The sun will set upon all

The last sentence of my previous week’s article on these pages is the title of this piece. The previous article evoked an overwhelming response from readers, who in their comments confirmed that not only the contents resonated with them, but that they had all experienced of what actually happens on the shop floor, in one manner or the other. So, why, the above title for today’s piece? What is it about? This write up is about ‘how’ and ‘when’ to hang boots. It is also about that innate human instinct to be not forgotten, but to be remembered till eternity.

Let me begin, with a self experienced, situation. I was still at school, when my father, a senior civil servant (that’s how, he liked to be referred, not as a bureaucrat), who was then not too old or even not too young, at fifty seven years of age, ‘decided to retire’, prematurely. The government pressured him to withdraw, but he did not relent. This was an extremely bold decision by a wise individual who had six off springs, all of whom were in some stage of receiving formal education. Honesty and wealth have never been friends; if anything the two are in contempt of each other, with total lack of compatibility. And he (Dad) was criminally honest. At that point, none of us could understand the logic and wisdom of such brash and brazen decision. Later in life, once I was myself in profession, I asked him, why he took such a decision? His answer was short and crisp, “I hated being enslaved to the trappings of the office; and secondly, instead of being told, I preferred to tell, I am retiring”. Strange, but true. On reflection, I find that decision of my Dad, loaded with enormous wisdom. His disdain for pelf, showmanship and trappings was so deep seated, that on way back from office, he would ask the driver to stop, atleast a mile away from home-he would then walk the distance back to our home.

From his life, I came to understand that retirement is a supreme festival on the path of freedom. In our careers we arrive at a time, where we begin to wish, to leave a legacy behind. It is an amazing human trait of wanting to be remembered, long after one has gone into the eternal oblivion. This is despite full knowledge that every single wave that lashes on the shores of life, effaces, all that may have written on the sands of time. The desire is to be part of history, preferably positive history.

Humanity treats death, with insensitivity based on whether, the person who embraces death, while he is in office, or if he meets death, after being out of office. Public office holders, receive attention of grief, if they happen to be then holding, the office. In our nation’s short history of seventy one years, only the following died in office, The Founder, Mr. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, The assassinated prime minister Liaqat Ali Khan and president Zia ul Haq, who was blown away in an air crash. All received spontaneous expression of grief because of their role of statesmanship, barring the third, who saw multitudes turning up for his funeral, which was mis-construed as popularity, while it actually was a normal religious tradition, to mourn for the departed. So the funeral rites are determined by office held. No manager should forget this aspect. The death of a queen attracts more mourners. If the King dies, the slogan is Shakespearean, “The kind is dead, long live the King”. Shakespeare not without proper understanding of human nature had written in Hamlet, “The king is dead, long live the King, every dog has its day, long live the king . . .”

Most leaders, who leave office, even those who are evicted and rejected by the electorate, carry this desire to re-seek the office. What does three time prime minster in Pakistan mean? Even the politically astute Wiston Churchill, after winning the war for England and the allied forces was rejected by the electorate.

Only upon rejection, did he immerse himself, full time into writing his famous memoirs. Infact, writing memoirs, is also a facet for wanting to be remembered and it so therefore happens to be the most favorite past time for retired politicians, generals, bureaucrats, etc. In doing so and for seeking respectability in posterity they go on an overdrive in putting themselves into such dizzy heights of popularity, that even they begin to deceive their own self, by believing it to be the truth, which in most cases is a matter of illusion, delusion and self-indulgence. The memoirs of corporate executives aren’t very different. Men with inflated and unmanageable ego’s bring down not build up.

Jhon Wilkes Booth, broke a leg jumping from a high floor, after having assassinated Abraham Lincoln, who was there in the theater to watch a light comedy, “our American cousins”. Booth in pain was shouting, “sic semper tyrannis”(thus always to tyrants). The man who wasn’t a Napoleon Bonaparte or a Julius Caesar, but who worked to put away vile, wickedness, hate and vindictiveness from politics, fell victim to extremism and racism (and here today, a century later too, the US lectures the world on these subjects). But, history judges nobility with equal care and respect. Hence Lincoln is remembered as one of the finest president of USA.

Falling from grace is the fear of a leader, be it corporate or political manager. And when it does happen, and if they are tortured to live, they live in regret for all of their past decisions. Raza Pahlavi, General Augusto Pinochet and Napoleon are a case in point. They fight history. They indulge in self pity. Listening to corporate leaders who were made to leave their offices, it is witnessed that memoirs swell in their mind; they re-call past glories; even the tiniest good action are narrated with great fervor, enthusiasm and sense of great achievement. Again, case of wanting to be judged positively by history.

Wanting to be remembered and not forgotten is a human failure. The three times president (he broke the order of no more than two terms) Franklin Roosevelt’s death chilled all Americans. The New York Times reported, “…in the streets of every American city, strangers stopped to commiserate with one another. Over and over again one heard the same lament, we have lost our friend”. If the multitude in millions felt lonely and orphaned by the death of one man, certainty it is a tribute to Roosevelt. He was possessed all the twelve years of his presidency with how history will judge him - his order to the White House Staff was not to destroy a single paper, document or notes on pads or scribbling on parchments. He wanted retention to make, historians, judge him. The obsession to be re-called is overwhelming.

Managers and leaders tend to overlook, of how their deeds, words and actions, will be remembered. No one can frame their destiny, but all can exercise control over what they put into the frame. To rephrase John Dryden’s words, all humans are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarch’s obey too. If in their inter-personal skills managers were to keep, their own end in purview, the quality of team building, would be of a different standard. In the Devil’s Dictionary, it is stated that destiny is a tool of tyrant’s authority for crime and a fool’s excuse for failure.

As managers, we do not ‘give’ of ourselves as much as should be giving, to our team mates. Strange, it may sound that while there is an in-built resistance to give, when alive; but looking at the end, which is always, nigh, all wish to enthusiastically write, their ‘will to give’. Theodore Roosevelt had remarked, “As the ages roll by, the memory of the mighty fades”. The inevitable oblivion is a reality while romancing with heightened moments of glory are also part of post-leadership life. Emotional break-down with fall from office is very much likelihood. The return to private life is a challenge not only for politicians but also for the high profile corporate leaders, holding office of being chairman, president, CEO, MD, etc.

What managers and leaders in their quest for personal glory forget is, that it is only post departure from the office held that virtues of your arguments, your sincerity and seriousness of your efforts are talked about and remembered the most. It is therefore in the interest of those holding an office, to do and undertake tasks that shall be recalled without spite or venom. Such is the over-powering desire to continue office, that Jawaharlal Nehru, a few hours before his death, climbed out of the bed and went to his writing desk and wrote on the pad, the following lines of Robert Frost, “I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep”. Nature had different plans-you cannot frame your destiny!

Most leaders, in the current competitive environment and information age, have in focus a short span of three years for any assignment; with that kind of an outlook, it is therefore not surprising that these leaders make a killing for their personal kitty and in the process murder the institution. Life, for them is three-to-five year span; longevity is also not a guarantee for leaving foot prints. It is the nobility of each action, each word written or spoken and the quality of intentionality that will ensure some remembrance.

However, let there be no illusion, in the course of personal and professional journey, the ‘sun will set upon all’.

The writer is a freelance columnist and a senior banker