Happy May Day!
Imagine switching places with your boss for a day.
If you’re a boss, imagine switching places with one of your most junior employees?
For me, switching places as a journalist with my boss Tom Lydon, publisher of ETF Trends, would land me on-air on Fox Business and CNBC (click each link to see him in action). It would mean constant traveling, networking, and working hard to educate others about ETFs. If he spent a day at my desk, the life of a writer would become apparent – the screen his most constant companion, ideas circulating constantly, and a pressing need to publish.
This is exactly what one boss did – except to a far greater extreme. Tomin Thachankary, a senior officer of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), left the comfort of his home on a public holiday, changed into a blue uniform and went inside a public bus and became a conductor.
He stood in the constant heat and collected ticket after ticket from riders for 119 kilometers. I’ve been on these buses traveling and this is no easy job. You hold the bag of tickets and money with one hand and then with your other hand you hold on to the railing of the bus for dear life. They have to shout the entire time for people to pay their money and try and move around from person to person in a crowded bus while people pull their money out.
May Day Empathy – Best Quality in an Work Place
It’s important for leaders to come down to the level of their workers. Empathy is one of the most important qualities in an office: it gives perspective, keeps you out of judgement, helps you recognize emotions in others and communicate. It means feeling with people.
How can we lead the people when we do not know what they do? When we don’t understand their day to day lives, circumstances, and conditions in which they work under?
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