Once I happened to visit a friend of mine who was Head of Sales Department in his company. When I visited him he was planning to fire one of his boys. He was telling me why he wanted to fire him. His reasons appeared small when I really think about the issue. He promised a target to his management for that month which he failed by 60%. So, he thought that one of his sales persons must go.
In my 23 years of working in the corporate world I have seen many incidents where Managers have found an easy way out to excuse themselves from awkward situations by firing their poor subordinates.
What are the fundamentals of Management? This question comes to mind almost every day in various situations. A manager must be able to manager the resources. The materials, the machines, the Money and the Men. The three resources are lifeless and obey they way we programme them. But the fourth factor The Men is a very complex resource. A good manager must be able to identify the right men in the First stage, train them according to his ideas, and then let them loose. Supervising the men is a definite necessity. Humans tend to get bored with their routine, loose the morale, loose sight of where they are heading. Especially the people who are not trained in a disciplined curriculam.
Unfortunately the Education system in most of the countries is still lacking the fundamentals of training. We are teaching Scientific principles, Mathematics, Economics, Computers to our children but the Systematic Psychological approach is missing in our education. We have something called moral science in our schools, but only as a formality. There are no exams to make children seriously think about the subject. In Vedic Education system the major approach towards life was taught with the basic fundamentals such as "Dharma" in the spirit of Bhagwad Gita. It is a complete package. How to to do your duties, what are the guiding factors while performing your duties etc.,
However, the present day managers are mostly driven by the success rates, the bottom lines etc., They say it is in the interest of the organization they took the decisions such as firing people. In fact, it is their own interests they are serving. They are protecting their jobs forgetting the purpose of Effective Management practices. One disgruntled employee can cause a lot more damage to the company than a strong competitor. Each individual whether he is intelligent or otherwise has his own ideas. When he leaves an organization with dissatisfaction he is not going to sit at home silently. He will be out in the world looking for his own place to grow. He is definitely going to share his experiences about People, Places, Organizations. That is likely to damage the organization's image.
So, Shall we stop firing people? No. We can do it if the situation demands it. We should practice the same decent ways and behaviours with them while we were hiring them. A little patience on the manager's side will create a lasting impression on the person who is leaving the organization. He is definitely going to talk about it when he is in the newer environment.
In my 23 years of working in the corporate world I have seen many incidents where Managers have found an easy way out to excuse themselves from awkward situations by firing their poor subordinates.
What are the fundamentals of Management? This question comes to mind almost every day in various situations. A manager must be able to manager the resources. The materials, the machines, the Money and the Men. The three resources are lifeless and obey they way we programme them. But the fourth factor The Men is a very complex resource. A good manager must be able to identify the right men in the First stage, train them according to his ideas, and then let them loose. Supervising the men is a definite necessity. Humans tend to get bored with their routine, loose the morale, loose sight of where they are heading. Especially the people who are not trained in a disciplined curriculam.
Unfortunately the Education system in most of the countries is still lacking the fundamentals of training. We are teaching Scientific principles, Mathematics, Economics, Computers to our children but the Systematic Psychological approach is missing in our education. We have something called moral science in our schools, but only as a formality. There are no exams to make children seriously think about the subject. In Vedic Education system the major approach towards life was taught with the basic fundamentals such as "Dharma" in the spirit of Bhagwad Gita. It is a complete package. How to to do your duties, what are the guiding factors while performing your duties etc.,
However, the present day managers are mostly driven by the success rates, the bottom lines etc., They say it is in the interest of the organization they took the decisions such as firing people. In fact, it is their own interests they are serving. They are protecting their jobs forgetting the purpose of Effective Management practices. One disgruntled employee can cause a lot more damage to the company than a strong competitor. Each individual whether he is intelligent or otherwise has his own ideas. When he leaves an organization with dissatisfaction he is not going to sit at home silently. He will be out in the world looking for his own place to grow. He is definitely going to share his experiences about People, Places, Organizations. That is likely to damage the organization's image.
So, Shall we stop firing people? No. We can do it if the situation demands it. We should practice the same decent ways and behaviours with them while we were hiring them. A little patience on the manager's side will create a lasting impression on the person who is leaving the organization. He is definitely going to talk about it when he is in the newer environment.
Hello Mr. Rao,
ReplyDeleteSeems like I quite agree with your thoughts on above topic.In my earlier company, I was managing a region on the Customer front and my Regional sales manager was fired for his dismal performance over two quarters.This same guy is now working as a team lead in a good firm in US.But this whole event at that point came to the team as a shock. When u fire someone, it actually terrorises his teammates and breeds a feeling of insecurity.This reinforced my faith in the HR concept of Maslows hierarchy wherein "Security" means a lot.
However, truth is that no employee is bad enough to be fired. If a wrong fit has been hired, the employer is equally to be blamed.I guess some concepts are only learnt only through real experiences..