Tarun Singh Chauhan, after a super successful career as an advertising man, turned to management consulting and I could see why. He had a way of simplifying things and understanding things very quickly. So during one of our conversations, when I asked him how we can motivate people who despite the best training and inputs are not performing, he came up with this brilliant reply.
'You must understand that everyone has their limitations,' he said. 'Don't push them in areas where they have limitations. Instead, the moment you realise that they are stuck, put them in a place where they can really contribute.'
Now that was a huge revelation to me. I was doggedly going with the belief that everyone has the raw material and everyone, given the right tools and training and managing, could overcome limitations and come up with champion stuff. I was getting frustrated when some eagles wouldn't do very well at crawling and some rabbits could not fly. Until I heard this and I changed my approach completely. It was a huge, huge shift in how I looked at myself and people after that.
True, we all want to do great, we all try hard too, but we are all made for certain things. There are things which are our obvious limitations. Like some take to leadership easily, some take to backend jobs easily. Why confuse the two and make a mess. The moment we realise they have their limitations, its best to complement them with someone who can help balance that aspect.
What to do with people with limitations? When we identify the limitation, don't push them in that area unnecessarily, because you will lose that person to frustration. Leave that aspect and explore other areas where the person is flowering easily. Life's easy for everyone. Why try to fit square pegs into round holes?
These days it's one of the first things I try to find in a person, or situations, their limitations - and I make a lot of allowance for that. No point stressing everyone out.
Thanks Tarun. That was a really good one.
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