Thursday 10 December 2009

Is it a cat or a dog in you??..

Margaret, a 70 years old lady stays with only members of her family, Tommy and kitty. Tommy is the name of her dog and kitty is the name of her cat. She loves them more than anything else.On one hand, she loves Tommy’s excitement, greetings offered to her on the door when she comes home anywhere from outside, and On the other hand, she likes searching for Kitty who is busy scratching one of the most expensive furniture kept in some room. Without taking it any further, think and answer “had you been at Margaret’s place, whom would you have loved more, Tommy or Kitty”? How many of you have a kitty (Cat) or a Tommy (Dog)? If you have both, have you observed the very few basic differences between them? While Tommy, the dog greets you with jubilation and great enthusiasm, Kitty, the cat remains at its place without giving you any attention, doing whatever it was doing even if you enter the house unless you reach that room. On seeing you, the dog starts wagging its tail and keeps on chasing you, whereas the cat wants you to come near to her and stroke her. If you are not around for a while, your Tommy gets restless and starts looking for you. But have you noticed that when you are not around, your Kitty is not this much bothered unless it’s too late? While your cat sleeps besides you when you are fast asleep, your dog goes to sleep only when you are wide awake. Does your Tommy ever stare at you and looks straight into your eyes, but I am sure your Kitty looks right into your eyes and will keep on staring at you until you take your eyes off. Of course there is a difference in their body language as well. While the dog’s head bobs while standing in front of its master, the cat stands straight and still in front of you. The chin of the dog is down when its master says anything and the cat’s chin is always up. This gives us an idea that while a dog is submissive, a cat is dominant. A dog considers its master as its God while the cat thinks that she deserves everything and she is the God for her master.
Any thoughts or guesses what could be the idea of telling these differences between a cat and a dog? Don’t you think this has a significant pertinence with facets of human personality? To be very clear, aren’t we sometimes doggish and cattish depending on circumstances? I suppose the answer is yes we do behave cattish and doggish in different situations. It will be easier to explain this with the help of some examples which are quite commonly seen.
Senior-junior: - In any set up, it has been observed that a senior always has an upper hand thus gives him a chance to behave like a cat towards his junior. The junior who is dependent on his senior in terms of trainings, feedback, taking decisions etc, in return shows doggish behaviour.
Child & the father:-We all know if a child has to buy a video game or any stuff to play with, will keep on pursuing his father until the father gets that stuff for him. Once the child gets it, he is so much engrossed in his video game that he doesn’t give any attention to his father’s constant screaming. So to get the stuff, the child shows doggish behaviour and once he gets whatever he wants, he becomes a cat.
Boss and the staff- A boss shows cattish behaviour toward his staff once the work is done but the staff often maintains the doggish behaviour towards his boss.
Marriage negotiation: - It’s not difficult to understand the situation of an Indian girl’s father who is negotiating with the boy’s father regarding anything to do with the marriage, be it dowry, venue, jewellery, guests etc. The girl’s father always keeps an approachable body language, speaks in a low tone, and tells anything with a request mode to avoid any sort of mistake which may hurdle the marriage of his daughter. Whereas the boy’s father maintains a stiff and strong body language unless he is pleased with the proposal and offer.
Sales executive and the customer:--A sales executive does all sorts of things to please the potential customer. He will chase you, will ask and take you for dinner/lunch, will never raise his voice, will bring you some or other gifts and will be in a mode of nonstop admiration for you, if you are the potential customer. While on other hand, you are always busy, keep on postponing the appointment and if you are irritated you tell him to leave or not to disturb you. Thus in the above situation, it heralds explicitly that the Sales person develops a doggish approach to please his customer while the customer becomes a cat.
Leader and public:-Before an election all the leaders behave doggish in front of the public, in terms of convincing public for their votes, visiting them and discussing about their problems, promising them for developmental works. Once they win, they behave as if they deserved it and no one could be better than them.
So there are different situations when we behave differently. However, there are certain circumstances when the ideal is to have a balanced approach rather than simply having a cattish behaviour or a doggish behaviour. This is possible if you get rid of “Cat & Dog” and tune yourself to “Cag & Dot “behaviour. For example, as an appraiser if you are evaluating somebody, you can’t be completely cattish or doggish in your behaviour. You are in a position where you have to appreciate the appraises achievements and remarkable performance. However you also need to tell his drawbacks and areas of improvement. Similarly an interviewee needs to tell the interviewer about his qualifications, relevant skills, and strengths and other good qualities. At the same time he needs to talk about his weaknesses and areas where he needs trainings and support. Thus it’s wise and advisable to follow a balanced behaviour in such settings. Nevertheless keep thinking about yourself, is your behaviour often Cattish or Doggish and more importantly what you aspire to be?

2 comments:

  1. very nice, well written, well observed and good real life example. very near to one's life, someone either behaves cattish or sometime at bearer side.

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  2. Thanks friend!!...Thanks for ur encouragement which makes me continue writing:)

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