How to Deal With Bosses

I have to credit a group of bright alumni of IMT Nagpur with whom I had an outing recently for the title of this blog. We thought that MBA programs should include a course on this. So I am setting out a possible map of contents here-

1. Who is the boss? Some understanding of whose orders you follow in life should help in identifying this character-sometimes it's more than one.

2. Why is he the boss? (Could be a she-I had a lady boss in my first job). Understanding whether he is the promoter, his son/daughter, nephew puts things in perspective. If not, how he managed to get there will serve as a useful lesson in how to deal with him.

3. What can he do to you? The worst case scenario and the best case scenario..a range of possibilities, in other words.

4. What can you do? Scenarios and responses to those scenarios if you are a reacting type, or plot possibilities, if you are the proactive type.

5. Should you stay or leave? The million-dollar question. Signals that ask you to look around can be identified early, combined with some of the above.

More can be added, such as a typology of bosses. But that would be in the main course- this was only an appetizer!

What If?

Some thought-provoking What ifs..

What if...

Mahatma Gandhi came back and saw what he had fought for?

There were no IITs and IIMs?

The Arms Race had not progressed beyond Bows and Arrows?

The Kapoors had not entered Bollywood?

Kamal Haasan did not have a moustache?

We did not have a regular supply of jokers in real life?

Manoj Kumar could act?

the ghost of Kishore Kumar entered the likes of Arijit Singh?

Women were powering politics across the world?

Hamlet was Canadian (Trudu or not Trudu?)

McDonald's and Coke had not been invented?

What if?

I saw a forward today that inspired this post. It said, "What if Sooraj Barjatya made realistic films?'
Actually, many more what ifs come to mind. Ponder these-

1. What if ads started telling the truth, especially baldness cure ads?
2. What if James Bond were named Johnson Braithwaite by Ian Fleming?
3. What if Arnab Goswami started talking sense, or stopped talking?
4. What if Karan Johar started asking intelligent questions on his show? 
5. What if film directors edited their movies by cutting irrelevant scenes/songs/fights?
6. What if trees and flowers did not exist?
7. What if monks and householders exchanged places?
8. What if maids became memsahibs?
9. What if PMs became chaiwalas?
10. Most terrible, what if all books disappeared from the face of the earth?