Many of us in the industry and business often overlook the simple fact that it is Man who becomes Manager. Perhaps semantics of the word is meaningful – it is the aged man who should become a manager. The process of aging brings in various changes in the physiology and psychology of Man and only those who undergo the best ripening process end up as successful Managers. One of the most important factors that will make a good manager is the types of motivation he or she has passed through. But for motivation no one will perform and but for performance no one can become a manager. Motivation and performance being so closely related the real managerial qualities of any manager is directly dependent on the quality of motivation he has received or undergone.
Motivation is nothing but an urge or reason to perform. It is always required for any man to perform any task. Thus it is basic to every human action and let us not go into it. What we need to look at a bit more seriously here is the process of motivating intelligent and qualified individuals to become successful managers. It is quite different to perform at different levels and to excel as a manager needs extra-ordinary types of motivation. Many management pundits reach the conclusion that ‘managers are born and not made’ based on their inability to decipher the process of motivation. Managers are born or made, but to become a successful manager needs motivation for the mind, body and spirit.
Progressive Motivation
It was Abraham Maslow who studied the behavior of outstanding individuals and concluded that people have certain needs which are unchanging and genetic in origin. These needs are the same in all cultures and are both physiological and psychological. Maslow described these needs as being hierarchal in nature, meaning that some needs are more basic or more powerful than others and as these needs are satisfied, other higher needs emerge. Motivation in workplace is nothing but fulfilling these needs of individuals so that they perform what they are supposed to. While a worker will need more and more of his physical needs to be satisfied for improved performance, those in managerial cadre would look for psychological elements as well. A well designed systematic scheme for progressive motivation of the labour force can yield very good results in any industry.
But providing progressive motivation for the managerial cadre is a totally different game. It is not always easy and straight-forward to motivate managers. Pleasure, fortune and fame can form the important parameters for designing any motivational program. By designing a program that will provide increasing elements of these three parameters attached to higher hierarchical positions, it is definitely possible to motivate the ordinary folk to perform and aspire for higher positions. The triple carrots of more money, more power and more name have motivated and produced many legendary managers in every industry. And many of them have made their mark by writing about their ideas and experiences as extra-ordinarily motivated managers. But what we do not hear is about their eventual disillusionment with all their achievements. What is lacking in every one of our motivational schemes is the spiritual element that will take care of those who are already at the pinnacle of their motivational status.
Ultimate Motivation
It is truly difficult to find out the exact nature of anything that can motivate a manager at the height of his achievement and career. It might vary from person to person. Fame and fortune may not be attractive anymore, and it might become counter-productive as well. And as senior citizens, it cannot be something that will provide more pleasure and joy. What else can it be? What can possibly appeal to those aged men who have proved themselves as outstanding managers? The best guess is that it will be something that will address their spirits. Motivating the spirit and soul can become more important at the very top of a hierarchy of needs. It is common knowledge that the desire for spiritual aspects of life becomes more and more accentuated as we age.
The best illustration of such an unconventional form of motivation appears in the Hindu holy book of Bhagavat Gita wherein Lord Krishna motivates a war-manager Arjun, who had put down his weapons in the midst of a battlefield, to pick it up again. The Lord achieves the unimaginable task by explaining the theory of dharma to a confused and diffident warrior. For Arjun, who is a warrior by his karma, there is no choice but to fight for justice. This is an outstanding feat when we consider the fact that any warrior, even if he is the best, could be killed in a war and a great warrior like Arjun knew the risks involved. Yet he was compelled to rise again because there is no other way he could satisfy his own conscience and justify his existence. The argument that each man is irrevocably destined to carry out his duties according to his dharma is the ultimate form of motivation possible.
As in every other field of knowledge, Science and Religion converge at this point in Motivation Management. What Science and Religion cannot achieve of their own, their terrific combination can do in a wonderful way. The process of aging is natural and it will no doubt work on the individuals and make them heed to the call of dharma more and more as they age. And by defining the dharma of President, Vice-President, General Manager, HR Manager etc., the incumbents will be motivated to perform and even aspire for higher positions at old age. Fulfilling one’s own dharma, at least endeavoring for it, is the one and only way to attain ‘moksha’ or reach heaven (as the case may be for followers of different religions). Thus ‘Krishnaic Motivation’ can definitely provide an inspiring, motivating and even compelling basis for motivation of managers of all ages.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
GREATNESS OF GORBACHEVS
Chances are less that we find people like Mikhail Gorbachev and Deng Xiaoping in anyone’s list of great leaders who contributed to the progress of mankind. Their greatness lies in their signal contributions to the downfall of unrealistic and unworkable isms. Otherwise mankind would have spent another century experimenting with systems of governance that can never be stable and satisfying. These visionary leaders could achieve the noble task as insiders and they could convince their own followers the impracticality of hoping for paradises to evolve from unrealistic systems. Nobel prize for peace would have been the apt one for such people. While Gorbachev could successfully dismantle Soviet Union and thereby the cold war, Deng Xiaoping took his billion strong crowd away from a path of useless revolution. Millions of lives have been saved from attaining unwanted and unproductive martyrdom.
The phenomenon of late realization is very common among Communists everywhere in the world. Almost 90% of the Communists who are not active in politics invariably turn against the ism when they pass the age of 50. Only those who are in active in politics, especially those who are enjoying the spoils of power as members of leftist political parties, prefer to live with it. They have something to lose and they learn the technique of adjusting with their conscience till they have completed their tenures of enjoyment. The case of Jyoti Basu is the best example in contemporary India. In any case they speak out the truth at the fag end of their lives. If they cannot speak out, it will be definitely there in their autobiographies. But this is not enough. Mere admission and speaking the truth will still let the ism live on. We need Gorbachevs and Xiaopings in every country to destroy such unworkable isms from within.
Insider Advantage
Unlike an enemy there are several advantages for insiders. Enemies of any ism may not be experts in it and might have developed the enmity based on reasons other than logical. Such reasons do not give the enemies moral right to kill the isms. But the case of a knowledgeable insider is totally different. He has not only learned the theory but has been involved in its application as well. What an insider leader like Gorbachev has done is killing a confirmed heretical ism with full conviction. He had grown with it and he has seen for himself its drawbacks and impracticality. He knew that Communism has outlived its usefulness in Soviet Union and its continuance will only harm the people. The greatness of Gorbachev comes in killing it once for all, at least in Russia.
Many of our leaders get such opportunities but most of them do not dare to take it up. When one has seen through his own system and is convinced that it is a failure, there are very few who admit and speak out. The numbers are still lesser if we are looking for leaders who then put their own personal lives at stake to reform the system from within. We have seen very few instances in the last century. To fight or reform a system from within is easier if we have leaders with morality and courage. What we lack today in almost all nations is exactly the tribe of such courageous leaders. It takes a rare combination of extreme courage and complete conviction for any leader to fight the odds for the betterment of society in which he is also a part of.
Inevitable Death
Just like human rights there should be rights for any ism to get it tried out. But unlike humans, isms must get killed once their usefulness is over or if they fail to perform. The only alternative that must be available to failed isms is complete modification. The case of Communism and Socialism must be on these lines. Pure forms of both these isms have completely failed in application and must be shelved for ever. What can now be tried out are modified versions that can yield the desired end results. We must bear in mind that the ultimate purpose of any ism for governance is the well being of one and all. In addition there must be a constant reform process for positive progress of the ism and its beneficiaries. Anything that does not allow reforms is unnatural and must die even if it is an ism.
What happened in the case of Communism in Soviet Union and China highlights inevitability of such fundamental fate of any ism. Those which are incapable of reform shall die. Mikhail Gorbachev is only a social doctor who helped the unworkable ism to die in the Soviet Union. Instead of the violent death in such cases, he helped the Russian people achieve the same without any bloodshed. His brilliance and vision provided the required pace and ambience for the gradual and calibrated death of a communist form of government that promised so many unachievable ideas. In the same position, Deng Xiaoping achieved much more by modifying Communism beyond recognition. But unlike Russians, the Chinese remain untruthful to their own conscience by clinging onto the name of Communism. Current Chinese Communism is nothing but a progressive cousin of Capitalism.
In India, we must consider ourselves lucky that such unworkable isms have not found much ground in our political arena. Outside Bengal and Kerala, the red flags are seen only in the railway stations. It has been the case so far and communist leaders like Jyoti Basu gives us hope that it will remain so in future. The veteran leader has spoken the truth at the fag end of his life. Communism and Socialism are unworkable isms and they can never be achieved anywhere in the world, more so in an ancient nation like ours. The ‘unworkabilty of extreme rightism’ has always been true in the case of a plural and secular Hindu dominated India. What is needed now is a marriage of value based Hindutva principles with the rationality of Communism to produce the best offspring of ‘Dialectical & Integral Humanism’ to usher in Ram Raj once again in Indian history.
The phenomenon of late realization is very common among Communists everywhere in the world. Almost 90% of the Communists who are not active in politics invariably turn against the ism when they pass the age of 50. Only those who are in active in politics, especially those who are enjoying the spoils of power as members of leftist political parties, prefer to live with it. They have something to lose and they learn the technique of adjusting with their conscience till they have completed their tenures of enjoyment. The case of Jyoti Basu is the best example in contemporary India. In any case they speak out the truth at the fag end of their lives. If they cannot speak out, it will be definitely there in their autobiographies. But this is not enough. Mere admission and speaking the truth will still let the ism live on. We need Gorbachevs and Xiaopings in every country to destroy such unworkable isms from within.
Insider Advantage
Unlike an enemy there are several advantages for insiders. Enemies of any ism may not be experts in it and might have developed the enmity based on reasons other than logical. Such reasons do not give the enemies moral right to kill the isms. But the case of a knowledgeable insider is totally different. He has not only learned the theory but has been involved in its application as well. What an insider leader like Gorbachev has done is killing a confirmed heretical ism with full conviction. He had grown with it and he has seen for himself its drawbacks and impracticality. He knew that Communism has outlived its usefulness in Soviet Union and its continuance will only harm the people. The greatness of Gorbachev comes in killing it once for all, at least in Russia.
Many of our leaders get such opportunities but most of them do not dare to take it up. When one has seen through his own system and is convinced that it is a failure, there are very few who admit and speak out. The numbers are still lesser if we are looking for leaders who then put their own personal lives at stake to reform the system from within. We have seen very few instances in the last century. To fight or reform a system from within is easier if we have leaders with morality and courage. What we lack today in almost all nations is exactly the tribe of such courageous leaders. It takes a rare combination of extreme courage and complete conviction for any leader to fight the odds for the betterment of society in which he is also a part of.
Inevitable Death
Just like human rights there should be rights for any ism to get it tried out. But unlike humans, isms must get killed once their usefulness is over or if they fail to perform. The only alternative that must be available to failed isms is complete modification. The case of Communism and Socialism must be on these lines. Pure forms of both these isms have completely failed in application and must be shelved for ever. What can now be tried out are modified versions that can yield the desired end results. We must bear in mind that the ultimate purpose of any ism for governance is the well being of one and all. In addition there must be a constant reform process for positive progress of the ism and its beneficiaries. Anything that does not allow reforms is unnatural and must die even if it is an ism.
What happened in the case of Communism in Soviet Union and China highlights inevitability of such fundamental fate of any ism. Those which are incapable of reform shall die. Mikhail Gorbachev is only a social doctor who helped the unworkable ism to die in the Soviet Union. Instead of the violent death in such cases, he helped the Russian people achieve the same without any bloodshed. His brilliance and vision provided the required pace and ambience for the gradual and calibrated death of a communist form of government that promised so many unachievable ideas. In the same position, Deng Xiaoping achieved much more by modifying Communism beyond recognition. But unlike Russians, the Chinese remain untruthful to their own conscience by clinging onto the name of Communism. Current Chinese Communism is nothing but a progressive cousin of Capitalism.
In India, we must consider ourselves lucky that such unworkable isms have not found much ground in our political arena. Outside Bengal and Kerala, the red flags are seen only in the railway stations. It has been the case so far and communist leaders like Jyoti Basu gives us hope that it will remain so in future. The veteran leader has spoken the truth at the fag end of his life. Communism and Socialism are unworkable isms and they can never be achieved anywhere in the world, more so in an ancient nation like ours. The ‘unworkabilty of extreme rightism’ has always been true in the case of a plural and secular Hindu dominated India. What is needed now is a marriage of value based Hindutva principles with the rationality of Communism to produce the best offspring of ‘Dialectical & Integral Humanism’ to usher in Ram Raj once again in Indian history.
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