The responsibility of a modern manager is seeing to it that things are done at the right time, right place, in the right way, with the right people. The fact that everyone on earth is responsible for doing so wherever he/she is, he/she is a manager without necessarily knowing so.

Besides professional or status quo managers in offices and factories, heads of families, prefects in schools, priests in churches, imams in mosques, traders in markets and shops, all are managers because of the responsibility they have, (that) of seeing to it that what they do is done at the right time, right place, in the right way, with the right people.

Outdated management practice assumes that everyone should be directly blamed for what he/she has failed to do. On the contrary, modern management expects a person to be made responsible for what he/she has directly and indirectly failed to do.

Therefore a supervisor of others is responsible both for what he has personally failed to do and what those he/she supervises have failed to do. That is why in the so called developed countries and decent people in the so called developing countries publicly take responsibility of the blunders their juniors make and resign from their jobs.

On the contrary, ignorant and outdated managers and supervisors think the mistakes and blunders of those they supervise are not theirs. They think it should be their juniors to blame. As a result, they continue in their supervisory roles given there is no regulatory mechanism or public demand for them to step down and even be prosecuted for caused losses and damages.

Whether one is a Managing Director of a business entity or Departmental head or Government Minister or Permanent Secretary or Director General of a public authority or a Bank Manager or a Country Director or Executive Director of an NGO, you are directly and indirectly responsible for your juniors mistakes, blunders and omissions. This is because you have ‘failed to see to it’ that things are done at the right time, right place, in the right way, with the right people. No excuse, to get away with impunity. You are responsible.

Never, for instance, sit in a dirty office or sitting room of your house, thinking that it is the mistake of someone responsible for cleaning it, that you are not to blame.

Waiting to explain to those who come to see or visit you that it is the mistake of cleaners not to clean the place in time and not yours, proves you an outdated manager worth replacing. The right thing to do would have been for you to close the office or sitting room, take off your coat and tie, clean the place and then open it to assume your role as a boss.

It is important to remember that a person’s mind is like the environment, around him/her, he/she is comfortable with. When you are the boss, you are squarely responsible for your juniors’ mistakes, blunders and omissions because of failing to see to it in time that they do not happen. No excuse.

E-mail: dalemuta@yahoo.co.uk