The Art called Management

I remember reading in my management books, an argument about 'Management' being an art or science. If my memory is anything to go by, the author concluded that it is as much science as art, for the intricacies of managing is indeed complex. I for one think that it is truly an art. Just thought of sharing my thoughts on the same;

Every organization relies on individuals to take it to heights by banking on their managerial skills. The life of a manager can be truly horrible. To manage one's work is one thing but to actually extract and manage work from a whole set of 'widely different' people coming from distinct backgrounds can be really demanding. To have a string of meetings running in your daily schedule will only add to the load factor. And to top it all, you are the first person to be answerable to the higher management if anything goes wrong though you may not have the slightest of clue as to what went wrong. Not to mention the kind of pressures one is subjected to from the clients. To top it all, there are loads and loads of worksheets and word docs which await you every day in office.

How really tough??

And that is precisely why it requires people of great caliber, excellent temperament and the right attitude to occupy such slots. If not, the entire team will be in shambles. The same person who is supposed to take the organization to heights can bring it down to the lowest depths. This one person can ruin and demolish every fabric of an organization's structure. He or she can successfully sow in the minds of his team mates' seeds of hatred, disgust and extreme frustration which will obviously have direct impact on the outcome of work the employee does. The whole process can have such cascading effects so as to tarnish the image of the organization built over years or even chase away prospective clients from coming anywhere close to doing business with the organization.

People can be different and that is the essence of our diversity and plurality but to deny the other a chance to voice their opinion and to stick ardently to one's own unidirectional view of the world would be the ultimate heights of psychotics; worse still would be to force others to tow your superficial ways. And the heights of this absurdity would be known only when a manager fails to produce any tangible results but sometimes thanks to the vastness of the organization, it becomes difficult to pinpoint the source of the inflicted damage. As a result of which, the perpetrators of the crime often escapes unnoticed.

I am sorry for being harsh but I am just realizing the pains one has to undergo to endure such brutally insane people who come from their own wonder world with their own fancy thinking. At times, the point of contention can reach such ridiculous heights that you give up your faith on the organization though it is in no way even remotely connected to it. Pity the souls who strive so hard to build up an image and take the organization to stupendous heights. For after all their hard work it only takes a few jokers from within to demolish the entire structure that they've built. What is even sadder is when they position their thoughts to be far more superior to all others, and go on a rampage insulting the inanities in the thinking of the rest.

The net result of all the above is that a team completely loses focus with the team members increasingly turning despondent and glum and thinking of ways to shove their work in every possible without giving it their true heart and love. The struggle to gain the maximum from every employee soon becomes a struggle to extract the bare minima from the same individual. Work then goes to resemble the age old ways of getting things done. By resorting to intimidating methods and staying guard all throughout to ensure there is no deviation. In effect, every inch of creativity and innovation present in the individual is put to a cruel end leaving only the silliest of incentive for the work to be done – which is the figure that gets wired at the end of every month to the bank account.

Funny is the ways of the world, for it sometimes truly rewards the comic who has no clue as to what is happening and who does everything within their control to project the happenings the way they perceive it.

Now my dear readers, If any of you reading this happens to be managing, my sincerest plea- open your eyes to the talents under you and spend some time to evaluate yourselves. And to all of you folks in my place, lets join together for a saner world!