Appreciating quite a bit of quiet

An Interesting article from the fast company, published last week

Guest contributor Roberta ChinskyMatuson is an internationally recognized expert on increasing profitability by maximizing employee contribution. Her website iswww.yourhrexperts.com. She is the author of Suddenly in Charge: Managing Up, Managing Down, Succeeding All Around, a Washington Post Top-­5 Leadership pick. Download a free bonus chapter. Her new book, The Magnetic Workplace: How to Hire Top Talent That Will Stick Around will be published in 2013. Sign up to receive a subscription to Roberta’scomplimentary newsletter.

ARTICLE BEGINS

Sometimes we forget that the most productive people in an organization aren’t the ones who make the most noise. In fact, it’s often the quiet ones who out-produce everyone else.
Here are some reasons I think this is so.

Being quiet strengthens focus. It’s hard to focus on the task at hand when you yourself are making so much noise. The other team, who participated in the clamming wars, never took their eye off the prize. Our team, on the other hand, did a happy dance in the sand every time we hit pay dirt. In retrospect, this was probably valuable time wasted.

Being quiet calms others. Quiet people have the ability to calm those around them. For example, when everyone is stressing out because it looks like a team isn’t going to meet their deadlines, it’s usually the quiet people who are able to calm people down and carry them over the finish line.

Being quiet conveys confidence. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone when you are confident. You know you do a good job and you believe that eventually others will take notice.

Being quiet means you think before you speak. Quiet people are usually thoughtful thinkers. They think things through before making a statement. Something you probably wish many of your workers would do before taking up your valuable time.

Being quiet gives you the space to dig deep. Quiet people tend to delve into issues and ideas before moving on to new ones. Compare this to the surface people in your organization, who often move onto other matters without giving thought to the gold that may be sitting right below the surface.
ARTICLE ENDS

I would personally add the following to the above article.

Now some interesting co-relates.

Being quiet should not be lifted or quoted or taken out of context. Ageless Timeless Wisdom propagates the following different roles or hats a Leader has to play depending on times and situation…This comes straight from Devdutt Patnaik’s interpretation of Indian Mythology:

1. Hat of Parsuram…disciplinarian, ability to restore and repose faith and robust confidence in times of absolute out-of-control situation by solid assertive actions. I have personally stayed away from playing this except for a few situations that were external.

2. Ram…lead by example. Lead by practicing. Lead by establishing perhaps the footprint for following or as a lighthouse.

3. Krishna…coaching people.Counselling people. Mentoring people.

4. Buddha…let go. Pardon. Forgive. Ignore.

Even in some of the traits that are said to be common with long lasting companies and mentioned by Jim Collins in Built to Last or Good to Great, there are special emphasis of a trait exhibited by leaders of these companies tightly aligned to humility and quiet working. Since leaders exhibited these qualities, the rest of the company followed and those who didn’t were given fair, sooner and amicable exit.

A foreign researcher (just around Independence) asked Mahatma Gandhi as to why his actions are said to be soft. Gandhiji smiled and moved on. Later one of Gandhiji’s disciple reasoned that often Mahatma appears soft but if one looks at the outcomes then one would realize the immense, enormous, super normal boost, and robust solid response he generated out of his thin frame of body that were much long-lasting and powerful than flash-in-pan seeming aggression and violence. It’s not for nothing that he got the entire country to rally around his idea of Satya-graha. And Satyagraha is a powerful word and rock solid interpretation of Insistence of Truth.

Happy Quite a bit of Thinking.
Happy Thinking of experiencing and seeing results of Being Quiet.