That year, our Zonal Manager, set a huge target for the growth of the banking business of our region. According to my experience, it was impossible to achieve. I brought it to the notice of our zonal Manager, that before this, such a huge growth in business was never recorded, and such a target had never been set, for our region. I requested him to lower our target, but he refused to listen to my request.
He said that the target, that has been set by the main office, for the complete zone, has been divided according to the previous records, the capacity of growth of the regions and their potential, their man power, the economic and the social status and the government schemes available in the areas.
He further, firmly replied," The position, that whatever we may not have been able to achieve in the past, cannot be achieved in the future, is not right. Targets are set for achieving what we have not been able to achieve in the past, and you have to strive hard and make provisions for the same."According to him the given target would not be reduced and everybody had to take efforts to meet the same.
I thought that his stance at his position was right, but I could not help thinking again that it was impossible to achieve.With a nervous mindset , I returned to the regional office.
I was supposed to divide the target among the branches in my region and I was going to take into account, the same criteria that our Zonal Manager had taken.
I pondered, " Why should I impose the target that is not achievable, on the branches? I may have to pressurize them with my superiority, because it was not possible for me to make them accept that the given target was apt."
Immediately, I called for a meeting with the branch managers. At the introduction, I informed them about the previous year's progress.I praised and congratulated the officers who had done good work in the previous year. I reminded those who had not been able to complete their responsibilities, about the same, and suggested them ways of improving their work.
Then I discussed with them, the happenings of the "budget meeting" with the zonal manager, in detail and I frankly told them my opinion. I said to them ," I will not divide and impose the target that, I feel, is too huge, on my branches and make them nervous and lose their enthusiasm at the beginning of the year. So I have decided to set no business target for my branches this year." Hearing this, all the branch managers were extremely surprised. Some of them were very happy that there would be no burden of the "budget target" that year .
I further continued," It does not mean that we are not going to aim for business growth this year. Rather, I would say that each one of you work to your maximum potential. This year, there would not be a budget target for the year but the target would be to aim for business growth everyday. I expect that each one of you take efforts in this direction and it will be my duty to see that the efforts are being taken. I meet each branch manager twice a month , once in the branch manager's meeting, and next in my branch visits. It would be quite easy to see if sincere efforts are being taken.For the officers who work sincerely, the target would be whatever they achieve till the month of February, but for those who are insincere, the target would be larger than that set by the zonal office. If this happens, then at the end of the year, their lag would appear much more prominent than others and they would be solely held responsible for the same."
This was a very novel point of view for them, and so I was asked a lot of questions after the meeting and I answered all of them satisfactorily and in minute detail.
And while all this discussion was proceeding, I still felt that the branch managers would not be enthusiastic about the new plan of action and would plead for continuing the old method of work. But I was really surprised, when all the managers, not only accepted the new method, but promised to take full efforts in the direction pointed out by me.
Within me, I was still not convinced about the success of the whole process, but I had no other way.
But I was to be astonished, yet again., when our target was completed in the month of February itself. Since then we learnt a very important lesson, that if real potential and capability is to be tested, it need not have the restriction of a target.It may not be applicable as a rule in all the situations, and depends upon the size of the group and needs a lot of control over the situation.
