“Truth constitute the very foundation for the culture of Humans”.
Righteousness is based on Truth. If Righteousness collapses, the universe will collapse. If the universe collapses, righteousness may collapse but the foundation, that is Truth, remains in tact. However, if the Truth collapse, both Righteousness, and the universe will collapse. Hence, every human should strive to protect truth, for both righteousness and the universe are based upon truth.
Of all the 7Ms that are considered as levers of performance improvement — Man, machine, method, management, money, measures and motivation… Men are the most important factor, as it is they who determine the effective utilisation of the remaining 6 Ms. The three aspects that govern all employees of an organisation at all levels of management and all departments are : Capacity, training and Protection. The organisation that has these three in perfect order is not likely to confront any formidable problems.
Humans in general and managers in particular have to be guided by the directives of Truth. Acceptance of truth teaches one humility and obedience. It also enjoins the quality of steadfastness. This means that whatever difficulties one may encounter, one should fulfil one’s duty with fortitude and forbearance. Truth also teaches us propriety. This tells us how to conduct oneself with any person, how to behave towards elders and supervisors, how to treat guest, how to accept truth and what is the right behaviour in any situation.
Shall we make an attempt to redefine the above values in terms of modern conditions for management of one’s own life, or business or industry which would render them eminent applicable today.
Every person has to manage. Everyday situations arise that require managerial skills. Management is involved everywhere, whether one occupies a managerial position or not and everyone is indeed a manager. Management is two-fold, of self and of situations. Let us look at both.
Personal management
For managing others it is necessary that the person first manages himself. That is, personal management comes before personnel management. For managing oneself, one must have the capacity to remain free from internalising the situation. If one’s actions cause problems to others then one is responsible for it.
- Anger management: Sometimes we have a notion that we must become angry in order to manage. Such thinking is wrong. A man who looses his temper loses his power of judgement as well. He is insensible to right and wrong. One subject to anger is also subject to flattery. You have no opinion about yourself when you get angry. Then, you can easily be flattered. So one must recognise that anger is a bad management strategy and does not pay. To manage one’s anger is personal management.
- Self-esteem: It is one thing to consider what others think about us, but a weakness if we take the opinion of the others as a basis of our judgement about ourselves. Your value has nothing to do with what others think of you. You are worth as much as you think of yourself as a person. You can manage things if you think you are somebody. If you think you are nobody it is unfortunate. Every person in a managerial position should discover self-worth because, the way to manage people is by gaining their respect.
- Concern for people: One must care for the persons whom he wants to manage. They are more than machines and work for you as they do not have an opportunity to do something better. You have to think how to win over the people.
What is it that wins over the person who is working for you? It is care — not merely an economic consideration. It comes from an individual. Management certainly involves a number of things. But the most important is the benign care you are, your self-esteem, care for people etc. One must manage oneself by managing his anger, frustation and by being prayerful.
Personnel management
- Leading from the front: Whatever a leader does, other people do. Whatever he upholds as authority, an ordinary person follows that. If you are occupying a managerial position you cannot afford to be lackadaisical. You cannot be loose in your value structure. A leader is one who is looked up to by others. He is supposed to know, supposed to lead.
- Enjoy what you do: If you enjoy what you do, others around you also enjoy your pleasure. If you are dissatisfied with yourself, you can never manage anybody.
- Respect for work: We should see sanctity in everything we manage. There is no such thing as superior or inferior in work or duty. Each job/work is as sacred as any other. It is not what you do that makes the action great, but the attitude with which you do it. Everyone who is supposed to manage people must understand this very well.
- Avoid creating complex: People require recognition that they are people. If you recognise them as persons, you discover a relationship. This is why managing people is called, “personnel management”. If one can talk to a person without creating in him a complex that “I am talking to my boss”, he is a great personnel manager. Money cannot buy a human being and if a person is able to understand you, he gets satisfied. So make them feel that they are understood.
Situational Management
- Clarity in setting goals: As a manager responsible for the success of organisation and successfully managing the people, one has to be clear about the goals. If the manager himself is not clear about goals, he cannot make his people understand their role and responsibilities.
- Prioritising goals: As all of us are aware, we have limited resources and unlimited ends to achieve. So conflicts will arise. Further, one feels dissppointed if he is not able to meet all his targets. But one has to be aware of the pragmatic and logistic considerations in such situations and accept the constraints as beyond one’s control. Then only one can objectively proiritise one’s goals according to availabilty of time, resources, manpower and so on.
- Takecare of the immediate: When you begin a task, you only require to know the first few steps because ou have no control over what is in store. One has to keep in mind that any project well conceived can be accomplished if adequate effort is made. Therefore, one should concern oneself with immediate goals and plans without getting bogged down by the scale of the object. If one confines oneself to what is to be done now, he maintains a positive attitude. On the other hand, if one starts worrying about the enormity of the work he becomes pessimistic and does not even start.
Conclusion
Realisation of truth deals with certain fundemental problems and is an enquiry wherein one discovers that the real meaning of the word “I” is the Self which remains unchanged from childhood to old age and which is free from any sense of limitation. To appreciate yourself as that limitless whole universe, you require a mind that is prepared to assimilate that knowledge.
Accomodating Others
To gain such a mind means to develop certain values and attitude and to be clear about them. Accomodating others is one such value and in fact anger is due to lack of accomodation. Realisation and acceptance of truth gives us a plan to make ourselves mature and strong so that we grow to our full stature.
All human beings are endowed with power to think/know, the willing power/desire and the power to do/make/mend. When someone is endowed with a power to think, to know, that power should not turn against them. To realise truth, One needs to look at oneself, as a person who wields these powers, who is free from tyrannies. One can be free only when one changes the focus to himself, a Self which is more than thinking/willing/wishing and doing.
Desire is not a problem but managment of desire is a problem. We all have the required energy and enthusiasm, power to act, to accomplish our wills and desires. While doing so, the emphasis must be on responsibilities and not rights and when everyone discharges his responsibilities the rights of every person is gauranteed.
Sree's blog on better management 