Do You Cherish to Possess a A Civilized Nature ?

For many years, I was under the impression that power corrupts only the rich and the affluent people. But keen observations later have forced me to change that perception.

I now know that power corrupts all.

If it does not, then the person concerned is either senseless or highly civilized.

' Possessing the highest power and not using that power for self aggrandizement is a mark of the highest civilization' .

This is one of the highest learning of human philosophy. 

That is what my book of super mortal origin keeps reminding me !

Once I was introduced to a soldier of a paramilitary organization.

He appeared to me as a very simple and decent fellow. May be because I was a friend of his boss and there was nothing of sort at that time for him to exercise his powers on me !

But one day I saw the same person using his lathi (stick of the policemen) so inhumanly to terrorize a group of road side vendors. He was beating all who had not paid him the weekly hafta [bribe] for allowing them to carry on their business on the road side ! He was trying to exert his power and authority selectively for his own benefit on those poor fellows on whom he could do that whimsically!

Almost all people whom I have known personally as simple, good persons have shown the tendency of becoming rude and unfriendly the moment they get to some position of power. I have seen them coming back to normalcy only when they are no more in that power position. The transformation to either way has been observed as taking place almost instantaneously !

The more the power vested, the more arrogant and non-courteous the person be.

Business men are very polite with their customers. You may not find such loving persons anywhere if you happen to be a valuable customer !

But watch them how they treat their staff and employees on whom they can exert their power !

When it is the election time, have you watched our ministers and peoples' representatives ? They are so polite, loving and approachable ! But when they get their chairs of power can any one think of approaching them ?

I read yesterday about the results of a research some psychology researchers have carried out somewhere in the west.

They have found out that people occupying power positions tend to become too reserved and artificial that they do not smile back at those who are previously known to them, as a mark of friendly reciprocation. Deep in their minds they began to consider their old friends as potential competitors. So they no more like to continue with such friendships !

I had known a person who retired as a managing director of a big company. While in power he kept all his friends and acquaintances of yester years at a distance as total strangers that after retirement he became a lonely fellow eagerly desiring fellowship of others which was not forthcoming. I remember him crying sheepishly holding my hands when I touched upon that issue when I happened to meet him a year before his death.

Another old man who used to be a tough task manager with a rude face lived the rest of his retirement life virtually as an orphan. When he died, there was no one to assist his poor widow to carry out his last rites. I remember the company where he worked earlier sending some people on official duty for this purpose. He was fortunate that he lived in the vicinity of his previous organization and some of his junior colleagues in power that time acted to help out at least mechanically !

I have also noticed some other interesting things in this context.

The fellows who tend to become unfriendly with those on whom they could exercise their powers are those who got into the power position not so legitimately by using some clicks and connections. Those who get into power positions legitimately try to use their power and position for the benefit of the people and the organization. They generally recognize that their power and position is for the common good of the society and not for satisfying their own whims and fancies.

Those who get in to power by unfair means would be too much eager to please their bosses. Because they subconsciously know their incompetencies and try to cover up that by doing such acts to over please their bosses and keeping away from their colleagues and subordinates. For them bosses are like gods and others are like dogs ! Within no time they are in the grip of the 'god-dog syndrome' .

I personally feel that it is not their mistake after all. Their minds have not come to what we understand as civilized levels. Remember the universal truth statement that I reproduced above. Only those with highest civilized minds can withhold the temptation of misusing power for their own selfish pleasures !

Human nature is a mix of beastly and divine. When divine nature predominates we become civilized. Otherwise we are uncivilized savages !

In the so-called civilized societies, the number of people possessing the god-dog syndrome would be lower. I haven't got the opportunity to study or observe people of this group much. But to the extent I have observed, I think this is true.

In India, presently the god-dog syndromized people appear to be more, especially in the power positions. This is not a good sign. ( That is what I feel !)  How safe you feel when you travel in a plane piloted by two uncivilized pilots though both are technically competent and certified ?

At no time in the history of independent India we had such arrogant ministers and top officials that we have now. In the guise of security, peoples' representatives are closing the high ways and roads for hours together for their motorcade to pass displaying authority and power so shamelessly !

Never in the history of India we had government and ministers suing individuals for highlighting some of their misdeeds !

My book also tells me this : Cleverness is not a substitute for true character !

It also tells like this : High civilizations are born of the sagacious correlation of material wealth, intellectual greatness, moral worth, social cleverness  and cosmic insight.

Do you cherish to possess a civilized nature ?

If not, then perhaps we may have to wait for ages to become part of a high civilization !

If you do not belong to a high civilization, there are chances that you are praised and hanged almost instantaneously.

Holding power positions in a savage society is not at all safe !

Unfortunately those holding power positions will never read this !

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The Poor Indian Bosses !

There are many humorous writings and case studies about bosses. Mostly the management students and those connected with the corporate work culture are familiar with such stories.

In the management education parlour, there is a study on ' how to manage your boss' ! Corporate management training institutes often give much importance in teaching their young executives about the importance of 'managing' their bosses.

Although most of the cases relating to bosses are universal in nature, there are certain things which to some extent could be specially applicable to Indian bosses. Because most of the Indian bosses are a bit different from their foreign counter parts. By foreign, I meant those belonging to the countries which have surpassed the colonial culture !

It is now a generally accepted principle of the corporate world that the ability to manage one's boss is one of the most desirable qualities needed to succeed in career. Perhaps more desirable than knowledge and competence to do his or her work !

Now, those who are not connected with the corporate culture might genuinely ask this question. If these bosses are such a difficult management issue, why at all there should be bosses ?

Poor ignorant chaps. They simply cannot understand all these complicated management systems of modern world. There cannot be any corporate systems without bosses. Bosses are inseparable necessities in corporate world. There cannot be any management without bosses!

In olden times, the bosses used to be very powerful fellows. They were capable of hiring and firing. In modern world too, there are bosses who exercise that prerogative, but not many.

In the corporate world, one interesting thing is the existence of the hierarchy of bosses. These bosses are also called the executives or officers or managers. Every one is a boss and subordinate at the same time.

Those inducted into a corporate organization soon become very conscious about their status as a boss of some standing in the society, even though their standing in their organization is of no consequence to the society at large. This is one trait which is specially applicable to the Indian bosses. After getting into a corporate work culture, perhaps for the purpose of a simple livelihood initially, the meaning of work soon transcends the barriers of the vocation and becomes much more than that for the individual, if the individual is inducted to the organization as a boss at some level.

Indians who happen to do some job in any organization in the capacity as a boss soon begin to develop a peculiar bossy culture and pseudo personality. The more they are vested with 'bossy powers' the more their likelihood of developing an artificial personality.

For example, police officers are vested with more such arbitrary powers. So those bosses of the police are likely to be a different person even at their homes !

The more bossy you are the more you are supposed to be aloof from other individuals. That is what the Indian bosses somehow have learnt from their past ! Their 'power' has to be judged from their faces and attitudes that they are likely to show to those who are their subordinates or equivalent in their assessment. I think there could be other reasons also for this. Some of the bosses who are nearer to still superior powers are some what afraid of their rather unstable position. The more 'up' you are on the ladder, the more susceptible you to a 'fall'. So they prefer to avoid any kind of such situations that could possibly cause a fall. So their anxiety of their positional situation makes them to show off a grim face always ! Yet another reason could be that they begin to look upon every one around as an 'opportunity seeker' just as they themselves ! They want to repel such persons ! Whatever be the reasons, the boss who is much up in the organizational ladder soon loses the pleasant face and becomes a tense, unapproachable person. This usually makes the subordinates secretly call this boss a moron.

The junior bosses will aspire to become senior bosses by promotions, which is the usual corporate gimmick to keep these fellows motivated to cling to their corporate work zone. Promotions means a different designation of their job title, some rise in the pay package and more importantly other things which in the corporate culture are known by the term 'perks'. These perks could be a company car, a different type of chair to sit, some cosmetic changes in the cabin to sit, etc, etc. Though they are not of much consequence to the life of the individual in general, the cultural transformation has made the individual 'die' for these small things if denied at the 'desired' time.

The ambition of all persons who happen to be a part of this corporate culture is to 'rise' to the higher levels of bossism in the organization and if most importantly to the highest boss post during the career span of the individual.

With every rise in the boss ladder, the individual assumes more 'gravity' of bossism and most likely get himself or herself aloof from the rest of the world. The chief boss becoming the least accessible to others! Especially the Indian chief boss soon becomes some thing like the Indian idol of the Deity in the temples. They become objects of worship by the lesser mortals and lesser bosses ! They 'enjoy' the power of determining the 'fate' of those below them. The fate mostly concerning the promotions and positioning of the lesser bosses !

The second line bosses who are waiting to become the chief boss keep waiting for the chief boss to retire or die anxiously. They are the ones who pamper the 'outgoing' chief with praises and hymns not only in the office but even beyond that on a 7x24 basis. Their sycophantic flattery soon transforms the boss who happen to occupy the chief boss' chair to an altogether different person, perhaps not belonging to the mortal race, but to the order of the gods.

Unlike the political scene, the corporate world has evolved a rule by which the employees are to retire after attaining some age regardless of they being a boss or not.

So the chief boss in the corporate world, if he or she has come up to that position by the so called career growth, has to retire or superannuate after some time after reaching that position. Perhaps at an age of say 60 that is applicable in India for most instances.

The date of retirement is the most 'painful' day for most Indian bosses, especially if they happen to be the chief bosses. All those lesser mortals and lesser bosses who kept singing songs of praises and ultra obedient manners for a few months previously soon would show a 'nasty' or unfriendly face henceforth.

They soon are likely to feel like 'fish out of water'. All of a sudden the friendly world around them has turned out to be either strange or hostile !

The situation at home also would not be much different. They soon would find even the family members too not showing the reverence that they used to show when they occupied the chair of the chief boss or chief executive !

I remember the pathetic situations in which some of these kind of people whom I personally had known faced post their retirements. One was a very senior officer of the organization where I joined as a junior boss. At the time when I knew him, he was in some middle management position and showed enough bossy attitudes commensurate with that position. Junior bosses like me used to be 'scared' of him ! There was no question of talking to such a person as a normal human being !

In some years time this person rose to the chief boss position and I rose to a position that he held years before when I joined the organization. He was the chief of nearly 3000 odd lesser order bosses all scared of the chief.

Later this chief retired and settled in his own home which was near to the our residences. He used to go for evening and morning walks in the streets. Now, all those who used to bow to him with reverence earlier showed no regard to him and behaved as if they were total strangers. Since he was a super boss he never took the efforts of having personal friendship or fellowship with any of these hundreds of others who lived around him.

Soon people forgot about him, though he was living in the same locality.

In a few years time, I became the elected head of a professional body of engineers of that city. This body used to honour one or two veterans every year and I was entrusted to nominate and invite a person to be awarded that year. Since the chief boss was a prominent engineer of yester years, I decided to nominate him and I personally went to his house to invite him formally to receive our award.

Nearly a decade had gone after he had relinquished his powerful post when I met him. He was no more the 'lion' of a person ! We both talked for quite some time in the most cordial and affectionate manner. And when I communicated our decision to award him that year, he became too emotional and began to cry loudly holding my arms! That was the tears of sorrow of being in isolation in a populated place that was his home for many decades !

This is just one such example I have narrated. But it is a typical situation many Indian bosses might face when out of power and position later in their retired life !

I keep seeing the next generations of bosses who follow the same path.

I do not know about the bosses in other countries. My readers can enlighten me and other readers through their comments.

One thing is sure. Doing the job of the boss is a difficult one. Those who are in it need to be extremely careful in not landing into a situation of painful isolation in the years ahead.

For that they have to consciously make efforts to unlearn the culture of bossism that keep building up in their nerves and brains during the long years of their work for a livelihood as a boss!

I earnestly hope the Indian Society to have a different breed of bosses in the times to come !

There are simple ways to become good bosses and effective leaders of the corporate world. Many of these things are routinely taught by the management institutes. But unfortunately, all bosses do not get the chance to get exposed to such management trainings. Some purposefully avoid such opportunities due to their bossy egos. For some others, such exposures do not make any impact again due such a mental state.

But more than these stereotyped executive development programmes there are many simple natural ways by which a boss who is 'up in the ladder' can come back to a normal state of mind.

I think I would address those in some other blogs.