Boasting seems to have become the past time of many of us. Yes, we try to boast about almost everything.
I mentioned this real story a couple of times because it’s so classically weird. There was this guy in the Piazza area who in present day parlance could be described as a small time warlord. He was the maker and breaker of rules and he answers to absolutely no one. He tells you to do something, however…you still do it or try to do it. You can be a 45-kilos sorry dude and he asks you to carry a 90-kilos baggage you try to do it at the risk of bringing torment to your body. No questions asked.
I’ll tell you what he does as way of boasting and trying to convince the world that despite him being out on the streets and spending his nights in Biblically destitute places he was the ‘blue blood’ type with rich and powerful relatives who can do everything and anything they wished. “Every time a helicopter roars overhead he rushes to the nearest shade to hide himself. Why does he do that? Well his rich uncle might see him from within the helicopter and that would mean a lot of trouble for him. Of course the interesting story here is that it could be any helicopter military, civilian, and the like. It could be of any make and color. Still he hides from his uncle. Of course he being him bent to give answers with his fists no one asked him how in the world his rich uncle could own all those helicopters.
But sometimes you ask yourself if boasting has become institutional. And unfortunately we boast on all the wrong things, wrong and illusionary!
In the outgoing year the staff of our organizations have given all their energy and time to increase production and I’d like to think them.” Applause. “We have fulfilled 53% of our annual plan.” If you think there would be the collective gasp of the shaken audience then you must be a nice guy trying to play it safe even when criticisms and even outright condemnation would have made more sense. What happens is the applause this time around would be even louder than the previous one! And the guy who’s reading the annual report or whatever they call it smiles, and triumphantly too. He even kind of boasts; “Plans have been finalized to increase our production capacity so that in the coming three years we’d dominate in the horn of Africa market.” Now don’t scold yourself for thinking that there is some marketplace in town called Horn of Africa Market. The sanest thing for a guy boasting of a 53% success to do would have been scripting his resignation letter the moment he returns to his office. Not that doesn’t happen, not around here anyway.
It is time for annual reports and the like isn’t it? It’s supposed to be the time for reflection for what has been accomplished and what hasn’t. It’s time to look at the annual blueprint and give credit where due for the real successes and take the responsibly for the failures. No, that seldom happens. Credit for the successes big or irrelevant stays in-house. “Because the coordinated work between management and staff I’ve honored to tell the audience we have accomplished such and such projects…” Mind you this is the 53% guy talking. (‘Honored!’ Really!) Look I’ve to give the credit for these kinds of guys who have such unwavering guts to keep the biggest smiles on their faces while the annual performance paints a completely different story; a story of unfulfilled plans; interrupted even abandoned projects which, with little more efforts, could have been accomplished; a story (written or unwritten) of mismanagement at the top and the decline/loss of work discipline among a significant number of the staff at all levels. And amidst all these the clean shaven guys on the podium with their three-piece suites who don’t have to show when it comes to clear and visible success try to boast!
It’s not at all fine when boasting is given an institutional tone. Hey wise guy, you’re still on the halfway mark after a dozen months and what makes you think you can go at the Horn of Africa markets with guns blazing! It would have been only logical to ask in nicer words, “How the hell do you plan to do that?” But then first things first and these days even the most activities, important or otherwise, seem to have become reality shows and unfortunately logic and reasoning don’t have much space in reality shows. And what is more, ‘boasting’ even while you’re down on the mat facing the stars and being counted out is good for the evening news.
When we start cornering the guy who boasts of a 53% success rate in real time with direct questions like, “Don’t you think boasting about such small percentage so-called would put your organization in bad light?” or, “How can you think of going into the international market while you still couldn’t compete with most of the local organizations?” or as that Tyson uppercut which settles things once and for all, “With the organization registering such poor results on your watch have you thought of resigning and passing the baton to another CEO?”
You know, individuals boasting! Well you can live with that since you can take in what they say through one ear and dump it out through the other. Much of the time they are their own audiences and fan clubs. So if you think about it they are no shows and you just ignore them. “Don’t take him seriously. All he does is boast while he has nothing to show in way of anything significant. But when institutions the activities of which could have impact on your life and lifestyle try to camouflage their failures with terms which are meant to hush, hush all the failures indulge in boasting, that is an issue you can’t ignore. Either they clean their acts or you jumping fence to other better performing bodies. It’s as simple as that.
Boasts are bores!
EPHREM ENDALE
The Ethiopian herald July 14/2024