A friend of mine had a bad day and checked with me "Hey Ranga, due to some personal problems, I was not in a good mood, but I did all my assigned tasks and my colleagues and managers make fun of me that I'm always serious. They say that they are showing concern towards me but that hurts me even more"
I mentioned that "Even though we have the ability to see color, most of the people see only Black or White and they can't even appreciate gray scale". This description of color and gray scale was due to the fact that, we both are in a company who are experts in digital printing and color is our life, and for those who made fun of him.
I expressed my thought to him that, "There is always a shade between black and white or a wide range of color, in human personality which people cannot appreciate . If you want to impress people that you are fine you should show that you are either black or white, especially white should be really white".
It means a little quietness can be interpreted as black (moody, sad etc) as humans tend to become digital when they cannot appreciate emotions.
I also informed him, "If you are in a shade it is always interpreted as black. In essence you are always providing a shade to your manager and team, making you a black (dull/sad) personality all the time. If you want to impress on others that you are white (happy and exuberant), don't even show a hint of black in your attitudes or personality".
Later I suggested, "There is no reason why you should try to impress others with your attitude, as far as you are doing good for yourself. The ability to appreciate shades and color on your own is more important than trying to find out why others are not able to appreciate shades and colors".
He was so happy and relieved to hear, why he got such comments, and he said "Yes, I understood. I'll get a box of chocolates, distribute and show that I am in great mood hereafter, so that I can keep the Digital people informed, that I am doing good".
If he did that, it would show great understanding of his environment, and his adaptation to the surroundings.
Personally, I had a sad start that day, with a very dear friends (Kanimozhi's) husband's sudden death, due to an accident. He is about my age. However I was showing up exuberant and happy as usual. The reason for it is, that emotions are infectious and are visible, in a tight knit small IT family like ours. As a manager I did not want to demotivate others with the sadness in my heart, as I am usually seen as a happy cheerful person.
Managers who can see shades are very successful, Managers who can only see black and white are partially successful if they base their decisions, with a Digital outlook to life.
Just because people don't understand your vision doesn't mean it's wrong.
-Robin Sharma (tweet)
Similar to this, I have a different interpretation of my own for this article.
Just because people can't appreciate shades and colors, doesn't mean that you cannot have shades or be colorful.
-Ranga.
