Objective self-examination is challenging under normal circumstances but it can be even more challenging when you are in a position of power. Power can be warmly seductive. It can romance your higher mind, weakening your power of reason and leaving you blind and stupid. Power can lead you to believe that you are better than you are. Often you see yourself as perfect and in that state of mind, you see self-examination as unnecessary. You become an addict to power and you are not even aware. I once sought to empower some emotionally battered employees of an organisation, when I was "put in my place" by the management for stirring up strife. In this organisation, like in many other organisations, employees are expected to be voiceless, docile and compliant robots, doing exactly as they are told. Questioning the "wisdom" of management is shunned upon and seen as insubordination and rudeness. Apparently I "interfered" when I sought to help the employees to find their voice.
So I no longer "interfere" in that organisation and the unhappy status quo continues to prevail–management is joyfully oblivious of the emotional pain they inflict on their employees and the employees continue to be disgruntled and low in spirit. All I can do is to silently grieve. The underlying problem here is the failure of those in management to objectively look at themselves and to recognise that they are the ones at fault. Those who wield power often find it easier to blame others, especially the more junior employees, for the shortcomings of the organisation. Junior employees are often subjected to numerous but questionable initiatives dreamed up by HR to address problems that are not of their making. Self-importance, insecurity and inflated egos get in the way of objective self-assessment by the management. Intimidation and fear become the tools of managerial control, although those in management will openly deny that this is so.
Self-delusion becomes the norm and lying becomes a habit. Employees are demotivated and the organisation underperforms. I first encountered the phrase "fish smells from the head" while living in South Africa when it came to my attention as a Spanish saying. Some years later while attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in December of 2003 in Abuja, Nigeria, the secretary general of that august body, in his opening address, made reference to the wise Nigerian saying, "fish smells from the head." Later it was brought to my attention during one of my workshops in T&T that there is an old Tobago saying–"fish rots from the head." I have since learnt that the saying and variations thereof is common in Vietnam, Turkey and in many other countries around the world. The real wisdom in the saying does not lie in the state of decomposition of the fish, but in the putrid state of our homes and organisations and the likely source of the putridity is among those who wield power–parents in our homes and managers in our organisations.
The saying and variations thereof point to the poor leadership of our homes and institutions as the main reason for the prevailing putrid cultures. Hence, it tells us that when our homes and organisations are dysfunctional that the best place to look for the source of the problem is among those who are managing. I did so in December 2007 and this is what I saw: "I see people who do not trust themselves... "I see people who are weak and empty–people who are not in touch with their inner selves. "I see people living in a permanent state of uncertainty and fear. "I see people who are forever victims. "I see people living an existence of heightened anxiety all their lives–fearing for their safety and material welfare. "I see the insecurity deeply embedded in a culture of inflated egos, much buffoonery, excesses, and great pretence of being normal or even superior to others.
"There is a loudness to such behaviours, resulting in a failure to hear the truth of themselves, together with a blindness to have perspective on the present and to vision the future. "These behaviours seem to provide a protective cover to hide the deep feelings of insecurity, inferiority and fear." Hence management, often with the support of its board, is the single greatest demotivating force in our organisations. It creates mechanistic rule-driven organisations in which corporate pretence is the norm and personas become synthetic. The culture of such organisations is defined by the negative energies of fear, greed, selfish- ness, prejudice, favouritism, anger and aggression. The result is workplaces that are devoid of flavour and soul. Such workplaces are without inspiration and the human spirit silently moans as it hibernates under wet blankets of negativity.
The solution lies in management waking up to their unethical and energy-sapping behaviours and making the necessary personal changes. As obvious as it may appear, behavioural change by management is one of the most diffi- cult tasks that external advisers have to confront since those who are at fault are also their paymasters. Many just go through the motions of "trying" to correct the problem without ever being truthful to management. They collect their pay and move on to the next putrid organisation. Little changes and the putridity of the organisations continue, despite significant financial outlays. In the private sector, the board may come to the rescue by recruiting new management or the organisation may simply collapse on itself. In the public sector, the public can be saddled with underperforming ministries and public institutions for decades.
In our homes, children do not have the opportunity to replace their parents and the result is that the children grow up to become an even more socially dysfunctional generation. As a parent, are you the source of rot that is taking place within your household? As a manager, are you the generator of the toxic culture that pervades your organisation? If your answer is "yes," you have opened the door to a process of self-introspection, which can lead to positive personal change and to the building of a better household and/or a better organisation. If your answer is "may be," I ask you to think again? If your answer is "no," I ask you to ask yourself another question: Am I living in a state of self-delusion?