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- Respect Your Team
More
than a quarter of a century ago, a man named Rheinhold
Messner, largely unknown outside mountaineering circles, achieved a
unique feat, unparalleled in mountain-climbing history:
he climbed Mount Everest without oxygen! (He repeated the feat again, a couple
of years later, just to drive home the point).
The great mountaineer, rather than play up his incredible achievement,
(which Chris Bonnington, another legendary Everester, says is the most
impossible of impossible things Man has ever attempted and succeeded in doing),
always says he
did nothing, just walked a bit; the real work, he says, was done by the men
who got him to the point where he could start walking. Of such stuff are great
leaders and team players made.
The word ‘respect' has Biblical connotations
of servility and submissiveness in conducive to self-development. Trust and respect go hand in hand, and to be received must be given, too. A boss who
doesn't delegate:
- Out of lack of
confidence in his subordinates' abilities,
- Who hoards information
which could benefit others,
- Who interprets his
men's' assertiveness as insubordination,
- Who criticizes instead
of giving constructive feedback
says it all about himself.
Poll yourself: do you manage with respect?
- When some one makes a
mistake, do you steer him in the right direction?
- When you want to see
your staff, do you respect their time/ availability?
- Do people disagree
with you never/ occasionally? It's significant!
- Do you treat female
colleagues on par with their male counterparts, but with a small slice of
gallant consideration for them? No ‘little jokes', innuendoes?
- If a lady boss, are all
men mere MCP's to you?
- Do you manipulate
your staff, keep them guessing, or do you discuss with them your
working plans and give them a chance to make adjustments to their own
schedules?
- Are you an Inquisitor
as far as appraisal is concerned?
- Do you keep an eye
peeled for the little things that affect your men, i.e. that leaking
cistern?
- Do you stand up for
your men in discomfort or injustice?
- Do you realize that
not meaning disrespect is not enough?
QUESTION:
1.
Why is respect a two-way process in an office? Does it automatically
flow from authority?
2.
Why is it necessary at all?
Have you ever tried to ascertain how you rate in the ‘respect polls'?
What are its basic ingredients?
