Sreeram Srinivasan

The period was early 17th century.... These were the waning years of the Mughal Empire and regional satraps were becoming powerful locally, splintering the Nation into several small Nation states. In a way, it was federalism even before the Americans or the West thought up of the concept. The West had just awakened to their future potential. Trading across seas became an important economic necessity. Many past trading superpowers such as China and India had clamped down on it, unwilling to expose its people to different cultures, ideas and thought. Slowly but surely, the trading companies became powerful economic forces in the countries they set up bases in. Nevertheless, they stayed focussed on business of their own until...... It took 145 years before they took sides in a local conflict. And therein found an opportunity to become even more powerful - by playing up differences among the people, fueling aspirations, leveraging treachery and self-interest of the locals. A tiny country,

People like to feel empowered - at work, at home, at community forums, public forums, and even in society at large. But what is empowerment? Is it just raw power to do as we please, to control people around us, to push our views thro' irregardless? Or is it freedom - of thought, of action, of the ability to decide or to put forth views without fear of retribution? Is it given to us by sanction, is it authority, is it responsibility and accountability or is it what we feel within ourselves, what we take, what we feel as our right? My sense is none of above and a bit of all of the above!! Empowerment comes from our own convictions, our beliefs, our will to do or achieve, our passion to do the right thing, our burning desire to fight for a cause or an objective. So it is something we can take, something we can force someone to give much like respect and stature. We can make ourselves indispensable by the strength of our character, by the purity of our moral rectitude, by our insights,

In my position as a colleague, as a friend, an old classmate, an important member of a senior team at office, a member of a family, as Head of a business entity with several reportees, both direct and indirect, am asked to and expected rightly to provide guidance, advice and even mentor and coach people. For me this is both a challenge and an opportunity but something I have always enjoyed doing. The reasons are simple : there is a need to build trust, there is a need to speak with confidence and conviction, there is a need on my part to walk the talk, there is need for me to prepare and also articulate in a way the other person sees merit in it, and it takes a lot of influencing, and most importantly it takes a lot of courage to offer advice and guidance. Here, the rule of 3X15 applies……….. it is my sense that each one of us have at least between 10 to 15 people seeking our active guidance and another 10 to 15 people seeking our advice at various times but not continually. These are