Often my mom says, cloth might be ripped but my stitches won’t be. She also refers this kind of quality standard whenever she ties something air tight, especially for mango pickle jar.
Having listened to this many times in my formative years, I learnt to do a quality job to the best of my abilities and strict compliance (I was even ridiculed as rules Ranganatham) and at times zero tolerance. This kind of personal work standard helped me to be in good books of my manager. However, I wasn’t a good team leader or a good team player with this standard.
In order to grow as a leader I followed an African Proverb “if you want to go fast, go alone and if you want to go far, go together” and it’s helping me.
I have been contradicting on my personal standard with a team’s purpose for this quite long. Finally this morning prayers and journey within gave me this conclusion and now I’m at peace.
Stitching or tying is to keep things together not to show how strong the thread is? Thus, keep in mind what to keep together?
Is it your team, family or your intimate relationship?
Remember, your individual standard can’t be a strategy for your team standard.
Shashidhar Bairapu 