Why Good Employees Leave?

            If you're losing good people, look to their immediate supervisor. More than any other single reason, he is the reason people stay and thrive in an organisation. And he's the reason why they quit, taking their knowledge, experience and contacts with them. Often, straight to the competition.

       "People Leave managers not Companies," write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. "So much money has been thrown at the challenge of keeping good people - in the form of better pay, better perks and better training - when, in the end, turnover is mostly a manager issue."

If you have a turnover problem, look first to your managers and supervisors.

           Beyond a point, an employee's primary need has less to do with money, and more to do with how he's treated and how valued he feels. Much of this depends directly on the immediate manager.

Don't React, Respond

Have you heard of the Cockroach Theory for Self Development?

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic-stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach.

Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.

The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but ...it landed on another lady in the group.

Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama.

The waiter rushed forward to their rescue.
In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.

The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt.
When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior?
If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?
He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos.

It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies.

I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my friends that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me.

It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me.

More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life.

Lessons learnt from the story:
Do not react in life. Always respond.

The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded.

P.S: Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of, just and right to save a situation from going out of hands, to avoid cracks in relationship, to avoid taking decisions in anger, anxiety, stress or hurry.

Energy Storing Car Body Panels

        Estimates reveal that the conventional energy resources such as petroleum, diesel would dwindle over the years and also the threat of global warming, ozone layer depletion etc. reason out the environmental concern. It is in the light of these facts that the automobile industry seeks to investigate alternative energy resources and while hybrid vehicles are a promising option they also present the problem of increased volume and weight of the storage batteries they carry.

         Automobile manufacturers are therefore interested in minimizing the need of batteries in storing the energy generated and the other concern that the automobile industry endures over is to reduce the overall weight of the car by the use of light weight composites.
  

         Do these distinct problems/challenges rather suggest a unified solution that we can work upon? Probably, Yes. Then, we need to talk about “Energy storing body panels”. Body panels that could store energy and pass it back to the car when needed imply an active area of research today to the automobile industry. Light weight composites of polymer fiber and carbon resin present a luring scope here. These panels could reduce a car's weight by up to 15 percent.

        Technologies like regenerative braking or plugging in the car overnight would feed these panels with energy. An advanced view however is to have light weight body panels that can tap solar energy and supply it to the car while in need, the automobile manufacturer Toyota is keen about these prospects. Enabling the use of body panels with additional functionalities of tapping and storing the energy is therefore a promising solution to overcome the challenges in automobile industry.