SOME SPIRITUAL - BUSINESS THOUGHTING

GOOD EVENING !!

SOME SPIRITUAL - BUSINESS ?THOUGHTING

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Men are born soft and supple;

dead they are stiff and hard.

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Plants are born tender and pliant;

dead they are brittle and dry.

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Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible

is a disciple of death.

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Whoever is soft and yielding

is a disciple of life. . . .

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?We generally admire people in business who are organized and buttoned up. Stiffness — "sticking to your guns" and so on—is often interpreted as masculine "strength." But it's often true that these same people are inflexible in their attitudes. It's important to ask whether they are organized and buttoned up because they're efficient or because they're afraid of not being in control.

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?Softness, on the other hand, represents feminine "weakness." But we'd do well to drop the guns and forget these stereotypes. Not only are they silly but they are inaccurate and misleading. Softness can also mean suppleness, flexibility, openness of body and mind. Watch a t'aichi or aikido master if you want to know how powerful softness in action can be.

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Managers often find their suppleness challenged when confronting situations that violate their expectations of how things should be. For example, some managers consider it a personal betrayal if someone, particularly a key person, resigns. "After all I've done," the manager thinks, "she takes another job and disrupts all my plans for her and the department."

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?Then there are managers who are stunned when business conditions shift, or the marketplace takes a turn that the strategic plan didn't cover in the "contingencies" section. They can't cope with a reality beyond their ability to

predict, so they either overreact or become paralyzed.

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The wise leader makes use of difficulties like a resignation, realizing that every time an employee comes or goes, there is an opportunity, perhaps to change the organizational structure, to give another employee a promotion, or yes, even to eliminate a job and cut costs. When an employee resigns, the leader wishes that person well and never shuts the door to re-employment.

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?A CEO of a very successful large retail company actively encourages his salespeople to use their own judgment in dealing with customers, keeping in mind that retaining the customer is more important than store policies or regulations. Most retailers establish rigid procedures for every transaction, thus transforming their salespeople into dull extensions of an inflexible system.

When asked if his softness toward customers costs more in extra exchanges or encourages the salespeople to "give away the store," he responded that abusive behaviour which arises from adhering to a system for its own sake drives away so many customers that he comes out ahead.

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The wise leader knows that it is absurd to believe he can plan for every contingency, and that there are great opportunities if he remains flexible and makes use of whatever happens. In fact, the best solutions often come in response to the unplanned-for situation, because those solutions arise from the leader's deeper intelligence.

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Just as body and mind stay young and vital by increasing their flexibility, an organization that values suppleness stays vital and creative. It is an act of strength to let go of old definitions of power and to remain flexible, soft, and

ready to yield.