4 ms·

His point about the hypocrisy of leaders strikes a chord with my experiences of my employer. It almost seems like an unavoidable aspect of seniority: as though

by mft_ 5y ago

His point about the hypocrisy of leaders strikes a chord with my experiences of my employer. It almost seems like an unavoidable aspect of seniority: as though one day after a promotion you get taken into a dark room and taught the new corporate language, and how to not answer questions directly.

raxxorrax 5y ago
People think CEOs are kings of publicly traded companies. They aren't, they are employees themselves that are most exposed to market and government demands. You have the responsibility for economic success in the name of all other employees. That severely limits your ability to just be nice for a moment.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
  Kings are generally much less free in their decisions than most people think. Even the absolutist monarch like Louis XIV had to consider a lot of factors in his decisions to simply keep his head on the shoulders. Being king is dangerous: his grandfather was assassinated, and his grandson's son literally lost his head on a guillotine.
  - raxxorrax 5y ago
    True, that was a bad juxtaposition. Lack of responsibility can offer a lot of freedom in many cases.
  - zigman1 5y ago
    This is a fact that is often absolutely overlooked. History class does not give you space for proper historical, sociological perspective or mostly anything broader than sheer facts and narrative. I can not recommend this book enough: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Political_Survival https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Political_Surviva...
  - BeFlatXIII 5y ago
    An absolute monarch governing with God’s own authority on Earth can only do what he pleases so long as what he pleases is aligned with society’s expectations for an absolute monarch ruling on behalf of God.
- salawat 5y ago
  It's all fun and games until you're the one who has to pick up everyone else's slack. Self-determination is the luxury of the responsibility-less, the foolish, or the oblivious. The more and more of business I get exposed to, the more I realize the level of interconnection and constraint propagation is so high, it really does require an eyes fully open approach. That means making some seriously hard decisions sometimes.
trhway 5y ago
>as though one day after a promotion you get taken into a dark room and taught the new corporate language, and how to not answer questions directly. remove the dark room and that is exactly what happens, at least according to my manager friends from several BigCo-s. And not only "how to not answer questions directly", there is a lot of what can be summarized as how to manipulate the employees, etc.
underwater 5y ago
From a different angle: why do almost all people who assume power change the way they communicate? Alternatively, why do candid people not attain power? The answer is probably that being candid makes you vulnerable. This is a guy who would systematically attack management for their decisions. Yet he failed to connect the dots between his actions and theirs. In the real world you'll frequently find situations where there is no unequivocally good answer, but a decision needs to be made. In new companies leadership has more blind trust from employees that they can rely on. In mature companies where staff frequently challenge decisions it is easier for management to just present a smaller target and give non answers.
- allenu 5y ago
  Regarding changing the way they communicate, I think some of it is just a natural filter that gets applied to people who move up. At some point, you notice that the people who move up the management chain are more "diplomatic" and don't really reveal what they actually think, at least not in public. They toe the company line. People who are too candid can't be controlled and can't be trusted to do what may be in the company's best interests. If you don't agree with toeing the company line, you either leave or aren't promoted. At some point, a company needs its management to move in lock-step, otherwise it can't predictably meet its goals.
  - underwater 5y ago
    Which is the cause and which is the effect? You might have less candid people being promoted (survival of the fittest) or it might be that people become less candid (learned behaviour). I suspect it's more learned behaviour. I see my younger self in the author of these cartoons. I saw myself as the smartest guy in the room and would complain about everything as though the answers were obvious. Now I have more responsibility everything has become a lot less black and white. I realised that bitching about stuff in this way is cheap (and to be honest, I think it's intellectually lazy). It's also a privilege you lose as soon as you have power, because now it's your job to fix the stuff that everything is complaining about.
    - 5y ago

by mft_ 5y ago

raxxorrax 5y ago

People think CEOs are kings of publicly traded companies. They aren't, they are employees themselves that are most exposed to market and government demands. You have the responsibility for economic success in the name of all other employees. That severely limits your ability to just be nice for a moment.

Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
Kings are generally much less free in their decisions than most people think. Even the absolutist monarch like Louis XIV had to consider a lot of factors in his decisions to simply keep his head on the shoulders. Being king is dangerous: his grandfather was assassinated, and his grandson's son literally lost his head on a guillotine.
- raxxorrax 5y ago
  True, that was a bad juxtaposition. Lack of responsibility can offer a lot of freedom in many cases.
- zigman1 5y ago
  This is a fact that is often absolutely overlooked. History class does not give you space for proper historical, sociological perspective or mostly anything broader than sheer facts and narrative. I can not recommend this book enough: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Political_Survival https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Political_Surviva...
- BeFlatXIII 5y ago
  An absolute monarch governing with God’s own authority on Earth can only do what he pleases so long as what he pleases is aligned with society’s expectations for an absolute monarch ruling on behalf of God.
salawat 5y ago
It's all fun and games until you're the one who has to pick up everyone else's slack. Self-determination is the luxury of the responsibility-less, the foolish, or the oblivious. The more and more of business I get exposed to, the more I realize the level of interconnection and constraint propagation is so high, it really does require an eyes fully open approach. That means making some seriously hard decisions sometimes.

trhway 5y ago

>as though one day after a promotion you get taken into a dark room and taught the new corporate language, and how to not answer questions directly. remove the dark room and that is exactly what happens, at least according to my manager friends from several BigCo-s. And not only "how to not answer questions directly", there is a lot of what can be summarized as how to manipulate the employees, etc.

underwater 5y ago

From a different angle: why do almost all people who assume power change the way they communicate? Alternatively, why do candid people not attain power? The answer is probably that being candid makes you vulnerable. This is a guy who would systematically attack management for their decisions. Yet he failed to connect the dots between his actions and theirs. In the real world you'll frequently find situations where there is no unequivocally good answer, but a decision needs to be made. In new companies leadership has more blind trust from employees that they can rely on. In mature companies where staff frequently challenge decisions it is easier for management to just present a smaller target and give non answers.

allenu 5y ago
Regarding changing the way they communicate, I think some of it is just a natural filter that gets applied to people who move up. At some point, you notice that the people who move up the management chain are more "diplomatic" and don't really reveal what they actually think, at least not in public. They toe the company line. People who are too candid can't be controlled and can't be trusted to do what may be in the company's best interests. If you don't agree with toeing the company line, you either leave or aren't promoted. At some point, a company needs its management to move in lock-step, otherwise it can't predictably meet its goals.
- underwater 5y ago
  Which is the cause and which is the effect? You might have less candid people being promoted (survival of the fittest) or it might be that people become less candid (learned behaviour). I suspect it's more learned behaviour. I see my younger self in the author of these cartoons. I saw myself as the smartest guy in the room and would complain about everything as though the answers were obvious. Now I have more responsibility everything has become a lot less black and white. I realised that bitching about stuff in this way is cheap (and to be honest, I think it's intellectually lazy). It's also a privilege you lose as soon as you have power, because now it's your job to fix the stuff that everything is complaining about.
  - 5y ago