Conscious Enterprises Network

Bertie Wooster dishes out some Parenting Tips by Ashok Bhatia I confess I have never had the chance of listening to the prattle of tender feet around me. However, this does not mean that I do not observe kids. I do so, with all the shrewdness at my command. When they giggle and stare at public speakers, the latter are all of a twitter. When they seek protection money from their wannabe step fathers, the soul cringes. When they use paraffin wax to douse fires, one sickens in horror. When they decide to extract a revenge of sorts from cabinet ministers who have reported their smoking endeavours in the shrubberies, one draws appropriate conclusions. When they celebrate their birthdays by either putting sherbet in ink pots or by going AWOL to enjoy a dinner and a movie, one gets overawed with the kind of courage they have. Having suffered at the hands of such obnoxious kids as Thos, Seabury, Edwin the Scout, Kid Blumenfeld, Peggy Mainwaring and Kid Clementina, I have willy-nilly come to th...

Roderick Spode presents his Annual Corona Report By Ashok Bhatia At the 2nd Annual General Meeting of the shareholders of the Global Corona Corporation (GCC), Roderick Spode, the Vice President (Operations) of the company, presented his Annual Report for the period from April 2020 to March 2021. Here are some of the salient features of his report. Due to the aggressive marketing policies followed by GCC, brand Covid has captured a major share of the market during the year under reference. As of now, close to 136 million people have suffered from this onslaught, while as many as 2.94 million have kicked the bucket. This has reduced the pressure on the limited resources of our planet. If the world population is taken to be 7.8 billion, during the last year, GCC has touched a mere 0.02% of human beings. This shows the immense market potential which lies untapped for the products and services of GCC in the times to come. We have already trained an army of Red Shorts volunteering to help us...

Eeyore and Yoda Walk into a Bar By Jeffrey Deckman “Listening is the Language of Respect” So, Eeyore and his master, Yoda walk into a bar. They order a few drinks are talking about their ex-wives and Yoda’s persistent rashes. Eventually the discussion turns to business. Eeyore is stressed because the people he is trying to manage don’t listen to him. Eeyore is just about at his wit’s end and explains his saga to Yoda. He laments that he tells his staff what he needs and when, but they don’t respond. He asks them for their input on how to solve problems and hears “crickets” in response. Then, he tries to hold them accountable but it feels like no one willingly does anything without being told. He has started to apply more pressure but it feels like he is “pushing a rope” or trying to sweep water uphill. Nothing is improving. In fact, in response to his pressure, they are either pushing back or going passive-aggressive on him. Eyeore’s Dilemma Eeyore is even starting to feel like his emp...

Is Your Organisation Designed Backwards? By Jeffrey Deckman Two of the most important and most challenging issues facing executives today are: 1. How to get more productivity from people who are already overworked and “over-processed.” 2. How to satisfy the demand of todayʼs worker to contribute more and to feel more engaged in the process. Seeing these two challenges you may be asking yourself: “So whatʼs the problem? Management wants more from the employees and employees seem to want to give more.” At first glance, it may not look like there is much of an issue here. But the fact is that these two questions are very much in play in business today in both the executive and the employee circles and both sides are frustrated. So whatʼs the deal? ITʼS A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVES Take this test sometime in the near future: Ask the people who work with, or for, you a few questions. But first, create a safe environment for them to be honest. Next, include peers and entry-level employees you ma...

Practicing the Workplace "Love Languages" By Amir Ghannad Photo by Brett Jordan on  Unsplash Have you ever tried to do something nice for someone, only to be disappointed in how they received it? Perhaps you went out of your way to express your gratitude or demonstrate that you care about and value them, only to receive a lukewarm response, as if it didn’t quite hit the spot for them. I think it’s safe to say that we have all experienced this every now and then. While this can definitely be discouraging when it happens in our personal lives, even the fear of such a response keeps us from taking our work relationships to that next level, instead keeping many of us at the level of “transactionships” alone. Well the good news is that there are ways to take your communication and relationships to that next level, both in your personal life and at work, and that’s what I want to talk about in this post. Several years ago, I was exposed to two teachings that opened my eyes to how I...

Servant Leaders Love People By Amir Ghannad Photo by chuttersnap on  Unsplash The title of this post has probably already driven some people away and it may have some of you who decided to check it out wondering, “What does love got to do with leadership?” My answer is, of course, “Everything!” That may sound way too “kumbaya,” but I’m not going to apologize for it because it’s the truth. The bottom line is that if you do not love your people, you will fall short in leading them and you will most certainly not serve them to the best of your ability. But why is it that so many so-called leaders reject this notion as touchy feely, and so many of us who deep down subscribe to it try to tone it down so we don’t look like soft and wimpy people? Why is it that so many of us have allowed ourselves to be bullied into pretending to be rough and tough in the eyes of the real wimps, who don’t have the strength and courage to embrace and express their love for the people they lead? It might be...

Different Hues of Happiness by Ashok Bhatia Quite a few CEOs, when they wake up the day after having secured a crucial business deal, experience a sense of calm happiness within. The flowers are in full bloom, the sun shines with due benevolence, the birds and the bees hop around doing what Mother Nature has ordained them to do, God is in heaven and all appears to be fine with the world. If they happen to be at a resort with a fresh water lake nearby, they prefer to splash about a bit and invigorate themselves. While taking a leisurely swim, they even start exercising their vocal chords, belting out a favourite song of theirs, generating in the process an off-tune gruesome sound which is calculated to startle the stoutest. Two bees, buzzing among the roses, stop as one bee and look at each other with raised eyebrows. Snails withdraw into their shells. A squirrel practicing for her athletic performance in the upcoming Olympics on a nearby tree nearly falls off its branch. A deer roaming...