Thursday, 08 January 2009

In one of my recent interviews the candidate said “The Spirit of an organisation is created from the top and I evaluate the Character of the CEO and top management when considering a job offer” truly it is well said when we all look at our Chairman.

Obviously it is difficult to know about the Character of an individual in the short span of interview time and so the people who are targeted to be employed do a reference check on us as we do on them at times through their past employees. Didn’t realize that we are being constantly assessed by someone or the other at all times !!

I was compelled to read ‘Character’ in a management book and the text said “It is character through which leadership is exercised; it is character that sets the example and is imitated. Character is not something one can fool people about. The people with whom a person works, especially subordinates, know in a few weeks whether he or she has integrity or not. They may forgive a person for a great deal of incompetence, ignorance, insecurity or bad manners. But they will not forgive a lack of integrity in that person nor will they forgive high management for choosing him..!!”

Furthermore, on the “SPIRIT of an organization” the dictionary says “If an organization is great in spirit, it is because the spirit of its top management is great. If it decays it does so because the top rots, as the proverb has it “Trees die from the top !!”

Moral of the interview for me and all of us is – No one should ever be appointed to a senior position unless top management is willing to have his or her character serve as the model for subordinates.

And lastly it will be favour to me if you all be my well wisher and caution me when you see me rotting !! (it is not just a statement, it is my earnest request.)

Even as you ponder over the weekend on my blog I will ponder on my annual assessment and share the same with you soon. Till then wishing you a happy working day & a relatively restfull weekend. Rock on !!!!

Bye

Sanjay Mehta