Trust worthiness, integrity, and sharpness of observation

One of the big challenges of the modern world and for generations ahead is to find a suitable job. When I say suitable job that means finding a job aligned with the particular specialisation in education taken or may be in certain way connected to what we have learned. For instance, for a job in accounts the employer makes sure that the candidate has a commerce background; and for a job in secretarial position, the employer ensures that the candidate has a language proximity. It is the same in the case for the selection of doctors, engineers, IT professionals, and barbers. The recruiter makes sure that the candidate has a fair knowledge.

 

But the problem starts a little later when the question of who gets promoted arises. We may sometimes think it is your influence with the employer that gets you promoted. But your influence with the employer may have a relevance, but what really makes and gets you promoted? Is it your goodness? Is it your relationship with the employer? Or is it your dependability?

 

In general, what I have to say is that, all the things that I said above may cause you to be promoted.But the most important thing is your ability to handle a responsibility. How much are you dependable? What characteristics do you need to be a reliableperson?

 

One can be a reliable person first by one’s mind and second by one’s intelligence. The mind factor that develops the characteristic of dependability is one’s integrity -the ability to speak the truth, to work on the truth, and to represent the truth. If your employer knows that you adhere to truth when you are given a job, it means that the basic value you have (or the mind factor) is to speak truth, to work based on truth, and to present yourselves truthfully.

 

But what exactly happens is that our value of truth gets diluted in certain working situations. There are plenty of stories in the Puranas which depicts how truth has been violated for a given situation. At times, you deviate from truth under the pressure of someone else, you deviated from the path of truth to save somebody, and you sacrifice truth for the sake of someone else or sometimes even for your own self. You may be able to hide the truth from the employer for some time, but not for long.

 

One often deviates from truth when some beneficiaries give certain benefits. By accepting the benefits and deviating from truth, what was tested was your integrity. And if you think that nobody will know and you try your best to cover it from others, at one point of time the truth gets revealed. And when you get caughtwhat is lost is trust.

 

Trust is a godly matter because trust originates from God and lives in our heart. So, when the basic value of truth of an individual under any given circumstance is compromised, like Satya Harichandra’s story in the Indian mythology, what shall be lost is trust. And once trust is lost for sure you don’t expect your employer to promote you and entrust to you with higher tasks. Therefore, the face value that education shall impart to children is adherence to truth and living on truth.

 

Truth and logic will help you get well-employed and be trusted at home, in workplace, and in the society. This is the first condition fora job. The other conditions are far more important – it is your dependability or  reliability and your intelligence or the ability to manage tough situations in your job. This is crux of your promotion and this is where most of us fail.

 

Dependability on our decision making and dependability to save the company from a risk is directly proportional to our responsibility towards our job and our responsibility of taking a risk on behalf of the company. The higher your knowledge, the higher will be your judgment. This binds up and builds up the dependability on you and the trust of the employer.

 

It is not kindness of the employer that keeps you in higher positions. Every employer knows that he needs people who are extremely dependable, extremely trustworthy, and have the ability to execute a job. Therefore, in the employment relationship, any employer looks for people who are not merely loyal to him, who are not just adhering to the truth, even though they form the core needs; but the employer needs people who can handle situations in an effective manner.

 

Effective manner means the ability to take decisions at the most crucial situations in a way to protect the long-term goals of the company and save it from risks. If you are a risk manager, your ability is not to study the risk and save the risk; but to take a decision before that anticipated risk comes in. Many banks have this problem. When the market collapses, and when a lot of customers default international banks do not collapse. They do not lose because they have risk managers who observe the transaction of the clients. For example, they observe the way you pay your loans, your installments, and your renewals. When you start delaying the payments or renewals by one day or you start asking for time, it indicates that you are heading to a danger zone. A prudent risk manager shall not wait. He will try to save the bank rather than you by demanding you to pay or finding ways to push you out of the bank. Thus, an employer in a risk area will find a risk manager who is a sharp observer and who understands minute changes. And based on those minute changes, he changes his decisions and takes better decisions so that the employer is safe. In the similar way, a prudent employer would not look for a highly qualified HR manager because qualification is not the sole criteria but would prefer for an experienced HR manager who is capable of taking critical decisions in a risky situation.

 

Many people think qualification is needed. However, it is only a base. In fact, your sharpness of understanding and taking decisions that save the long-term goals of a company makes one an effective HR manager. So, what you need in life, beyond qualification is sharpness, have observation skill, and the skill to experiment and take decisions that serve the goal of a company. These help in your promotion.

 

So what should schools educate you? Knowldege?  Of course. But beyond knowledge? A character? Yes. And what is that character? A character to be loyal, a character of integrity, a character to be able to work on truth, a character based on truthfulness and integrity, who keeps values ahead of provocations and have the sharpest skills to observe, to analyse, and to decide based on given situations. If these goals of  trust building and sharp observation are lost, then schools will basically find it difficult to produce competent people for tomorrow.

 

In an educational institution, the child in the primary section develops communication skills and becomes a good listener, reader, writer, and speaker. These four basic languages kills with the values of trust building and sharp observations lead to building confidence in the child. As the child goes to the high school and secondary section, the child learns to explore his/her passions and based on the passions he/she find a role model -a role model of what he/she has to be in life. Any school that can really connect the child to the life of a doctor, an engineer, a journalist, a politician, or a service provider, helps the child to develop his/her talent to realise his/her dream. Once that is done, then he/she has to work in himself/herself to build the sharpness of the observation. Students who learn to do things based on the observation, analyzing situations, and the ability to decide through experimenting convince the employer that he can be trusted, can handle risky situations, and find his/her way up in the ladder of the job he/she had desired for.