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Money Matters

Good boss

By Sirajuddin Aziz
Mon, 03, 21

“If you wish to know a man, give him authority” Perhaps this is the most arduous and difficult task for all and sundry, who are unfortunate to be in the community of ‘Employees’ - this quest is never of the class, referred to as ‘Entrepreneurs’. The later have different issues of having to live with seniors of family, who are mostly in their view dispensable with ease- about their issues, in another piece. A worker has to co-exist with a boss. So, who exactly is this person called, The Boss?

“If you wish to know a man, give him authority” Perhaps this is the most arduous and difficult task for all and sundry, who are unfortunate to be in the community of ‘Employees’ - this quest is never of the class, referred to as ‘Entrepreneurs’. The later have different issues of having to live with seniors of family, who are mostly in their view dispensable with ease- about their issues, in another piece. A worker has to co-exist with a boss. So, who exactly is this person called, The Boss?

The Bollywood influence on my mind conjures images of a villainous person, who by profession has to necessarily be a smuggler or some outlaw; and this person is very ‘style and clothes’ conscious, hence has to be attired in a white suit, with a blood red color shirt, and an equally bold black tie, that is usually matched with dark glasses, with blazing gold rim plates, the size of which is obviously not in conformity with the size and shape of his face, and thunderingly he would declare, “Has the launch from Dubai laden with gold ingots/bars arrived?” Trust me, I have seen, but fortunately never worked for such bosses. Except for the ‘launch and gold bars’ part -- there are many that aptly and adequately matched the description. They still abound.

By and large, in most corporate settings, the boss (supervisor) is from the human specie. Those who are not qualified to be representatives of homosapiens also acquire the leader/manager position, which without an iota of doubt, is to the peril, chagrin and disadvantage to the ‘supervised’.

Let’s define the term ‘boss’ -- he/ she is called by many names ranging from CEO, COO, MD, the executive, the manager, the supervisor to anyone, to whom one has to report for the assigned work.

Is it a wonder to have a premise of thought to presume that finding good supervisors from amongst those listed is a difficult task? Actually, it is not. The task is difficult. Good bosses are always in short supply; hence no room for element of surprise.

A quick reflection upon what is not desirable as a trait in a boss, will allow, for better understanding of what the desirable elements ought to be present, in their persona.

Most managers lack self-control. They let their tongues run away with their brains. They throw tantrums at the drop of the hat; always willing and eager to lose their shirt in public (like Salman Khan does). Some who are enriched with a massive fund of expletives laden vocabulary bank, put that to use quite often. As abhorring as it is, as a read, it is nauseating to find such persons hanging around work stations of the supervised. From such managers, all staff attempt to keep a safe distance, as much as is kept for visitors, in the Safari Parks, abounding with ferociously hungry Lions. What these types of managers don’t realize is that by stifling the opinion of their colleagues through a well garnered culture of fear, where bad behavior is pre-dominant, they are themselves poorer, of the many good solutions/advices/counsel, colleagues may have for the organization. Stopping to listen, is the beginning of the end of any leaders/managers. Another spectrum -- It is not uncommon to find supervisors who are insecure and brimming with lack of self-confidence. The many real and imagined insecurities surrounding their personality prevents them from being ‘open’ to discussions and conversations. Such also master the art to camouflage these tendencies under the guise of ‘professional attitude’. They remain aloof and concerned. They talk to the point. They decide but not discuss. To open up for discussions on any issue would require of them to lower their guards and expose themselves; but due to non- availability of required skill set or it may be for pure reasons of lack of substantive knowledge relating to the issue, they do not invite free format discussions.

Those, who most willingly delegate merely ‘responsibility’, are also part of the same creed. The insecure manager never delegates, ‘authority’. He/she usually is a control freak. This attitude makes them tight fisted in the development of others potentialities.

Another non- desirable class of managers are the ‘know-all’s’. There is nothing that these need to learn, they believe; they know everything under the sun. A favorite remark of such creed is, “you haven’t learnt yet, what I have forgotten”. They consider themselves the smartest, who can outwit anyone within or outside the organization. The staff, who could be more knowledgeable, succumb to their own timidity and serious lack of courage end up assigning, their future into the hands of the ‘Supervisor’, through acquiescing to all demands of their manager. They (staff) value remarks from supervisors like ‘never forget which side and who butters your toast?’. For fear of appraisal most choose to remain silent, again to the many disadvantages that could accrue to the institution. A wicked manager lives in his own hell; such rarely transition smoothly out of office. The unbaptized managers chains freedom of thought and expression of their colleagues, leading to dis-engagement and demotivation. The maniac manager cripples and enfeebles the organization and development of the institution. They literally entomb even the ‘hopefuls’.

Birth is much, but breeding is more. Nature can be tamed by mentoring. Albeit, it is also true that a fox may grow grey, but not his nature. If you wish to know a man, give him authority. If you wish to test patience, contradict your supervisor, his/her true personality will emerge only then. Anyone can be filled with major indignation towards having corporate psychopaths in their midst or even on the work floor. Psychopaths by definition are mostly manipulative. They play around before teams without commitment to a single party or the manifesto of the organization. When several psychopaths abound in an organization, expect unfair treatment, the organization itself will be shunned of all ingredients of empathy and would essentially become a murderous psychopath entity.

This scribe firmly believes that it is great fortune to find and have a good supervisor. In my experience, those supervisors, who themselves were fortunately well supervised, will always prove to be great leaders/managers. One who takes personal interest in your career and is willing to give you both, the challenge by throwing you to the deep end of the sea and always be ready to throw the life line, if the situation demands, withdrawal to shores of safety. This type come out as major shock absorbers to any fault that may occur in the discharge of responsibilities. These managers take full responsibility for near or actual failures of their teams mates, and are always willing to hold hand and guide for a better performance in the future.

A good supervisor will never hesitate to teach. I had a boss, who would take time out, and actually draw transaction flows relating to treasury, trade, credits, exchange and metal markets, etc. He was a genius and was confident that at no time I could steal his unique genius away from him; hence the confidence to impart of what he could; was never afraid to make me better that himself. There was another supervisor of mine with such heightened sense of empathy that when I would be on business tours in west Africa, he would often call and enquire, if the meals at the hotels were palatable or not!

For this piece, I literally counted... and was personally surprised that in a career of over two score years, I have had seventeen supervisors/managers/ CEO’s/chairman’s etc. As unbelievable as it will sound, I had none who at any time was nasty -- or even with the many undesirable traits, mentioned earlier -- they were all very good mangers of human resources; in addition to being business savvy. The only aberration was a manager at a branch, who displayed ‘decent offense’, because I was blue-eyed of his supervisors. Good bosses do not restrict themselves to teaching tricks of the trade; they also help shape your personality. They bring to attention the greater meaning and purpose to life. They help balance between materialism and spirituality. Such managers leave impact for a life time.

All the “bosses” referred to were hard task masters -- they would make punishing demands upon me, for both quality and timely deliverance of results, but at the same time remaining fully conscious of how far the rubber band’s elasticity could be stretched, without snapping it -- that’s the art of a good and enlightened leader. They would correct, but not insult. They would run me down in conversations but not rebuke. And never, any used any expletive for my work, although some had tendency to use it upon many others. They would rattle my ego but never busted it. They were straight in conversation, but never impolite. They spoke in low decibels, never loud. They were great humans first and great leaders then. Keep the search on…

The writer is a senior banker and freelance columnist