Kazira

Oh my God - What an awesome book!! Professor Sudhir Venkatesh who is currently a sociology professor at Columbia University and a past Harvard Fellow; recounts his experience living with the gang members in a housing Project in south Chicago.

The timeline for the book starts at the beginning of his doctoral degree at University of Chicago and ends at his joining as a professor at Columbia University. The book is written so well that I just couldn’t put it down. It’s especially entertaining because the author has honestly described his reactions and emotions dealing with the crack dealers (The author, by the way, comes from a very protective, semi-affluent and predominantly white neighborhood background from San Diego, CA). And he describes the experience with such honesty that it makes you laugh! And just when you think the author has used up all the ammunition from his memory bank (or his journal from those days), he recounts another story, more chilling or outrageous than the one before.

The book contains author’s recollection on the Gang wars, interviews with gang leaders, gang members, hustlers, prostitutes, crack addicts, and other street and small vendors. The author paints such a vivid storyline between these rogues that it really makes you stop and wonder. The book shoots down all the conventional wisdom about the poor African American families living in the housing projects and weaves very interesting story with a lot of likable characters. Specifically, it conveys the life of a charismatic Chicago cracked cocaine dealing gang leader (the gang is called ‘Black Kings’) JT, who is a college graduate himself and with whom the author spent more than 7 years as a close friend. The author recognizes his meeting JT to be THE key factor in getting him accepted into the projects and to performing his research. There are a couple more folks who, in turn (after JT’s head nod) helped him out with other major ‘experiences’.

The book revolves around the project building where JT lives and all the folks living in and around the building. The storyline moves very rapidly between specific characters from the gang members, other hustlers in the building, the Police and the politicians – and the author sprinkles various stories on domestic abuse, police abuse, bribery, corruption, drive by shooting and the Black King gang hierarchy. The book also conveys a sense of this professor’s guilt – since he gathered most of the information written in the book playing on JT’s emotions – deceiving him into thinking that the author is doing this research to write his biography. By the time you finish this book, you have a good clue about the life of a person (be it homeless, squatters, drug addicts, etc.) in the projects and their day-to-day challenges.

Let me borrow a line from the book that very appropriately describe my views about this author and this particular project of his – This is during his first meeting with JT – when JT tells him – “You’ve got balls man, I have to give you that ….”. Now, you may remember a reference to this research in the book Freakonomics (by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner) where the authors mention about Sudhir’s research on underground economy of drug trafficking and how sophisticated it can get. Well, this book is the journal that connects the dots from where, why, and how the author collected all his information and subsequent storyline of the contacts that he dealt with in getting this information.

A DEFINITE MUST READ. The only caution I would like to throw is that the author has written down the book in a very real (graphic) language (that he heard first-hand in the projects) and some folks may have difficulty with that.

I may get into deep poo-poo (pardon my language – I have a two year old son and he pretty much controls my vocabulary these days) if my boss ever found out about this writing. Also, I’ll be in deep you-know-what if I don’t put the following disclaimer (lest the wrath at home) – “THESE RECOMMENDATIONS ONLY APPLY To YOUR BOSS AT WORK AND NOT THE ONE AT HOME!!!” (Note for my wife – Honey, this is not about you!!!!).

Despite the repercussions that I may face for writing this article – you can’t wrap-up the orientation of the newbie (i.e. the latest addition to the American work-force) without telling them what to expect from their supervisor on the first day at work and how to benefit from their boss’s traits.

It must be my bad luck that I have “experienced” a vast variety of bosses in the past decade of work in the American corporate world. And from what I have gathered, they are all alike be it in the academia or any other kind of profession (Eg. medicine, law, construction, etc.). Anyway, no matter where you work, you would have to deal with a supervisor that would oversee your work and assign tasks on a regular basis. With a decade long experience, I think I’m competent enough to advice on what kind of boss to expect at work and how to deal with them. I hope my ideas and information would be useful, if not crucial. The key messages that I wish to hammer-in here are the traits of your supervisor (What to expect from them?) and how to deal with them in order to maximize your upward trajectory in the corporate world.

Just to set a bar – here is a definition of a good supervisor – This is the task definition of a good manager/supervisor – “The task of a manager/supervisor is to clear any impediment that does not let you perform your task efficiently. A good manager provides guidance and optimizes your work assignment appropriately so that you can do your job fruitfully”. Unfortunately, there are not too many of them out there who get this or truly understand this.

Ok – to start – you must understand where your supervisor is coming from – This a MUST DO assessment and is critical to identifying your path forward. From what I have seen so far – potential career path for the supervisor (that you will confront) do conform to the following – He or she is -

(a) Currently climbing up the ladder and is well connected.

(b) Stuck at the current position against his/her will - Worked up the ladder to come up to this point in their life but lack the fire power to move up – but don’t want to except that fact – Unhappy and cynical about everything

(c) Stuck in the current position willingly – Worked up the ladder to come up to this point in their life but lack the fire power to move up – Realizes their limitations and is happy to be here.

(d) Stuck in the current position waiting for the retirement – Worked up the ladder to come up to this point in their life – lost the steam and waiting for the retirement to arrive – Happy to be here

(e) Consultant to the company – Happy and Gung-ho!!! Sees opportunities in everything.

(f) Promoted to the current position only because of the people he/she knows. The most dangerous kind.

(g) Promoted to the current position but still longs to do the low level task to feel fulfilled – Another dangerous kind but not as bad as the previous.

(h) Placed in this position to reform/restructure or eliminate the group – so he or she is there for a specific purpose! Again a bad one to have as your supervisor.

And there are a few more kinds of supervisors that you could expect – those are rare and not worth mentioning here. The key is to figure out where your boss comes from and what are their plans for the future. If your boss is an extrovert, you may have this information during the interview – but if he/she is an introvert – you may have to prod it out of them.

Now, once you have that information – You should then evaluate yourself – Be critical in doing this now – If you are too biased about yourself; ask a close confidant to do this for you. You should truly know who you are and what you are looking for (in life and from this job) – look at the article that Uday wrote for you to figure out what defines you the best (Insert link here).

So, now that you know where your supervisor comes from, and you know who you are – The next thing to evaluate is your supervisor’s management style – This is also A KEY piece of information in evaluating your thrust area for success with this boss. Believe it or not, there are traits of managers that you could use very effectively once you come to know them – Following are the general traits of any supervisors – Expect varying degree of each in your boss – Some of these will be predominant in them than the rest.

1. One who always tells you what to do – a ball-buster who expects you to work long hours and produce things the way only he wants – He won’t let you go till he finds it his way. These guys (usually) have miserable family life and they worship work.

2. One who sells you the task – a people person who really advertises the task and asks that this will be in your best interest to perform the task.

3. One who consults you on your work – These are the best kind where they always ask for your feedback on the task that assigned to you.

4. One who joins you – These are the kind of folks who roll up their sleeves and join the workers themselves. It can be good sometimes but it can get suffocating most of the times.

So here goes, once you know what kind of boss you have and where is he/she coming from and going – and you know who you are and where are you going – Now you can use the characteristics above to succeed. For example, there are some kind of bosses; like Type (b), (e), (f), and (g), if you stumble upon them during your career path – just look for a different job – its just not worth fighting them. Among others, if the management traits are like Type (1) and (4) – you may find difficult to survive as well. Again, this is subjective and based upon who you are – I will write one more blog on this subject following this to take this point home.

This has turned out to be too long of a blog posting – but I must end this by an invaluable suggestion – “Never outshine your master!” – No matter how good your boss is, you have to be very careful in term of outshining the boss, especially when in public. If you have to correct him/her – you must do it in private and very delicately.

Further reading –

Dilbert comic strip by Scott Adams. The management style of the pointy haired boss is (unfortunately) very real in the real world.

Note - Photo Credit