Golden Egg at Office or Home!
This is an old story, Stephen Covey explained with the new paradigm in
one of the best seller books: 7 Habits
of Highly Effective People [Worth reading book]. Please pay attention to
the story and below examples to implement and enjoy the golden egg.
This fable is the story of a poor farmer who one day discovers in the nest of his pet goose a glittering golden egg. At first, he thinks it must be some kind of trick. But as he starts to throw the Egg aside, he has second thoughts and takes it in to be appraised instead.
The egg is pure gold! The farmer can't believe his good fortune. He becomes even more incredulous the following day when the experience is repeated. Day after day, he awakens to rush to the nest and find another golden egg. He becomes fabulously wealthy; it all seems too good to be true.
But with his increasing wealth comes greed and impatience. Unable to wait day after day for the golden eggs, the farmer decides he will kill the goose and get them all at once. But when he opens the goose, he finds it empty. There are no golden eggs-and now there is no way to get any more. The farmer has destroyed the goose that produced them.
I suggest that within this fable is a natural law, a principle—the basic definition of effectiveness. Most people see effectiveness from the golden egg paradigm: the more you produce, the more you do, the more effective you are.
But as the story shows, true effectiveness is a function of two things: what is produced (the golden eggs) and the producing asset or capacity to produce (the goose).
If you adopt a pattern of life that focuses on golden eggs and neglect the goose, you will soon be without the asset that produces golden eggs. On the other hand, if you only take care of the goose with no aim toward the golden eggs, you soon won't have the wherewithal to feed yourself or the goose.
Parental version of goose and golden egg:
Suppose you want your daughter to have a clean room. Your daughter is a goose and the cleaning action is golden egg. She is a valuable asset to produce golden eggs.
But if your paradigm is focused on production, on getting the room clean, you might find yourself nagging her to do it. You might even escalate your efforts to threaten or yell, and in your desire to get the golden egg, you undermine the health and welfare of the goose (that is your daughter)
Bringing values and discipline in children is a good idea that is a golden egg, make sure the goose (your child) is enjoying it.
Manager/Lead version of goose and golden egg:
Assume, you are the lead or manager, you need to get work done from your team. Here work is a golden egg. Your team is goose.
If you keep your focus only on getting work (golden egg) and ignore the health and welfare of your team (goose), you get very less or least productive deliverables. And you will be projected as a bad leader.
If you are focusing only on team welfare and their comforts, by neglecting delivery of work. Organisation will eliminate you. As you are only feeding the goose and not producing golden eggs.
Learn to
balance, else you lose the race!
Spouse version of goose and golden egg:
Root of all your success is: Succeed at home first! If you are not successful at home, you lose Interest, Peace and Happiness. You will be in disturbed mindset. With that mindset you have the possibility of experiencing a chain of failures.
To get success at home, you must follow these goose and golden egg principles. Happiness, peace, and cooperation are the golden egg. Your spouse is a goose.
It's your duty to keep the goose happy and healthy. If not, you will miss the golden egg. (i.e., Happiness, Peace, and cooperation)
Don't be greedy in getting only golden eggs (work and cooperation). Pay little attention to goose (subordinates, children and spouse relationships) health.
Corporate Guidelines on Golden Egg:
Your subordinates are not your servants or slaves, they are the beautiful assets who produce golden eggs. Treat them with respect. Because they are working for your success. Recognise and appreciate their hard work. Win their trust. (Ref: How to win trust)
Most of your subordinates may be much smarter than you. Listen to their views and ideas.
If Lead/Manager only projected on work (golden egg) by not recognising employee (goose) health and hard work, with no doubt he/she will be remembered as a worst leader. And in organizational employee review and surveys you have the possibility to receive least ratings and bad reviews on your leadership qualities.
Author Disclaimer:
I’m not a robot to be constant, consistent and complete, I’m a normal human and my blog will be contradictory like director give multiple movies have different opinions on the same subject or different subjects. I flow like a river, I really don’t look for sand, rock, trees, house, and so on. Intention is helping as many as possible before reaching the ocean. I strongly recommend to consult expert’s advice to follow and adopt any methods. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being.
