Humans, unlike the invertebrate animals, like snakes, milli-peds,reptiles, etc, are blessed ,to be vertebrates. Nature has constructed man with a spine, to stand erect and tall. The spine gives to the human body a solid structure and support. The spine allows for the flexibility of the body to move, bend, walk and turn, without inflicting any discomfort or pain. The spine comes in as a canopy of protection to the critical spinal cord, which is a funnel of nerves of various colours, connected to the brain, giving man complete control over the movement of the body. The spine houses the connectivity of the different parts of the body’s musculoskeletal system. The Spine , hence is critical for a human to stand on its feet. No, human, must therefore crawl nor in contrast , they are meant to act as impotent Bulls. The spine’s connection to Brain gives us the ability to communicate our feelings to the motor nerves, which can be as far and wide, starting from courage to timidity of behaviour.
By adopting behaviour contrary to the natural blessing, humans learn to crawl in very quick time. These are elements who succumb to the powerful managers and are essentially weak and purposeless individuals. They are devoid of determination. They lack the guts to take decisions. Essentially they are Nambi-bambi.
The vicious and vile leader will invariably select for his team the faint hearted, timid, weak kneed, lily-livered, who are a perfect reflection of being spineless jellies. A team of the invertebrates who are gutless and cowardly. Such leadership prizes itself to collect and persist with a shipload of a custron.
The demand of any enlightened leader/supervisor would have to be to surround himself, with persons who would assist in the discharge of responsibilities by making available to him/her with their sound counsel and advice. The objective in having a team is to make sure that work is done in accordance with what is generally acceptable as a standard practice. The laws, regulations, rules, norms and procedures are to be respected as the primary source of direction for undertaking any tasks. The temptation not to short circuit the acceptable processes is amongst the many good advices a team member ought to make available to the manager. This is extremely important where the manager/leader has streaks of adventurism, by assuming risks, where the entity could be put to major peril of ending up with losses.
The ability to change the ‘decision’ or ‘viewpoint’ of a leader by the followers requires tact and courage. If the gauntlet is of challenge is put across by way of courage, it is likely to provoke a negative reaction from the leader. This is so essentially true, where the leader, is obsessed with the misbelief that he, ‘knows all’ - an embodiment and picture of being , a , ‘Mr know all’. The decisions , hence, taken, aren’t meant to be rolled back. To have courage to speak or express a dissenting view demands of the person who chooses to does so , that there is within him/ her, the needed skill and sound knowledge about the matter at hand. Courage requires confidence , which is a consequence of knowing what is right?
On the contrary if the dissent is expressed tactfully, it is likely to be accepted. The expression of a differing point of view will be valid with the leader if it is not portrayed or made to feel, that the voicing of the dissent is not meant to puncture their overblown egos. If the dissent is self serving then even a courageous posturing would not help. Actually, opinion that benefits the advisor would be a clear cut case of duplicitous expediency.
The culture tells us, about the corporate in specific terms and in general terms too for the entire business world , that teams are encouraged, to be either subservient or be bold and courageous. Each organisation will be difficult and different. The culture can be one of promoting dissent via a different method, where the quality of each kind of argument will remain within the domain of being non combative and cooperative. If courage is without conviction of ‘truth and fairness’ , that would tantamount to convenient stratagem. Courage conquers all before it and timidity surrenders all before it. Courage when combined with wisdom would make for close friends. Regrettably, the twains do not meet, very frequently.
In many instances , it is not about the team being spineless, it is actually the leader, with a narrow mind set that demands and appreciates, for having to supervise a spineless team. Being corporate despots such leaders cannot take a view which could be different from their own. Dissent, and its acceptance, requires the presence of great moral courage in the leader.
If we look around the crop of current political leadership of some leading (misbelief though, that they are the most popular) political parties ; we will find the ‘inheritors’ dictating policy to the stalwarts of the party… And these ‘young guns’ (?) are half their ages, and who would have in the past referred to these senior leaders, as ‘uncles or Grandpa or Grandma’ --they (older leadership) appear subservient and submissive -- hence, here is a perfect case of both being spineless, that is the Leader and the Team. Sometimes even the uncles cannot stand up to their nieces! And these nieces and a few nephews too, take them on publicly to ridicule and to convey to these hapless leaders, “my parentage gives me right to do so”.
Spineless do not confront. They surrender. They never reason or rhyme. They blindly accept the diktats of the supervisor -- no rationalisation is required by them to carry out even injudicious orders too, including the most silliest of them. Sycophancy and spinelessness are siamese twins. Whilst In operation they operate like close cousins. Spineless sometimes are also cowards; they harbour negative sentiments within, whilst sporting a smiling and positive face. They are the ones who take on a lion when he is absent while they fear a mouse present.
Shared timidity and cowardice gels the weak together, who in unity as well, have no courage to stand up for their views, rights or opinions. Agreement and submission are not synonymous, either in meaning or usage. Being in agreement with the manager/supervisor by way of stifling inner views, is not in many manner an agreement; it is unalloyed subservience and abject surrender to the corporate emperor. The readiness to challenge the status quo is the beginning of corporate valour. ‘Boldness be my friend! Arm me, audacity’ (Shakespeare). Individuals forget that they can derive for themselves greater respect by standing on their feet rather than by kneeling before others. To live upon the feet is honourable than to be on the crutches of the knees. Those who will rise to the demand of finding newer ways of conducting business, with confidence will not be ready to submit to a corporate dictator.
In the constitution of any team, the effort of the organiser is invariably to have members, who will function, with no sense of fear or favour. That they would speak their mind; and will not hesitate to stand up and be counted with their presence or opinion.
If managers surround themselves with less than intelligent colleagues, they must know that they are writing their own tombstone, much in advance to the actual happening of the eventuality. If managers are driven by a control freak attitude, they would desire, the most timid and docile juniors to be part of their team. The expectation here would be to capsize to whatever is thrown at them. Having an opinion would be considered rebellious by leaders who desire that their followers must remain mentally subjugated to their and only their view.
A spineless team is essentially an assurance to the leader, of what kind of fate or end, he or she, is likely to meet. The type of leader who seeks no opinion and has only sycophants surrounding the ‘Chair’, will beget for himself, only “failure” -- they are jaywalkers in the corporate and business life. Rudderless and directionless, with a ship load of yes men, the captain (corporate leader) assures of either hitting an iceberg or will have the vessel to list and awash itself the shores of failure. Those who wish to climb the corporate ladder need to straighten their spine and put it to good use, failing which the leader and the team will remain as boneless wonders!
The writer is a senior banker and a freelance columnist