Being a leader.....
This is the era of employee empowerment.
One day all top guys in my company got together and decided to empower us. You know only too well that these are the same guys who have been sleeping on the concept of succession planning (literally) for over a decade. The youngest of the senior lot has spent two years in the company post retirement thanks to extensions. These extensions have been nicknamed “service unto death” pacts.
So, one day I found myself travelling to Hotel Sea princess to attend a training programme on Leadership. I had told myself that if the program was going to chew on the dead rubber well masticated spit of a topic “Difference between Leadership and Management” (that I had to put up with many times during such occasions earlier) I’d throw something at the faculty. Her lucky day that it turned out to be, she escaped unhurt.
I initially was active hungrily pouncing on conceptual errors in their presentation but soon gave up. I was then settling comfortably into a trance (lectures always do that to me) that carried my mind beautifully over the well recorded and often accessed memories of my darling’s nautankies when Mr.Pandey* suddenly raised his tightly clenched fist and announced, “I have the power”. The lady who had been eloquently lecturing us on leadership was stunned by the intervention and another faculty who had thus far been a quiet observer erupted into loud laughter but quickly stifled it. But the lecturing lady quickly gathered herself to follow the training protocol, clause 1 of which reads that if someone acted silly or oversmart, he has to be encouraged. This incident left others wondering if they should do something as nauseatingly pretentious and earn brownie points.
See, I don’t really mind becoming a leader. Just don’t put me in the company of such people!
*Names haven’t been changed to intrude privacy.
One day all top guys in my company got together and decided to empower us. You know only too well that these are the same guys who have been sleeping on the concept of succession planning (literally) for over a decade. The youngest of the senior lot has spent two years in the company post retirement thanks to extensions. These extensions have been nicknamed “service unto death” pacts.
So, one day I found myself travelling to Hotel Sea princess to attend a training programme on Leadership. I had told myself that if the program was going to chew on the dead rubber well masticated spit of a topic “Difference between Leadership and Management” (that I had to put up with many times during such occasions earlier) I’d throw something at the faculty. Her lucky day that it turned out to be, she escaped unhurt.
I initially was active hungrily pouncing on conceptual errors in their presentation but soon gave up. I was then settling comfortably into a trance (lectures always do that to me) that carried my mind beautifully over the well recorded and often accessed memories of my darling’s nautankies when Mr.Pandey* suddenly raised his tightly clenched fist and announced, “I have the power”. The lady who had been eloquently lecturing us on leadership was stunned by the intervention and another faculty who had thus far been a quiet observer erupted into loud laughter but quickly stifled it. But the lecturing lady quickly gathered herself to follow the training protocol, clause 1 of which reads that if someone acted silly or oversmart, he has to be encouraged. This incident left others wondering if they should do something as nauseatingly pretentious and earn brownie points.
See, I don’t really mind becoming a leader. Just don’t put me in the company of such people!
*Names haven’t been changed to intrude privacy.
posted by The Regular Joe at
10:07 AM
4 Comments
