Wednesday 19 September 2018

Managing Directors and Damaging Directors

I was told that during Baba Jawara's reign, some seemingly disgruntled person nearly caught hell for saying that the Gambia had two types of high-ranking corporate officers: "Managing Directors and Damaging Directors."

Well, while I may not know the import of his pun, here's what I think, and I sketch:

The Managing Director is one who knows that the best and less expensive form of "capacity building" within an organisation is doing away with wedge issues and creating a supportive workforce, one who values truth even when uncomfortable, one who appreciates feedback, positive or otherwise, and encourages open exchange of information, so that members of staff may know a bit about each other's and therefore, versatility.

The Damaging Director on the other hand makes this difficult to accomplish, dispenses information on the pretext of it being a 'need to know,' but deep down, it's for the sole purpose of alienating those who refuse to be slavish, you know, under the guise of secrecy, when insecurity is what it usually is.
A Damaging Director would rather 'divide and rule' than 'unite and lead," and that's why they fail woefully to apathy, to a working environment where workers will come to work yes, but keep their heads down and do the bare minimum, you know, what the Mandinkas call 'dankong dorong' or 'yamarri sindo', just for the pay cheque at the end of the month.

No comments:

Post a Comment

You only get one life to live...

I’m sure some of you’ll remember my bashing of those kids who fervently trust that “you only live once” (YOLO), mostly to feed their desire ...