In a certain country, there was a king. Once, while traveling incognito, he was accompanied by a civil mandarin riding a horse and a group of servants carrying the king’s palanquin. When the king rested, the servants grumbled to one another: “We work so hard. Meanwhile, the mandarin has a horse. How unfair!” The king knew about this but remained silent.
Along the road, hearing the pathetic wailing of dogs, the king told a servant to go and see what was happening. After a brief moment, the servant rode his horse back and reported: “It’s a litter of puppies crying, Your Majesty.” The king asked: “Domestic dogs or wild dogs?” The servant rode his horse away and returned after only a brief moment, reporting: “Domestic dogs, Your Majesty!” The king asked further: “Why are they crying?” The servant rode his horse away again and only returned after a while, reporting: “Their nest was soaked wet by rainwater, Your Majesty.” The king asked further: “How many males, how many females?” And asked further: “What color is their fur?”… The servant was exhausted, but after each question from the king, both the person and horse had to depart immediately…
At that moment, the mandarin arrived. Looking at him sitting in the sedan chair, gently waving a feather fan with a “peaceful – relaxed” posture, made them resentful. At that moment, those dogs were still crying. The king told the group of servants to stand there and said to the civil mandarin: “Go see what happened over there.”
The mandarin obeyed the order and went. The time for the civil mandarin to return was 3 times longer than that of the servant riding a horse. Upon returning, the civil mandarin slowly reported: “May it please Your Majesty! There is a litter of 5 puppies, 3 males and 2 females, with ash-gray fur; their nest was soaked wet by rainwater, but perhaps their mother was killed, which is why the litter was left so cold, hungry, and crying pitifully like that. I gave the farmer there a few cents and asked them to buy food for them.”
The king smiled, turned, and asked the servants: “Do you know now why you are servants while he is a mandarin?”
I read this fable from an online source; it gave me very many lessons about working styles. The servant friend lacked the capacity to oversee, was not detailed in work, and did not offer solutions. What you are doing is merely providing information. Information provided halfway. Meanwhile, the mandarin friend investigated the issue thoroughly, offered concrete solutions, and took responsibility for his actions.
One of the actions I evaluate very low and hate very much in subordinate managers is the action of “forwarding” emails/reports from subordinates or partners to me. For example, styles like: “Dear Boss: The Sales team reports this….” Or “Dear Boss, partner’s report etc. Looking forward to Boss’s directive.” In the past, I used to have the habit of reviewing a bit. Nowadays with much work, the company is expanding and starting to get “cranky,” I usually say nothing or reply to the email with only the characters: “??????”
People who newly work with me often ask: “Boss, what does writing that mean? Why are you so abrupt?” I answer: “If reporting like that, then it turns out I am paying salary for you to be an email forwarder. In that case, only 1 intern with a salary of 3 million per month is enough.”
Instead of forwarding emails and forcing me to think, an employee, especially a managerial level, should have an email/report of this style: “Dear Boss. There is a report that the Covid situation makes it very difficult for both suppliers and market expansion. I am sending the attached report for Boss’s reference. I have met with sales parties, and discussed with two other suppliers to cross-check. Therefore, I propose paying the supplier in advance today, while we will try to reduce the sales price by 10%. We have discussed and calculated this carefully: we will lose about 7% in revenue, but the market will be expanded to 12% and suppliers will work with us immediately next week. I take responsibility for this matter. If the Boss has no other opinion, I will proceed with implementation over the next 3 days.” That way of answering shows that the employee knows how to work, takes responsibility for their work, exercises thought, and especially proves that he/she contributes to the company in a meaningful way.
The larger the company, the more necessary it is to avoid middle managers who only know how to be “messengers” or complainers. Such “messenger” managers will make leaders very stressed and uncomfortable. Reaching a certain point, leaders will be too exhausted from having to handle things on their behalf, and will either fire them (try doing that quickly in Vietnam) or go crazy and snap sharply.
A business owner friend of mine, an extremely elegant person, but who liked taking over work for employees, finally went crazy and said: “If you keep forcing me to think for you, then it turns out I have to hold your p… to let you pee too, huh?” (Never for me, though. I will say: you go and resolve it. When done, come back here and report, but do not send me reports like this).
Instead of keeping employees who often “cry and wail,” working in a manner of meaningless reporting just for the sake of it, companies always need and should only compensate employees who know how to summarize issues, possess multi-dimensional analysis, offer concrete solutions, and take responsibility for their solutions. Leaders who want to lighten their workload must always remember never to do/think on behalf of work that their subordinates can resolve themselves.
Note: My biggest, most burning wish is that whenever visiting any company, I hear brothers and sisters there say: “Gosh, it is precious that Boss comes to visit. Leave the work for us to do, we take responsibility. After visiting, please go play somewhere else. You don’t have to do anything here.”
Nguyen Quoc Toan
