Do the right thing

A turtle family decided to go on a picnic. Turtles, being naturally slow about things, took seven years to prepare for their outing. Finally the turtle family left home looking for a suitable place. During the second year of their journey they found a place ideal for them at last!

For about six months they cleaned the area, unpacked the picnic basket, and completed the arrangements. Then they discovered they have forgotten the salt. A picnic without salt would be a disaster, they all agreed. After a lengthy discussion, the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the salt from home. Although he was the fastest of the slow moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and wobbled in his shell. He agreed to go on one condition that no one would eat until he returned. The family consented and the little turtle left.

Three years passed and the little turtle had not returned. Five years...six years... then on the seventh year of his absence, the oldest turtle could no longer contain his hunger. He announced that he was going to eat and begun to unwrap a sandwich. At that point the little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree shouting, "See! I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to go get the salt."

Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up to our expectations of them. We are so concerned about what others are doing that we don't do anything ourselves. Often we wait for people to make , what we think are mistakes so that we can 'get back' at them. Its a mindless and fruitless exercise doing so.
You do the right thing without waiting for people to do what you think is their bit.

Know where to make an effort

A giant ship engine failed. The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.

Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.
Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.
"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"
So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."

The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer....................... $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap.......................... $ 9, 998.00
Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference.

Act of Leadership by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Let's look at an incident in the professional life of Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, which captures an important aspect in the art of management.

Dr. Kalam felt that during the 1970's and 1980's, while he was working at ISRO, he had a priceless piece of education which couldn't have been imparted by the best of universities. His narrative of this invaluable lesson was something like this - 'I was given a significant responsibility by Prof. Satish Dhawan, the then Chairman of ISRO. I had to manage the project to develop India's first Satellite Launch Vehicle - SLV-3, to put our satellite ROHINI into orbit. This was one of the largest high technology space programmes undertaken in the 1970's'.

'The whole space technology community was geared up for this task. Thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians put in tireless effort for a number of years, resulting in the realization of the first SLV-3 launch on 10th August, 1979. SLV-3 took off in the early hours and the first stage worked beautifully. But the mission could not achieve its objectives, as the control system in the 2nd stage malfunctioned. The project had failed'.

'Tough questions had to be answered to all the stake-holders. There was a press conference at Sriharikota, where the media glare had to be faced. Prof. Dhawan took me to the press conference but asked me to just stay at his side, while he tackled the press. As part of it, he was unequivocal that the whole responsibility for the failure of the mission rested on his shoulders. This despite me being the Project Director!'

'Work re-commenced on the SLV-3. Prof. Dhawan again handed me the responsibility of managing the mission, despite the previous failure. When we launched SLV-3 on 18th July, 1980, successfully placing Rohini into orbit, we were overjoyed. Obviously, there was a press conference. Like the last time, I expected Prof. Dhawan to handle the press. He called me aside and said that I would need to do it and he would not accompany me. When I asked why he had spoken to the press last time but not now, in our moment of success, his logic was astonishing'.
'He said 'when a project fails, the leader has to take the flak; when it succeeds, the person who has been responsible for the success should have the limelight''

Simple; yet profound?