Management Effectiveness Thought- What Kind Of A No. 2 You Have?

And If He/She Is The Right Kind, How Do You Propose To Retain Him/Her?

The speedometer in our car will hit the other extreme but for the check on its movement exerted by an opposing force (called ‘dampening force’); A car without brakes not only crashes itself but is very unsafe to all its occupants; a spaceship without the opposing force given by retro-rockets crashes on its target instead of landing smoothly; an atomic chain reaction without check on its rate is an atomic bomb, whereas, with check, it is nuclear energy for constructive purposes; a cell without appropriate check on its growth is cancerous. Similarly an organization without appropriate check on the decisions taken by the chief, even though may achieve its target, has all the chances of crashing in the meanwhile, like the spaceship without retro-rocket.

The need for a check on the exercise of one’s authority and for an audit on one’s decisions before they are implemented, is more acute at higher echelons of the organizational hierarchy than at lower levels. This is because the check (dampening) force has to be commensurate with the motive force viz., the authority that goes with the position.

Therefore a wise No.1 will always have a resourceful, forceful No.2 with tremendous ability to convince him on other than what he wants to be done. In otherworlds he should have a No.2 around, who differs from him forcefully but constructively – primarily on what is to be done and secondarily on the means of doing it. Optimizing what is to be done is far more important than optimizing the means of achieving a sub-optimal result. Hence, we as No.1, need to have a ‘Vidhura’ ( a character in the great Indian epic “Mahabharata”) – who can be depended upon, for an unbiased advice, bearing the overall good of the organization and its customers and its future in mind and not just saying yes to what the chief wants done .

But this is easily said than done: For one thing, it is such a nice feeling to have our authority immediately obeyed and our decisions not only authenticated but appreciated – instantly. The intoxicating effect of hollow ‘yes’ men is far more than that of drinks and drugs! Secondly whereas ‘yes’ men are dime a dozen, Vidhura’s are hard to come by. And it needs far more self-confidence, wisdom, foresight, vision, guts and the rare quality of institution building in the No.1 to have such a No.2 around – and to continue to have him around! After-all, once we have the right No.2 it is so easy to listen to him with a completely open-mind – particularly on matters where, as No.1, we have already given sufficient thought and come to a decision! It is difficult for any mind to LISTEN to a No.2 when it is already biased by its own decisions: How many of us – No.1’s – can wipe our mind clean and listen to a “fellow” who differs from us, when we are, after all, No.1?

Again we No.1’s mix up a lot between personal loyalty and loyalty to our organization shown by our No.2’s. Yes, it is nice to have a person with total loyalty to us as individuals; but it is nicer to have persons with total loyalty to our organization, and via that, to us, too! No.2’s with the loyalty to only us – No.2’s who honesty feel that being loyal to us means saying yes to us at all times – have very definitely a unique place in our personal life – but far away from the far-more complex business place of today! But then it is here that we have to decide what we want our organizational space-ship to do – just to achieve its target and then crash immediately thereupon – or we want to land on the target safely.

The need for a No.2 who has the guts to say ‘no’ and convince us with why he says what he says, and comes out with a better solution than what we ourselves have, cannot be over-emphasized. We may or may not have such person in the organization: if we don’t have any left, it has a lot to do with our own style. But if we do not have some one like this around, we should have one – immediately – either from within or from without.

The problem of retention of such a No.2 depends normally on other than monetary rewards that he gets from us! The one feeling that we should have to retain such No.2’s is that the organization and we need such a No.2 more than the No.2 needs the organization and us, (though both in fact need each other). As long as he does not get punished for his ‘no’s’, and as long as a few ‘no’s’ of his are accepted/ acted upon/ acknowledged, he may continue. But there is one danger for No.1’s: Some No.2’s of the right kind may develop a feeling at times – that they are more powerful than No.1 also. That is why I said Vidhuras are very difficult to come by. In such a situation, our No.2’s decision or action would not merely harm our interests as No.1 in the organization but he organizational interests as well. As soon as such a thing happens, it is far better for No.1 to call him, have a frank chat with him, explain how his action has crossed the limit – but, in the end, forgive him and retain him rather than permit him to leave: For, after all, it is far more easy to develop a 99% Vidhura from a 90% Vidhura than to start from scratch again – from a completely unknown individual. Also the forgiving will give the necessary dempening force – check – needed by our No.2 with the potential to be the right kind, to keep himself healthy, and he will in all likelihood understand this far more than anyone else.