The Old Woman's Question

This is a story which sounds too farfetched to be true: it has just enough drama, heroics and dubious logistics to make it unlikely. But there is a lot of value in the idea it conveys, so let me narrate it.

Once, an old woman needed major surgery to correct a life-threatening condition. While on the operating table, as the hospital staff prepared her for anesthesia, she started chatting away with the doctors and nurses around her. She asked each of them a question: What exactly will you be doing during the surgery? She got a variety of answers:

1.       I will be cutting open your chest and enabling the surgeon to access your heart

2.       I will be administering the anesthesia and making sure you feel no pain

3.       I will be fixing the problem you have with your heart valves

4.       I will be sewing you back up after the surgery

5.       I will be monitoring your blood pressure and other vital signs

6.       I am just here to watch and learn

Each of them had a precise answer to give her, perhaps simplified to ensure that she understood what was being said. But the lady was still not convinced. She had one major concern, which she blurted out, presumably in all innocence: “Which of you is in charge of keeping me alive???”

Technically, you can say that the most senior surgeon in the room was in charge of the success of the operation. Or you can say the anesthetist was in charge of making sure she was floating comfortably between consciousness and death, until he/she was ready to pull her back to fully conscious life. They all knew their roles well, and did their best to explain it to their elderly patient. But somewhere during that effort they had apparently lost track of her priority to be alive at the end of the operation. In losing track of her priority, they may have lost her confidence as well.

How often do we do this in business? Aren’t there times when we get so engrossed in the transactional activities we are in charge of that—at least momentarily—we forget the bigger picture?

 

You may be right. But as a manager, your job doesn’t end there

Do you remember the first time you became a manager? Or at least, do you have some expectation of what it will feel like when you do become one?

Suddenly, you are responsible for the actions of a lot of people. Your job is expanded from "get your job done" to "get your job done, ensure your team members do the same, co-ordinate all those jobs and deliver the result expected". Of course, that is putting it mildly!

They say the problem with most managers lies in the fact that they do not communicate well enough. When there is a conflict or a disagreement, chances are one party will be right in his/her observation. When a member of your team is right, his/her duty is to inform the manager and possibly show him/her how. The decision is then left to the manager. But when a manager is right, his/her duty doesn't end there. In addition to informing team members, they have to be convinced that this is the path to take and ensure that everyone is on board. Just knowing you are right does not add any value in the big picture.

The key here is to over-communicate. One cannot sit back and assume things will be agreed upon and followed by everyone on the team just because he/she was told to. It takes a lot of cohesion and understanding for a team to reach that level of maturity. That could tend to infinity (call upon those math memories). Until then, lack of adequate communication by a manager is the perfect excuse for employees to slack off!

Building relationships at work

 

‘Building strong relationships’ describes a business model with some evident merits and perhaps a few demerits. The concept essentially points towards a sense of commitment and a certain level of freedom of operations.

The more mature a relationship between a service provider and a client, the more aligned the employees of each would be to the other’s business goals and processes. At the same time, there is less intervention from the client side and ideally, this drives up productivity at the service provider’s end. Selling is made easier, and there are certain advantages in hard times, such as in a recession; the client will think twice about cutting budgets in a long lasting engagement – of course, this is subject to compromises on both sides. In short, if the relationship is good, the business is good for both sides.

As an employee, who do you feel is at the other end of such a commitment: Is it the person who recruited you, the person who you report to, the head of the company, or some other individual? It can be anyone at all, as long as this one person made a difference in the individual’s life. The difference can be imparting some knowledge you won’t find in books, or it can be showing him/her how to think and work better, or it can even be about being there when you are needed the most. The significance is relative, and a third person may not be able to judge it. It is part of the personal connection.

That’s right. Many things in professional life are decided on the basis of this personal connection. Look at the members in your team and check – Have you made a difference in their lives?