Dungeons, dragons, & falling knights

Both success and failure are extremely interesting and hence are difficult to handle. Success intoxicated and failure de-presses. Those who do not handle success with grace and calm, end up as arrogant narcissists. They slide from top gear to low performance. Those who glide themselves, as a result of failure, into the abyss of depression, either remain consigned in the dungeon of self-pity or if they decide to deal with it, in a mature and objective manner, they can be the phoenix, rising from the ashes. In the corporate universe, nonperformance, by a colleague or a division or a team, can be attributable to several factors and reasons, As a sample, let me recount a few: lack of clarity of direction to take, lack of skill and talent, putting square pegs in round holes or lack of suitability for the assignment, setting unrealistic targets to achieve, giving unreasonable timeframe to achieve business budgets and to top it all having a confused boss! Causing undue pressure on staff to achieve can be disastrous. Not long ago, a branch manager of a bank was alleged to have succumbed to unrealistic targets set up by his supervisor -he donated his life to the profit and loss of the institution. Failure to perform instead of being converted into a stepping stone is made into a death-knell by the idiosyncratic manager, who lacks empathy and self-control. In this piece, I am not going to dwell or discuss on how to promote the cause of positive body language, but highlight more on the devastating impact it has when handling situations that are not in conformity with expected levels of performance from colleagues. In any conversation, words used and their impact contribute possibly less than 10 percent towards the dialogue; what the nonverbal body language does is more powerful. Most communication/dialogues are to be read through body than mere words. The body is never silent. It is continuously and always transmitting messages to others around you. And fortunately or unfortunately, you have very little control over it. It is so natural. It is so divinely blessed medium of conversation. No person can enact to blush. It just comes on the face. A writer very aptly pieced this thought in the following manner: I love body language because I can speak it without talking, without listening, and while my back is turned. Reactions to nonperformers are also varied. They emerge according to each individual’s orientation. Some managers throw tantrums, with high decibel level, that can be heard across the organisation, while some say the deadliest sarcasm in the lowest pitch and tone of voice. Anger, cohabiting with power and authority is considered a lethal weapon in the arsenal of a manager. The boss can make any single event of non-performance into a fierce hell for the teammates. Those, who have no self-control as managers, fly into uncontrollable passion that blinds them to stupidity. An angry supervisor is the ugliest person to look at. By the employment of improper language a manager deforms the goodness inherently blessed upon him. Alexander Pope had remarked, “To be angry is to revenge the fault of others upon ourselves”. If only the fire-spitting dragon of a manager would learn that he who loses temper on nonperformance does more damage to himself by ensuring future nonperformance too! The victim is never the same, when verbally abused. The confidence would lay in tatters. In a state of anger, the use and choice of expletives is deployed liberally. It is considered by the “Boss” that he is entitled to use choice words because he fears no reprisal or retaliation from his subordinates. And if the manger also has the “mistaken belief” that he is the bread and butter provider, it is an additional carte-blanche license for him to hurl abuse upon the nonperforming constituent of his team. If my readers think I am on an overdrive of concoctive imagination, let me assure, I have seen, and I have heard, firsthand, from many victims in the corporate world, that such behavior is rampant. It is also not considered “unusual”. And to make matters worse, if the employee, mistakes his employer to be, God forbid, the provision provider, it only makes the employer more belligerent and arrogant, the poor employee more submissive and docile. Yes, I have witnessed this happen to senior colleagues in the early part of my career, when as a trainee I used to be baffled on why people with great talent and skill take the nonsense of the unreasonable supervisor. Swearing at work place is an across the Atlantic corporate “virtue”, imported into the local corporate sector. Those indulging in it feel puffed up with pride they can get away with hurling all their treasure of expletives on a member who doesn't meet the business budgets. In meetings such supervisors release their entire payload. The resultant emotional nuclear cloud that begins to hang over the institution remains obscure to them! Instead of using the wisdom of inspiration, supervisors tend to hurl upon their victims the wrath of hell. The work place is turned into an inferno. Nonperformance, in my view, besides reasons of lack of talent, skill and experience, is caused more by stress a colleague may be suffering from either at home or at office. Positive body language is a thing to be had in a manager’s personality. The body language needs harnessing for expression of a negative comment. This requires and demands of great command and control over the nonverbal messages a manager gives out when dealing with those whom he doesn't like, either because of nonperformance or to stretch the thought, he may not like the colleagues’ face. No storm should reflect on the face of the manager, in distress of low performance, he must demonstrate self-restraint of the highest standard. Body language is critical towards maintenance of a healthy and well-oiled work force. In a situation of less than expected performance, it is expected of an enlightened manager to sit with the concerned colleague and find out the reason behind it. Invariably the discovery will lead to a sense of fear, failure, or a complex that the colleague could be suffering from. It is also likely that the colleague is unable to achieve his business budgets due to the non-cooperative attitude of his peers. In my personal experience gained over three/four organisations, it is my unflinching resolve that nothing works better for motivating staff, than to keep them personally engaged on the level of emotions. The staff must feel committed to the organisational goals as personal charter of success. There must be no gulf between “I” and the “entity”- the two must get to be synonymous. This is possible only when “ownership” is created in the minds of the rank and file. And the feeling of ownership has to be brought out through inspiration, not intimidating instructions, diktats or directives of the supervisor. Loyalty to budget and performance is gained by “honesty of purpose”. Try it! The writer is a senior banker and a freelance columnist 

from The News International - Money Matters http://bit.ly/2MbHiXC