Fixing Life with an Iron Nail

A couple of weekends back, I realized that I needed to get my shoes polished to wear them to work. So I went to a shoemaker; what can I do for you? the shoemaker asked. I took out my shoes from the carry bag and handed them over for polish. He said it would take some time as he was busy mending shoes from another customer and asked me if I could wait? I agreed and sat outside his shop on a pile of rocks converted into a bench, primarily to observe his work.

While I was sitting, a car came and stopped at some distance from this shop; the person came out while his kids were sitting in the car, looking at the old shoemaker’s shop with awe. The man asked about the shoes he had given to him for repair. The shoemaker replied that he was working on it and would take some more time to finish the required job. The man went back to sit in his car, waiting, and the shoemaker started mending this man’s shoes.

As a keen learner and an observer of human behaviour. I started observing the shoemaker more keenly on how he will work without supervision per se, one of our natural corporate instincts. The shoemaker started using some nails to fix and diligently planted each of them and was doing it with precision. Whenever he was not satisfied with how a nail was getting fixed, he would pull it out and do it again. The moment he was able to repair one shoe, he cross-checked if the nails he had fixed would create any sense of discomfort to the man and went back to pulling out some of the nails and setting them again. He must have checked the shoes a few times before handing over the shoes to the man and taking his dues.

The entire experience of sitting there, keenly noticing and getting my shoes polished made me gather a few essential thoughts for life:

1. Begin with Trust:

You could be an employee, an employer, a homemaker, a professional, or an individual and must be working with different people in different avatars.

Learn to begin by showing some ‘trust’ in what others do as your colleagues, peers, reporting managers, subordinates, stakeholders, clients, friends and family.

This very fact will possibly change your outlook about how we perceive things in our professional and personal lives.

2. Learn to Demonstrate Trust:

There is a difference between trusting someone and demonstrating it with your actions.

Subconsciously, we have a habit of controlling what is happening around us without comprehending that we are becoming micro-managers.

Suppose you are constantly worried about how your work/task is managed by your team/colleague/subordinate or employees. In that case, you are missing the element of ‘trust’, and it is better to acknowledge it than ignoring.

3. Work like you Work:

Deliver your best work even when no one is inspecting you, with organizations allowing people to avail the flexibility of working from anywhere/hybrid models. It is an equal responsibility for employees to ensure they are delivering their best work even when no one is present around them to supervise.

Accountability is not what we deliver when someone is watching us; it is what we do when no one is watching us.

Napolean once said, “a genius is someone who can do average work when everyone around is going crazy”.

4. Doubt your Deliverables:

You will often find employees, employers, professionals, friends and families shielding their personal views with a context that the other side is incorrect. Instead, try and doubt your version, too; not to lose your self-confidence, but to accept the possibility of rectifying yourself and acknowledging the change.

Keep that little ego aside because it will not allow you to accept the most perplexing sentence, “I am wrong”, and re-check your version to ensure that you deliver your role effectively.

Mistakes are a proof that you are trying, but they are not restricted to hierarchies. So no matter what position, grade, age, or level you are in, you can be wrong too.

5. Stay Grounded:

Humble leadership is one of the indispensable traits organizations look to incorporate and implement.

You can create an environment of congruence in almost every interaction you have as an individual for your professional and personal life too.

The only thing we need to do is stop giving ourselves too much significance and try to practice empathy in real life.

The purpose of sharing this experience is to understand that we can even learn from fundamental interactions as long as we stay unbiased in exploring life around us. Be vulnerable to experiencing what is not your way, and you will be amazed by what you can absorb.

The ability to acquire depends more on the learner than on the teacher; because a closed book and a closed mind cannot make you wise – MS

Thank you..