Trees die from the top

 

The Spirit of the organization is created from the top. Authenticity can not be faked.If an organization is great in spirit, it is because the spirit of its top people is great. If it decays, it does so because the top rots. The people with whom a person works, and especially subordinates, know in a few weeks whether he or she has integrity or not. They may forgive a person for a great deal: incompetence, ignorance, insecurity, or bad manners. But they will not forgive a lack of integrity in that person.

I newly joined an organization where I believed that creativity and initiatives are of great value.As I start working with the team, I noticed that one staff member was not delivering. He had maturity and clear line of thinking.What he lacked was ability to translate it into constructs that development and test teams could comprehend.His everyday activities revolve around being part of feature crew and if this skill lacks it was difficult for him to succeed.

As we both were new to the job , we got along well and I tried to understand his reasons for accepting the role given. What came out of this exercise is the realization  that he found this job misfit and he actually was interviewed for a different position. He was given a good sales pitch and he bought into it. He found his work a drag now.

I did what you would have done as people manager. Giving him opportunity to find work he likes and supporting him getting there.I was new but my HR manager was great and he helped me with right direction and supported me with staff member transition.

But the question is : What would have been the impact of his prolonged stay in the system? The team members who have heard his story and are still in the system, how damaged are their perceptions of top today ? How many more such people are there in the system with everyday drag ? What can be done about it ? Who will acknowledge that the problem exist ?

Drucker said “If an organization is great in spirit, it is because the spirit of its top people is great”. We know where the answers lie and given few great people I have faith from top, answer will surely come.

New Dreams … New Horizons …New resolutions.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Delivered a historic speech about four decades ago when he stated:

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out of true meaning of its creed:’ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slave and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! With this faith, we will be able to work together; to pray together; to struggle together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And if America is to be a great nation, it must become true.”.

Today that Nation has made history by electing their first Afro-American President.

What is very significant here is that this dream was not implanted into the social consciousness during the best of the times but during the worst of the times, when the blacks did not even have their voting rights.

Dhirubhai Ambani dreamt of digital India, where the common man would have access to affordable means of information and communication, which will help him to overcome the handicaps of illiteracy and the lack of mobility. Today it is reality in India. What is very significant here is that this dream was implanted into the minds of Reliance intelligentsia in 1999, when basic communication channels were still pathetic in India.  With every product, service and commodity becoming more and more expensive, here is Mr Ratan Tata dreaming of a one lakh rupees car and the Nano is on its way.

Mahatma Gandhi dreamt of a free India at a time when this country was already enslaved and ruled by foreigners for well over three centuries. And today we are living his dream. At a time when India could not even build air carriers, the man popularly known as the ‘Missile Man of India’, APJ Abdul Kalam, dreamt. Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended. Today we are living his dream. Today the ‘space’ and the ‘moon’ belong to India too. Even in this bad economy, if the whole world still believes that India’s growth will be well over 7%, it is because as the then Finance Minister, during very ordinary time, dreamt of an economically liberated India.

Dream we must, that all of us know. What is significant here is that all these great dreamers processed great dreams not necessarily during the best of the times but during toughest of the times, during very difficult times, during times when the collective social consciousness was not upbeat. Yet, dream they did and on the sheer strength of their dreams, organizations, nation and humanity as a whole stood up.

Difficult times they say. So, dream we must. As Individual and as a team, dream we must. On the focused strength of our dreams and their execution, let us get the world to stand up and take notice.

- An excerpt from Frozen thoughts