Copyright@kamleshsujata1
By Kamlesh Tripathi
We all know the meaning of feedback. But just to refresh our minds – it is an advice, criticism or information about how good or useful something or somebody’s work is. Thus, many may consider feedback to be a frightful happening, and miss the cheer and magic behind it.
I was once working on a rural project in Miryalguda, a small sleepy town near Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. Since, there were no decent hotels in the town then, and the project was for a long duration, we had rented a small furnished house as our guesthouse.
There we had a cook-cum-caretaker 24×7. We were just the three of us staying there, and all from North India. Although, our cook claimed, he knew how to cook North Indian cuisine well, but the reality was quite the other way around. We normally used to land in Miryalguda for a fortnight at a stretch and then hit Head Office at Mumbai for a couple of days to report the progress of the project and be with our families, and then return again for a fortnight, and this continued for months. And, we had planned it in such a manner at Miryalguda, that we used to have all are meals in the guesthouse, and even preferred to carry tiffin prepared in the guesthouse, just in case we were going out on a farmer-field visit locally.
Our cook out there was reasonably smart, hospitable, and a sensible young fellow, who normally used to serve Andhra dishes for breakfast and lunch; while he used to attempt some North Indian dishes every day for dinner, realising we must be missing home food; which unfortunately used to be worse in taste than even the Andhra meal, he used to prepare for us. And, gradually we had two issues at hand, relating to food. One, with the continuous hot Andhra food, some of us started getting bouts of acidity. Two, after a couple of days of landing, we genuinely used to miss home food. And so, we were desperately looking for a solution.
One day in the evening while we all were having a cup of tea, we all gave the cook some positive feedbacks about his culinary prowess and that charged him a wee bit. And, then the next day I gave him some tips on how to cook simple Dal, Chawal and Sabzi in North Indian style based on the home recipe that I carried from home.
And, to my surprise next day’s dinner was a delight, and quite close to home food; and it only improved, over the next few days. But, even more surprising was the fact that a simple pep talk had created a world of a change in the cook in less than 24 hours. And, this small episode changed my persona to a great extent. I realised, how very important it is to keep cheering every human being on a regular basis and not wait for milestone moments, without which they start operating like mere zombies.
The episode also got me thinking to a point of no return in life; where I would willfully compliment a cook for preparing a dish well and one could see the broad smile on his otherwise long face. Those days I used to travel a lot and often by cabs, and I made it a point to compliment the driver each time, on safe driving; and I could fathom the power of such small compliments as they generated tremendous positive energies, which is unimaginable and could even race the progress of our country by leaps and bounds.
I then had many field executives and managers reporting to me and I never missed an opportunity of complimenting them on the spot for having done a good job. This definitely increased their morale and performance exponentially and that reflected on their annual appraisals too.
For let us not forget life is all about small building blocks that makes the façade look grand. So whenever you get a chance don’t let go the opportunity of passing small positive feedbacks to people around you.
By Kamlesh Tripathi
We all know the meaning of feedback. But just to refresh our minds – it is an advice, criticism or information about how good or useful something or somebody’s work is. Thus, many may consider feedback to be a frightful happening, and miss the cheer and magic behind it.
I was once working on a rural project in Miryalguda, a small sleepy town near Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. Since, there were no decent hotels in the town then, and the project was for a long duration, we had rented a small furnished house as our guesthouse.
There we had a cook-cum-caretaker 24×7. We were just the three of us staying there, and all from North India. Although, our cook claimed, he knew how to cook North Indian cuisine well, but the reality was quite the other way around. We normally used to land in Miryalguda for a fortnight at a stretch and then hit Head Office at Mumbai for a couple of days to report the progress of the project and be with our families, and then return again for a fortnight, and this continued for months. And, we had planned it in such a manner at Miryalguda, that we used to have all are meals in the guesthouse, and even preferred to carry tiffin prepared in the guesthouse, just in case we were going out on a farmer-field visit locally.
Our cook out there was reasonably smart, hospitable, and a sensible young fellow, who normally used to serve Andhra dishes for breakfast and lunch; while he used to attempt some North Indian dishes every day for dinner, realising we must be missing home food; which unfortunately used to be worse in taste than even the Andhra meal, he used to prepare for us. And, gradually we had two issues at hand, relating to food. One, with the continuous hot Andhra food, some of us started getting bouts of acidity. Two, after a couple of days of landing, we genuinely used to miss home food. And so, we were desperately looking for a solution.
One day in the evening while we all were having a cup of tea, we all gave the cook some positive feedbacks about his culinary prowess and that charged him a wee bit. And, then the next day I gave him some tips on how to cook simple Dal, Chawal and Sabzi in North Indian style based on the home recipe that I carried from home.
And, to my surprise next day’s dinner was a delight, and quite close to home food; and it only improved, over the next few days. But, even more surprising was the fact that a simple pep talk had created a world of a change in the cook in less than 24 hours. And, this small episode changed my persona to a great extent. I realised, how very important it is to keep cheering every human being on a regular basis and not wait for milestone moments, without which they start operating like mere zombies.
The episode also got me thinking to a point of no return in life; where I would willfully compliment a cook for preparing a dish well and one could see the broad smile on his otherwise long face. Those days I used to travel a lot and often by cabs, and I made it a point to compliment the driver each time, on safe driving; and I could fathom the power of such small compliments as they generated tremendous positive energies, which is unimaginable and could even race the progress of our country by leaps and bounds.
I then had many field executives and managers reporting to me and I never missed an opportunity of complimenting them on the spot for having done a good job. This definitely increased their morale and performance exponentially and that reflected on their annual appraisals too.
For let us not forget life is all about small building blocks that makes the façade look grand. So whenever you get a chance don’t let go the opportunity of passing small positive feedbacks to people around you.
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