Genuineness not scripted – how would you rate yours?
Many times, genuine expressions and actions are rare to find in real life. Harboring genuineness is always at a cost in the short term, yet it reaps amazing dividends in the long term.
The dialogue between me and my senior almost 20 years back left me up front with the outside world. Eventually, I weighed what he said about distinguishing Genuineness vs. Ingenuity at every juncture of my career, an important skill you need as a leader who is all-set to achieve great scaling heights in his or her life.
My senior said, “Have you seen Ramlila? It is performed across northern and some parts of eastern India essentially during the festival of Dussehra every year, at times twice a year”. He added, “This Ramayana staging is one of the most popular storytelling forms in the country. Ramlila recalls the battle between Rama and Ravana, which consists of a series of discourse between various characters in Ramayana“. To this, I was just nodding, puzzled as to why my senior was posing this to me. As if my nodding was an acknowledgment to his say he added, so you would also know that “Many a villagers participate by playing part of various characters wearing costumes and masks related to characters. And some of the important characters include, Lord Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Ravana, Hanuman, Dhasaratha, Sugriv, Kaushalya, and many more”.
I said, “Yes, I had multiple times visited and witnessed such staged events in a small village near Varanasi at my friends’ place and actually met most of the people playing this character backstage.” Yet the relevance and context of the same to the “act of being genuine” for me was still not clear and relatable. He then asked me, “So every year do you find a different person playing a different role, wearing different character costumes and masks, or do you typically find the same person playing the same role?”
Since I had visited the backstage and met most of the stage actor’s, at least who played the important part, I said immediately, “What I observed for the last 2 years was that invariably it’s the same person who enacts the assigned character year after year and do great justice to the part played.”
He took a pause and then said, “Here you go, many times that’s the difference you would see on the stage of the professional world; you would keep on guessing whether the person with whom you interacted a week back or yesterday is still playing the same character or wearing a different mask today. And the thought would cross your mind whether he would play a different character tomorrow”.
Exact words he said “Aisse logo se dur raho, jo nakab pehente hain or baar-baar badlate hain”. Genuineness is rare, and as a leader, it’s important to surround yourself with individuals whom you feel are genuine. One of the ways to judge is, how Genuine are these individuals towards their Triggers and own Visions? An attribute that is very rare. So it’s important that you first cultivate this culture within you and then in your team.
I feel if you want to be a great leader, choose the path of being genuine first to your triggers and your visions and follow your inner voice; only then that reflects in your action, your behavior, your team handling and most importantly, it reflects on to your family and generations to follow“.
It’s not only about finding the right triggers; what’s equally important is the genuineness behind the same. Always believe in the consistency of genuine actions, for if your actions are like a typical “New Year resolution” that lasts for a few days, only God can help you. Then definitely, you have not found your genuine triggers. As I say, “You can try copying some of the talks, walks, at times few of the acts of a successful individual, but how can you copy his or her genuineness.”
I recollect this quote “I have a lot of respect for genuine people. They might not be perfect, but at least they’re not pretending to be”…Anthony Gucciardi.
Most of us spend our entire life searching that inner voice; yet fail to find it that offers the conviction to act towards the visions and goals set. All those who remain to be unsuccessful spend their entire life figuring out what did they do wrong? Why they remained underachievers? Or then, to deflect from their frustrations, spend the rest of their life enjoying hauling strings of somebody else’s life.
Cultivate genuineness as one of the principles of your life. As this would lead you to:
- Perform better professionally when you become yourself.
- Helps build faith within you, your team as well with your colleagues.
- Breeds Trustworthiness and Esteem.
I am sure it’s no different when it comes to your personal life, including that for your family.
It’s only the genuineness that will help you have a long-lasting ascending impact on you, achieving heights and give you a reason to get up in the morning.
I will reach out to you again; till that time, I leave you with this thought to ponder. How many of us listen to motivational speeches or go through best-selling motivational books expecting that we find our real passion, vision, and the purpose of life? Why then do we still remain elusive from being passionate about achieving the so-called set vision both in personal and professional life? What is that missing link?
"You cannot script genuineness-You need to find your genuine Triggers."
Very well written, infact inspite of knowing still we or say myself just neglect it but today i understood how to keep away from the mask ppl…only regret is we come to know whats wrong very late once rt time is passed…
Thanks for sharing ur thoughts for our future life , hopw we dont repeat same mistakes.
Yes it is absolutely true!
But sir quite often I have seen people pose genuineness with a cloak of logic.
Genuineness can not be relative as logic. It is pure and universally accepted unlike logic which varies. Isn’t it sir?