Manage Understanding, Not Work, Not Efforts: Leadership Lesson

There is a beautiful story called "Parable of the Oranges" by Randall Ridd, who is a second counselor in the Young Men General Presidency. I stumbled across his story recently, and it resonated very well into how managers should work through with their teams to get more harmonious performance, more engaging ways of looking at their work, and more stimulation to see how change can make a difference in their lives at work.

There was a young man, let's call him Santhosh, who had ambitions to work for a great well know organization. After a tortuous round of selection, he made it as a trainee into the organization. Then he turned his ambition to his next goal—a supervisor position that would afford him even greater prestige and more pay and perks. He worked very hard, competed for his tasks on time, delivered on every goal the numbers he was challenged with. He came in early some mornings and stayed late so the bosses would see him putting in long hours.

When in a few years a position for supervisor came up he was shocked his name was not considered and another colleague who joined just six months ago was chosen. He went up to the manager with a feeling of being a victim of the system that did not recognize his good work.

He wanted to know why he was not promoted even though he worked so hard. He felt he was a victim of the system, a victim of situational context, and receiver of the raw end of the deal.

The manager said, “I will not give you an answer but help you find one. If you don't mind, would you go to the store and buy some oranges? My wife needs them.

Santhosh agreed and went to the store. When he returned, the manager asked, “What kind of oranges did you buy?”

“I don’t know,” said Santhosh. “You just said to buy oranges, and these are oranges. Here they are.” “How much did they cost?” the manager asked.

“Well, I’m not sure,” was the reply. “You gave me 100 Rupees. I have the receipt and the exact change.

“Thank you,” said the manager. “Now, please have a seat and pay careful attention.”

Then the manager called in Mohan had received the promotion and asked him to do the same job. He readily agreed and went to the store.

When he returned, the manager asked, “What kind of oranges did you buy?”

“Well,” Mohan replied, “the store had many varieties—there were navel oranges, Valencia oranges, Nagpur Oranges, Coorg Oranges and Darjeeling Oranges... apart from many others, and I didn’t know which kind to buy. But I remembered you said your wife needed the oranges, so I called her. She said she was having a party and that she was going to make orange juice. So I asked the grocer which of all these oranges would make the best orange juice. He said the Valencia orange was full of very sweet juice, so that’s what I bought. I dropped them by your home on my way back to the office. Your wife was very pleased.”

“How much did they cost?” the boss asked.

“Well, that was another problem. I didn’t know how many to buy, so I once again called your wife and asked her how many guests she was expecting. She said 20. I asked the grocer how many oranges would be needed to make juice for 20 people, and it was a lot. So, I asked the grocer if he could give me a quantity discount, and he did! These oranges normally cost 3 Rs, but I paid only 1 Rupee. Here is your change and the receipt after I purchased 80 oranges for making the juice needed for about 20 people.”

The boss smiled and said, “Thank you; you may go now Mohan.”

He looked over to Santhosh who had been watching. The young man stood up, slumped his shoulders, and said, “I see what you mean,” as he walked dejectedly out of the office.

What was the difference between Santhosh and Mohan? They were both asked to buy oranges, and they did. You might say that Mohan went the extra mile, or one was more efficient, or one paid more attention to detail. But the most important difference had to do with real intent and substantive output that was expected. Santhosh was a man motivated by money, position, and prestige. Mohan was driven by an intense desire to please his employer and an inner commitment to be the best employee he could possibly be—and the outcome was obvious.

As leaders and managers, it is important to ensure that people like Santhosh don't feel they are victims of the system. They do so because they have not understood the context in which they play. Managers can play their part by making people understand how they want them to go where they want them. This means clarifying goals, providing some agreed approaches, and providing interim feedback.

Often we hear that people feel the performance management system does not do a good job of making people understand why they are where they are. It is all about "clarifying the nature of intent" and making people understand the difference between the "content delivered" and "intent in what is being done" the difference between what is to be delivered and how it is to be delivered.

This means that you don't need to manage the work. you need to manage the understanding, ......the value of the intent, and............ the impact it has on the outcome delivered through the work. That will ensure employees get to feel the system is fair and would make attempts to design meaning in their work lives. Create Victors ... Not Victims.