First of all, I am currently in an apartment in Addis Ababa which I am sharing with a nice, Indian lass. She is out and I now have a cat hiding under my bed. The two things are unrelated. But, I have fed this cat before (I am convinced it is a neighbour's cat) and I let it in again and now it is hanging out under my bed. She's come out for tuna. And gone back under the bed again. I have a suspicion this may go on for a few hours yet until she actually settles or drives me bananas until I catch her and let her out.
Things have been very intense for the last few weeks. Without a shadow of a doubt, I have done some sheer hard graft - more than I have done in a long time. Focused work. Work with tight deliverables where, crucially, you are not getting distracted with duties that are not part of your job role. In all the best of ways, I am getting what I wished for. For a long time. Yet, on the other, I continue to be deeply saddened when it comes to the management of NGOs. On the whole, I find the people who are attracted to NGO work to be the very best of people. Building rapport and trust with NGO people is not difficult, and we tend to feel 'at ease' around each other almost immediately. Yet, the needless bureaucracy and all of its associated problems in NGOs are huge barriers and can have detrimental effects on working relationships. Which needs to be managed well to counter-act its detrimental effects. But, again, I find people management (including human resources and within teams management) within NGOs to be sorely lacking.
I would like to re-iterate that I think the VSO Ethiopia team are truly excellent in a number of ways. Yet, when mis-management occurs and the effects of this are not dealt with, this can poison what should be positive working environments. This is not exclusive to NGOs. Academia is also rife with this. But, IMHO, academia tends to attract more 'difficult' people who tend not to have as much experiencing working collaboratively in teams. Managing academics can be like herding cats. People who work in NGOs have that experience and usually work very well with people on the ground. So, what's going wrong with management?
From my experience, people who tend to be in management positions have gotten there through their length of service at an organisation. Management = promotion. It also tends to be the 'stalwarts' who go up through the ranks. I don't mean any disrespect by that term, but they are generally regarded as a 'safe pair of hands' by someone higher up. But, that doesn't mean they have the sufficient leadership and management training to do a managerial job.
This, and my previous experience in Ecuador, has been making me think about my own reluctance to take on leadership and managerial roles previously throughout my career. I've always looked at leadership and management as too much responsibility. That I didn't want that level of responsibility and, tbh, the types of people who go through the leadership and managerial routes tend not to be role models for me. However, when I am pushed to undertake leadership and managerial roles, I tend to do quite well. It's tough - especially calling people out on their behaviour. And the risk of 'not being liked' through hurting people's feelings. But, I do feel that it is something I'm going to have to seriously consider training in as most of the roles I am now being offered involve increasing amounts of both leadership and management.
We are all given spaces to develop certain attributes within ourselves. Maybe instead of criticising the leadership and management skills in others I should cultivate my own? The lack of these skills cultivated properly can have dire consequences - can rip apart normally quite healthy ecosystems by allowing rot to get in and never confronting it so it poisons everything else. Practising what you preach. I am definitely going to look into how I can do this. Some research is needed though - I'm sure there are 'normal' managerial paradigms that would not suit me. But, there will be some cutting edge ones. Yes, it is time to do research. But, I'm in no hurry. The events around me are conspiring to give me the appropriate start-up knowledge for now.
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