Improving Managerial Skills

A manager was traveling from Mumbai to Pune to attend training on Managerial Effectiveness. The topics for the training were:

1. Negotiation Skills
2. Winning a deal
3. Fear Management
4. Goal-aligned performance

His day was full of theoretical concepts, case studies and group exercise. Though the training was quite comprehensive, he really couldn’t find it interesting. After his training, he got busy attending a call from his friend. In this delay, he missed his pickup bus to Pune station. Therefore, he decided to take an auto-rickshaw.

The only auto-rickshaw in sight quoted him 400 Rs. for a trip to the station. He finally managed to convince him for Rs. 150. But the auto-guy drove like crazy. He even tried to sneak through a small gap between two trucks. He was almost driving at an average speed of 90. The manager was initially afraid, but somehow started getting used to it. Suddenly, the auto-driver started taking a very different route. The manager remembered his way, so he directed him to stick to the usual route. Finally, his journey was over and he reached the station.

Then a thought struck him – he had used his ‘negotiation skills’ with the auto-driver, managed to ‘strike a deal’ with him, overcome his ‘fear of speed’ and ensured that his journey was ‘aligned’ to his destination.

(A short story I wrote about auto-rickshaws in Pune.)