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Finding the Right Balance and Spirit in Management · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  There is an art to management of people within a company,
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  department or section. Those who are tasked with
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  undertaking this responsibility frequently find it challenging
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  to get the exact right balance to both motivate their team
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  members and keep things moving smoothly forward.
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  If they are too severe or demanding, they breed a sullen
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  and obstinate form of either active or passive resistance.
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  A layer of negativity that permeates the workplace makes
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  people unhappy and thereby reduces both attentiveness and
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  efficiency in the use of time. This result then contributes to
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  the vicious cycle of increased severity.
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  At some point, people quit the job or find ways to retaliate
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  for the negative energy or else it affects their health and they
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  suffer from various conditions that both decreases their
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  availability for the job and their concentration and ability
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  to act when at the job. On the other side, some managers
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  try to become cheerleaders for the team, dispensing excess
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  praise in an attempt to encourage and lighten the
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  atmosphere. This approach has weaknesses as
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  well. Artificial praise not only gives
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  people the sense they are succeeding when they actually
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  need to improve in their jobs, it also however, tends to
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  demotivate those who are strong performers when they see
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  mediocre or poor performance being encouraged and rewarded as
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  they can see that it is not real and it increases the burden on
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  them to carry the weight the other should be shouldering.
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  Such artificial praise also lets people know that the management
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  is not paying attention and is employing a form of falsehood to
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  try to make people feel positive about themselves.
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  What is needed is for a balance to be struck between intensity
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  of focus, discipline in the actions and needed support and
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  encouragement based on actual performance.
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  In other words, an approach based in truth, goodwill,
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  respect and harmony. Generally a manifestation of the
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  quality of satwa without slipping into either rigid
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  severity or anger. Generally a manifestation of
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  rajas, nor into a LAX and weak management style that papers
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  over the failures with a closed eyes.
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  Approach of artificial praise where does not actually do.
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  Generally a manifestation of Thomas Sri Aurobindo notes quote
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  to discourage anybody is wrong, but to give false encouragement
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  or encouragement of anything wrong is not right.
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  Severity has sometimes to be used, though not overused when
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  without it. An obstinate persistence in what
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  is wrong cannot be set right. It disciplining the subordinates
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  has to be done in the right spirit and the subordinates must
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  be able to feel that it is so that they are being dealt with
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  in all uprightness and by a man who has sympathy and insight and
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  not only severity and energy. It is a question of vital tact
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  and a strong and large vital finding always the right way to
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  deal with the others. In dealing with others there is
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  a way of speaking and doing which gives most offence and
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  opens one most to misunderstanding, and there is
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  also a way which is quiet and firm but conciliatory to those
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  who can be conciliated, all who are not absolutely of bad will.
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  It is better to use the latter than the former.
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  No weakness, no arrogance or violence.
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  This should be the spirit. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within,
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  Chapter 2. Looking at Oneself and Others,
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  pages 48 to 49.