Radio Riyad
\nCurrent Events & the World of Islam<\/p>\n
MANAGEMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n by My Dear Listeners, Radio Riyad Current Events & the World of Islam MANAGEMENT by Ayd\u0131n Nurhan January 2004 My Dear Listeners, Our topic today is Management. One of the most expensive arts taught in the elite universities of our day. The dream of the aspiring global princes, the international meritocracy of our day. And knowing this, I will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aydinnurhan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aydinnurhan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aydinnurhan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aydinnurhan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aydinnurhan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aydinnurhan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1249,"href":"https:\/\/aydinnurhan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions\/1249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aydinnurhan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aydinnurhan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aydinnurhan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aydinnurhan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAyd\u0131n Nurhan
\nJanuary 2004<\/p>\n
\nOur topic today is Management.
\nOne of the most expensive arts taught in the elite universities of our day.
\nThe dream of the aspiring global princes, the international meritocracy
\nof our day.
\nAnd knowing this, I will not dare tell you the scientific intricacies of this art.
\nAs an administrator with legal background, or rather an old style man
\nwho has missed the opportunity to have an MBA after law school, I would
\nlike to give you a bouquet of my experiences from the 35 years in business life
\nstarting with government, international corporate business, lawyer practice,
\ndiplomacy and international political organization, as a man in hierarchy who
\nhas taken orders and given orders.
\nAs you work your way up in hierarchy throughout the years, you understand
\nyour lack of knowledge in management and tend to refer to textbooks to do your
\njob professionally. Doing so, and integrating it with your years of experience,
\nyou may pull yourself up from among the ignorant, oldstyle bosses.
\nAlso, if you are one of those lucky who work for a modern state mechanism,
\nor privileged to work in modern multinational companies where you get
\n262 Reflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\ncontinual training and refresher courses, you also improve your management
\nskills into a bright future. If not, you just squeeze in with the losers, having to
\nuse your oldstyle, instinctive, feudal methods.
\nHere, I hear you murmuring \u201cthere are famous tycoons without much
\neducation\u201d. Correct, but you know that they are exceptions, exceptional artists
\nof the business world. And their success mostly depends on their wisdom in
\nchoosing the top class business professionals of ivy league colleges for their
\nexecutive posts.
\nDear Friends,
\nIn business books, you can find various definitions of a manager. My
\ndefinition of a good manager, from my own personal experience of 35 years,
\nis that he is
\na professional who solves problems swiftly, without panic.
\nA skilled manager is someone who breaks down the problems to their
\nsmallest details, analyses them, then gathers them again harmoniously and
\nintelligibly into sound solutions.
\nSo management is an art. And not everybody can be an artist, no matter
\nhow much science and effort they employ towards it. And a pity that many a
\npeople cannot say, \u201cI am not eligible\u201d.
\nMany people do not accept their limits\u2026
\nThis mentality, leading businesses into bankruptcy, becomes especially
\ncatastrophic in civil services, leading to grave consequences for the society.
\nThe golden rule for the manager, rather for all of us is, \u201cKnow Thyself\u201d.
\nThis universal wisdom, coming through all religions, and philosophers
\nas Socrates, is in fact the key to a healthy psychology. It comes through
\nintrospection, and further, the education of the soul to know its limits, which
\nwould lead to the control of the very self, the nafs.
\nWhereas a perfect rule for good governance comes from our religion
\nIslam.
\nIn Qur\u2019an, Allah orders us to trust the job to the competent. (Ayah 4\/58).
\nAnd our Prophet PBUH, also admonishes us with similar hadiths, and warns
\nus with grave consequences if not abided by.
\nThe first handicap of incompetency is lack of self confidence, inferiority
\ncomplex, and the anxiety that comes with them. Incompetence brings with it the
\nReflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\n263
\ntendency of a slavish devotion to superiors, and to oppress the knowledgeable
\nsubordinates. An incompetent manager may also develop health problems as
\nulcers, cancer, and heart attacks.
\nUneligible managers, with the negative atmosphere they create around
\nthem, pass their ills to their subordinates and family members, knowingly or
\nunknowingly ruining their lives, sometimes even to death.
\nThis behavior which we may call incompetency syndrome may lead
\nto severe cases as paranoia where one may see his boss as an enemy, or
\nsubordinates as fatal rivals in coalition against him.
\nMany of these troubled managers seek sychopants, flatterers around
\nthem to soothe their troubled souls. And some cunning foxes which are skilled
\nin getting these types of managers in their spell, can manipulate them into
\ndisasters just by playing the yes man.
\nAs we are all human beings, we can be addicted to these cunning foxes
\nwho soothe our complexes by flattery.
\nNow, Friends,
\nLet\u2019s note some of the deficiencies with incompetent managers:
\nFirstly,
\nTheir greatest concern is failure. Hence, to make up for incompetency,
\nthey tend to entertain their superiors with a slavish devotion, at the expense of
\ntheir dignity..
\nIn parallel to this, they also worry about the competence of their
\nsubordinates as potential challengers against them. They would be afraid to get
\nopinions of powerful aides.
\nYoung professionals, in excitement and enthusiasm to serve their company
\nor state, may end up in direct confrontation with their superiors, attracting
\nsevere reaction, sometimes hitting the wrong nerve to hatred. Hence it would
\nbe proper, especially in early stages of their career, either to be tacit, or, even if
\nasked of opinion, not to be assertive, nor confronting in their counsel.
\nThirdly, in traditional business, what the ignorant bosses like are statistics
\nand data to test the knowledge of their subordinates. They, being incompetent,
\nhate ideas and counsel. So the ladder to success and promotion is memorization
\nof facts for the boss. Same is true for incompetent teachers who also resort to
\nthe ease of memorization as an education policy.
\n264 Reflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\nFourthly, the incompetent manager is elated by the quarrels among his
\nsubordinates, sometimes result of his calculated manipulations, who direct
\ntheir discontents towards each other rather than to the boss himself.
\nAnd when the employees go to the boss for mediation, this means solid
\nacceptance of the supremacy and legitimacy of the manager, hence easing his
\npains of competency. The manager gets great pleasure from this role, sees his
\nsubordinates as little souls quarreling among each other for trivialities, and in a
\nhigh spirit, complains to his wife and friends how little people are, around him,
\nthus elated with the feeling of fictive greatness.
\nAnd we may add many more ills born out of the incompetence of a
\nmanager. Yet, it is not so easy to blame them in poor contries, with barely
\nsurvival incomes in old-fashioned business practices. In such environments,
\nwhen someone is offered a managerial position, it means a few more dollars in
\nsalary, to get a little more bread back home.
\nHence, even if a person is decent enough to reject a position knowing
\nthe limits of his capacity, even if he is not power hungry, still, it would be
\nextremely difficult for him to reject the material privilages.
\nYet, the least to be expected of a manager should be honesty. He should
\nbe honest to himself, and to his environment. Then we should expect him to
\nbe just, with commonsense, one who can distinguish the most important from
\nthe important, a good listener, predictable, rational, with sense of emphaty,
\noptimist, constructive, open to novelties, creative, erudite, etc.
\nThese are what popped in my mind in an instance. And you can enhance
\nthis list with your own observations in your careers, harmonize them with your
\nexperiences, and develop your own methodologies.
\nAnd now,
\nLet us give some humble advice to our manager who has the minimum
\nqualities we seek in him.
\nSo the first duty of an manager should be to educate his assistants. Both
\nwith transferring his personal experience to them, and scientifically through
\ntraining and refreshment courses in business.
\nTo see business life as an unethical race and seeing the young assistants
\nas rivals, locking documents in drawers thinking information is power, hiding
\ninformation from colleagues, are cheap, dirty tricks. Yes, information IS power.
\nReflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\n265
\nBut that which is shared, and enriched by sharing. Monopolizing information
\nwould be the worst betrayal to job and to citizens.
\nTo memorize laws and regulations to use them as weapons against
\ncolleagues or people, or to gain power, is another sinister behavior.
\nIn short, first priority of a manager is to share information with his
\ncolleagues, and then transfer them to young generations.
\nMy dear friends,
\nNow, think of our youth, how wrongly we educate them. The day they
\ngraduate from school, they see it as a right to be millionaires, without the
\nscience, effort, risk and sweat of decades it may take. Think of the ethics they
\nsidestep for the material goods of mundane life\u2026 The cunning tricks they try
\nto play to reach peaks as quick as possible\u2026
\nThink of our education which makes our youth hate books and burn them
\non graduation day. And never to open pages again\u2026 Producing generations
\nwho are unaware of self improvement through books, choosing a life idling
\nwith friends in vanity.
\nAnd we cannot blame our youth, our very children who see from us, their
\nfathers and mothers, that our societies eliminate the worthy, and promote the
\nfoxy. It is through this \u201cnegative selection\u201d that they see their future. It is us
\nwho are breaking the hopes of our children by being bad examples, and leading
\nthem to tricky, cunning ways for success in life.
\nIn this age of technology, we do not care about the modern methods of
\nevaluating performance on duty. We avert the science of Human Resources in
\nmodern business. Why are we so?
\nIn fact we are in such an era that all modern technologies are at our option,
\nready to be exploited. Many of us send our children to the best schools of
\nmanagement all around the world. But when it comes to the application of
\nmodern science into our business, our mentality rejects the logical methods.
\nWhy so? Is it our civilization to blame? Certainly not.
\nToday, as against the wrong belief of the many old style competitors,
\nthose who base success on race and rivalry with peers, modern success is not
\nbased on rivalry with peers. In our postmodern 21st Century, success depends
\non our race with our greatest rival, which is ourselves.
\n266 Reflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\nYes, I can feel you remembering a tenet of our noble religion here… The
\nGreat Jihad. And now, the Great Jihad against the self is what the global
\nsociety came to realize for success in business, in family, in sports, and you
\nname more. Now the world is talking of self-improvement. Libraries are
\nfull of such recipes, so-called New Age books. Now, we have to surpass our
\nownselves, perpetually, never fatiguing.
\n21st Century will not give chance to ones who do not perpetually update
\nthemselves. Static ones, ones who are not changing, creating and renovating
\nshall be left behind, and collapse.
\nLook around yourselves..
\nSee people who walk with grave pride,
\nWho pose serious, but in talent, trivial.
\nWho pose as indispensable, but worthless..
\nThousands of them..
\nThere are some, who give honour to their office, raise its esteem.
\nAnd there are some who get honour from the office,
\nexploit it and defame it.
\nThere are managers who see business as an unethical contest among
\npeers..
\nwealth..
\nChasing prominence and fame, they climb the ladders of power and
\nAs a side-product, their company or people may also gain some trifle…
\nAnd there are managers who work for their people or company,
\ntheir people and company prosper,
\nand if recognized by chance, they may also get a nod of approval,
\nand that is all the prize to make them merry.
\nThere are managers whose priority is the satisfaction of the boss..
\nAnd there are managers who aspire to protect the needy and the oppressed,
\nand work to earn the warm affection of their people to their beloved state.
\nA good manager builds a bridge between theory and practice. As he
\nfunctions, questions arise in his brain, then he goes and refers to books, and
\ncomes back with sound solutions. Then from experience and applications, he
\nReflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\n267
\ncreates his own theories. And this enlightened circle is the mother of innovation,
\nwhich in the finale, may evolve into a doctrine.
\nManagement in fact, is to rise to see the forest from counting individual
\ntrees. Yes, when needed, nuances, the smallest details, are vital. As the saying
\ngoes, the devil is in details. But a manager spending a lifetime in details,
\nloses his vision. A good manager is the one who delegates authority and
\nresponsibility to his subordinates in a balanced way, and who does not interfere
\nexcept in extraordinary cases.
\nA good manager asks facts and details from young experts, and opinion
\nfrom senior aides. To expect senior aides to master the minor details of the files
\nof the departments is either not realistic, or not good-willed.
\nThe best capital for a good manager is to have experts who know better
\nthan himself. As you may remember, the question posed to Bill Gates, as if he
\nfelt inferiority complex working among the genius brains of the world, and he
\nhas replied that it was for their genius that he was paying them.
\nIn modern management, bosses pay millions of dollars to consultants to
\ncriticise themselves and their companies. Still yet, as humans, they get upset with
\nthe constructive critique of their brightest subordinates. This is human vanity.
\nAnyway,
\nNow let\u2019s look into the manager\u2019s talent in guiding his team. The first
\nthings he needs are sincerety, honesty and justice.
\nThese are the essentials of convincing a team to harmony and success.
\nAnd convincing cannot come through a one way monologue. Hence a good
\nmanager knows how to listen. Moreover, he knows how to make his team feel
\neasy, and speak their mind out to him.
\nThe manager should be wise enough to ask intelligent and learned
\nquestions to pull creative ideas from mouths. He should make his assistants
\nfeel that he listens with full attention and respects their ideas. He does not cut
\ntheir words, rather, in the case with inexperienced young officials who cannot
\ncompile their ideas in a sensible way, helps ease their anxiety.
\nA wise manager, trying to gain insight into his business, can get the best
\nintelligence at informal social occasions, from the very hearts of the human
\nbeings, speaking their subconscious sincerely, at an eased atmosphere.
\n268 Reflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\nBy sincerity, he also convinces every member of his team that they have
\na part in the final decision, and feel the pride for it. And making sure that the
\nteam has understood and acknowledged by heart the mission, applies it with
\nfull spirit and resolution, without faltering.
\nYet if, for a zealous manager, priority is to satisfy his superiors, then
\nentertaining clients, subordinates or citizens is secondary in his aspiration to
\npower. He knows by instinct that if he gives priority to humans at his door,
\nhe cannot rise. For him, clients and subordinates do not seem as humans, but
\nspiritless letters and numbers as mathematic problems on paper.
\nAnd it is a pity that in underdeveloped countries, the human resource
\nevaluation system assesses subservience to the boss rather than treating clients
\nor the citizens.
\nMy Dear Listeners,
\nYou may remember that we said, a good manager was a good listener. A
\ngood listener means an enthusiast for learning, yearning for new knowledge.
\nBut what we see around, is that when somebody accidentally becomes
\na manager, he thinks he now became the wisest man of the world, that his
\ncolleagues expect him to know all secrets of the universe, hence he is delighted
\nto preach them in almost every field of knowledge.
\nIn a few days, he builds such a self esteem that he evolves extraordinarily
\ninto a wise man, thinking his subordinates are all but ignorant. First thing for a
\nbad manager to lose, is the ability to listen with attention and empathy.
\nAn ignorant is someone who does not know he does not know. He does not
\ntake counsel, he rejects new knowledge. And most regretfully, after a certain
\nage, we lose our chance to learn from others. Because as we grow older, we
\nlearn to accept people as they are, not try to change their faults, we learn to be
\npolitically correct, and not gain enemies. Hence, reciprocally, we all lose the
\ngreat opprtunity of being corrected by each other, whereas it is the duty of the
\nmuslim, at any age, to be true to his brothers.
\nWe tend to think, \u201cIf this man has not learned until this age, why should
\nI be the arrogant preacher and insult him, rather than having a sweet chat and
\npass nice time with him?\u201d And mind you, this is especially the approach of
\nsubordinates to bosses at ranks of power.
\nSo, a good manager should be very sensitive against this natural
\npsychology, and try to get as much input as possible from his friends, colleagues,
\nReflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\n269
\nand subordinates, provided, not to be seen as too humble and ignorant to be
\nabused.
\nAgain, to compensate for the reluctance and reservation of the environment
\nto tell bitter truths, a mature person can take books as true friends. Books
\nare real friends in need, they teach without insulting and injuring the pride,
\nand they are good guides especially for those who reflect, and ready to get
\nlessons.
\nI think it was in Peter Drucker\u2019s book, that some brains are better on
\nreading, they can concentrate on pages, and understand better by reading, and
\nthere are some who can better concentrate in listening, and understand better
\nby listening, rather than reading. Can you imagine someone who can be none?
\nNot reading, and not listening to others either? What a poor ignorant they
\nwould make\u2026
\nIn reality, as a teacher cannot know everything, and does not have to know
\neverything, a manager, in the same logic, does not have to know everything.
\nHis subordinates may exceed him in many fields of life, and he should take it
\nwith grace. Yet, it is human weakness, and the greatest war is against the nafs,
\nthe very self, as I repeatedly remind you from our noble religion. Perhaps to
\ntame the nafs, we should put special lessons in schools as the American army
\nis doing in a technical way.
\nDear Listeners,
\nThe difference of a manager from an ordinary clerk is his ability and
\ncourage to take calculated, realistic risks. We should know that if it is written
\nfor our fate, every bad fortune may meet us some time. And a manager can
\nnever be sure that every single signature he puts on paper, no matter how much
\nhe scrutinizes, is foolproof.
\nHence, he must work with aides who have gained his trust in time. An
\natmosphere of inconfidence cannot be resourceful. A manager should never
\nexpect loyalty from the people he disrespects and oppresses, and should be on
\ncontinual alert for betrayal.
\nHe should always keep in mind that his aides are his best supports. If he
\ndoes not respect them, hurts their pride especially in front of their subordinates,
\nthen the junior staff promptly get the message and start disrespecting the second
\nman. Then the skeleton of hierarchy, the vertical order of command collapses.
\n270 Reflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\nHonor and pride are still sacred values for humans. Attack on these values
\ncause irreparable damage in the souls, and bring eternal hatred. A manager
\nwho does not want enemies, should be careful in attacking the pride of his
\nassistants.
\nPraise may be open, public, but rebuke should be strictly confidential,
\npersonal. A manager should always have emphaty with his subordinates and
\nsay, \u201cHow would I feel if my wife, children, or parents watch my boss
\nscolding me?\u201d
\nEspecially young employees, to have audience with their bosses, get very
\nanxious, and some try to memorize all their files against the possibility of not
\nbeing able to answer questions. A wise manager who cares for the education of
\nhis young staff, eases their tension, and cares not to damage the personality of
\nprospective bright leaders.
\nA boss should act as a fatherlike figure to his young assistants, knowing
\nthat if a father oppresses and kills the willpower of his children, they become
\nweak personalities in life, preys for strong characters raised by wise fathers. the
\nA manager with self confidence, shows affection to personal and professional
\nproblems of his staff, and where needed, protects their well earned rights even
\nin cases of dispute with higher echelons of power.
\nHe does not ask the reasons for permissions, not to force the employees
\ninto dishonesty and telling lies. In modern business, it is very proper to cut
\nsalary for short leaves. But a good manager is the one who has not lost his
\nhuman side, and knows the human moments of support, without thinking of the
\nmechanical business laws of modernity.
\nThe first and foremost right of the employee, is his salary. So his salary
\nshould be paid before the sweat dries on his forehead. A manager who makes
\nhis employee beg for his honestly earned salary, is an evil. This behavior has
\nno place either in religious, or secular ethics. One who does not respect human
\ndignity, has no right to expect honesty from his counterparts.
\nOne who does favouritism to his flatterers, go for nepotism, divide the
\nworkers as manager\u2019s spy, assistant\u2019s man, superintendant\u2019s boy, and chooses
\nthe policy of divide et impera, cannot get efficiency in such evil atmosphere.
\nIn private business, this is a sure way to bankruptcy. For civil service, it is an
\noppression, and again a sure way to earn hatred of workers and discontented
\npeople against the state, but many a case, a manager does not get any punishment
\nfor such devilish conduct leading to betrayal of fatherland.
\nReflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\n271
\nYes my dear friends,
\nAs you see, I am sprinkling my experiences unsystematically, randomly, as
\nmachine gun fire, what I lived personally in different levels of hierarchy, what I
\nsaw around me, what I have witnessed with friends and business environments
\nthrough my 35 years in business life.
\nJotting down your experiences, memoirs, perhaps one day, you may
\nalso write your own practical experiences as a little booklet, if not for big
\naudiences, at least for your own children who, if wise enough to learn the
\nlessons, would not have to live the same hardships in life, gaining perhaps 30
\nyears of experience at a very early age.
\nCan you start tonight, before you go to bed?
\nMy Dear Listeners,
\nwe can say that a manager should be consciencious and sound.
\nA desk clerk, is conservative in nature. With his marginal skills and his
\nmarginal budget, he is scared of change and instability. So he rejects change.
\nSo a modern manager seeking continual improvement and change, has to make
\na psychological preparation with his workers before launching a novelty in
\nbusiness.
\nAnd in this process, he may have to be ruthless too.
\nAgainst Bad Intention.
\nWorkers are not uniform in capacity. Allah has given different skills to
\nevery person. A lowly talented, but sincere, hardworker is much higher in
\nvalue than a highly skilled, but lazy and evil character.
\nPerhaps, here we can make a slogan:
\nDon\u2019t load a little donkey too much weight,
\nLoad a mule, as much as he can carry.
\nPay them justly,
\nDo not torture your workers overstressing them.
\nDo not ridicule your good-willed worker for low capacity.
\nHumility should be your guide, for one day you may lose your intellectual
\nor physical capacity too. Or your children\u2026 They too, may be mentally or
\nphysically retarded. Always remember Allah when ridiculing the weak.
\n272 Reflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\nYet..
\nCut out the cancerous, devilish spirits from your team.
\nSo the cancer would not spread around.
\nDo not be afraid to cut their bread-money.
\nIf you fire them, another hungry mouth is waiting to take over anyway.
\nIf they do not care about the bread of their children,
\nIt is their own responsibility.
\nYour duty is just to warn them once.
\nWhen grading performance, think wide. There are good bosses, and
\nthere are bad bosses. And there are good workers, and there are bad workers.
\nSometimes bad workers are lucky to work for good bosses, and get undeserved
\ngrades, whereas good workers are unlucky to work for bad bosses. Hence, a
\ngood manager should think of the future of his worker and assess him after
\ncomparative evaluation with relative departments.
\nAn experienced manager does not give full score to his employees in
\nthe first year. Because a sudden and big drop the next year would bring in the
\nquestion of his consistency in grading.
\nBe very careful about sensitive characters, especially with female workers.
\nThey break very easily, even your cold look may send them to hospital with
\nulcers, or heart attacks. Be afraid of hurting humans. This fear is a sign that
\ncompassion has not died, and is still warm in your heart.
\nAs you leave your office, say a few sweet words to your office boy, he
\ngoes home jolly, spreading positive energy to his wife and children, and you
\nhave made a home paradise that night.
\nAs a young manager joins a new office, some subordinates may try to test
\nhis youth and inexperience. Foreman may test a new engineer, sergeant may
\ntest a new lieutenant. Be patient, take it with grace, do not forget that life is
\na continual school. Respect the elderly experts who have given a lifetime to
\nbusiness, do not scold them. Yet, do not let them ridicule you, keep the magical
\ndistance in between.
\nEspecially if you are a freshly appointed manager, speak little. Do not
\ncrave to prove yourself to your employees, do not go into self praising. Let
\nthem weigh you by what you do. Self praising in front of a subordinate sends a
\nmessage of insecurity, and an appeal for approval and legitimacy.
\nReflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\n273
\nYet, it is not a shame to ask subordinates for knowledge. You can never
\ngain insight by searching data in books. You have your aides to give you their
\nexperience and knowledge. You are trained as an orchestra conductor. Your job
\nis to lead and keep the tunes in harmony. And to do this, you need legitimacy
\nin hearts and minds.
\nA good manager seeks efficiency through harmony. He puts realistic goals,
\nand works with small, committed, competent teams. He starts harmony with
\nthe selection of new team members. He lets his team members choose their
\ncolleague. He cares for the chemistry among the natures of team members.
\nHe applies constructive, positive pressure on team members, feeds them
\nwith perpetual objective, never let them idle into indolance and corruption.
\nManagement is a science and an art,
\noscillating between democracy and despotism,
\nnever one of them,
\nbut approaching one when circumstances call for.
\nBut, even in extreme moments, a manager does not have the luxury of
\nbeing brutal and cruel. Politeness and decent distance always brings in respect.
\nCruelty calls cruelty and despise.
\nA good manager thinks much and decides once. Once deciding, he stands
\nbehind it, does not falter changing views every day. Especially people who
\ncan easily be influenced by others, never make good managers and decision-
\nmakers. And nobody takes them seriously.
\nIf a manager shall speak bad, or act bad, he should swallow his word, and
\nreflect for 24 hours. This golden rule of military, protects a manager from vital
\nwrongdoings in extreme emotional moments.
\nAgain a golden rule from the military, the defects and deficiencies in a
\nnew environment offend the eye just for the first week in office. If the manager
\nfixes them then, he is a good manager. After one week, he will get used to
\nthem, and will not be annoyed by them anymore. And the deficiencies may
\nhave to wait years for a new manager to fix them.
\nDear listeners,
\nSuccess in business life also depends on proficiency. The delay and
\nindecisiveness of an officer creates a lot of harm and loss in business life. As
\n274 Reflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\nexperienced officers know best, among the incoming documents, the first to be
\nfinished are the easiest ones. But if the official does not know what to do, then
\ndocuments get delayed, then pass to lower part of the stack, and perhaps, after
\nsome long procrastination, with fear of punishment from the boss, documents
\nmay get destroyed and find the waste basket.
\nHere, we may safely say that procrastination mainly arises out of
\nignorance, inexperience and indecisiveness, not knowing what to do, and how
\nto do, rather than laziness. Here again come the necessity of lifetime training.
\nPerhaps a civil servant does not mean harm to people, but his lack of
\nefficiency harms his performance. But he gets his legitimacy not from the
\nlaws, but from the public conscience. So, even if he is incapacitated, he should
\nbe good-willed. A soul who can not make thrones in hearts, becomes ugly. And
\nugly souls do ugly things.
\nAnd the teaching of our religion:
\nDon\u2019t make harder, make easier!
\nAny better guide to a civil servant?
\nYes my dear listeners,
\nLet us finish this week\u2019s chat with the following yardstick:
\nThe best indication of the civilization and family quality of a manager are,
\nCleanliness of the toilets in his workplace, and
\nPrompt answering of the telephones in his business.
\nAny person who cannot secure these, should not ever dream of being
\nmanagers.
\nAnd I would like to finish our talk by asking the question..
\nListening to me, did you say \u201cThis is exactly what I see in life!\u201d? If so, I
\nwas successful. Because this is the aspiration of a journalist, or any columnist,
\nbecause our main duty is to reflect real lives, problems and aspirations of our
\npeople.
\nWish you a lucky and wise business life dear friends.
\nReflections of a Turkish Ambassador
\n275<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"