Management Lesson - Point of view

You, your boss and his boss are discussing something and after the meeting you and your boss come out of the room.

Your boss: “What a moron he is! I shield you from taking all the crap so that you do not need to work with him”.

What do you do, give a smile and nod.

What your boss thinks of your smile and nod - You agree with his view that his boss is a moron and he works in a very challenging environment.

What did your boss actually missed in your smile and nod - The people who reports to him think of him exactly the same way he thinks of his boss. Yes, he is actually shielding the visibility of hard and good work you are doing being noticed by the top management.

Rules of Management

There are two things one has to follow to be successful

1. Do not reveal everything you know to others.

Handover - Takeover

Top Indian IT companies are popularly known as SWTICH (Satyam, Wipro, TCS, Infosys, CTS, and HCL). With Satyam debacle, now the name sounds little odd as it has changed into WITCH.

Out of the WITCH companies, Dallal Street was very happy with the performance of TCS and CTS over few quarter/yearly results. There is a mounting pressure on Infosys and Wipro to gear up else CTS is going to overtake them soon. Interestingly, over a year or so we have seen lot of changes in the management and re-organization in both these companies. When I was reading some of the articles on these changes, it reminded me of a management story.

With the changing market scenarios, stiff competition, and declining top and bottom line of the organization, the board has decided to replace the existing CEO to get a fresh perspective and thought leadership. A couple of weeks were given for handover and takeover. On the last day of the handover process, incumbent CEO handover the new CEO three sealed envelopes marked as 1, 2, 3 and asked him to open the envelopes in that order when he encounter a crisis to find a solution.

At the end of the first financial year, there is no improvement in the top or bottom line. In the panic situation CEO before the board meeting opens the first envelope. The letter inside the envelope says “Blame the Predecessor”. He goes to the board meeting and blames the predecessor for the complete mess and he is working on bringing it on track and gets away with this explanation.

About six months later, there is no change in the situation. The CEO opens the second envelope and the letter inside say “Restructure". CEO completely re-organize the business units, people and informs the board that he is getting right people in right place and aligning things that would help the organization to focus more on the customer needs.

At the end of the year, still there is no change in the situation. CEO opens the third envelope before the board meeting and the letter inside says “Prepare three envelopes".

ABCD of Management - NOT taught at Harvard

Chanakya also known as kutilya or vishnugupta in his book Arthashastra describes the ways of dealing with an enemy or an opponent: sama (appease), dana (rewarding), bheda (sowing differences in enemy camp) and danda (use of force). This is the natural or recommended order of dealing with the opponent.

In order to manage and get the work done from your team, these old techniques with slight modification of definition (as team is not your enemy or opponent) can be applied to get the desired results.

Sama – Ask the team member to complete the assigned task or remind him about his responsibilities.

Dana – Show him the carrot – Use your rewarding power. Address his top perceived needs that motivates him to work.

Bheda – Highlight the difference – Generate competitive spirit by highlighting what the peers have achieved.

Danda – Use of Corrosive power or Legitimate power you have – You better do it, else I am going to screw up your appraisal.

I am sure, if not in a sequence these management techniques many of us experienced or applied in dealing with the team to get the work done.

There is also another technique and I call it as, “ABCD of Management” and we find some of the so called 'leaders' effectively using it when team members approach them with problems.

‘A’void  - Avoid the team member  – If a person comes to you with a problem, say that you are too busy and ask them to schedule a meeting and block the calendar. Once scheduled, counter and re-schedule after 2 weeks. If required, re-schedule couple of more times. By that time either the problem is solved or the person may not come to you again with a problem.

‘B’lame – Blame the team member – If a person comes to you with a problem or got into a problem resulting in schedule slippage, blame them that they are useless and fit for nothing. Choose a subject in which you are the master and the person may not know anything about it (even though it is not required or relevant to their job) and then intimidate them with questions on that subject. Tell them the past stories of your problem solving capability.

 

‘C’onfuse – Confuse the team member – Talk about everything in the world except the problem. Try to relate un-related things and confuse them so that they do not come again.

‘D’elegate – Delegate the problem – Behave as if the person has insulted you by getting too silly and stupid problem and you are too busy and do not want to waste your time. “What! Is this a problem, go to that person, he will help you to solve this”.

If you are using these 'ABCD' techniques, its time for you to move.

"The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership" - General Colin Powell