Every child making an entry into this temporal world is blessed equally with ‘original pure goodness’ given to it by Divinity. The pollution starts and makes an entry into an individual's personality, to wither away the trunk of goodness, as the child starts to grow and age.
Every child making an entry into this temporal world is blessed equally with ‘original pure goodness’ given to it by Divinity. The pollution starts and makes an entry into an individual's personality, to wither away the trunk of goodness, as the child starts to grow and age.
Goodness is recognisable but not definable, “To make one good action succeed another is the perfection of goodness” (Ali-ibn-Abi-Talib). Goodness is to be found within, not without.
Goodness at work place may sound an alien thought to those who believe that business is based on such talents as were possessed by Shylock, in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. What is goodness in business? This question may arise in the minds of the readers. The simplest answer is, oaths taken are adhered to, commitments made to deliver or repay are honoured in time and above all the presence of a resolve not to make exorbitant profit at the cost to the poorest section of the society.
Alas! There will be no room for goodness in corporate behavior, if the interest is to maximise profit, through any and all means -the justifiable and legal and the non-justifiable and non-legal.
Our community boasts the presence amidst us, pharmaceuticals that will adulterate life saving drugs in their pursuit to make more profit. The more respectable among them indulge into either under or over-invoicing of raw materials, to facilitate either expansion in their local profit and loss accounts or their headquarters’.
Banks and financial institutions make money by taking deposits from the low-income, savings-oriented section, whose members are also the lowest recipients of profits on their savings and these pools of resources deposited by the innocent, under-privileged and lowly-paid segment of the society is made available to the rich and mighty to borrow. And many of these borrowers, once they have made tons of money, refuse to pay back loans. Default is not seen by these set of borrowers as abandonment of the naturally blessed quality of goodness.
Just visit any government or for that matter private hospital (and God-forbid that you may have to!) and see how the patients are treated and how much expensive it is to get the basic health and medical care. Mother Teresa, with her goodness of 'gentle care' and 'soft spoken word 'cured millions, which no medical doctor can ever think of achieving. She charged nothing to the society for her goodness.
Unscrupulous behaviour and practices does not in any manner cause the inner soul to feel anguished, disturbed or regretful. Why? There is unfortunately a growing general acceptability to the most wrongful application of the English phrase ‘all is fair in and war’. We do find war’s applicability but where is ‘love’? Absent. Not found.
Talent does not go well with cynicism or even sarcasm. Instead of looking for faults in colleagues, start writing every day, at least two good qualities, you noticed in either your co-workers who could be peers or reports. Keep a journal as it will come in handy when doing the annual performance evaluation.
Goodness is not flamboyant, glamorous; it merely glows. Goodness is noticeable when you voluntarily make time available to help others, when you assist others monetarily as per your means, or even servicing those who need to be serviced.
Managers fail to recognise that they can produce excellent and exceedingly good results, through small acts of kindness. If you can make a colleague happy with a smile or even a gentle pat on the back, do so now ... don’t hesitate!
At work stations, mere resolutions to not do anything wrong are insufficient. It is all about choosing to do the ‘right thing’. Goodness of behavior is not a matter of choice. No manager can afford to sit on the fence that demarcates good and bad behavior and attitude. No Grey areas -- all only shades and hue of black and white. Goodness is scarce at work places, due to its non-recognition and attention … once recognised, it can be in abundant supply. Actually it is an endemic trait and spreads like an epidemic. The virus of guidance and goodness must not be stopped from spreading.
Conscientious organisations have several programs for employee engagement to promote harmony and goodness in the organisation. For the purpose of this piece, I am altering a quote by Felice Leonardo “Leo” Buscaglia PhD, who was an American author and motivational speaker and a professor at the University of Southern California.
“To show goodness is to risk appearing a fool. To be virtuous is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out to others is to risk involvement. To expose goodness is to risk exposing your own self. To give goodness is to risk not receiving goodness in return. To foster goodness is to risk failure. But the risk must be taken … Only a person who thinks … is free”.
Exercising control over conferred power is goodness. The lack of power, with the state of being good, is more a matter of weakness! In being good always set yourself the highest of standards. Keep raising the bar. The beneficiaries of such attitude will be yourself, your team members your organisation, your society, your city, your country!
The route to acquisition of goodness is acquiring wisdom through repeated failures. Good, the more, communicated, more abundant grows (John Milton, Paradise Lost).
Goodness at workplace is an investment with decades of guaranteed profits. Evil, must be overcome with good.
The writer is a freelance columnist
