The other day one of our friend & colleague’s grandmother succumbed to COVID-19 in Dallas, it was tragic. As we all joined in expressing our condolences to the bereaved family and prayers to the departed soul, I couldn’t stop reflecting on the role our grandparents play in shaping our lives.
Often the contribution of the grandparents is taken for granted. But I’ve always believed that Grandparents are – Models, Mentors, and Memory Makers. I’ve vivid memories of my childhood days spending quality time with both, my maternal and paternal grandparents. In a way, I reckon, I was fortunate to have been surrounded by loving and caring grandparents, each one of them distinctly different from the other.
Patience, Persistence & Perseverance (P3)
Management gurus, philosophers, and sages teach this to us. But I learned this from paternal grandfather.He was a man of few words and a workaholic to the core. He led by example and defined ‘hard work’ for me. Whenever I returned home during holidays, he would take me to the farm and slogged right through the day, making me stay glued. I too would step into the fields and do ditto.
Leadership
My paternal grandmother was the leader of the pack in the family. The reins were in her hands and she had complete control over all that goes in the family. Yet she was caring, loving and she knew exactly how to get things done without annoying anybody. She taught me how to put across my thoughts, build consensus, and make the teams rally around me to accomplish a task.
Calming Influence
My maternal grandmother was a storyteller, she was patience personified. She had this uncanny knack of going about meticulously, manoeuvre around, and calm the ruffled feathers of the family members. I learned how to stay calm and act with patience in the most adverse times from her.
Compassion & Empathy
Besides all that I learned from my grandparents, the compassion and empathy part is perhaps one of the finest lessons I learned from my maternal grandfather. As a student, tech leader and now as the Founder and CEO of CriticalRiver, compassion, and empathy has always been my fervent point. I’ve tried to put myself in others’ shoes, particularly in our customers’, tried to understand their viewpoint, propose a solution, and win them over. It has been my strong conviction that empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.
