized areas. Whereas general knowledge gives strength to our personality and increase the level of confidence, specialized knowledge improve our performance in the particular field. Both types of knowledge are essential for achieving success in life.

By positive thinking we can change our attitude and proactively direct our energies towards achieving our goals. Knowledge helps in overall improvement of a personality whereas skill accelerates the process of qualitative output.

We must, therefore, ASK our self whether we are continuously trying to pro-activate our Attitude, refine our Skill and update our Knowledge?

                                                                        ----------

                       

Dr Pramod Kumar

    13-2-2004

Email: drpk1956@gmail.com

            Drpramod.kumar@yahoo.in

Social Problems: Dr Pramod Kumar

Social Problems:Dr Pramod Kumar

  
 Most of the times, it is difficult to understand social problems because all our approach to understand a problem is based on our perceptions- our environment- our cultural values.  Since we are governed by our perceptions, we generate and appreciate only those ideas which suite to our perception. It is difficult to take a holistic view on each subject. Many a time, we feel that we are rightly thinking, but in reality we only rearrange our prejudices. Sometimes, due to exposure and experience of some particular field we say that we have good common sense or understanding about the subject, but this exposure is basically nothing great than a collection of our prejudices acquired mainly during childhood, that mainly speaks about our environmental and cultural values. Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity the opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment.

Man is basically an animal but it has made himself different from animals by communicating his ideas through the use of particular language. The communication of animals is genetically programmed and therefore their utterances have inherent meaning. Human communication is based on language (a social value) and the language is based on words and words are symbols based on the particular environment. Symbols have no inherent meaning and, therefore require interpretation (which is also governed by the perceptions and prejudices). The way we interpret the thoughts depends upon our past experiences. Therefore, no two persons interpret the same event or object exactly the same way. The word computer can have different meaning for different people according to their exposure. Based on our different experiences we interpret and prioritize social problems differently. Sometimes, members of the different groups within the social structure have similar experiences- their interpretation of environment will be more similar to each other than to members of other groups; eg. groups based on religion, region, sex, creed, economic class, etc. We, therefore, analyse the social problems differently based on our exposures. Corporate class analyses the economic problems differently than working class. Most of the times social problems are constructed, conceived and presented to the public by the elite class in such a way that it serve the interest of the elites only. Corporate crimes are not considered seriously in America as compare to other crimes. It means all interpretations of realities are influenced by our experiences and all knowledge is socially constructed. Socially elites have been able to thwart their ideas through their influence on institutions associated with the production of knowledge and culture. The elite are able to influence the public's perceptions of social problems to their own advantage. It is very clear that human behaviour and the choices we make are largely determined by forces and therefore can be studied empirically. From the study it has been revealed that human nature is usually ethnocentric or culturally biased and therefore it is difficult to take a rational view on any social problem. Moreover, it is too difficult to solve them. Virtually from the time we are born, we are exposed to the norms, values, and beliefs of our culture. They are omnipresent in our environment, and we learn to take them for granted. We don't question them; we come to think of them as natural. This is ethnocentrism. People all over the world are ethnocentric, believing their culture to be superior to the strange ways of other cultures.
 For example, if we say that severe punishment to robbers would reduce the robbery rate. Is it true? No. it is not necessary that severe punishment to the robbers can reduce the robbery rate because there are many more factors that may affect the robbery rates, such as religion, family structure, media, distribution of wealth, unemployment, urbanization, etc. Our views are basically have the impact of our exposure. A study has revealed that capital punishment to some crimes has not reduced the crime rates of such crimes.
The media plays a very important role in formation of our views on a particular social problem. Today's network news has become a huge moneymaker. The network executives are responsible to their shareholders, and their principal concern is profit. The way to make a profit is to sell commercial advertising; the way to sell commercial advertising is to attract a large audience; the way to attract a large audience is to entertain. While a democracy depends upon an informed citizenry, the goal of today's media is to entertain, not to inform. Most of the television networks and major newspapers are now belong to some of the corporations in the world. Large corporations are large investors in other large corporations. They share the unity of interest. Then who will solve the social problems? These social problems, such as Environment pollution, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, drinking water shortage, public health, white collared crimes, etc. are creating hurdles in promoting sustainable growth of humanity.
Now time has come to think holistically. Now time has come to think reasonably, justly and fairly. It would be too late if we delay further and not think about our human world- its problems. We may eliminate many of our social problems by rationalising our behaviour. Corporates of the world are also required to adopt a humane approach and be more responsible towards society as a whole. We all should become more responsible- socially to make this world more beautiful.

-Dr Pramod Kumar

10-03-2011

Email: drpk1956@gmail.com

           Drpramod.kumar@yahoo.in http://drpramode.blogspot.com/

Rich country poor people-Dr Pramod Kumar

Rich country poor people-Dr Pramod Kumar

Why India is called a developing country. Why are we poor despite the fact that we have a lot of natural resources? Since long, I have been seriously trying to find out the answer. We have rich culture. We gave GITA to the world. We gave many religions-Buddhism, Jainism, Sikkhism, etc. to world. Not only in literary field, we do have contributed in the field of science also. Our country has all seasons. We have highest numbers of technocrats with rich knowledge; etc. etc.

Slowly I realized that somewhere something is wrong. And that wrong I found in our attitude. Resources do not make any country. It is its productive use that makes a country rich. Two examples- Switzerland & Japan are in front of us. Despite having almost nil natural resources; despite dropping of Atom Bomb by Americans, Japan’s economy is more stable and sustainable.

Recently I got a chance to visit some of the European countries-Spain, Switzerland, Germany & France on 6^th of February, 2011. I commenced my journey by Swiss flight No.LX 147 ex Delhi to Zurich at 0205 Hrs. It reached Zurich at 0625 Hrs. (Local time). There is a time difference of 4.30 hrs between India and Europe. It means in India time of arrival at Zurich was 10.55hrs. Being east, Sun arises in India 4.30 hrs earlier as compared to Europe. The temperature at Zurich was -2. Zurich is one of the important cities of Switzerland. There from, I straight proceeded to Basel by Coach. I reached Basel (industrial capital of Switzerland) at 11.30 hrs. Switzerland is very beautiful. Most of the buildings are very old (as old as 1775 AD), but well maintained. Roads were much cleaner- no horn blowing by any vehicles. Metro/tram and other public transport system are very good. Vehicles were paying full respect to pedestrians by giving way to them. Vehicles were observing traffic signals and no one was found crossing red light. People are disciplined. Basel is near a river-Rhine. Population of Basel is only 170000. Basel University is very old-established in 1460 AD. At present 12000 students. They speak French (20%) and German (40%). People know English. We stayed at Swissotel. Vehicles are right side driven. Switzerland is a Nation of lakes and tunnels. Lake Geneva has spread in 582 sq km. Longest surface tunnel is 17 KMs. long. However, longest tunnels (including underground) is 51 Kms, which connects France with England.

On 7-2-2011, I toured whole of Basel City. In Switzerland, it is compulsory for every citizen to take military training for 5 yrs. Since climate is cold, houses are made of half wood and half concrete. Most of activities are mechanized. No policeman was seen on the road. Whole of the Europe is covered under CCTV. Industries of Switzerland are: Tourism (38% Indians), Banking, Watch making and Pharmaceuticals. On 8-2-2011, I started my journey for mount Titlis at 8 AM. We reached at Titlis Mountain at 9-50 hrs. Temperature was -9. It is above 10000 feet above sea-level. I walked on snow. I came back to Zurich in the evening. On the way, another city-Luzern came where we stayed for 3 hrs.-beautiful city near a lake. I saw buses running on electricity. There are churches and watch/chocolate shops. We can see hilltops full of snow from the city. Average cow in Switzerland gives 60 liters of milk. I went to Germany (Berlin) by flight No. LX 962 started at 2040 hrs and reached Berlin at 2210 hrs. I stayed at Best Western President in Berlin. During the city tour of Berlin on 9^th, I saw Berlin Wall. On 10-2-2011, I departed to Madrid (Capital of Spain) at 1555 hrs. by flight no. Ezy 4511 and reached Madrid at 1955 hrs. I stayed at Hotel Silken Puerta in Madrid. During the city tour of Madrid, I saw Bull fight ring on 11th. On 12-2-2011, I proceeded for Paris (Capital of France) by flight no.Ezy 3906 at 1710 and reached Paris at 1920 hrs. I stayed there at Hotel-Holiday inn. On 13^th, I enjoyed Paris city tour. Paris is near Seine river. It is the most beautiful city of the world. On 16-2-2011, I went to see Eiffel tower which is 324.5 meters high. We also enjoyed cruise in Seine river. On 17-2-2011, I went to Zurich by flight no. LX 633, started at 0950 hrs and reached Zurich at 1110 hrs.  From there, I caught flight no. LX- 146 and reached Delhi at 0045 hrs. on 18-2-2010. I observed the following points (which make the difference) during my stay there in Europe:

1.     People of Europe are 5 to 10 times richer than India.

2.     Europeans are healthier. I found very few hospitals and chemist shops. Some people say that since European countries are colder, the people live therein are healthy. But in reality it is not true. I have seen with my own eyes that people living at hills in Himachal and UP are not healthy. I saw many chemist shops there in Dehradun, Pathankot, etc. at the feet of the Indian Hills wherefrom they purchase medicines.

3.     Very few hospitals and chemist shops were seen. Here in India even at hills people are not healthy.

4.     Very high technological advancement. Systems and processes are mechanized.

5.     Cleanliness- even tap water is drinkable. Less adulteration. It shows the mindset of the people living there.

6.     No noise pollution. No horn by vehicles.

7.     People are open and less complicated.

8.     More scientific and natural behavior- No Babas, Jyotishis, Yoga teachers on TV.

9.     High infrastructure and good transport system.

10. No matrimonial advertisements in Newspapers.

11. Appreciate labour by giving tips/ thanks.

12. Respect for laws- no one was found crossing red signals on crossing.

13. Careful about environment pollution.

14. No street-dogs on roads. However, they keep pets and take care of them.

15. They are more true to themselves and more responsive behavior towards others. They try to do what they say.

16.  They are more pro-active, sincere and frank.

Some people say that India is poor because we have excess population. But it is not true. Human resource is one of the best resources. Other resources-material, machines, energy are depending on man-power for their productive use. If man-power is not productive or negative productive, these other resources may give less production or negative production. Question is productive use of man power and not excess man-power. China is having more population than India but they prepare cheapest products in world market. Some of the big cities of other countries-Tokyo, etc are having more dense population but they are cleaner, far better than any city in India. It depends upon right attitude and social belonging of the people and not on excess population.

 I realized that Swiss and Japanese are more open. They are more realistic, scientific and less complicated. They are rich because they are more productive. They are more positive. Because of something wrong in our attitude, our country is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. We export our raw materials to Japan or other countries; we keep our money in Swiss/ foreign banks because of something wrong in our attitude. Merely having good intelligence is not richness, if it is not used in positive way. Knowledge is harmful if it is used in negative way. Productive use of everything depends upon right attitude. Despite all richness- plenty of resources, knowledge and skill, we are poor because we have less productive-less positive attitude.

Attitude is a mental outlook, a frame of mind. It is how we think. It reflects in our behavior. It is a force behind our actions. Everything we do is affected by our attitude. A good attitude is the principal ingredient of a good life.  Some basic principles of positive attitude are: Be true to yourself and also to others, not to afraid of failures, be honest, accept the realities, etc.

Religion may or may not make a person ethical. But ethical principles are always good to us and to the society. We discuss more about various religious principles, but not ethical behaviour. Ethical values help us in adopting holistic and positive approach. It is more productive and sustainable to be ethical.

Either our inner voice is controlled by narrow perceptions and prejudices or we don’t want to listen to it. Walking on the path of truth can solved many problems. Becoming more responsible to society can solve many problems. Maintaining Swiss accounts and creating parallel economy certify that I believe in evading taxes and breaking the rules. This attitude is neither true nor positive because we are not separate from the society. If a part of the body is hurt, whole body suffers and not merely injured part.

We do work to earn money. We don’t enjoy work because we do not love it. If we love what we do, it generates more production. Unproductive use of resources can’t be considered good. Time is money. It is necessary to use it productively like Japanese. There is need to be a good human being rather than anything else.

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Dr Pramod Kumar

10-3-2011

Email: drpk1956@gmail.com

          Drpramod.kumar@yahoo.in

We can’t deceive people for good-Dr Pramod Kumar.

We can't deceive people for good-Dr Pramod Kumar

World is changing very fast. Due to inter-net and social net-working, the whole of world has become a small city. We can get all the information very fast. Media is knocking the door of common people. Now people understand each and everything and we can’t make them fool any more. If a Chief Justice justifies and pleads for non-declaration of assets despite RIA, people understand it. 80% of world resources are enjoyed by 20% population. Earlier this 80% population was not clear in its understanding, but now they understand it. Why the gap between have and have-nots is increasing day by day- now people understand it. Earlier, they were forced to think that it is their ‘un-luck’ behind their poverty and other problems, but know they understand it. How they were kept miles away from opportunities, now they understand it.

Whether you talk about middle east- Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Sudan, Yeman, etc. or about China, everywhere we can see violent agitations against their Govt. Gaddafi may have left his country- Libya. Even in India, Naxals are agitating in uncivilized way. Crimes are increasing day by day. Why pollution is increasing day by day? Whether the use of non-renewable resources without taking care of the requirements of future generation is reasonable? Who are doing it? Now people have starting understanding it. Whether developing a jungle of concrete is not growth? In the name of Growth of 20% of world population, the price is paid by 80% population or future generation- now people understand it. Growth figure relates to whom? Growth is required to be calculated by reducing the amount of pollution level generated. Our children will pay the price of our deeds in future on account of expenses on health, reduction in pleasure and peace. It is the demand of time that we should start talking about sustainable consumption rather than sustainable growth, if we want to save the humanity. Invention of atom will be beneficial only if we use it for human benefits/development and not for destruction (dropping of bomb on Japan.) Good intention and right attitude is always necessary if we want to promote sustainable growth.

It is right time to come out from comfort zone and understand the problems of humanity in real sense. We have to discuss with openness, understand them and share our views with all to promote trust in the mind of common people. Then only sustainable solution can be find out. We have to reflect and minimize the gap between our perceptions and holistic realities. We have to get out from argument-mood to dialogue-mood and discuss and share to solve the problems. We have to be conscious enough and don’t be a victim of unconscious conspiracy. We have to question ourselves. We must always keep in mind the principles of equity, justice and fairness. Without which we can’t come to sustainable decision. Merely getting success is not important. It is necessary that such success should come through application of the principles of equity, justice and fairness (means should be good), and also the end use of success must be sustainable for humanity at large. (ends should be good).

Dr Pramod Kumar                                    10-3-2011

Email: drpk1956@gmail.com

           drpramod.kumar@yahoo.in

Managing Stress at workplace-Dr Pramod Kumar 

1. Introduction:

This word “STRESS” is derived from the Latin word “Stringere”, which means to draw tight. The word 'stress' is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "a state of affair involving demand on physical or mental energy". It is a condition or circumstance, which can disturb the normal physical and mental health of an individual.  In medical parlance 'stress' is defined as a perturbation of the body's homeostasis. This demand on mind-body occurs when it tries to cope with incessant changes in life. A 'stress' condition seems 'relative' in nature. Extreme stress conditions, psychologists say, are detrimental to human health but in moderation stress is normal and, in many cases, proves useful. Stress is a friend but if not managed properly can become man’s greatest enemy.

2. Reasons for stress:

Stress has become a major buzzword and legitimate concern of the times. Globalization and strategic alliances have led to a dramatic increase in stress on senior officers. Besides advanced information technology, there is also evidence that increased diversification of work force may lead to unique stress problems. This stress epidemic not only has a deteriorating impact on those affected and their families, but also is very costly to organizations as a result of medical cost, diminished productivity, etc. We may bifurcate the reasons of stress under two heads:

A.     Extra-organizational Stressors: It includes things such as societal/ technological change, globalization, the family relocation due to transfer, dual establishment due to working of spouse at different place, economic and financial conditions, etc. Because our officers tend to get caught up in the rush-rush, mobile, urbanized, crowded, on-the-go lifestyle of today, their anxiety and wellness in general has deteriorated; the potential for stress on the job has increased. As some of officers are working longer hours and bringing more work home at night, more and more pressure is being placed on work-family relationships. Relocation of family because of a transfer or a promotion also leads to stress. Because of working of both the spouses, in many cases, they are unable to spare time for recreational and family activities. In Mumbai and in some other Metros, commutation also leads to stress to officers as the work places are situated more than 10 Kms away from their residences.

B.     Inter-organizational Stressors: Under inter-organizational stress there are basically three broad areas affecting physical and mental health of the officers. These are behavior stress, inter-personal stress and organizational stress. The impact of each of these areas on an individual varies but all these three areas are related to inter- organizational issues where we have a role to play. For example, behavioral stress is stress related to thoughts about real or imagined dangers, personal losses, unpleasant social interactions or any other factor that may threaten a person. These can raise the feelings of guilt, anger, fear, anxiety and depression. Personality traits such as authoritarianism, rigidity, extroversion, supportiveness, emotionality, tolerance for ambiguity, anxiety, and the need for achievement have been uncovered by research as being particularly relevant to individual stress.  Inter-personal stress is related to behavior of others. It arises when the behavior of other person is rude or offensive which results in conflicts with colleagues. Some of the organizational stressors are: responsibility without authority, inability to voice complaints, inadequate recognition, and lack of clear job descriptions or reporting relationships, meeting deadlines, unnecessary procedures, unrealistically high self-expectations (perfectionism), inability to influence decision making (powerlessness), poor communication, inadequate leadership, inability to finish a job, setting high standards of productivity, etc. Due to downsizing, it has become difficult to face intense pressures to outperform the competition. Downsizing due to OERS often translates to longer hours and more stress on the officers. In a sense, organizational stressors also eventually get down to the individual level. However, it has been observed that individual ability to control the situation is important in determining the level of stress.

How it works:

In a challenging situation the brain prepares the body for defensive action—the fight or flight response by releasing stress hormones, namely, cortisone and adrenaline. These hormones raise the blood pressure and the body prepares to react to the situation. With a concrete defensive action (fight response) the stress hormones in the blood get used up, entailing reduced stress effects and symptoms of anxiety. When we fail to counter a stress situation (flight response) the hormones and chemicals remain unreleased in the blood stream for a long period of time. It results in stress related physical symptoms such as tense muscles, unfocused anxiety, dizziness and rapid heartbeats. We all encounter various stressors (causes of stress) in everyday life, which can accumulate, if not released. Subsequently, it compels the mind and body to be in an almost constant alarm-state in preparation to fight or flee. This state of accumulated stress can increase the risk of both acute and chronic psychosomatic illnesses and weaken the immune system of the human body. Stress can cause headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, eating disorder, allergies, insomnia, backaches, frequent cold and fatigue to diseases such as hypertension, asthma, diabetes, heart ailments and even cancer.

How to manage the stress:

Learning to understand and manage stress can prevent the counter effects of stress. Methods of coping with stress are aplenty. The most significant or sensible way out is a change in lifestyle. Relaxation techniques such as meditation, physical exercises, listening to soothing music, deep breathing, various natural and alternative methods, personal growth techniques, visualization and massage are some of the most effective known non-invasive stress busters. For every one-hour of work, take a five minute break and stretch, walk, or meditate. With just a few minutes of relaxation (or doing something other than work), we can increase our physical activity as well as productivity and feel better through out the day. Put off housekeeping, work, or family issues for a short period prior to bedtime and permit yourself to completely relax. Stress is like a flowing river. When tamed and directed, it can spread much goodness along its path; when managed, stress can provide a sense of challenge, excitement, efficiency and productivity. However like the havoc caused by an untamed river, stress can also become a devastating way of life, chronic enough to disturb balance and aggravate all diseases. Therefore it is imperative for us to take control of stress and to steer it on the right path.

Strategies:

We may adopt the following strategy to keep ourselves intact and stress free:

i.                 Counseling and Mediation Service: We can take the help of professional counselor in case of need.

ii.               Occupational Health Service: It can provide a wide range of services including screening through self-referral. If there is any health problem affecting work or any possibility of work adversely affecting health, the Occupational Health Service (OHS) can give a lot of benefit. This can facilitate a smooth and stress free return to work.

iii.              Employee Development and Training: Sometimes we experience stress through feelings that are not adequately trained for particular job and feel especially stressed when they move to a new or changed role. The identification of training needs and procurement of training should have a high priority in cases where restructuring of individual posts, sections or departments is taking place. The identification and meeting of training needs may be seen as a continuing process throughout a person's career. Training on time management, managing self, behavior management, inter-personal relationship etc. may be imparted periodically. Posting of the employees may be made after proper analysis of their personal attributes after taking into consideration their interest, educational qualifications, trainings, etc.

iv.              Optimum Working Hours: Five-day week is one of the best strategies at this juncture to keep the working schedule.

v.                  Adequate and Proper Interface Mechanism: Communication within and outside the department / office needs to be effective and employees should aware of the importance of effective communication with each other. Though mechanisms such as meetings, Study Circles may be in vogue, their importance is normally undermined. Moreover, the periodicity of such mechanism needs to be increased to keep the communications more frequent. This will create healthy relationships and stress less work environment / profile. Environment of openness may be promoted in the offices.

vi.              Change in transfer policy: While transferring an employee, his choice of centre may be considered and preference may be given to post him at the desired center subject to administrative convenience. In case spouse of the employee is also working in the organization, the employee's request for transfer to the center where his/ her spouse is working may be considered sympathetically.

vii.            Reward and appreciation Policy: To motivate and keep the employees stress free, a reward and appreciation system may be implemented to recognize the works done by them. For example, Paid holiday at Hill Station for 7 days may be given to the best performer in each department every year.

viii.           Residential accommodation: Officers may be provided residential accommodation within 10 Kms from office.

ix.              Fitness Centres: At employees' colony, the facility of fitness centers/yoga classes can be arranged. Training centers may impart training on Yoga to employees.

Dr. Pramod Kumar

21^st June 2005

Email: drpk1956@gmail.com

          Drpramod.kumar@yahoo.in

Effective Listening-Dr Pramod Kumar

We always talk about the importance of communication skill in our life. We also try to improve our verbal communication skill so that we can express our views well as a leader and achieve success in life. But most of us do not realise that listening skill is equally important. Without possessing the quality of effective listening we can't become a successful communicator. It is proper listening, which helps us in understanding other person and knowing his viewpoint on the particular subject. It helps us in gathering information and enriching our knowledge. Moreover, it promotes mutual respect, good relations and avoids conflicts. The relevance of listening skill can be understood from the fact that the nature has endowed us with two ears and only one mouth because:

a)  we should listen twice as much as we talk,
             b) listening is twice as difficult as talking,
             c) as a reminder to use them in that proportion.

To listen means to hear something attentively. Attentive hearing is only possible if we hear with some objective; if we hear with entirety because without involving all our senses and mind we can’t hear attentively. We can’t hear two things at a time effectively. We can’t truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time. When the blind man listens, his other senses also activates; even sense of sight also starts preparing image of the heard scene.

Effective listening is, therefore, possible only if we hear with our mind. We should feel the voice. If we start collaborating the verbal voice with the voice of others' feelings (non-verbal voice), we will get the unique result.  If we want to become a successful communicator, we should listen to the voice of speaker’s face, his eyes, movements of his hands and body and even clothing, etc. Each transits a message. The body is full of silent signals. Success in communication depends upon effective listening. Without proper listening, we can't understand the mind of others. Successful listener does not listen only to reply but he listens to understand the person. If we listen to reply, we won’t understand or learn as much as if we listen to understand. Communication without understanding other would only result in communication gap or in ‘one way communication’ to a great extant.

With high-quality listening, we can understand the intention of the person- what is the real meaning behind his/ her words? It is possible if we develop empathetic attitude. Empathy brings listener and speaker, both together and helps us in understanding the mind of other person. We don’t need to agree with someone’s view or belief in order to understand him.  Have we observed two deaf and dumb persons talking with each other? Despite their incapacity and deficiency, they listen more effectively to the non-verbal voice.

We observe that some birds fly to other places in-group, thousand of miles away. They also come back to their original place after some period of time. How does it happen? It is possible because they attentively listen to the voice of jungle- trees, river, etc.; they listen carefully to the feelings of birds in group; they understand whole of the nature.

            Similarly, a mother listens successfully to her small baby’s non-verbal voice. She knows what the problem with the baby is, even though the baby does not speak in her language.

            Sometimes, pure verbal hearing may misguide us. We all know about Mahabharata War. At one place Yudhishtra speaks-“Ashavthama Hatah”. If we set aside the mythological sense of the words, we observed that he wanted to hide information about the death of Drona’s son- Ashavathama. Since Ashavthama was also a name of an elephant, he wanted to give an impression to others that it was elephant that died and not the son of Drona.

We can develop the skill of effective listening by improving our observation power and also by removing barriers in listening which most of us have in some way or other.

            True listening requires us to temporarily set aside our own thoughts, biases and desires. We cannot listen to a person effectively if we already have preconceived ideas in our mind. These thoughts, values and beliefs are our concepts about what is right and wrong, good and bad, important and unimportant, what should be and shouldn’t be. We should realize that nothing in the world has any inherent meaning. We only give it name and meaning.  These beliefs are prearranged, organized filters to our perceptions of the world. These thoughts, values and beliefs are commanders of the brain. When we believe something is true, it is like delivering a command to our brain as to how to represent what is occurring. Belief delivers direct command to our nervous system. We all have different types of beliefs, thoughts and values because of our different social environment, knowledge level and experiences. We can’t listen effectively if we are already having such brawny beliefs in our sub-conscious mind. We will only listen what suit us. If we want to listen effectively we must set aside these values, beliefs and thoughts for the time being. Fixed ideas close some of the windows of our mind and regulate and restrict our listening capacity. They make us prejudice. We can’t get real benefit from listening in case we don’t set them aside. Differences in values, thoughts and beliefs are strong barriers in successful listening. Despite attentive hearing, effective listening would not be possible if we assume and evaluate the person pre-maturely or think that we already know better than speaker and start hearing selectively. It is also necessary not to jump to conclusion without empathically listening to the person with open mind.

We can become a successful communicator only if we learn the skill of effective listening. Let us become good and effective listener.

Dr. Pramod Kumar

1-10-2004

Email: drpk1956@gmail.com

            drpramod.kumar@yahoo.in

Beliefs-Dr Pramod Kumar

Beliefs-Dr Pramod Kumar

We all are about 80% water. You and I are about 80% identical. What makes us different is not how tall we are or what colour our hair is. What makes us different is what is inside in our mind- our values, beliefs and thoughts.

Our values, thoughts and beliefs are established by our parents, friends and surroundings in which we live in. Some of them are so deep routed in us that we don’t even realise we have them. They are important because they colour what we see and hear, think and conclude. They colour the way we communicate with others-what we say and how we say it, and how we perceive what others communicate to us.

►How they work as filters and may promote conflicts

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a persistent one.”- Albert Einstein. The truth is, there is no reality. It exists inside our Mind. We each construct our own reality. We each see truth and reality from our own perspective and others see it from a different perspective. We each have our own truths and we believe accordingly. Belief creates the actual fact and we tend to gather information that supports our beliefs, whether these are right or wrong. Our values, beliefs and thoughts determine everything we do and say, which determine the results we get. These results, in turn, confirm our values, beliefs and thoughts. They become self-fulfilling prophecies. The brain, in its quest for predictability and conformity, will ignore or bend any information that contradicts our beliefs. This is unconscious and rapid process. Our subconscious acts as a filter to let in information that supports our beliefs and keep out information that does not. We go through life seeing what confirms our mental models and ignoring what contradicts them. If we can't ignore conflicting information, we will reinterpret it, or twist it so that it is more consistent with our mental models. Our subconscious mind works hard to avoid feelings of acute discomfort and confusion which arise when a deeply held value or beliefis challenged. They act as if what is true for them is true for everyone. However, it is not true since we each have different experiences and backgrounds. Many of our values, beliefs and thoughts are hidden from us in our subconscious and control our communication and actions. It is necessary to examine them as they promote conflicts in the society.

Beliefs: Values are deeply and strongly held beliefs and principles about what is right and wrong, good and bad, important and unimportant, what should be and shouldn’t be. They are being valued by some persons because they give temporary material benefits to them-fanaticism, etc. Although beliefs are neither right nor wrong, most of us behave as if they are. This difference in

beliefs or its priority lead  to problems in communication and conflicts between people. As we go through life, we organise our experiences and beliefs about ourselves, others and the world into paradigms. These deeply held mindsets are the lenses through which we see, interpret and experience our world. They guide our thoughts, attitudes and our communication. We assume they represent truth and reality and seldom question them.

Thoughts: Our brain is the most complex object. The Avg. person’s brain has about 100 billion neurones, or cells.  They can connect with countless others: in fact up to 1000 trillion connections and probably more are possible.

This is greater than the known number of atoms in the universe. It means we can think a limitless number of thoughts. When we think or communicate, electrical and chemical connections between specific neurons are established. The more often we think a thought the more likely we are to think it again, because we establish, and then strengthen, these neural pathways. Once a value or belief is established and once thoughts become habitual, they can be difficult to change. We are all captives of the pictures in our mind- our belief that the world we have experienced is the world that really exists. Sometimes, beliefs are destructive and serve no useful purpose. Without changing such beliefs we can't become a perfect person.

Now question is-How we can change them? The only way is: Keep your windows open. Let fresh air enters your house. Discuss with others. Share with others. Do some reasoned analysis. Modify your thoughts. Strengthen them through the way of actions. Convert your actions into habits by doing repeatedly. Then only we can change them. However, replacing them with new ones is very painful exercise. However, we should ensure that the gap between our perceptions and holistic realities is minimum.

Dr Pramod Kumar

15-3-2011

Email: drpk1956@gmail.com

            drpramod.kumar@yahoo.in