Management- Ally: 3

The Art of being Invisible


Would you like to be invisible? And if yes, for how long? Hours, days, weeks, months, or for years?? Well, most of us love to be invisible for a short period, especially when you haven’t finished that important project your boss gave last week and he is giving you a blasting.

Or maybe for a few hours to take a peek into the ladies toilet at the office to take a ‘closer’ look at what your female colleagues has inside.

Or maybe for a few days to be in the bedroom of Mallika Sherwat, or maybe Aishwarya Rai…

For past few days I was wondering, if I were to be invisible, how long would be enough for me, and what I need to do during that period… thinking further about it, I realized that I AM INVISIBLE, whenever and wherever it mattered.

School Years:

All that matters during your schooling years is the Report Card. The monthly unit tests, the quarterly, half yearly and the annual examinations. Other things that mattered were the remarks of your teachers, and of course, not to forget - the sports and the dramatics.

If today, I were to go back to my old school, I am sure none of my teachers might remember me, and if they do… it would be because, I ‘knocked’ down the wig of Mr. Philip, our science teacher during a basketball match. Or maybe as the guy who put ‘chewing gum’ in Ms. Cecilia Prasad’s chair.

If you ask me, except for a few classmates who considered me a friend (esp. Manish, Kiran, Rajesh (hope he remembers me), and a few others) others would hardly remember me…

But in school, what mattered were not friends… but reality. And the reality was the report card - a judgment paper. The day I used to get it, I wished I was invisible, I wished I was invisible when I went home to face other reality – the stick or belt, which ever came first in my father’s hand. And trust me – Reality does not bite. IT HURTS.

College Years:

For a student, who spent more time in the college cafeterias, movie halls, and the beach, I was the ideal Invisible to ALL my lecturers and professors. A motley group of friends who helped me in identifying the ‘pleasures’ of college life, and who taught me that college days are not meant for preparing for IITs or Engineering Colleges, but how to open a beer bottle with your teeth and how to blow cigarette smoke rings. I for my teachers I was Roll No. 814 – Absent.

Most importantly, and unknowingly, I was learning in my college years – the art of remaining invisible. Especially, when you had in your group, friends who got into fights for none and every reason. I also learnt how to slip into and from the house without disturbing my parents, and go out for late night drinking binges. I also learnt that you need to be invisible throughout your college days, for if your lecturers come to know about you, then you lose marks at the “Practicals”. You also learn that to pass your final year examinations you need to either have a sharp memory or all of these –

1. Good at signature forgery or know someone good at it
2. Money to be paid to office employees for your attendance register
3. sharp eye – so that you can copy from your neighbor, or copy from ‘slips’
4. and most importantly remain INVISIBLE when you do any or all of the above

Yes, I was Invisible during my college years.

Work Years:

A senior colleague of mine – Suresh, at my first job in The Hindu, told me once – “If you are a tree you might get chopped, and if you are grass you are trampled.” Sums up my idea of being invisible in the organization.

The ancient Chinese Zen Masters talk about invisibility in their own confusing way. Sun Tzu in his book “The Art of War” speaks about – An army is to be seen, and yet remain unseen. They talk about a balance of emptiness and fullness – which I can sum up as to be invisible and visible.

When you are employed in any organization and working away from the corporate office, you are usually invisible. You wish that you do something BIG and great and come to the notice of the top management… but realize the futility, because your immediate boss is there to take the credit. Same were the situations with me… and I remained invisible.

When I got an opportunity to work in the corporate office, I was elated. At last I was getting a chance to be visible. Few months at the corporate office, like the Dilbert character, I wished I was invisible.

The Identity Johari Window:

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From the window you realize that 50% of the chance you are invisible. And if you are known to others but unknown to yourself (grey area) you are considered a lunatic… so there is 25% chance that you are Visible, the way you want to be seen.

What I realize is that in most of the big organization, the top management work under ‘zero – visibility’. The rely more on the radar senses which they get from their immediate group.

Invisibility, like Management, is neither an art nor science… it is a combination of both. As the shroud of invisibility is slipping away from my body… I realize that everyone is invisible at some point of time in their life. Sometimes you are MADE invisible by others, and sometimes you MAKE yourself invisible. Your visibility is limited to your ‘sphere of influence’… (A subject I might discuss in another MANAGEMENTALLY topic)

Whether you like it or not, invisibility will be a part of your life… maybe for a few minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years. And remember God is invisible.