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By Kesava Krsna Dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n Some temple presidents might think that because many of our managerial problems occur at department heads\u2019 level, that they themselves are blame-free. In fact, they are to blame because they have allowed bad management to happen under their watch. It seems to be a simple solution to remove a \u2018lower-level\u2019 leader due to bad people skills, but when they do continue, it means that temple presidents and those above them also require people \/ devotee skills training.<\/p>\n Removing certain devotees from leadership roles does not solve the problem of bad self-perpetuating management repeating itself. Because Srila Prabhupada seemed to favour a hands-off, lazy intelligent approach to management, our version of that may likely be a hands-off, \u201cAsk others to do what I wouldn\u2019t like to do\u2026\u201d In other words, to do one\u2019s \u2018dirty work\u2019.<\/p>\n In these circumstances many lower-level leaders are expendable. Meanwhile, perpetuating types of management continue and everyone wonders why they do. It is a mystery with the answer being visible before us all. Our strategic aim of having happier devotees then remains some distance away. Should it not embolden us to know that this Happiness factor should particularly apply for all devotees who have volunteered their lives for Krishna? Is it so obvious?<\/p>\n The uniqueness of volunteering one\u2019s life to Krishna is so rare and special, yet it often gets reduced to the normalcy of chores and results-driven servility. Who is to blame when innocent devotees get hurt by these consequences of familiarity? Institutional ISKCON is trying to deal with these problems, because world and regional institutionalism is a recent development in Vaisnava history. Our corporatism has to be tempered, or rather, dedicated to serving devotees to help them serve Krishna \u2013 with due sensitivity.<\/p>\n If there are incremental steps by higher management for implementing needed improvements in their areas of concern, they can begin with inviting senior and experienced devotees to formulate people \/ devotee skills manuals and training for all levels of management. When mandatory training sets in motion, it will help in absorbing more idealistic forms of assistance from strategic initiatives.<\/p>\n The intention is to instil not only awareness and to build bridges between the congregation and management, but to have workable standards. However busy a temple schedule is with festivals and other programs, management should be obliged to send all their leaders for such courses. Such is the importance of this that our ISKCON will benefit. Here are some more no-no\u2019s:<\/p>\n Taking Advantage Of A Devotee\u2019s Good Will To Serve<\/p>\n In the real scheme of devotion unto the Lord, there is no such thing as any service being too menial \u2013 it is all high. However, depending on the receptive ability to carry out \u2018menial\u2019 service, a devotee willing to be humble and submissive can be asked to perform services that cause a lack of enthusiasm, or worse, to distance him or herself from service altogether. And others will probably say that that individual was not sincere anyway. Is this always true?<\/p>\n Many devotees will say that whoever wants to do some service for the temple should wash pots and clean the toilets, and this will prove how sincere they are. Is this also true in every situation? And if someone is not disposed to do such services because he or she is not yet receptive, are they really insincere? Is there a difference between volunteering to do such services, rather than be coerced into them?<\/p>\n And if the volunteer volunteers anyway to prove his or her sincerity, even though he or she might be a neuro-surgeon, an established playwright, an academic or musical conductor, would that not also reveal our severe limitations in service opportunity? If we have to have talented individuals engage in very few and narrow definitions of \u2018sincere\u2019 service, it shows how culturally immature we are.<\/p>\n If our temples offer limited service opportunities, we shall only attract certain types of individuals who fit in to these narrow ranges. And devotees often say that those who can persevere in these conditions are simple and brahminical. Is this true? The ability to expand service opportunities and to engage intelligent people according to their capacity also has to form part of leadership training.<\/p>\n There are situations where even the humility of a devotee can be exploited. A manager might think, \u201cThis devotee is so humble, he\u2019ll do anything I ask of him\u2026he won\u2019t protest, so I\u2019ll ask him to do things that I myself wouldn\u2019t want to do\u2026and I\u2019ll get the credit\u2026\u201d If any leader uses devotees to enhance their own standing, it does not belong to Vaisnava culture. Within results-driven corporatist management, these temptations are very real, and do inevitably cause fall out and hurt for others.<\/p>\n Creating A Fear Factor For Devotees<\/p>\n Some managers know they have bad people \/ devotee skills and have a polarising influence within a congregation. They also know that they get things done and authorities depend on them for this. Taking advantage of these favourable sanctions from higher up, a leader may resort to fear tactics to try and manage effectively. \u201cConform, or you\u2019re out\u2026\u201d becomes the spoken or unspoken motto. Does, \u201cPut up, or shut up\u201d sound familiar?<\/p>\n Such tactics might be overt or subtle. The idea is to convey the perception that \u201cEverything depends on me\u2026if I go, then the whole temple will crumble\u2026even your gurus cannot touch me\u2026\u201d Even with our Succession Planning in place, a potential successor might be afraid to say anything against such leadership that they are ineffectual as successors. It is one thing for a manager to be surrounded by \u2018yes-men\u2019 in order to manage \u2013 and it usually helps \u2013 but it is another thing when reasonable and well-meaning help is rejected because everything has to be done \u201cMy way!\u201d<\/p>\n We do not expect a manager to have no-men on his team. This can be useful when having to manage diverse and volunteer-based devotees, which is not always easy. When the easy gets difficult, to create fear comes with a long-term price, and that is the example set for younger future leaders to follow. In any case, if fear is used rather than inspiration and love, and we tolerate these things, it is going to be ever harder to transform ISKCON management to how we would like. Fear is used to control a temple in the absence of inspiration. Consultive types of leaders tend to be more inclusive.<\/p>\n If higher management is dependent on such \u2018fearful\u2019 managers, allowing the perpetuation of bad management, they are also implicated. Such fear can be used to stifle legitimate progressive suggestions for improvement. This in itself is harmful for any cause. When devotees are dependent on a temple, these are the most vulnerable to fear tactics \u2013 they have nowhere alse to go sometimes. If these conditions exist, visitors will not experience a joyful Vaisnava experience, but rather a muted, artificial one.<\/p>\n If dependent temple devotees are serving under unhappy conditions, or congregation members realise that in order to do any service, they simply mind their own business, it too is symptomatic of a broken spirit. Will their sadness be a sign of insincerity? These would be cases of emotional exploitation. Such emotions are easily detectable by newcomers who thought that Hare Krishna people are happy.<\/p>\n Judgemental Sincerity Indicators<\/p>\n If a temple has a narrow offering of service opportunities, the chances are increased that anyone not fitting into them will be a sincerity suspect. A manager\u2019s sense of community will evolve accordingly. Because we in ISKCON have high moral standards and we mix in community, village style, any breach of these standards by others becomes the talk of that community \u2013 it is human nature.<\/p>\n These same dynamics can operate on a managerial level as well. This is also human nature. When managerial duties commence on the basis of narrow definitions of who is sincere and who is not, we arrive at the same perpetuating form of leadership. If sincerity is only measured by managerial yardsticks, this indicates that there are many more sincere well-wishers besides, because sincerity is not easily measurable. After all, isn\u2019t the time of death the real yardstick?<\/p>\n When matters of sincerity are defined for everyone to know, the wish to defend them with judgmental forms of management can make life hard for others. An atmosphere of oppression permeates. Difficulties of yes and no, do\u2019s and don\u2019ts can mean instant emotional flare-ups when interpreted differently. Wishing to ensure the \u2018integrity\u2019 of ISKCON can also mean alienating others who may be able to offer substantial services with their fame or resources.<\/p>\n Within temple affairs, it is problematic for judgmental management whenever any devotee or congregation member says something that might challenge narrow perceptions with sincerity. Even if such \u2018dissenters\u2019 are following proper protocol – they themselves are deemed insincere. These \u2018insincere\u2019 individuals eventually feel side-lined or ignored. A simple, sincere word of advice can effectively end collaborative prospects for an individual who wishes to help.<\/p>\n These sorts of thought patterns cannot appeal to people with broader intelligence. We speak of having a house for the whole world to live, but the whole world is not attracted to limited forms of managing or narrow definitions of Krishna consciousness. It is somewhat like trying to merge all the colours of a rainbow into one colour \u2013 say grey. We need to expand our greyness accommodation in terms of service, thought and culture.<\/p>\n Human Nature And Vaisnava Nature<\/p>\n Since we are all human, we can be expected to display human social and emotional traits. On a devotee managerial and leadership level, somehow we all expect superhuman Vaisnava traits to emerge, whatever that means, and it will probably never happen.<\/p>\n Vaisnavas are very human, but their ways and mannerism reflect a selfless nature. Devotee leadership is best undertaken by selfless devotees who exhibit selfless traits of empathy, compassion and understanding – to be broadminded. It is easy to give our own wish list for ideal management, and we know much of the attempts at improvement is still work in progress. However, a few no-no\u2019s can hopefully create awareness towards excellence, as we would expect from Vaisnavas.<\/p>\n Ys Kesava Krsna Dasa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since we are all human, we can be expected to display human social and emotional traits. On a devotee managerial and leadership level, somehow we all expect superhuman Vaisnava traits to emerge, whatever that means, and it will probably never happen. Vaisnavas are very human, but their ways and mannerism reflect a selfless nature. Devotee leadership is best undertaken by selfless devotees who exhibit selfless traits of empathy, compassion and understanding – to be broadminded. It is easy to give our own wish list for ideal management, and we know much of the attempts at improvement is still work in progress. However, a few no-no\u2019s can hopefully create awareness towards excellence, as we would expect from Vaisnavas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13205,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13092\/revisions\/13205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Hare](\"http:\/\/dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads4\/2014-09-12_14-26-21.jpg\")
By Kesava Krsna Dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n