Some No-No’s For ISKCON Management

By Kesava Krsna Dasa

We often find that those devotees who are enthusiastic and can get things done, are usually given responsibility that includes having authority over other devotees. While enthusiasm is endorsed as an essential item of devotion, enthusiasm alone does not ensure good management. Such enthusiasm has to be matched with an ability to learn people / devotee skills as well, or else our management perpetuates the same type of management we are trying to get rid of.

When unwanted types of management are perpetuated, no matter how qualified ISKCON managers might be with people skills and other necessary qualities, their attempts at trying to undo these will be difficult. There are reasons for this. We have seen the ISKCON Strategic forum enthusiastically asking for assistance from able devotees, but this needed assistance will be frustrated if these perpetuations persist.

If we do have enlightened managers wishing to implement ideals on the ground, on the department heads level and elsewhere – where the real need is – then it becomes clear that some forms of leadership training has to proceed from bottom upwards. Even so, if say, a temple president is a temperamental individual with continually bad people skills, but higher menegement tolerates his or her polarising dealings because, “Well, at least the temple president gets things done…”, then this is an example of such negative perpetuation.

Meanwhile, polarised sections of the devotee and congregation think, “This is how ISKCON management works…this is how I must manage if I ever take on responsibility…these are my seniors teaching me by example…” In time, our impressionable younger devotees replicate the same types of management, extending reasons why many people are not attracted to live in our ashramas, which are supposed to be attractive places.

Our congregational devotee members go to work often in organised, people oriented work environments. When they observe none-people ISKCON management in practice, is it any wonder why they’d be worried about their grown-up children living in these conditions, however ‘spiritual’ they are. Here are some examples of self perpetuating negative leadership:

Putting Devotees Into Austere Service Situations

Because we can count on devotees being enthusiastic, we take it for granted that they will serve in almost any condition, even if it is an austere situation. Management is meant to serve devotees by giving them facility to serve. How that facility is provided will test how management has the genuine people skill concerns for such enthusiastic devotees, or whether, with the ambition of putting their temple on the sankirtana or Food For Life recognition map, compromise devotee serving conditions instead.

For instance, let us say there is a devotee kitchen, and in this kitchen there is hardly any ventilation with no extractor to clear the air. Large gas bottles stand in the kitchen next to stoves. These give off noxious fumes. When the stoves are alight and the kitchen is crowded with enthusiastic cooks and helpers, the oxygen levels dwindle. This is not an ideal kitchen to serve in, but:

Management might think, “The devotees are enthusiastic aren’t they? They’ll serve in any condition won’t they? Just save money and minimise the costs for extractors and devotee safety (Jaya Nrsmhadeva). It can be spent on more important things… Besides, we have to get things done… We need those Sunday feasts and we have to maintain our Food For Life number of plates…how will those devotees advance of they don’t do a little austerity?”

Let us look at where managerial priorities lie in this situation – for the devotees who want to serve, or for getting things done:

1)It is likely that some ‘brave’ devotees serving in these conditions might raise some concerns about safety and so on.
2)If an accident does occur in the kitchen and devotees incur injury or there is damage to ISKCON property, this would be an offence caused by management to the injured, and to Srila Prabhupada.
3)If management does decide to improve conditions owing to an accident or by exertion of well-meaning pressure, then this would be a typical example of short-sighted Reactive management – often difficult to undo.
4)The above kitchen scenario would reveal that getting things done or being results driven, is more important than the safety and service conditions for devotees.
5)It would also reveal how management will take advantage of the enthusiasm of willing devotees to serve where priorities are misplaced.

A proactive form of management would have realised that some extra expense incurred in keeping the kitchen well ventilated and pleasant to serve in, will produce longer lasting and satisfying outcomes – devotees will more willingly serve in such conditions, making them more productive. Happier devotees can achieve more over time.

In other words, if management makes first class facilities for devotees to serve in, the results should reflect a happier situation. Why should management put devotees into austere conditions, thinking, “I went through such austerities myself… how will enthusiastic devotees progress spiritually if I don’t make conditions a little difficult for them… it won’t hurt them…”

Is it not up to the devotees themselves how hard they wish to serve, or how austere they want to be? Why should other devotees enforce that? When enthusiastic devotees realise that their authority is simply using them to further reputations, they will disassociate from such ‘caring’ leadership.

Another consideration is that by making service facilities less attractive for devotees to serve in, management is not serving those devotees as well as they could. If they were really interested in helping devotees to serve with enthusiasm, the facilities would have been better. By helping devotees improve the quality of their service is Proactive. Needless to say, such proactiveness will reflect upon others who may later take on responsibility.

Chastising A Devotee In Front Of Other Devotees

No matter how tense a situation is, or how unpredictable and unplanned the moment is, someone does something quite against the flow of things that irks a devotee in charge, that he or she will verbally ‘correct’ the offender, not caring who is present. This is one of the most embarrassing, uncomfortable situations to be, for the recipient; especially so if it is a female – and again so if something was done out of innocence, when management failed to inform of don’ts beforehand.

The presence of others help accentuate the guilt factor. “If the devotee in charge said this, it must be true…”, others may think. “How could this individual; do such a thing?… That person thinks he or she is a devotee…now I realise why he or she was acting in a strange way before… Good! This person deserves every bit of it…”

Just that one inconsiderate chastisement can cause a knock-on effect greater than the actual chastisement itself, which could have been done privately on one side. The recipient feels like a criminal or worse. Talk about chasing devotees away! What if there were some Proactive communication beforehand that discouraged everybody from doing such a thing?

Again, our impressionable youngsters and others will see this and think this is how devotees should manage. Reactive management is much easier to repeat, but the most difficult to undo, without proper training.. These habits have been ingrained over the years. We also have to consider how power and authority causes such behaviour in unqualified individuals.

From Ground Level Upwards

Our ISKCON Strategic Initiative would like to encourage Proactive forms of management. When a culture of results driven Reactive management prevails, added to the diverse nature of our devotee communities, the challenges have to be met more by education rather than implementation alone.

We have proven and established ISKCON educational facilities focusing largely on acadenics and philosophy. In order to undo perpetuating forms of negative management it might seem prudent for devotees to go to college or university to learn such skills. However, these skills will bear little fruit when applying them in volunteer –based devotee community settings.

Acknowledging the prevalence of results-driven none-people skilled management, a truly proactive approach would be to educate every devotee who has authourity over other devotees, whether as department heads, sankirtana leaders, temple commanders and the rest, to learn proper devotee / people skills, which are different operationally to paid working environmets. These practical lessons can, side-by-side with our theory of Krishna consciousness, complement each other. Such practical balance will then supplement the enthusiasm.

Enthusiast leadership without people / devotee skills can, due to offending those under authority, sap enthusiasm itself. This is another form of self-perpetuating circumstance. If we fail to address one level, we’ll end up with two-level consequences of negative perpetuation. We may have a leadership academy being phased for our future leaders, but their ideals will be hard to implement if we do not create the willingness to accept them, at ground level.

Within an institution like ISKCON, would it not profit us if we add essential practical lessons alongside our academics, specific to our needs, as many devotees will assume responsibility? If we are worried about devotee retention rates and other related problems symptomatic of unattractive institutional dealings, this could form a part of our Proactive ideal.

Ys Kesava Krsna Dasa