Random Thoughts on Authority

Talking of authority, I am questioning myself, who am I to talk about it. A new entrant into the vast field of Behavioural Science and Sensitivity training! But then, who am I not to talk about it. After all I have been experiencing it in many ways for more than 30 odd years.

When I was born, I exerted my power on the family, simply by being the first child in the family. Even today, I am subjected to tales of how I wielded my power over the family. They danced attendance to me, took care of my sleeping times and fed me before anyone else in the family, laughed when I laughed and cried when I cried. What kind of power and authority is this? It’s unstated and exists in every family. All babies are born with such power. The power of innocence!

This innocence gave way to manipulations and games as I grew up. I started becoming aware of the concept called authority and the tool called power. I do not claim that I understand what authority and power is all about, yet I have seen how the two can make or break a person or a system or community.

I am inclined to believe that authority is associated with decision makers and vice-a-versa. Be it family, society or professional set-up. Decision-making is based on knowledge and experience. Decision-making happens when a person is willing to take responsibility and face consequences. As a result, accountability comes with authority.

It’s interesting for me to hence, look at various aspects of authority and my behaviour in different situations.

Me in relation to authority figures: How does authority and power affect me? What is the variety of reactions that I go through? When am I comfortable with authority figures? What about authority figures puts me off? Under what circumstances do I rebel or hide from authority figures? So many questions!

Today, I often find myself comfortable in presence of authority figures. I am neither under pressure nor indifferent to authority. Persons in authority inspire me. I remember being starry eyed about one of my ex-bosses for a long time and to some extent I hero-worship him even today. He was everything I aspired to be. He was charismatic, charming, knowledgeable, passionate about his work and ambitious.

In complete contrast, I have seen leaders who are dictatorial. They are often rude when they address their followers. I have deliberately used the word followers here, as they never seem to have colleagues, peers, friends or allies. I find myself running in the opposite direction from them as fast as I can. In my experience, Fear and Disgust are two strong emotions attached to such personalities.

I am fairly free in making a point or stating my opinion in presence of authority. At the same time, I have also experienced that I tend to avoid head-on confrontation with authority. As I explore deeper, I realize that I avoid confrontation in most circumstances. It seems pointless when the other person, is not in a frame of mind to listen or even acknowledge any other point of view. And when it comes to authority figures, I give up and walk away. One may debate on this and call it escapism. However, it seems to be prudent and time and effort saving to me.

In relation to confrontation with authority I have never been through a question of how can I confront? It’s always been a case of do I want to? Whenever, it comes to protecting my own authority and power, I tend to be very alert. Then I may fight tooth and nail to save my self-respect.

Does this mean that I always walk away from confrontation? Not really, I remember instances when I have engaged in public showdowns with my bosses or teachers. It happened when I was much younger and far more passionate and rigid in my outlook to life in general. Over the years, I find myself being more tolerant of being told what to do. It takes off the pressure and I can better utilize my resources.

Me as an Authority figure: How do I exert my authority? What impact do I have on my team, peers, and family when I exert my authority? How do I ensure that my authority and power does not make my team dysfunctional? How do I ensure that, in caring for my team I do not give away my authority rendering me ineffective as a team leader? Questions again!

I am fairly authoritarian in the matters that hold me responsible for the final outcome. I take an aggressive stance in ways of operating at work. Over the years, my approach has mellowed. I tend to listen to ideas more patiently. I am a firm advocate of hands-off delegation. At times this leads to situations where we do not deliver on time. In such cases, I feel disappointed with self and often tend to feel responsible for not having seen it coming.

Co-existence is a value that I uphold and practice. It translates in the way I handle my teams. It is a tricky balance however to care for the team while ensuring high performances. Its about building self-motivated teams, empowered enough to make own decisions, within the prescribed format. I find this situation very funny, most of the times. The idea is to give as much freedom as possible to the member of the team yet I restrict them in certain boundaries of processes and authority limits. These limits are largely financial in nature and essential.

The theme of co-existence is even more tricky in the competitive world, where my peers carry the “either you or me” attitude. At such times, I sing a lonely song of “u and me”! In such cases I tend to seek different grounds to operate from.

All this is seen from my window. I wonder how it looks from the others’ window? I am increasingly becoming aware that I need to seek feedback on self from peers, subordinates and superiors.

Power dynamics in the family and social circle: For some strange reason I have always associated authority with professional set-up. As I ponder about the power dynamics in family and social set-ups, I see financial status as a measure of authority. It’s a fact that the financially strong members of the family or society tend to have more authority and power as compared to the financially challenged members. I experienced this soon after my graduation. My brother started his career with a four-figure salary and the family consulted him in every matter. I was studying at that point and my opinions had no value. But in my second year, I started training with a four-figure stipend. Lo and behold, I found myself being consulted in all matters. I think this was all about the authority and power of money. My opinions and suggestions were no different from before!

In family, authority comes with age. The senior members are supposed be authority cause they have more years over the younger ones. Never mind if the senior is clueless about the world outside since his voluntary retirement about 15 years back.

In my family, power to decide and authority to action, rests with those who have proven their competence or are perceived to have the competence to deal with that particular situation. This suits me the best.

Amongst friends, I find myself oscillating from being a complete authority on something to being a happy adventurer exploring new horizons under someone. This is one set of people where there is no power struggle, no one-upmanship and no ambiguity on authority.

I wonder how many other aspects of authority is one exposed to. There is authority of role-holders, positional power, authority of a situational leader, authority coming from knowledge and experience and so on and so forth.

In conclusion I have only one thought, it’s all in the mind! I am as much an authority as I feel and have as much power as I am willing to experience.

Tarang 2008* : Event-logue

It’s the morning after the event and I am in a state of complete euphoria! This event has been special in many ways. This was my first event at regional level. The warmth and the closeness shared by the community have left a lasting impression on me.

The morning of 28th dawned with an extra dose of excitement. I was all set and excited to go for the ISABS event. The day started with a slow pace and I found myself waiting for it to be 3pm. I was supposed to wind up my tasks for the day by 2.30pm and leave for Karjat. Amidst the routine hustle bustle of the office and last minute meetings and typical, “meet me before you go… we have important things to plan”, I was delayed and almost did not make it for the 3pm Karjat local. When my colleague pointed out that it was 2.40pm already, I panicked. I picked up my heavy backpack and dashed out of office, ignoring the questions coming my way. Thankfully Mumbai CST is just a five-minute walk from my office. The ticket window was not so crowded and I got my ticket within two minutes and boarded the train as it was crawling out of the station. As I looked out of the window, I felt like a kid going on the much-awaited holiday. The train picked up speed and so did my anxiety and anticipation.

In between a sandwich, a bit of reading, some music and mostly dozing, I finally reached Karjat. As I arrived at the resort, I saw members of the group coming in. I was happy to see the known people. There were some unknown faces as well. However, I seemed to know instinctively that we were a part of the same event.

This event was special for me as this was my first exposure to the other side of the event. This was my entry into the mysterious group of facilitators! Joining me were Sanjay and Vidyut. We were invited to join the staff meeting that evening! Amongst the various roles, I decided to volunteer for communications and Vidyut joined me. Other than that Sankar and I made up the party team. The professional members took up all the other roles voluntarily.

This event was special as we had Sankar and Bilol returning to the chapter after a long time. The chapter was that much more enriched by the presence of the senior members of the community. Bilol was energy personified through the event. As we laughed and doubled over, we wondered whether that the stop button had gone missing here! Sushma, Vignesh, Shridhar and Vikram brought in their own experience, wit and humour to the event. Joining them were Rachna and Rahul as interns. Sanjay, Vidyut and I were doing our Observation Lab.

This time, the community had about 38 participants and 11 staff members. This comprised 3 BLHPs (Basic Laboratory on Human Processes) and 1 ALHP (Advance Laboratory on Human Processes). Vikram and Rachna had teamed up for BLHP1, Sankar and Rahul with me as observer for BLHP 2, Bilol and Shridhar with Vidyut as observer and Sushma and Vignesh with Sanjay as observer for ALHP.

Day 1 started, as usual with an opening community session. Bilol, Vignesh and Vidyut welcomed the participants and set the tone for the next 5 days. We met with the members of the community, seeking our space, reflecting upon our location and feelings. Later Vikram addressed the community and groups were announced. At 11am on first day the small group work started in individual groups.

I joined my group and began “The observation”. In my professional life, I have been exposed to observation tasks and I had presumed that this was going to be a cakewalk. Little did I know that these 5 days would prove to be the most challenging ones.

Day 2 started with small group work. I had been receiving a huge amount of data and my awareness of self and group had peaked by the end of the previous evening. I overheard the participants discussing that no one had much to talk during the day and felt even more miserable that I had so much to say to the members of the group but no means of expression. I guess that’s why I had started my day with graffiti! Soon I saw the board filling up! Some of the interesting ones stayed in my mind – “Rest of your life begins now…” “I plan to live for ever or die in the attempt”, “What’s for Lunch? – Bheja Fry!” Interestingly, the last one was on third day.

Day 3 concluded with the mid-community session. Sushma, Sanjay and Vikram welcomed the community with soft music and mood lighting. Sushma’s soothing tone almost put me to sleep. I sailed through the community feeling happy that I was talking to the members of the group. The silences in my life were temporarily interrupted! The session concluded by non-verbal expressions of the values that were most alive for the groups. The group members depicted these values by making various formations. By this time the tentativeness of the first community session had dissolved. I saw some holding hands, others sitting close to each other, many talking and expressing for a long time, some groups connected in the formations they got into. The community hall seemed to be filled with emotions and expressions of all kinds.

Day 4 ushered in the most happening night for the community. Party time folks! One of the participants was a DJ and the party rocked as he belted out funkiest music for the “funky town” party. We did not get the Mr. and Ms. Funky – as none were dressed funky. Nevertheless, we did get to see funky forms of dances.

Next day’s graffiti was “Jai ho!” and “cheers!”

Day 5 brought with it the whisper of closure. All those who had bonded were wistful through the day. Others were in a hurry to experience something before they left and some were simply joyous to return home. As Vignesh, Rachna and Shridhar closed the community, we chucked away the things that we did not wish to take with us in a bucket. The group dispersed with the usual goodbyes – effervescent, teary, cheerful and wistful – all happening around me at the same time!

* (for the uninitiated this is the regional event of ISABS – Mumbai chapter. I am pursuing a professional development course in Applied Behavioural Science through ISABS – Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science)