Saturday, June 29, 2013

The top guy matters!

It is indeed true that any organization is only as good as its top guy. If the top guy is good, the organization prospers, if not it goes down or sinks depending upon how nincompoop the top guy really is. Yet it is the misfortune of the nation that in sarkari organizations cutting across sectors and services, the criterion for selection of the top guys is generally based on subjective parameters other than deliverance and human values.  

The examples of rampant manipulations invariably set by the railways in selection of its top guys invariably leave a bad taste in the mouth. Murky dealings, few cases of which have tumbled out of the cupboard by chance not by design, rampant manipulations by the outgoing top guy to choose an unworthy successor, the search for a pliable spine and the web of complex rules of selection, all together have brought the organization to such a pass that make me certain that by the time the haze clears, we would once again have a master manipulator occupying the corner room.

Yet in official forums the debate continues, endless debates by people who are not delivering where they are planted yet consider themselves fit to pass value judgement on all matters under the sun. The “Know all’s” outnumber the “do all’s” by a wide margin and therein lies the tragedy of organizations like the railways. The top guys in railways do not lead and are invariably with rare exceptions of-course, never a part of the team. The job of the top guy(s) remains confined to finding faults with their team for activities being undertaken by them on their own or under the direction of the top guy.

Never before in the history of the railways has one witnessed an outpouring of hate and venom cutting across departmental and zonal boundaries as in the case of the current outgoing chief executive. The previous guy also achieved the distinction of the worst ever only to be overtaken by the current guy who would go down as the first top guy in whose regime the railways achieved the twin distinction of going bankrupt and and also losing its image. The unfortunate part however remains that the future appears to be as hazy as earlier with meager hopes of a humane leadership emerging at the apex level.

Yet with hope we live on.

Amen! 

1 comment:

  1. It is not how high a chair one occupies but how high his thoughts soar. It is not how powerful he is but how accessible his people think he is. One who has the courage to write down whay one says and thinks. Will we ever have one like that when the guy-who-refuses-to-retire eventually goes home? Ler's keep our fingers crossed.

    A bold and thought provoking blog.

    ReplyDelete