The trigger for the entire Gita was Arjuna’s pain and refusal to fight. It is a natural reaction and response of all good human beings to any sort of opposition and decisive action. People do not want conflict and fight. But can we avoid the fight at all costs?
The same question comes into mind for many managers when they are challenged to fight in a tough situation. Many players, equally or more capable than us are in the fray. Should we give in and allow them to win? This question and the answer to that question are the core of the Gita. We will discuss this issue from the people management perspective in this article.
It is a pain to fire people. We are impacting not just an individual but a family of dependents. People would have loans to pay, bills to clear, mouths to feed, medicines to buy, and school fees. Can we be completely dispassionate about them?
There are two ways to look at it. One is to do things in such a way that this situation never arises. Another way is sacrificing a part to save the whole. Sounds logical but not easy to execute.
As Dr Goldratt said in his famous book “Necessary but not sufficient,” any company that lays off people indicated a failed top management. It failed to anticipate the impending economic and market challenges and trends. It failed to align its strategy and business plan according to the ground realities. It took some reckless and ill-considered decisions.
How many top management teams agree with this? None. That is one side of the problem. The top management teams fail to even take ownership of this failure and take the lame excuse of putting the blame on the changing market dynamics. If they are not able to sense and gauge such changes, why do we need them in the first place?
The other perspective is to amputate the infected part to save the whole. Logical, painful, and yet needs to be done. Is that the best way? Can these people be transitioned into other roles? To even other partner firms? In today’s integrated business environment, would it be too difficult to do that? Some of the large firms lays of thousands of employees saying that they ended up recruiting more people than required. How lame was that excuse?
I know a case of a Hyderabad based firm that had to shut down a division due to conflict with compliance. The HR team worked like a college placement team, reaching out to other firms and their contacts to ensure a smooth transition to all the employees of that division. Such a gracious gesture to ensure that no one suffered. Another recent case of a firm came into light where the entire management and employees took a leave without pay for certain days so that the pain was shared by everyone rather than laying off some people.
Planning for growth can be done in multiple ways. We can start our own division. An outsourcing partner can be identified. There can be a Build-Operate-Transfer agreement with a JV partner. A smaller company with the necessary capabilities can be acquired. Direct hiring is only one of the ways to grow. While that may offer larger margins, that will also bring in the risk of uncertainty.
Coming back to the managerial dilemma, the constant challenge for the managers is to ensure profitable utilization of people. Most of the project plans discuss the risk of non-availability of skills and people. Nobody discusses dealing with excess or redundant workforce. A fundamental failure of risk management, not being able to identify a significant possibility as a risk. This must be addressed in planning. What if the client walks away? What if the project fails? What if the customer shifts to a modern technology? What would we do with the current team then? Can we do something better than letting them go?
Management is walking on the razor’s edge. Any decision we take may hurt someone. Acknowledging this is the first step. Making a policy to never fire anyone would be a great decision and indicates the strength of the management – moral, ethical, and strategic. They know their business and how to manage any eventuality.
Second important aspect is owning failures and dealing with the failures of subordinates. Another major hidden challenge of managers and why they get paid more than workers. They need to own mistakes made by their subordinates. This is where the challenge of delegation and empowerment come in. This is why they are difficult and need a lot of courage.
When these two aspects are in place for any business, that business will grow and thrive as the employees know that their managers got their back. They would be willing to go above and beyond. An effective manager and leader will not feel sorry but prepares himself for any eventuality. Cautious steps are OK. Sometime a leap of faith would be necessary. At that point, managers should ensure that they can manage any eventualities.
Empathy for people is an essential managerial and leadership trait. However, it should not make a manager weak like Arjuna, despite his own capabilities. He should be willing to fight when required and respond to outputs to ensure outcomes eventually.
About the Author
Flt. Lt. Sridhar is a Startup Ecosystem Builder, Keynote Speaker, Author, Researcher, and Entrepreneur. Sridhar’s mission is to help Entrepreneurs and startups achieve incredible success through exponential growth. He brings insights and lessons from three decades of hands-on startup and business leadership experience in various verticals. Sridhar uses six different thinking processes, including systems thinking and design thinking, and helps entrepreneurs create breakthrough solutions through his unique coaching process. Sridhar launched and ran four businesses. He is a certified Startup Mentor from the Confederation of Indian Industries.