What's Appropriate?

Censorship - We, as grown up individuals, may think we don't need it and yet, without second thought impose restriction on those around us. We control what our children see, read and say. No doubt we have their interests at heart. Drawing a parallel, a government may deem it necessary to censor content that is distributed via television, radio and now even the Internet to protect its people. Then the question arises, who gets to decide what is offensive? Is such a body acting in the interest of the people or are they fueling a political agenda?

The degree of censorship in the media varies from country to country. Some have little or none, where as others often exercise discretion in specific areas. For instance, religious content of a program may be heavily scrutinized in India, due to India's experiences with communal tension and riots. We see various forms of pornography being prohibited on moral grounds. Most countries, if not all, probably ensure that programs are void of military intelligence. With the world constantly at war, with terrorists at large, it is justified that a government takes such measures.

On the other hand, we find that various forms of human expression such as music and literature are suppressed or edited for content. Our reasons being, they are against social norms of the region or because it is the convenient thing to do. It could simply be due to the fact that, what one has to say is radical and is against the powers that be. Then, again, it may be the fear of change.

Groups involved in screening content should probably do the bare minimum that is appropriate to protect physical lives and let the rest come through. Open expression and debate feeds our emotional intelligence. It would help us get to a point where there’s no unease but, a free flow of thought and we as individuals get to decide what we see, read or listen to.

Going off a totally different tangent, I wonder if a powerful thought/message can be contained even with all that we have in place today. Could censorship be to a thought what a cocoon is to a butterfly? There is hope that something so powerful so as to change the course of humankind will emerge no matter what the obstacles.

Greatness over fault

When someone achieves greatness in any field — such as the arts, science, politics, or business — that person’s achievements are more important than any of his or her personal faults. It can be argued that, by giving importance to such accomplishments, a wrong message is sent to the younger generation and to society at large, that it is acceptable to have low morals. However, we cannot give one's achievements less importance owing to their personal failings.

For instance, Martin Luther King Jr. is known for his campaign for civil rights and for fighting against economic injustice. He is an inspiration to great leaders around the world. We honor him today by observing a federal holiday on his birthday. All this is in spite of accounts of his infidelity.

We also have Albert Einstein, a great mind, scientist and philosopher, who advanced the field of Physics with his discovery of the photoelectric theory and his work on Relativity. His personal life however is reported to be far from perfect.

In the words of Alexander Pope, "To err is human..". All of us slip-up during the course of our lives, we only tend to scrutinize lives of those who are widely known. We should instead embrace their triumphs. When someone achieves greatness, they influence culture and push us towards being a stronger race. We just cannot take that away from them.

Of Effective Managers & Trust

In order to be more effective, Managers strive to overcome the many challenges they face, such as planning, effective communication, resourcing, and decision making. In this day it has also becomes imperative for an effective manager to focus on their relationship with their employees. Building the right level of trust is an important step towards a successful work relationship.

When managers do not trust their employees to work on their own, they tend to take on more than just delegating work. They become involved in the “how” of each task and focus on minute details, causing them to lose sight of the big picture and the team as a whole. For instance, someone more concerned with the algorithm of a software program that a developer is working on, could be losing out on time that could be spent ensuring that overall timelines are being met or anticipating problems that could occur down the road.

Managers who lack trust would also feel the need to be re-assured constantly by their employees and would expect very frequent status updates or reports. This usually introduces delays in the project and de-motivates members of the team. It could further discourage them from thinking laterally and coming up with their own ideas and means of achieving a certain goal.

Managers who do not monitor their employees, on the other hand, seldom hold them accountable. They may not pay attention to the performance of each individual within the team. This would result in project delays, low quality product, etc. and would also hinder the growth of each individual employee. It is necessary for a manager to set goals, communicate these goals and monitor progress at predetermined intervals. Furthermore, managers should provide feedback on such monitored progress, so that each person can work towards overcoming their shortcomings. This type of monitoring has little to do with trust.

Therefore, while the best managers are those who give their employees enough room and trust them to do their work, monitoring, if not “close” is necessary to ensure that targets are being achieved and people are growing to be better, more valuable assets to an organization.