It’s rare for Indian Cricket fans to cheer a team that beat them in a World Cup. The reason is special. The New Zealand Cricket teams are known as the “nice guys of cricket”.

Due to their fair and positive style of playing they have become the world’s “second favourite team” (after the home team of course).

Leading from the front is the Captain, Kane Williamson who is arguably considered the best Captain in Cricket today:

1. He always has a smile on this face, even in defeat. He has always displayed great Sportsmanship (remember the 2019 World Cup final)

2. His team mates acknowledge him as a very intelligent cricketer (always a couple of overs ahead of the game)

3. As an individual contributor his batting scores have been outstanding(Williamson has the highest test average (65.74) in the last three years (minimum 1000 runs))

4.What he’s done for New Zealand cricket – not just his own performance,– but he’s taken everyone else with him, and their career numbers have improved, their performances have improved.

Sometimes nice guys do finish first…

For me, they always come first!!!

A truly amazing story of a Chennai based auto driver that gives lessons to large corporations like Vodafone, Hyundai and Ted X at IIT, on building customer loyalty, even in Covid times.

Annadurai hasn’t finished Class 12, looks like your average auto driver & can talk to you about anything- startups, innovations, the latest in the Economic Times.His auto has magazines, snacks, books, laptop, tablets, mini-television set &refreshing drinks. All these are no-cost services for his passengers.

Annadurai feels his education started when he started identifying & prioritising ideas to win over customers.He needed to be fantastic at observation & have extensive knowledge to strike up meaningful conversations .

Steps to build customer loyalty

1.Passengers feel irritated in traffic jams: the WiFi keeps them engaged

2.A customer urgently needed a laptop & Anndurai felt bad, not being able to help: he bought a laptop & tablet(led to social media selfies which in turn increased his customers)

3.People often didn’t always have change & sometimes they would forgo the money: he got a swiping machine.

4.Office growing crowd skipped breakfast: started the snack section comprising fruits, wafers, coconut water & more

5.Learnt to say hello in 9 languages & names of Hindi movies, scientists, famous places and sports

6.When the pandemic affected his earnings, he still gave free rides, masks & sanitisers to the needy.

The result

Average monthly income: Rs 1,18,000. He spends Rs 19,000 on products &services to keep customers happy.

Do you think it is important to grieve? I felt grieving kept us chained to the past& could even be self-indulgent at times. A recent conversation gave me a different perspective. A friend lost someone very dear, completely unexpectedly. She was grappling with the emotions of loss, pain, anger & sadness.

Those around her were encouraging her to get back on her feet, telling her she needed to focus onothers around her &she must spring back to her normal self.

And she said, “I know my duties, my responsibilities,but the others don’t know what I have lost. I cannot go back to life as though nothing has happened. I need to come to terms with this.”

I view myself as a pragmatic person. My mantra for dealing with pain is to forget the past & focus on the task at hand.

Somewhere during the conversation, a realization dawned; while trying to comfort those closest to us, we tell them to forget what’s happened, focus on the present&move on. The advice is well intentioned but may not be the best way to deal with this situation.

Grieving is part of the healing process. The mind needs to process what’s happened, work through it & then it will automatically move on.

Listening to someone, helping them talk through their feelings, just being there, might be a more effective way to help heal.

A 75 year old was being released from the hospital after undergoing treatment for Covid. On being presented an additional bill for Rs. 6,000 for an Oxygen cylinder that had been omitted, he burst into tears. His family rallied around him and said, costs don’t matter…

Here’s what he said next..

“I’m not crying because I have to pay the extra money, I’m crying because of the debt I have to pay to nature for the 75 years of free Oxygen that I have used.”

We take for granted, so much that is given to us. Its life changing moments like this that bring a realization of how much we “have”.

The emotion of Gratitude doesn’t change the situation we are in but it certainly changes the way we look at the situation.

Is your glass half empty or half full?

This is an amazing story of a young 21year old, who achieved the milestone of keeping his village Covid free. To me this a story on #Leadershipskills and a #Cando attitude.

Ruturaj Deshmukh is the youngest Sarpanch in Maharashtra. Ghatne village has 1,500 inhabitants and not a single case of #COVID from March 2020 to April 2021.

How was this achieved?

Together with his team, Deshmukh took the following steps

1. Framed a 5-point programme involving tracing, testing, treatment, vaccination and adherence to COVID- appropriate behaviour.

2. Built awareness among people to remove hesitancy about COVID-19 testing

3. ASHA workers were roped in to visit every house and monitor blood oxygen level and temperature.

4. “Corona safety kits” comprising a face mask, hand sanitiser, disinfectant,&vitamin tablets, supplied

5.Residents that travelled outside for work were randomly tested while outsiders coming to the village quarantined

Ghatne gram panchayat is planning to set up a 20-bed isolation centre and a paediatrics task force with two doctors in the village.

His vision: to make Ghatne the first fully #vaccinated village in Solapur.