Do I need management courses to manage things in life personal or professional?

Professor Ambrose Furtado was the one who around ten years ago introduced me to this sentence, "Reading between the lines." Never knew how big an impact this sentence would have on me. I never thought that active reading or listening could help me know when and where to stop. Every person I have known does this, "Reads between the lines." Sometimes a little less and sometimes a bit far too much. And of course age, inferiority complex and other such factors play an important role. Management 501 was a class that explained a lot about effective communication. Not that it said anything new that I did not know, but it gave me enough Ah Ha! moments. And at the end of the course I heard myself say," OK so the moral of the story is reading too much or too little from in between the lines can create problems."

Simple example. When  husband and wife have a tiff. Wife makes it a point to tell him (Of course! when husband asks as to why she is angry?) and husband listens and then comes up with another argument. And then wife comes up with a counter argument and the end result is a mere compromise from both sides (A solution that Management 501 suggests as very effective and successful).

 Something that is not needed in the very first place. Management 501 categorizes such problems as egoistic issues (As if people do not know!). And that it can be solved using simple techniques like a third party mediator or writing problems in a piece of paper or by listening more and not talking too much. Well! These solutions as a couple we never tried. Why for various reasons. Like a mediator is a bit too much to have for petty tiffs that happen between couples like us all the time. Writing is not my husband's strong point and listening is an art which both my husband and I have failed to master.

Anyways that is besides the point. The point is that when fight happens between my husband and I, it is either because my husband reads too little or because I read a bit too much from in between the lines. 

Keeping this in mind and the principles of Management 501 I decided to stop reading too much or too little. I will not say that it is easy to maintain a balance but is not impossible either. I am trying my best to strike a balance and trust me, it is work-in-progress. 

Forgiveness is easier to say but hard to do. Well but I would like to add that when you are married for almost four years what you learn or get used to do, is forgive. Because you realize that fighting for days is a boring thing since at least for me I am left with no one to talk to at home. And as my mother says,"Marriage is one institution that teaches you so many things." And I feel that what is best if you are married  is that if you are into MBA or management you get to apply those principles. At least that is what I do. And so far some have worked and some have not.

 Personally I feel every wife around the globe is a strategist working at her very best and a negotiator whom no one can beat. She negotiates with her in-laws, her husband and kids. Mothers are so accustomed to negotiation that they probably negotiate even with GOD all the time or probably threaten the almighty. So you see there it is management in full play.

That is one reason that I did not enroll in too much of management or organizational politics classes because, as a wife and that too an Indian wife, I deal with politics and negotiation every single day of my life. I am inherently the best at dealing with politics. At least that is what I think. Hence I chose finance and international business as my concentrations at a time when I can do live case studies on stuff like crumbling economy, banks on run and so on. 

OK that was justification of why finance over management. Now to talk about how I apply management in marriage let me mention what happened yesterday.

Well, Yesterday I did not exactly get what I asked for from my husband and I told him that I was angry at him and sent him an email that probably hurt him. So what did I do. I communicated directly. For now  I implemented the first step of solving a conflict in management. 

In the evening when he comes back we will have confrontation. Again second step in management and finally we will sort our problems out.

 That is I will get what I want and he will get me whatever he can now find here in the US since he is already back from India. So third step under Management 501, that is, Compromise, accomplished. 

Finally the last step which no one probably till date has mentioned in any management text book is that my husband and I will get a bottle of wine, drink, kiss and make up and wake up the next morning as if nothing ever happened. 

How about that. Can any book beat that?

So you see based on my experiences I feel that I do not exactly need to learn management because every woman is born a manager. Look around you. From Cleopatra to Hillary. There are managers, strategists, negotiators everywhere. So no my final verdict women at least according to me do not exactly need to take management classes.