Senior corporate managers and many older-entrepreneurs have a peculiar problem, these days. Computers were few and far between when they were young and in college. Not being computer literate was perfectly acceptable. If someone did not have access to a computer and if accounts and pay rolls in office were maintained in thick handwritten registers instead of those omnipresent perforated sheets, you were not looked down upon as if you were a moron .“Not having anything to do with those monstrous machines” – was a choice which could be exercised without the fear of being of being ostracized from business fellowship. Computer technicians and experts were in fact considered “fashionable” accessories – only to be boasted about to show how “committed” to modern technology, one was.

Like the sudden changes that sometime stun us in a one-day cricket match, things changed. The monstrous machines became petite bundles of powerful performers. Computers began to do many things faster and better than a human being employed for the same purpose. They invaded almost all aspects of our life – from the boardroom to the bedroom. They are now even threatening to replace human companionship. In this scenario, do you realize the plight of the senior manager who is functionally illiterate about computers?

It is difficult to imagine this scenario unless you are yourself ravaged by it. Consider the following bizarre situations just to get a flavour of the intensity of what I want to convey. If it was suddenly decreed that from tomorrow the official language of India would be French (or even Sanskrit) and that all official business would be carried out in French – what would be the English & Hindi or Marathi speaking guys do?? Or if it were to be decreed that all students who wanted to clear their HSSC must know how to swim (this is actually the case in USA and hence should not be considered as a contrived situation – students in USA graduating out of schools must be able to demonstrate their ability to save a drowning person) . If you can sense the panic that these situations evoke, you will understand how helpless some senior managers feel about their functional computer illiteracy.

These managers have computer whiz kids far junior to them in their departments, who give them a terrible complex about their own inadequacy. In this situation, they could start behaving in a manner not in consonance with their maturity and competence. Our purpose today is to see how such bosses can indeed manage these computer smarties without letting their diffidence overpower their style of functioning. Here are some tips to overcome this hang-up.

Don’t ever try to prove your supremacy.
Why try to do things that are not possible? There is no way the boss could catch up with what the computer expert has learnt from his school days. Some bosses have this unnecessary compulsion of always wanting to be superior to all their subordinates. They should remember that a managers job is to decide the course of action and then manage his resources (people are undoubtedly the most important resource at his command) intelligently and not keep doing things himself. If we agree to this, why does the boss have to demonstrate his superiority over the computer- smarty?

Learn as much of computers as you can.
It is never too late to be computer literate. Try and acquire the basics at least. There are scores of self-help books and Programmes which claim to teach even “dummies”. Why not boldly accept that you are a dummy and then set out to rectify the situation. Some bosses are diffident about starting to learn so late after having left college. They may be happy to know that experiments have proved that the human mind is never tired of learning at any age. The fear of becoming obsolete is a powerful motivator. Just begin and find things looking up.

Make use of the readymade software Programmes available.
Contrary to what many believe, learning computers does not mean you have to be able to write a programme. Think of a situation in which computers could be used and it is most likely that there is some readymade software available for achieving your objective. The software only expects you to be literate in English. It does not expect you to be a computer expert at all. In fact, it is written for persons like these bosses. When you push a switch down and the bulb glows, do you have to know the mechanism behind how the electricity makes it glow? The readymade software will make you a virtual expert because it will deliver the end results without bothering you about how they are being achieved. The boss must however know what he wants to achieve.

Always keep the overall picture in mind .
As a boss, it is your job to use the computer expert to deliver on the objectives that you have set for the department. Look upon the computer expert as someone assisting you in your work to improve your productivity. He is as much a part of your team as are many others who keep doing jobs which you are not equipped to do yourself. Stop looking at computer – smart deputies as your rivals out to show you in poor light. Remember, it is you as departmental head that has the overall picture – the computer smarty is just one cog in the wheel.

Computer professionals are logical thinkers- make use of this strength to achieve results.
Bosses generally complain that but for the quality of their assistants, they would have reached the “moon”. A computer smart deputy, whatever other faults he may have, is likely to be a logical thinker. Why not use this strength? Logical thinkers are a rarity and the ones available must be used to the fullest extent, even in matters outside his purview. Smart bosses will therefore always ask the computer smartie’s opinion in other matters, instead of keeping him at arms' length.

Don’t be jealous.
This is easier said than done. A wag once said, that moral indignation is 2% moral, 48% indignation and 50% jealousy. Psychologists maintain that a jealous person reduces his productivity and positive thinkers have always recommended that this feeling of jealousy (which is a natural human trait) must be channelised towards self improvement rather than slowly “burning” oneself internally. Are you jealous of the accountant because you know less of accounting than him or do you hate the production manager just because he is far more “technical” than you are? Then why should you have this attitude towards the computer smartie? The reason is easy to find – while accountants and production guys have been around for donkeys' years, this breed of computer whiz kids is relatively new and can play a role in all functions of management, across the spectrum. Moreover they are young, have the capability of earning more than the boss, in the foreseeable future and hence are likely to be brash. The boss could be literally “scared” of them. When he thinks about his own career and earnings at that age, he's consumed by envy and remorse. These self doubts are monstrous themselves and that’s why it is easy to say-“don’t be jealous”. One must keep trying, though.

Remember, your experience is more valuable to the company than his raw skills.
Let me share with you what Bruce Lee used to do when he was racked with negative thoughts, especially about himself. He would close his eyes, mentally write these thoughts on an imaginary paper and then proceed to burn that paper into ash- all in the mind, of course. Try this yourself, it’s an effective technique. Your experience and skills in handling people is never going to be swapped by the company with the raw skills of the computer smartie.
Many managers are intelligent enough to understand all this but are reluctant to take the first step. Let me remind them that every generation has had problems of this kind. If it is computers, today it was automobiles, yesterday and it was pen and paper, the day before, in the long history of human kind. Fear of obsolescence has, my dear friends, spawned more heroes than cowards. So rise, learn & conquer.

"Mr. Prakash Shesh, the author, has done his MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad after his Masters in Physics from I.I.T. New Delhi. You may send your feedback to him by choosing an option at the top right corner of this page."