I’m always a believer that if you trust someone enough to let him do a job for you, then let him do it in his own terms. Additional oversight is not always the solution every time there is a failure in a deletegated task.
I agree with Tyler. If you have your boss always looking over your shoulder, you become more risk-averse. You just want to avoid making mistakes. More oversight may discourage “imaginative, long-run thinking”, and promote groupthink. Generally I prefer less oversight, make people more independent rather than more accountable. “Give them a culture of internal pride”. Then,, they will be accountable to themselves. See also Ibnu Khaldun on child rearing.
The question then is when to oversee and to what extent. To this I’m reminded of Ki Hajar Dewantara’s saying: “ing ngarsa sungtulada, ing madya mangun karsa, tut wuri handayani“. Leaders should be everywhere, playing different roles in different places.
ariapn Personal
Right off the bat I have to say that I’m slightly leaning towards Democrats politically and economically, but not socially. I liked good speeches, so I rather enjoyed the presentations last night. I’ve been watching conventions since 1992. And of course the main constant speaker for the Democratic Convention since then is Bill Clinton. I have difficulty liking him personally, but I have to admit he’s a great public speaker.
Not only can he give a commanding rhetoric performance, but he also displayed extensive knowledge about his topics. Obviously he did his homeworks on those subjects before his speech. Still, he can make boring policy speeches so compelling without ignoring the substance. He did all that policy comparisons and propping Kerry in under 30 minutes with several ovations. No wonder people say he can be elected to a third term if that’s possible.
What I liked most about his speech last night is he has the confidence to be self deprecating. He used the fact that he didn’t go to Vietnam and coupled that with Bush and Cheney not going to highlight John Kerry’s career. It was very effective. I do think more people, especially in the leadership role should be more self-deprecating, be secure about who you are and your weaknesses. Knowing your weaknesses is one of your strength.
ariapn Politics, US