Advice Line | Bob Lewis » Why the "best" executives are rare, and what to do about it

October 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Why the "best" executives are rare, and what to do about it

TAGS: General

Dear Bob ...

I agree with you 100% regarding the "best" executives ("People first, methodology second. Or perhaps third." Keep the Joint Running, 9/25/2006). But this is a rare breed indeed!  Why does it seem that most (OK, probably not ALL) executives blindly watch the numbers, are constantly posturing, and are TOTALLY disengaged from the working level of the organization? What's more, they seem intent on discrediting and destroying the "best" executives.

Call me a pessimist, but that is how my experience has been. Of course my political skills are lacking, so perhaps I speak from ignorance.

- Pessimist

Dear Pessimist ...

I think the main reason is that they're taught to act this way. Or, rather, they're taught about all the importance of finance, process, methodology and so on, but not about the human aspects of business leadership and management. They're applying what they've learned, and not applying what they didn't learn.

Plus, most of those who acquire power are people who want power - too often for its own sake instead of for accomplishing something useful. There's a word for people like this ... actually, there are several. Many are in Yiddish, and the Anglo-Saxon ones aren't fit for a business conversation.

- Bob

Dear Bob ...

OK, I was trying to be nice and not put a label like megalomaniac or some such thing on our subject execs. But your point is well taken.

So the $64 question is, how do the working stiffs and first level managers survive in this kind of environment, without getting stabbed in the back or trampled, and still get work done?  This is a topic which you always seem to migrate to in Advice Line, with no clear answer. Or maybe there is an answer, and I just fail to see it, or am unwilling to use it.

- Still a Pessimist

Dear Still ...

I have covered it in the past, but perhaps not from the angle that works best for you.

One of the big challenges for many people is the gulf between How I Want Things to Be and What I Need to Do to Be Effective. I end up in discussions of this nature all the time. They generally take the form of, "Here's what you can do to work with this sort of character," countered by "I'm not comfortable working that way - my question is how to get my manager to learn to be more like I want him/her to be."

So the starting point is to understand that you aren't going to change them. What you can do, assuming you'd prefer to neither leave nor to live with the situation, is to learn techniques that make you more effective in dealing with them. What makes this whole subject uncomfortable for many is that, depending on your personal code of ethics, the techniques in question might cross the line you draw that separates being persuasive from being manipulative.

- Bob

Posted by Bob Lewis on October 9, 2006 08:43 PM

RATE THIS ARTICLE: