Devil in Details

March 2005 Issue of The General Magazine-The LOMs Official Publication

Just like a very common yet extremely excruciating torture where water is allowed to continuously dropped onto one’s forehead, one of the most distressing challenges to any LOM management is the administrative gridlock that may consequently happen when everybody seems busy pursuing one’s big project. More often than not, LOMs get too catatonically engrossed in this kind of pursuit that they end up implementing even the simplest of projects haphazardly. And at day’s end, we would ask ourselves, have we done something significant?

It is often told among successful managers and leaders that in situations like this, the secret of success lies not in doing work, but in recognizing the right man to do it”. As managers and leaders, we subconsciously select or pick somebody who could fill in our simple incompetence. Put it in milder words, we seek people who could complement us.

Translating visions into realities requires not only identifying specific goals and setting directions, but also creating a plan of action, and converting them into a comprehensive program of either single-thrust plans or standing projects that are easily implementable.

What comes next is the projects legwork’s daily grind. Here lies the importance of a well-oiled machinery, of having the right people for every job, of effective communication, of charisma, of dogged persistence and of the will to make a real difference.

It is here that any manager or leader would realize that having a great aim is not enough. There must be strong determination to attain the set objectives.

Between the great things we cannot do and the small things we can do, the danger is that we shall do nothing.