Bruno

Discussion ¬

1. 
   Peter Rogan

   October 10, 2018 at 1:09 pm | #

   The ability to get things done is a more powerful motivator for people than most people imagine. Even when the work sucks, just getting it out of the way can be an immense spiritual burden lifted. When the work is necessary for other people to get things done, it acquires the divine shine of necessity — see ‘firemen’.

   Gina obviously has greater insight into Bruno than either she or we, the readers, possess. Because the qualities of leadership needed even for heading up the mailroom are not apparent, nor are they particularly common. But it begins with wanting to do the job well, and the next logical step is how to help the people you’re supposedly ‘managing’ to do their jobs well. If you can do this, the amount of energy and ability released is little short of atomic. But not everybody can do it. Gina thinks Bruno can, with a little exposure and a demonstration — as here — that Bruno has the chops for it.

   What Gina’s doing is management by the Socratic method — get the student to ask the questions when she’s ready to handle the answers. Not easy to do. The temptation to dictate the qualities of leadership needed is great. But if Bruno is to be an effective leader, the first person she has to trust with the answers is herself. So Gina is nurturing this tiny flame into something larger by not giving Bruno directions, but leading her into asking questions. Of Gina, of herself, of her staff. All of this builds on each other. The finest kind of synergy known to man, or woman.