S. came by and asked for help on a problem that he had to fix 'by today'. He didn't want me to help him analyze the problem. He wanted me to show him how to fix it. Seems that his boss has told him that he expected a fix in 24 hours. So S. is totally not thinking about the problem, but about the result.
Manager dropped by soon after and asked whether I was working on the showstopper problem. When I started to tell him what I was doing about it, he cut me off and told me that we need to solve all the problems by 22 Apr. That is 2 f@#$^%$ weeks off!
I think that most managers are an afraidy-goose lot - because they don't know what happens day-to-day (It's so clear from the way their eyes get glassy and aloof when you tell them what you are trying). Since they cannot understand what the employee is saying, they switch off and talk about their requirement, which is oviously the result, i.e. fix of the problem.
Was reminded of the words of HCL's new President (he started yesterday). and mentioned that Results was one of his top 3 priorities. Action and Passion being other 2. A. and P. are useless without Results, he said. Is that because action and passion are not easily measured?
There seems to be enough pressure against following the Bhagvad Gita tenet - Put your efforts, do not worry about the results. At last some inspiration to follow it!! :)
1 comment:
'because they don't know what happens day-to-day' - I guess this happens only with the managers with no/lesser technical background(i.e the MBA's). Normally Techies-turned-Managers are 'been there done that' types...and they don't take any bluffs or sh*t ;)
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