Tag: Connections

Just Ask Leadership. Connections.

My blog friend Conrad led me to his friend G L Hoffman and his blog ‘What Would Dad Say.” One of GL’s posts was an interview with his friend and author Gary B Cohen. I was very impressed with the interview, and via the comment columns established a bit of a relationship with Gary.

In those exchanges, I had promised Gary that I would get a copy of the book no sooner the Indian edition came out, and after five months, I did.
justaskbook

The book is named, ‘Just Ask Leadership’ and makes fascinating reading. While it is primarily aimed at Managers, I found it interesting purely from the effective idea generation aspects of what Gary writes about. Combined with what I learnt about the story behind the adventure that Gary had in getting the book published and his own personal story, the book has had a tremendous impact on my understanding of the process of communicating and generating ideas.

I could not but help go down memory lane with some things in the book triggering off old incidents in my Management days, but more to the point is how relevant the book is even now for me.

I am taking this opportunity to recommend this book to those who are interested in effective interpersoanal relationships and also to impress on my readers my other fascination about connections. Just see from where I went to where and where I have landed now! Amazing is it not?

Reaching Out.

Out of the blue, I received a telephone call from a young friend who lives way down South in Tirupur. Tirupur is our hosiery center from where many of the world’s popular cotton hosiery garments are exported. It is an industrial town with a high floating population and a much smaller resident population. Among the resident population, I have many friends as I spent most of my working life in the textile and accessories business. On two occasions, I had even lived there to handle a couple of projects.

My association with my young friend Srinivasan goes back to 1980 when I was located in Delhi. We had a branch at Ludhiana, another textile town in the Punjab. Srinivasan, Srini to his friends, was part of the Ludhiana team and a very valuable one at that. He had left his native state of Tamil Nadu and gone to Ludhiana for employment.

When I was transferred out of the North, Srini requested me to help him get transferred to Tamil Nadu, and using my network, I was able to help him. He made good use of the opportunity and grew within the company till the entrepreneur in him prodded him to be on his own. That too has been handled successfully by him, and he is a respected resident of Tirupur. He has been in regular touch with me all these years and calls me up when the mood takes him.

Srini is a typical family man. He has been a great support and inspiration for his siblings and other members of his family. He has got a wide net work of friends and business associates who consider him a decent soul ever ready to help others who are in need.

To illustrate his nature, let me tell you why he called. Just to say hello and to spend a few minutes reminiscing our past. He did not have to ask me for anything and on the contrary wanted to know if he could do anything for me from all the way there. That he remembered and called me to be just in touch was such a boost for me that I wish to share this with my readers. Such is the power of connections about which I had written earlier.

Coincidence? Serendipity? I do not know. Since I read the book, I am getting quite aware of the power of connections with many others turning up in my life. Perhaps I am just more aware.

I find it truly amazing. Have you started being aware after you read my post or got to know more about the book that I wrote about?