A Communiqué to the Indian Manager

The most overt quality in any Indian Manager is the omni present one of bieng a micro manager. Now I have seen a lot of Indian Managers and when i say that i actually mean it , if any person of Indian origin with the managers designation comes close to me they cannot escape from my microscopic evaluation of their managerial qualities,Ok that was streching it a bit but serioulsy this thought keeps comming to me and i cerebrate in my spare time, Especially in Bay Area i rarely see Indians with true manageral skills , and I am sure not an authority on Managerial Behaviour but lets think for a moment who is a true manager , he is the one who gets things done, delegates tasks , keeps his timelines in order and inspires a bit , has a bigger picture of the ecosystem, thats all ..

Now let me defend the Indian Manager , how can you stop a person from rolling up his sleeve and resolving an important issue when he or she knows that they can and have done it in past life , and something in them tells them to do it again without bothering about the delegation , now this keeps getting interesting and as you can see i am trying to base my theory on age the old Reductio Ad Absurdum method and prove that the true reason behind the problem of micromanagement is the journey of these people from bieng a foot soldier to becoming a general.One more factor contributing to this issue is the exertion of the first generation immigrants to substantiate their caliber although this fades with time but this quality fused with the rising through ranks makes a potent combination.


So all i am saying is that its not an Indian trait but a general human tendency of going in the trenches when you have risen up in ranks.But we cannot justify this flaw by saying that its because of the journey . Each one rises up in the corporate culture , all we have to do is retrospect each time we rise , take some points ,imbibe them in ourselves and move on.

Micromanagement is just one of the qualities which surfaces and shows up frequently in the Indian Manager , and i am sure that the Indian Manager excels in the rest of the mangerial qualities like ,Knowledge,Commitment,Discipline,Focus....

To All The Desi's - Where are We ?

I was sitting in my patio and thinking about the Desi Dream in the USA , Was it that we just followed the herd or did we plan it all the way .How many of us did know any history about the school's we came in for our Higher Education. All we cared was the I20's and the Financial Assistance ( I am writing this in general) . Whenever I heard about USA - The Land of opportunity i thought that its the freedom to do what you like is important.

BUT DO YOU THINK WE ARE REALLY FREE ? First the H1B , then the green card process , by the time you are settled in our legal status's we already have kids and start thinking about their college funds , mortgages, etc .. and the fire and passion to do what we really like is gone . So now tell me where did it all start going wrong . When I was in college for my MS , there was a student in my class , A 45 Year man worked in a Oil company for 20 years then got bored left the job and joined the Masters Program , that was my perception of "Land Of Opportunities" and not working for a employer or an organization just so that they file your green card .Sometimes I feel the complacency will get us through this , and all these thoughts will be expunged automatically .

When was the last time we took an day off from work and did what we like the most , I speak to lot of Desi's on this issue and most of them have told me that they check their e-mails at least 3 times on their holiday's ( and I mean weekdays and not weekends) , I feel guilty when i take a day off to relax and unwind , i think this attitude is in·grained in us from our childhood seeing our parents work for 20 years doing their mundane jobs without cribbing about it . I never saw my mother taking a day off and do nothing " just a day off to unwind" in all her 30 years of her carrer.

Back to square one -- to all the desi's outside India -- Where are We ?