VOLUME X – CHAPTER 6
MEANING OF POWER
Display Power Thinking
It is said powers flows from the barrel – if your ammunition is dry. This is the power of brute force – might of the brawn.
It is also said power flows from the ballot if the people know what they should know, what they do and also know what its consequences are. This is also an area nowadays when muscle and money power play a big role.
In administration people respect or are afraid of the post. The moment you step down from the chair, you become nobody. Even a dog at the gate will show his back to you.
Position, money authority, fear- all these will not bestow real power. Then what is it and where does it lie for a Principal?
The day you become Principal think not that you are the superman or you have a ‘super vision’. Because you are expected to supervise. Power means you are responsible. Power means you have to work hard and much more than others. The moment you turn your back on this principle Madam power will forsake you.
If your position enables you to influence others and make them strike a new path, then you have power. Your ideas must have power. You should display power thinking.
Use Power – Don’t Misuse or Abuse it
If your position inflates your ego then you don’t have power. In Orissa people with come to the Principal and say “Sir, you have all the power to give admission to my child”. That is position given to kill your soul.
Power does not mean being cold and a closed person. Think of the Chola king who rendered justice to a cow.
Yes-you have power. Will you wield it or exercise it. Your power should be more felt than seen. You have power when you don’t exercise it. The Quran says- “Control your anger when you have the power to show it”.
Power is a double edged sword to be used with caution. You should control it and not vice versa. It has to be used with care and concern like the doctor using his scalpel. Handled carefully it serves you. If not it may leave you badly mauled and heavily bleeding. In the case of sages, because every time they lose their composure and curse, a big chunk of power they have accumulated through penance got drained away. Like that every time you wield your power, if gets reduced. Your image gets dented.
Authority is not power. Authority is given and hence can be taken away. The President can pardon a person condemned to death and commute it to life sentence, but the moment his tenure is over he just can’t even go to a police station and ask the inspector to release a man from the station lock-up. So authority can be taken away. If you are found to be misusing or abusing your authority, you can be asked to quit, sent out, or demoted.
But power, respect have to be earned and if it is used for helping and not harming others then it will become sustainable or retainable.
- Human Law – word first and blow next
- Divine Law – Blow first, now word next
A PGT was asked to check the notes of lessons of TGTs and Primary Teaches in his subject. In a senior TGTs note book he wrote in the margin of a page “silly”. That teacher was old enough to be his mother and much experienced. She came to the Principal showed it and wept. The Principal apologized to her on behalf of the PGT. He called him and only said “You think your designation makes you bigger than her. Her tears will not go in vain. One day you will see yourself humbled by your subordinates. Fifteen years later one of his staff [when he was Principal] showered on him with his sandals unable to bear his arrogance, harassment and humiliation.
Divine retribution in the reverse gear!
Your power lies in the hands of the people whom you serve. The day they all decide to pull their children out and put them in another school, where goes your power?
You can gain power by forgetting certain things.
That you are a know all.
That however big post your school has given, you are in no way different from the barber at the end of your road. Just like him you are also serving the society in a different vocation. That is all.
If you think you are another divine or royal to decide the destiny of your staff, one day you may be unceremoniously shown the door.
A Principal used unparliamentary words with the staff and parents, behaved arrogantly with the elders in the community, kept himself aloof from the society.
When later nemesis strikes you, and you are crying for help to save your skin and soul, all will stand aside and watch how you fend for yourself.
Integrate with society- you survive and thrive.
Alienate from the society – you get isolated and crushed.
Yesterday Sitting a Top the Elephant, Today Standing on the Road
Some Principals feel the school is theirs because they have done so much for the school. But the moment the Management finds your ways uncomfortable to them or find you have become too big for your shoes so as to bypass them, then all of a sudden the Damocles sword will come down on you.
Suddenly one afternoon the Correspondent with two other members of the Management Committee entered the Principal’s room, shocked him with a pay cheque for 3 months and asked him to hand over charge immediately to another teacher and leave the school.
When your “I” becomes too big, Providence gives it a knock, makes it into a small “i” – gives it a bend at the bottom and a dot on top to indicate God’s knock to cut you to size.
Because you are the Principal it does not mean – you are apart from the staff who have to pay obeisance to you. You are just asked to play the role of a hyphen that joins and a buckle that binds.
A Principal treated the staff as slaves – bonded labour. The more you suppress and repress the greater will be the rebound and the repercussion.
Everything is Yours but Nothing is Yours
Your life style and professional performance are not inter related. A flashy life style will lead to all sorts of suspicion. Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion. All collections, staff provident fund contributions should be remitted immediately. Payment should be made to the suppliers promptly and in full. Marks should not be fudged in the Progress Reports and Promotion Register. Admissions should be made as per norms. Familiarity with the staff must be avoided at all times.
Any transgression on these areas will invite serious consequences.
A Principal considered school property as his property. And he purchased articles for domestic use in school account Admissions and promotions were encashed. All purchases were not made without a cut. Some staff were permitted close proximity. Ad hoc appointments were made and then advertised. Contracts were given based on three lenders given by the same party.
All these aberrations in professional conduct have been unfortunately witnessed by the author during visits to schools.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Some gulp down whisky.
Some sip Champagne.
Some use power like whisky as an intoxicant.
Some show just a glimpse of power like sipping champagne.
You Get Power, When You Give It
Power comes from working with people. In managing relationships – just like the friendship between the business man and the politician. Power is not in purchasing loyalty. Power emanates from sharing emotions and feelings.
Mr. Narayanamurthy of Infosys said, “The real power of money is the power to give it away”. You power lies in your giving yourself your time, support and compassion.
Your staff must feel your power in your infectious impatience as Mukesh Ambani nicely put it.
Power lies in your patriotic edupreneurship. Your power lies in your doing more than what you are required to do and less than what you are allowed to do. Power lies in your practice sounding louder than your preaching. Power becomes visible when you are able to make a difference in other’s lives – power lies in your ability to strike a fine balance between “compassion orientation” and “competition orientation”. Power lies not in revisiting the glorious days of your past but in seizing the wonderful opportunities put before you by today, because mulling over the past is not the way to the future.
The Sheet Anchor of Your Power Base
Power lies in your 4 capitals-
Financial, Intellectual, Human and Spiritual. Of these the last is the most important and when it is served by the two ADC, Human and intellectual it becomes very potent. Financial capital should not be allowed to envelop you, cloud your intellect and block your human relations. The key to the cash chest strong room is with the bank cashier. But he does not own a paisa of it. Such shall be your attitude.
If you have developed the following six attributes to your school, power comes on a platter to you.
These are the six pile foundation of TVS Motors and its family members.
Make these 6 a part of every one’s personality in your school.
The power of Sri. Sivasailam, Chairman of Amalgamations Ltd., Chennai lies in his building strong relationships based on Trust and Transparency and Ethics. Make these words- Concepts – Principles – the sheet anchor of your power base.
Power will come seeking you
Your power lies not in following:-
The Pareto Principle – 80% of work got done by 20% people – but in getting 100% work done by each staff member.
If you become a Principal at a relatively young age, welcome it because when responsibility comes at a young age, opportunities to grow and relate are more.
You gain power when you understand and internalize the wisdom in the old adage “Pride goeth on horse-back happy and gay, but comes back on foot begging its way”.
Power comes seeking you when you personify the following 7 qualities.
- Appropriately aggressive.
- Calmness in adversity.
- Belief in yourself.
- Making the impossible possible.
- Devotion to duty.
- Hard work – Harder than everyone else around you.
- Leading by example.
In January 1960 and October 1978 when the author visited the County Public School at Lake Wood, Denver, Colarado, USA and the Myers Grove Public School at Sheffield UK, he found that those Principals took the trouble of finding out the nature of the daily work operations people engaged themselves in and also their desire for enrichment knowledge in those areas. These two Principals pooled the expertise needed to train them and provided this help after school hours in the school premises. This anticipatory approach earned those two Principals the good will or of the community and in course of time they were looked upon as leaders of the community. Love, identification, initiative, reaching out, resourcefulness- all these brought them power of leadership.
In all the schools the author had served, he had similarly anticipated and served the local community, because of which, it thought of the school as its own.
The Future Group of Kishore Biyani has become successful because it studied the needs of the immediate community it served and stocked its store with what it needed. In a predominantly Muslim area it found that they loved ornate furniture. In a middle Bangalore area its store found that they were crazy about “Ghulkand”- Rose petals soaked in honey. So that occupied a central place.
Your power lies in your uncanny anticipation of what people need and in providing it you are powerful. Power lies in your “patience’ as saint and the endurance as Camel”.
In the beginning you may be wet in your ears, but all your deficiencies will be honed with experience [If you have a real will to learn and grow and do up].
~~~~~
TRAIN the mind to dwell on the inner equipment rather than the outer attractions. Use the mind to cleanse the feelings, impulses, attitudes, tendencies and levels of consciousness. Let it not accumulate dirt from the outer world and deposit them within itself. If it is attached to work (Pravriti Marga), the consequences of work get attached to it. Unattached work is the purest; it does not encumber the mind with elation or disappointment. “I did it”, this is mine”, these are the two fangs that make the individual poisonous. Pull out the fangs, the snake can be handled and played with as a pet.- Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
