Monday Musings 115- Prisions of a one kind

115- Prisions of one kind

In the course of my day to day work, I meet a variety of managers and leaders – some who have already made a mark on the corporate scene and some aspiring to do so. It is now my secret passion to figure out, what makes them tick; what is that drives them on a daily basis. Behind the story of achieving targets, meeting objectives and chasing vision documents, is the story of a human being driven by unique and personal motives. Often that is their greatest strengths and ironically also their Achilles-heel.

A lot of them are driven by the search of power and others by glory; some need to be in the limelight continuously, others need to continuously prove that they are good, so on and so forth. More often than not, these motives are hidden deep within their consciousness – and as psychologists would argue, a result of complex interplay of socio-cultural background, family histories, relationship with authority figures in life and finally the influences of the way their own lives have been lived. It is also a case quite often that they themselves are completely unaware of these motives and hence behave, relate to peers, subordinates & supervisors, governed by these influences completely unmindful of the origins of their behaviour and therefore its consequences.

Each one of these motives determine the way these managers/leaders relate to the people they work with – some with pleasant outcomes but mostly with horrific endings. The ones driven with power are control freaks and will lose their sanity the moment things do not follow a prescribed script, often their own. They treat their views/wishes/instructions as gospel whose non-adherence will cause the scorn of the Gods and fury of demons. They may or may not be well meaning, but the affect on their peers/subordinates is equally debilitating and distressing. Those who need the limelight continuously will parasitically wear away their team members. Needlessly to say that the above two types, talented or otherwise are the greatest threats to functional teams because sooner or later their self interests will become larger than the interests of the teams they work with or lead.

No one of us is free from the influences that I shared earlier and hence there is a strong possibility that each one of is driven by one or more of these factors. So where does redemption lie? As I see it, liberation and redemption lies in AWARENESS. Do we really know what is driving us and hence do we know how far we are willing to go to fulfil these drives? Do we know what kind of debris we leave behind as we interact with our team members and for what reasons? Do we know our blind spots? Great managers are AWARE of these and are able to selectively leverage their drives basis situations and avoid being driven by them. They have access to the deepest recesses of their minds and its motivations-in a way that THEY are in the driving seat of their behaviour with others. At no point they allow themselves to become prisoners of their own psychological needs – of power, glory, attention or others. I am convinced that only an aware manager can be great manager.

Kabeer says:

Maala Pherat Jug Bhaya, Mita Na Man Ka Pher
Kar Ka Manka Chhor De, Man Ka Manka Pher

(Eons have passed whirling rosary, confusion/complexity of the mind remains
Give up the beads of rosary and rotate the beads of mind)

Guru