The Hindu Business Line : The well-read manager

I had offered some thoughts elsewhere in this newspaper last week on the fundamentals of writing of the kind managers deal with everyday. A keen teacher-friend asked me if I had anything similar to say on the reading habit, since managers in particular find less and less time for reading anything other than what they must, by way of work-related email and reports.

Reading, an imperative

Reading, unlike writing, ought to be an easier habit to cultivate. It requires no overcoming of inhibitions, stage fright or anxieties about what one would sound like to an audience. You can indeed make it a secret habit if you wish to. No one need know the peculiarities of your tastes or preferences. You can stack up all your pulp fiction in a shelf beside the loo, if that is what you fancy. Seriously, of course, reading is not a matter of choice to anyone aspiring to be up to date in his profession. In our world of mushrooming knowledge and exponential growth of specialisms and multi media news, it is an imperative. It is true that television offers the busy practitioner periodic updates round the clock. The way the information is packaged and dished out makes less of a demand on one’s tired brain cells. Nor does it call for much critical judgement. Visuals communicate a good deal more, even if they are chosen to support the channel’s editorial bias. Despite all the hoopla, electronic media can never fully replicate the personal pleasure of reading a well-written work of fiction, travel, or biography.

The greatest advantage of reading, over any other way of absorbing news or entertainment, is that you remain completely in charge. You read what you want, and decide when, where and how much. Whatever gadgetry one may find thrust into one’s hands or literally onto the lap, it can never match having a book of one’s choice, while spending an hour in the departure lounge. On board a flight, no one is going to order you to put away the juicy thriller you are reading during take off and landing, or at any other time. You remain the boss. The TV offers, on the other hand, a smorgasbord of someone else’s design, and much the same fare on different channels. It excels in trivia and trivialised presentation of serious matters, with a few notable exceptions.

The historical advatange

For the manager seeking a mastery over the language, the priorities must go beyond breaking news. A larger vocabulary, idiomatic and persuasive expression and the ability to summarise and build up an argument — all of these are essential. They can be learnt and grow on you, as you develop the habit of reading widely, including fiction. You can not begin to develop as a communicator until you get a feel for the right words in the right places, for the rhythm and cadence of good quality writing, much as one learns to appreciate music. This is why it is distressing to find that few executives at factories even get to read the daily newspaper, never mind the business paper. Indian managers must consider it part of their jobs to do this minimum amount of reading if we are not to lose our historical advantage of being able to connect commercially with the English speaking world. They must make time for it; and so must the managements Good sized companies would benefit from setting aside space for a library. Such measures will signal the seriousness of purpose on the part of the employers. This is the least one can do to make managers slightly better read and better informed than they are today.

S. RAMACHANDER

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