Managers as Friends?

I believe title already sounds pretty weird but I would still like to provoke this idea. Have you ever become friends with your manager? Does it really work out or you feel that it can never happen. A manager will always remain a manager and even if he was one of your very close friends, after becoming your manager would totally change. The way he communicates with you would change significantly and the types of jokes he used to like being a friend would become very annoying to him now.
All this story said is to provide the fact that its practically possible to have a friendly manager but not to have a managerially friend. Because the role two are playing does not go with the friendship role. In friendship both the parties are at a negotiable position but as a manager subordinate its not like that. So after one getting the promotion leave other friends. Sad but true.

Silent Meetings

Have you ever heard of silent meetings? May be not, I just made this name up. But many times it happens that only one person is speaking and presenting in a meeting and not even single person is asking any questions or giving and comments. Why does this happen? I was discussing this with my manager after when he got done with one of such 'Silent Meeting'. He was like I guess silence is good, meaning not many people objected about anything we said and nobody had any question as well. So may be we are on top of everything. Or on the other hand, the people listening have no clue what we are talking about and they have too many even basic questions about the meeting that they fear presenting it to the speaker making him or her uncomfortable. So I say people, be interactive if you really want to get something out of a meeting or a conversation. Else there will be no use of such meetings

Gender Communication Differences

It is obvious to all that men and women tend to act and react in different ways. Also, their way of perceiving a situation greatly varies from each other. This difference is also found in the way both sexes choose to communicate. It is common observation that women tend to talk more than men, they can go on and on while men ten to jump from on topic to another. There are certain stereotypes regarding the communication styles of both sexes. It is a common belief that women are more responsive and expressive emotionally while men tend to control and hide their emotions. Women are said to be emotionally intense while men are more subdued and stoic.

"Stereotypes create expectations regarding emotional expression and emotional reaction. Many studies find that emotional stereotypes and the display of emotions "correspond to actual gender differences in experiencing emotion and expression."1

It is to be noted however that these stereotypes do not necessarily mean that men and women always behave like this .Their actions can vary according to the situation. Men are not always the ones who hide their emotions or are not as intense as women are supposed to be. Women can tend to be very possessive about their emotional life, It is just that the society has put these labels on men and women, the reality differs somehow.


1.source wikipedia

Foreign Accents

It’s very interesting to hear all sort of English accents at work. But how does it affect the communication process or should we ask, does it or does it not? Well my personal opinion is that it sure does. An incomprehensible accent is obviously not going to get you too far. People want to understand what they hear and sometimes too thick or too broken words aren’t the best thing you want to hear all day long. But again, some accents are very attractive and make one listen to what has been said. So I believe even though its sometime hard to take over your foreign accent but one certainly should try to blend with the local people so that speaking does not become a handicap for him.

Big Organizations/Small Organizations

I have been observing different companies with regards to their atmosphere and I have noticed a very clear difference how things work in there. The way people communicate differs, they way they dress up differs, the way they get their work done differs, and of course they way they get paid differs. Why so many difference? And if these bigger companies can do this then why not smaller companies? And if smaller companies cant afford it then how to come up with something that would give the employees of smaller companies at least the look and feel of working in a respectful company.

Degrees of Change: First Order & Second Order

Its normal for all the organization to have first order changes. We see people getting hired and fired every day. But my concern is that could this first order change with reference to the organization be a second order change for an individual? I would say yes of course. I have seen people going upside down because they lost their jobs or got laid off etc. But can companies avoid these first degree changes in the organizations to save employees from going through a second degree change? No, organizations are selfish when it comes to organizational interest. All what matter to the managers is the growth curve of the company or the dollars coming into the company's account. They don't care what goes in an employee's life but just to get more out of them, they are made feel like their existence counts for the company and if they would leave company wont remain the same etc. But once validated, they easily fire people and get rid of them. I just think its plain cruelty.

Change is Good?!?!?..

We have been hearing this phrase for a long time. But even in organizational terms most people support this claim. Bigger companies take huge decisions based on this fact and try to convince themselves and their customer to embrace this so that they can welcome upcoming product, changed services, or new styles to them. Has change always been good? Not really, few of us remember when Coca Cola came up with a sweeter version, resembling Pepsi. Did everyone like it? No. Most people wanted their own Coke back. There are many other examples of bringing change in the market. But then why really do organizations and everyone emphasize on change? Because without change we can never experience what we are already missing, and there are some good possibilities that if someone has already tested a changed product, service, or in that case anything new, and recommend that, then chances are that it might really be good. Hence at industry level, most of the time changes bring to us products or services that are new but are already being tested and most probably being favored by us. So in my opinion, yes, if brought after a certain consideration and research, Change is Good.