Making of Managers - 11 ::: Taking right decisions at right time !!

Prelude :: Gowri, needless to say there is going to be a lot of postings about my experiences and learnings in the Public speaking course that I am undergoing...But as a true isha-vian, I dont intend to spoil the wonderful self experiences by vomiting every inch of details that I undergo in the class !! It is infact becoming obligatory on my part to record my subtle learnings during this course - which are not directly taught by the faculty - in my series of postings...This particular one fits very nicely into this series....Making of Managers....!! Here you go....
Dear
On the first day I happened to take the centre seat of one of the middle rows as I normally do in any such opportunities to sit in group.....I had two gentleman sitting in front of me talking continously amongst themselves until the faculty arrived on the stage...Sorry, it was not that both of them were talking, it was just one (He introduced himself as Mr.Jain....when he came to the dias for self introduction) giving sermons to his friend - neighbour in chaste Hindi on the necessity of soft skills improvement and making him prepared for a great sessions ahead in the course....! I wondered for a while if the class is structured such that we have a personalised teacher who will sit next to us and get into the syllabus...but unfortunately (or fortunately) no one was near me...and this talkative gentleman did not bother to talk to any others in the group and was glued to his friend who was nodding his head vigourously to every word uttered by Mr.Jain.... He was really overwhelmed with the knowledge of his friend, that was quite sure for me as I could see the side face of both these gentleman.
During the intro, we were supposed to tell briefly about ourselves and why we came for this course and was expected to finish our talk with a question intended to make people easy...on what is our favourite dish....While many of the participants responded with "chicken" for the last question with all smiles in their faces (shall we make HEN as our national bird ?? Peacock is getting too old and killing it is any way an offence...!!), I had no qualms to tell in front of mike that my favourite is Jeeramilagu Rasam and Paruppu thugaiyal....(incidentally, half hour back I had this combination for today's Lunch !!), Here came Mr.Jain who though properly answered all other questions, gave a long lecture on the last question....that his parents have told him that food is meant for nutrition and not for taste and he considers any person with a "long tongue" as a cheap personality....and ended up this brief lecture by stating that he likes all "saathvic" food because he is a Jain and a "vegetarian"....(I did not get annoyed because he digged me personally...but was actually sympathesing him for not able to comprehend on the question...the best answer in his own case could have been...."I dont have particular preferences..." isn't it ??)
There was another instance when we were asked to calmly think and write down what is our percentage of confidence level in public speaking....and tell it in open...To which I sincerely told like many of the participants that I am at 60 %.... The voice of this gentleman was quite lone in proudly announcing that he is at 100 %.....for which the faculty clapped and admired his confidence...at that point of time (mystery unveiled little later...please).
This person carried a sense of superiority about him and was not able to stop his temptation to talk to his friend-neighbour even when the faculty was speaking so magnetic and nicely...I had to touch his shoulder gently to quiten him a little bit so that I can focus on the better speech that was getting delivered...
The MD casually announced that from the next week, since there will be lot of group activity, the total batch of around 40 will be split up into two - one will be handled by "amma" and another by him....That is, the second half of the session every sunday...which comes after a break...
Believe me, I was secretly hoping not to fall in the same group of this gentleman but did not carry this thought farther than this...As I missed the second session last sunday, today I was back to the hall 15 minutes earlier trying to get acclimatized to the environment and trying to feel at home like all others who had one extra group session than myself (this is the spirit of "competition" !!). I was surprised to see the friend of Mr.Jain sitting alone and in fact next to me by co-incidence...we exchanged our names and shook our hands and I casually asked him where his friend was...
This gentleman - who appears very simple and gullible - told with lot of surprise and awe that the MD had called Mr.Jain for a personal meeting and told him that a person like him may not get any thing from such a class which is not targetted to person of his caliber....! This man's voice chocked in admiration as the MD had returned back the cheque of Mr.Jain to him and told him that the institute does not deserve to certify a master-speaker like him !!
Suddenly I got reminded of another small incident which was much more clearer to me....Anoo told me 10 days back that the cheque given by me around 1 month back was never debitted to our bank account...and I spontaneously called the institute to ascertain if they missed to deposit it...The MD's daughter spoke in a calm voice and informed me that its their policy to deposit the cheques only after the first session is over....and assured & thanked me for my initiative...
Now, these are methods of veterans of any field...they are so proactive that they design every little thing to ensure the overall effectiveness....starting from choosing the participants...A man like Mr.Jain would have definitely made people quite inferior and would have been bent on stamping on all of the lesser mortals his supreme personality...
After all this class and course is meant to lift us up...and personalities like this man will be a misfit...and I admired the institute lot more when I heard about his "nice" elimination from the course.....
A decision taken at right time - I am sure - will benefit every one....and as a true professional, we should strive to be pro-active with our antennas always up for possible problems and challenges....!! I will remember this small episode for ever....
By the by, I was tempted to write a mail to the email id of the institute quite crisply on this...but controlled myself that it was not needed.....!! I will not even mention about this even if I had the chance....There is really no need for impressing any one and it is better I learn to swallow my lessons and internalise them instead of diluting them with lot of words...
Krishnaarpanam...
suchoo