Getting stuck in the traffic is becoming everyday incidence in most of the cities every day most of us spend at least 10 to 15 minutes standing still on the roads. Many people listen to music and rest of the people keep on stretching their necks in a futile effort to see where the jam ends. These days I am seeing various people trying to manage the traffic themselves. All hell breaks loose when the traffic signals stop working. The police try to manage the traffic personally. It is my observation that, the traffic situation worsens when traffic signals stop working and Police starts managing the traffic.
Obviously, I do not claim that Police is not doing their job well. Rather I want to put forward a theory that deals more with the difference between human psychology, machine intelligence and tough decisions. We all know that traffic signals are programmed to display Red, Orange and Green signals after predetermined time intervals. But, have you ever observed what happens when someone other than traffic signals tries to manage the traffic? I feel very thankful to those who stand in the traffic and take the effort in noisy and tense situations. But, I want to look at this commonplace situation in a different perspective.
In today’s corporate world institutions rise and fall with decisions. Imagine what would have happened to Apple if Steve Jobs didn’t take any tough decisions or what would have happened to Ford if the CEO’s and the leaders were not able to take tough decisions during the recession times when all automobile companies were getting waivers from the government. We all love reading biographies about successful leaders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Tata’s etc. We can conclude from their biographies with certainty that, whenever they faced a challenging situation they did not make any excuse while taking any tough decisions, even if it meant some collateral damage or hardships. All such decisions are now part of corporate history written as success stories because those tough decisions were right decisions.
History doesn’t happen just like that in thin air. Whenever a true leader faces a tough situation, he stands ground, never compromises on the ethics, leads by example and shows courage to take tough decisions which are right for the team. A team always support such a leader and will try its best to give its best. Together they take the institution achieve which seemed unachievable earlier. That’s how history is made!
My theory is that the situation gets messy because, the human mind is not planned naturally to take tough decisions. The traffic signals, show red and green lights only when the calculated time span is spent. The traffic signals will stop the cars from moving without thinking even once how long the queue goes behind the stopped cars. We usually don’t see this happening when someone is there handling the traffic situation. Have you ever thought why? He/she will let all the cars move across the square till the road gets deserted. Anyone will feel good if he/she is in the flowing road but what about the roads. Till the time Police waits for the last vehicle in the cluster moves across, a big queue appears on the other road. The simple answer is sympathy.The Human standing on the street takes his/her decisions based on sympathy, which is one of the basic human emotions. The traffic signals are successful and efficient ways to handle the traffic because, they take tough and fare decisions. These are reasons everyone follows traffic signals (except a few!) and usually, we don’t get traffic jams when the traffic signals are working.
Now, think about the person in charge of taking the decisions, simply the leader. Just like the traffic signals or Police men/women, a leader of a team conducts the show. The fate of the team depends on the decisions a leader takes. The biggest motivation of a leader should be make sure that team gives its best all the time, keep team members motivated and lead with the example. In corporate world, a manager’s duty is to do the right thing for his/her team. Generally speaking, bad managers are bad leaders. Not all bad managers have bad judgments but, most of them lack the courage to stand up for the right thing. A good leader must always try to take the right decisions. But, sometimes the situation comes across when the right decisions are tough to take. The leader must be able to take those tough decisions. Bad managers always give excuses not to take those decisions. Which is not only a bad strategy but also it ruins the team efforts, just like what happens when traffic signals are off.
Sympathy should be shown only when the hard work misses on some luck. There can be no excuses when it comes to betterment of the team. A leader must not refrain from taking tough decisions when they are the right decisions.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions presented in this article are my personal views and opinions. None of these must be related to my employer, Autodesk in any way possible.