Trainer's Notes for SUCCESS from Siva (13): Humanizing People Management for Organizational SUCCESS

Hi,
Running a business? Or managing a team? Robert Townsend in his book, “UP THE ORGANIZATION – How to stop the company stifling people and strangling profits” tells how to humanize it – for having fun while making it all work better than it ever worked before, and better than anyone else is making it work. In this ground-breaking book, he reminds us not to get mired in all those sacred organizational routines that stifle people and strangle both profits and profitability. He deals with every single aspect (A-Z) involved in running an organization covering more than 100 different aspects of day-to-day work. I would like to share with you the essence of ONLY a few of the many given in the book in this week’s TNSS:

	Managerial aspect	What it is?	How to deal with it?
1	Conflict within the organization	A sign of a healthy organization – up to a point If you are a boss and your people fight you openly when they think you are wrong – that’s healthy. If your men fight each other openly in your presence for what they believe in – that’s healthy	A good manager doesn’t try to eliminate conflict; he manages it in such way that it only enriches the productivity of his team, and not wastes the energies of his people
2	Conviction vs Ego	Things get done because of a man or woman with conviction But institutions built with ego will have lots of money going into building them, lots of people working there, but with NO results.	Before you commit yourself to a new effort, it’s worth asking a couple of questions: 1) Are we really trying to do something worthwhile here? 2) Or are we just building another monument to some diseased ego?
3	Disobedience	A manager cannot take as an excuse for his mistakes in business as order given by his boss or boss’s boss. Any manager who undertakes to carry out a plan which he considers defective is at fault; he must put forward his reasons, insist on the plan being changed, instead of being the instrument of his organization’s downfall.	Disobedience is necessary, when it is otherwise causing harm to the organization. Appreciate your subordinate, who may be appearing to be disobedient to you, but in reality helping you correct yourself for organization’s good.
4	Leadership	True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders. In combat, officers eat last. Most people in big companies today are administered, not led. They are treated as personnel, not people.	To lead people, walk behind them. -Lai-Tzu When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, “We did it ourselves.”
5	Mistakes	Everyone commits mistakes. No one is immune to them. Be it the bosses or their subordinates, it is common to err. But the question is about, whether the mistakes are admitted in an organization? Or the organization is providing for such an environment?	Admit your mistakes openly, maybe even joyfully. Encourage your associates to do likewise by commiserating them. Never punish them. Babies learn to walk by falling down. If you beat a baby every time he falls down, he will never care much for walking. Beware of the boss who walks on water and never makes a mistake.
6	Promises	The world is divided into two classes of people: A) the few people who make good on their promises, and B) the many who don’t. Those who fall in Column A and stay there will be very valuable wherever they are.	Keep your promises. If asked when you can deliver something, ask for time to think. Build in a margin of safety. Name a date. Then deliver it earlier than you promised.

After all, people are the biggest asset for any organization. Organizations keep their people in the hands of the leaders who are supposed to lead them in order to build the organization in such way that the organization will last long serving its cause and making profits. Let’s keep the ‘human’ element in mind in managing people.
To learn more about humanizing the business and many other managerial aspects that Robert Townsend talks about in a crisp, precise, and practical manner, pls get hold of the book.
Your comments on this blog post are welcome.
To your success,
With love and regards,
Siva
value4value@gmail.com