Us, not I

There is a Kenyan saying that goes: “Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable”. It is a reality that we can only grow together or perish as individual fools. There is in life no single hand claps. It takes two to jubilate. The keen human desire and weakness to be the center of attraction and to have all spotlight and cameras shining upon oneself is a major mental disease. Unbridled and uncontrolled, this urge can convert a perfectly normal, well-performing manager/individual into a narcissist of sorts. Individual excellence is critical to team’s success; however, if that individual does not subscribe to the need for his team to be equally successful, such manager is actually busy in digging his own grave of corporate failure. Individual performance alone can never sustain institutions. It is the performance of a large number of teams, who make organisations to live with a longer shelf life. In the arena of sports, team work “alone” gives success. Individual performance, though necessary, does not ensure victory. In the cricketing world annals’, Sachin Tendulkar’s name is written in gold as one of the finest batsman, in the league of Brian Lara, Len Hutton, Garfield Sobers, Vivien Richards, Hanif Mohammad -but when you discuss his individual performance with scorekeepers of records and history, the statistician proves that India has lost more matches, when Sachin was successful with the bat. His individual glory did not mean team’s victory. He played well for himself, not for the team --call it luck, call it jinx! But true. So, is true of corporates- individual performance suffers severely from limitations of time. All arrive at a point where cooperation becomes imperative for both the individual and the corporate. They cannot remain mutually exclusive. Managers ought to emphasise upon team performance while appealing to greater individual cooperation. A great manager/ leader is one who shields his team, by taking responsibility for all decisions of failure and in contrast placing at the door step of the teams, all decisions that lead to success and victory. In such environment only, can both the individual and the corporate entity blossom. Collective jubilation is more powerful for team building than individual celebration of achievement. Adopting such stance requires a spirit to decimate one’s ego completely. This aspect gets to be more elusive as one meets with frequent success. The beguiling mind distracts and says, “You are the best. The team is a pack of nincompoops”. The demise of individual’s performance here starts to set in. Yi Jing, a Chinese philosopher of the BC era wrote, “Unions based on sincerity will prosper. The union itself is like an earthenware vessel, containing the proceeds of the work of the members. The movement towards union arises from one’s inner-most convictions; not from persuasion of others . . . Once one has committed himself to the union (team), whole hearted participation will bring results”. Abraham Lincoln took a completely different route for resolution of slavery and civil rights issue, thus he has been placed by history, as a man who believed to make subservient his individual opinion to views of others, without compromising on his fundamental values. This leader had in him a non-quantifiable treasure of empathy, humility, steadfastness, consistency, self-awareness, self-discipline, and the large-heartedness to know, that it is the team and not him in isolation that will deliver results. Lincoln during the worst of times believed in cohesive team building. He had once remarked, “I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man’s bosom”. No personal resentments or grudges, but instead, he welcomed all diverse, unbelievably prideful, ambitions, envy-filled and jealous individuals to converge on a single platform, holding a single point of view. Corporate leaders similarly have to develop skills to know, that changing market challenges, require of them to counter the malicious behavior of any constituent. The teams have to be glued and bound. No person, regardless of his excellence, can insulate himself from the judgment of history. For no man can be an island of excellence perpetually as waters of the ocean of time rise and sink such islands. Intelligent and excelling managers have to subjugate to the demands of the whole continent, for his/her personal sustenance and recognition as a performer. Managers must talk often to their teams on the significance of making self-interest submissive to collective interest. If the mind of the team members is set ablaze with flames of jealousy and envy, then how can any individual remain safe from conflagration? Insulating oneself doesn’t take away the risk of being burnt down by lack of team performance, with disregard to any personal success. Those team members, who lag behind in performance need to be marshalled aside for counseling in the isolated board room. It is never to anybody’s advantage to berate non-performance in public of a single individual and by such action, the backbone of the entire team is broken to shreds. I learnt, from reading Lincoln’s umpteen biographies that he would each night throw onto paper all his pent-up anger, relating to either dissenting views or lack of performance from his team members, and then he would just put it away. Later historians discovered a huge stack of letters from his drawers, with Lincoln’s own notation on them, “never sent, never signed”. In order to build teams, he knew the value of a waste paper basket, where he put to death, all resentments and acrimony. It is only by mutual aid and confidence that great deeds are performed. For achieving personal greatness, do not attempt so through individual actions; instead collect and mould a team towards the realisation of your grand design. There is a Chinese saying, behind every able man there are always other able men. An orchestra is perhaps the best example of the team work. The ensemble cannot work, if individual excellence becomes the objective or if individual excellence gains pride to the extent that it refuses to remain in coordination with the conductor’s stick -all violins must play in union. Just as in an ensemble every musician needs respect and recognition, so do the members of any corporate or business organisation. Perfection is the sum total of perfect parts. The innate need for recognition must be fed upon too. Managers must write thank-you notes, personal memos for outstanding performances, without falling into the trap of being seen as partisans or found to be developing an army of sycophants or self-glorifying cheer leaders. Henry Ford had coined this appropriately: “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success”. As managers the choice is grow together or perish as individual fools. The writer is a banker & a columnist

from The News International - Money Matters https://ift.tt/2U5VDrb