http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/features/corporate-dossier/why-is-the-boss-a-necessary-evil/articleshow/7618650.cms
However, I've just realized that the editor of CD chopped off bits of the article to bring it under 800 words. There are also a few other editorial changes. So I give below the text as I sent it to him. You're welcome to read it.
“Can I speak to BharatSir,” asks a man after telephoning his boss’s home. A sobbing woman answers the phone: “I’m sorry my husband died yesterday.” The man thanks her and puts the phone down.
“Can I speak to BharatSir,” asks the same man the following day after dialing the same number.
“I’m sorry he died the day before yesterday,” replies the widow, still sobbing.
The man telephones the widow on the third day and asks the same question. She recognizes the voice and is angry now. “I told you yesterday and the day before yesterday that your boss is dead. Why are you asking me yet again?”
“Oh I love hearing that news,” chuckles the man and disconnects.
What is it about bosses (and mothers-in-law!) that makes them universally hated? Everyone hopes to move up and occupy the boss’s chair, the same way as every bahu hopes to be the saas one day, but hardly anyone has a kind word about its current occupant. Countless pins have been pushed into dolls of different sizes, shapes, and colours, all representing evil bosses all over the world. The boss is a necessary evil.
You are a boss. You have to manage several subordinates or team members. If you want to be a successful boss, a boss who can get their willing cooperation, you need to first figure out why people hate bosses everywhere and in all walks of life.
At the core of this hatred is the fear of the power you supposedly wield as a boss. Your subordinates have to kneel before you, if not kiss various parts of the anatomy, if they want to get along in life. And they hate it. They believe that they can’t do a thing about your evil power over them. Fearing terrible retribution they avoid confronting you face-to-face. So they bitch about you behind your back. It’s safe, cathartic, and it never fails to get sympathetic ears.
Even the Big Boss of the universe is not free from this predicament. Every other Hindi film has an emotionally charged scene in which an ardent devotee storms into the puja room and abuses him for not managing the world according to her plans. She asks him point blank how he could be so blind. So unjust. So stupid. She threatens to stop her supply of laddoos for ever. She can let the steam off safely because fortunately the poor idol can’t retaliate.
If even the Big Boss has failed to win everyone over, can you? Yes you can.
The problem may be that you rely on your official power to get your subordinates to do what you want. It’s quick and effective, like flipping a switch. Or like the American ‘shock and awe’ spectacle in Iraq. The result is immediate. As you are a lightning rod for overwhelming power from an even bigger source, they don’t want to touch you. It is difficult, virtually impossible, to openly challenge you and continue to work within the system you control. They don’t buy into what you want them to do, but comply nevertheless because they think they have no choice. They are convinced they know superior ways of managing things, but don’t share them with you either because they believe you are too dumb or because they think you won’t listen anyway.
There is a better way to manage them. Persuasion.
Persuasion takes longer, like some ayurvedic preparations, but the result is most satisfactory and long-lasting. Persuasion aims to get their buy-in in place of forced drag-in. Once they buy into your proposal or suggestion, it becomes as much theirs as yours. Then you don’t need to stand behind them with a whip to monitor them. You don’t need to keep dog biscuits in your pocket either.
The trick lies in adopting a consultative approach instead of ordering the subordinates about. When you consult them, they will obviously come up with what they consider to be the best way of doing what you want them to do. Or they may suggest things different from what you want done. That is wonderful. That gives you an opportunity to show them, using the Socratic dialogue, the problems associated with adopting their suggestions. You can then bring them around to your idea. You don’t need to impose it on them because by then they will have withdrawn their own suggestions from the fray.
Of course it is possible that their idea is more sensible than yours. You don’t lose anything by embracing it instead of clinging to yours. A great boss does not necessarily have the best idea or the best solutions to problems; her role is to get everyone to contribute their best.
Smart framing is the heart of the process of persuasion. Subordinates, for example, dislike additional work. But when it is framed as something that will enhance their portfolio of experience and take them closer to a higher rung in the organization, it’s different. It’s welcome. They may even thank you for it.
For your subordinates to take you and your ideas seriously, you need to have personal power. Your positional power as a boss is amorphous, faceless, and largely threatening. Your personal power is just the opposite. It grows from your expertise, credibility, integrity, and trustworthiness. It is welcome. It is reassuring. This is what Aristotle captured in his phrase, ethos.
If you have personal power over them, your subordinates will value your approval and be willing to go out of their way to get it.
If you are a persuasive boss, you will be a great boss because your subordinates will want to work with you and for you. And your bosses will want to give you a bigger farm to manage.
Let me have your comments.
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