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THE EVOLUTION OF THE TURKEY MANAGERS

NEW MILLENNIUM MANAGER

Dolphin – Survival Model 

The first time we both met Mr D was as an interviewee across the table. As an interviewer, we found him to be objective, cordial, cautious in his use of words and the length of discussion, but somewhat non-descript. Someone who we may not remember if we pass him on the street. However, our impression was expanded in our subsequent dealing with Mr D as a colleague and ultimately a friend. Mr D should have had a career in the diplomatic corp where he could use his well horned interpersonal skills to the fullest. People loved his easy going, non-threatening and genuinely interested nature. It didn’t matter whether you were the mail person or the CEO, Mr D always had time to listen to your story, asked some key questions about a current issue in your life that may not be remembered by most others. At best, he would considered to be a wonderful listener with an absolute interest in other people. At worst he would be considered as the ultimate preserver of harmony by his critics. 
There was separate occasion where we were co-training in a program I found Mr D taking in all the feedback from the group and rarely probing or ‘challenging’ the inputs from the participants. There were times that it was necessary to ask further questions to find out where the person is coming from. I suspect that this may stem from a reluctance to appear contentious or to go beyond the boundary of personal information. Whatever the reason, it created an impression that he is being vague and not wanting to make a stand which may be an extension of his diplomatic self. This appearance of being a ‘fence-sitter’ created an insecurity within me that I may not be able to count on Mr D’s support in a critical situation. 

A critical difference between Mr D and Mr R which separates a survival from an endangered species is :
 -  Diplomatic 
 - Interpersonal skills
 - Loyal 

Taking diplomacy as an example, Mr D was one of three managers (out of 8) to survive a ruthless retrenchment exercise despite not being considered a core manager. It begs the question, how could this person survive. He played the political game to his advantage and as an experienced negotiator was able to gain support from many of the key areas of the organisation. 
A little bit like an octopus he would stretch his tentacles out to reach those who are influential within the organisation, develop a really comfortable relationship with them so that he always had a ready group of advocates championing his cause and speaking well on his behalf. In essence, he occupied a special place in their hearts developing an emotional bond with these people which would ultimately ensure that their emotional bank accounts are in credit all the time. In purely factual terms his work was to do the absolute necessity. Whilst he was competent and intelligent, an observer may view that his work is less than extraordinary. His philosophy was never to antagonise anyone and to maintain very positive relationship with influential players.

To highlight the example of loyalty in contrast to the dog’s unquestionable loyalty Mr D maintained loyalty purely on the basis of survival within the organisation. He was loyal whilst it was beneficial to him. Approximately one year after the retrenchment fall out it was no longer beneficial for Mr D to remain with the organisation. He chose to pursue a career outside the organisation and launched his new career off the back of his existing one without the pressure of redundancy. In any way you view this, it must be seen as highly intelligent survival behaviour and using the organisation to your advantage. 

The interesting thing about the life of a dolphin is that they survive in a world that is highly predatorial. They co-exist with sharks, sea snakes, whales, mantra eels and maintain a relatively harmonious relationship with these potential killers. 
In addition, the dolphins often befriend potential victims, such as swimmers and surfers, unaware of the lurking danger. In this way they are similar to the clown fish that dance around the poisonous white tentacles of corals. The tentacles are poisonous to any others smaller fish, but this fish is immuned to them. They have a ‘partnership arrangement’ where the fish dances around and is part of the attraction to other fish and is granted immunity for doing so. The dolphin manager is also immuned to the killer instinct of the predatorial managers by providing a useful function of maintaining harmonious relationships amongst staff members of the organisation.

The Dolpin style is a natural style for some but for others it requires conscious and persistent effort. Aspiring managers can learn from the mistakes of ineffective managers and work towards the vision of becoming adaptable and diplomatic in our quest for survival. In this way, we can learn so much from the dolphin. 


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