I had a manager once who was so bloated by their self-importance and liked to remind us CONSTANTLY they were The Manager. I found a report they wrote to a major government funder in which they described the client group we worked with, mainly homeless and/or with major mental health issues, as 'ostrich-sized by society'. I didn't have the heart to correct them since they were The Manager.
I am in senior leadership at an IT company in the people space. Ive been working in the team lead/manager and above area for about 7 years, in 4 or 5 different companies.
The lack of not just skill and aptitude in many of my colleagues, but the complete lack of desire to be good at leading has been a driving force in my mahi really. Trying to get that uplift for our employees.
Its pushing shit up hill.
A technical speciality is pretty easy to track someones skill and productivity in- units or pieces of work completed, features delivered etc
But when your job is people its harder. Everyone experience is subjective and often when things are "mostly fine" a shitty posturing boss you can ignore. But covid kind of changed that. When we felt like the world was burning and there was so much sickness and stress, the HUGE gaps in the ability of so many leaders became overwhelmingly stark. Good leaders come into their own during crisis- crap ones take everyone and everything down with them. They almost unanimously lack self awareness or skills in moderating their own behaviour, the opposite of what you need.
And the TRAINING focus does my head in. You cant train new ways of thinking, the servant nature of leadership, self awareness or the value of structure to support peoples growth to managers that believe they are already amazing and who have brains that fundamentally cant prioritise outside of their own motivations and desires.
In my current role, i see a lot of potential and love the challenges these issues present. But its my first role in 5 where i havent felt compelled on a daily basis to run away screaming and flailing my arms in exasperation at the cynical, lazy bullies that are in charge.
So their is hope.
But its a crack of light under a door level at the moment.
I'm a manager. My only job is set people up to be excellent. That means I sacrifice my own happiness so others can succeed. Life is miserable so I may as well help other people while I exist.
Yes there are lots of terrible managers out there, but then there are lots of terrible people, so it's hardly surprising that some of them are managers.
This is way too accurate a summation of corporate life. In a more macro example the current NZ prime minister is a classic example. He thinks the country is a business and acts in the same way as when he was a CEO. Rewarding the wealthy at the top and cutting costs by impacting those people who actually do the work to make the country a productive and positive place to be. The only difference is people don’t have to be nice to him the way you have to be nice to your boss.
Thanks for this. Question for Paul: has ANYONE ever got a PhD out of writing up what I call the Skipping Stone school of management? It’s the one where the wunderkind arrives in an organisation with dazzling ideas for change, comprehensively fucks things up but has already been promoted elsewhere when the magnitude of his (usually “his”) incompetence becomes apparent.
The longest job I ever had was as a sex worker and the mangers in brotels are a whole other type of psychopath, mostly all the same. But then again your not talking about that type of manger so I'll slowly walk away from the keyboard 😂😂😂
1. A couple months ago I googled "best disturbing documentaries" when looking for something to watch and Tickled was on almost every list I looked at. 👍
2. The title of this article immediately caught my attention because not even half an hour ago I was ranting to my mother about this very thing. She was talking about scheduling issues at her job, which are a constant problem there, and I was like, we're in this time rn where so many people are struggling, people with lots of credentials are applying to a hundred jobs and not getting a single response, yet we've got managers at places like my mom's work who are so very clearly incompetent enjoying full employment with zero consequences.
My dad used to frequently cite the Peter Principle, a theory that proposes that people rise to their level of incompetence. The concept was presented as satire, but it turns out to be true all too often. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
3. Yesterday when I let my dog out, I noticed that the big tree in the backyard was in bloom. Never paid attention to that tree before, but I noticed it now because it looked familiar...after a closer look and quick sniff test, I realized that yes, I have one of THOSE damned trees. Thanks to your FB episode on it, I'm now researching ways to get rid of/replace it!
I don’t think all managers are mediocre or brain dead, but it also depends upon whether that person is wanting to grow for the betterment of the staff or the company and their place in it. I’m a huge fan of Simon Sinek, and he often tells the story that the number one priority of a manager is the employees, not the customer. That’s my approach to management. Look after those who are doing the job.
But I’ve had my flaws and when I relapsed during the pandemic, my alcoholic thinking led me away from treating the staff fairly to being a self centered prick. I say all that because if a manager really doesn’t care about the staff, that’s where you find those greedy, brain dead assholes. When I was only caring about me, it put everybody in the hot seat to where it wasn’t about them anymore, but about my ability to keep my position so I could keep drinking. It’s one of my biggest regrets yet I take full accountability for it. But sadly, those who are more important and higher up the food chain than I was won’t do the same. Human beings are but canon fodder to afford them the luxury of having a high paid job. Their position makes them feel invincible.
It’s a shame knowing that about Vice as it was one of my personal favorites for years. Watching that downfall was sad. As was Andrew Callahan on Channel 5 on YouTube. Though I think he learned his lesson, it’s still sad to see people act like that.
IMHO, it all comes down to servant leadership. Too many bosses lose sight what it was like when they weren’t the boss (or they’ve always been the boss, which is even worse).
As a slight side-track, HR departments also have a significant role in the existence of idiot managers. These are the people who make appointments without proper checking of CVs, so that in come cases, total frauds with made-up qualifications get appointed to senior positions (does no-one ever think to contact the university they supposedly qualified at?). They have also been know to appoint people who have completely mismanaged other organisations, and whom they have been warned about by those who had the misfortune to work for them. There have been several high-profile instances in NZ, some of them involving hospitals, which really are the places that should be making sure the staff are who they claim to be...
I'm getting so many Luxon vibes from all the comments and from Hayden's letter....is this a symptom of too narrow a world I inhabit? Or is our new Prime Minister an example of the Peter Principle at play?
I feel like, as a middle-manager (or perhaps a little more senior) that a lot of what Hayden suggests is right, but I also feel that as a lefty, my brain is wired so differently to those who excel, climb the management ladder at the expense of others and have little understanding of the carnage they leave behind.
All my decisions are prefaced and closed with the questions "is this the right thing to do?". It's such a simple philosophy at face value, but requires a bit of a re-wire when considered in the context of modern business ethos (profit at all costs).
Managing business and people with positive, productive goals in mind versus "will this make me look better" or "Can I make more money by shitting on someone else" means we have low staff turnover, an awesome collaborative culture and a workplace where people belong as part of the team, not because they're here solely for their paycheck.
I'm not going to lie, when I arrived here 9 years ago I was a bit of a dick, but the boss saw my abilities, helped me iron out some ignorance, embrace a culture of mutual success and we've grown massively while employing more staff at better rates while running a productive, profitable company in Aotearoa.
End result, when people do ever leave they go off to be the sort of managers you want to work for (with)!
The fact that I snuck this past my boss David Farrier without him suspecting a thing really just proves my point
I had a manager once who was so bloated by their self-importance and liked to remind us CONSTANTLY they were The Manager. I found a report they wrote to a major government funder in which they described the client group we worked with, mainly homeless and/or with major mental health issues, as 'ostrich-sized by society'. I didn't have the heart to correct them since they were The Manager.
Its so accurate.
I am in senior leadership at an IT company in the people space. Ive been working in the team lead/manager and above area for about 7 years, in 4 or 5 different companies.
The lack of not just skill and aptitude in many of my colleagues, but the complete lack of desire to be good at leading has been a driving force in my mahi really. Trying to get that uplift for our employees.
Its pushing shit up hill.
A technical speciality is pretty easy to track someones skill and productivity in- units or pieces of work completed, features delivered etc
But when your job is people its harder. Everyone experience is subjective and often when things are "mostly fine" a shitty posturing boss you can ignore. But covid kind of changed that. When we felt like the world was burning and there was so much sickness and stress, the HUGE gaps in the ability of so many leaders became overwhelmingly stark. Good leaders come into their own during crisis- crap ones take everyone and everything down with them. They almost unanimously lack self awareness or skills in moderating their own behaviour, the opposite of what you need.
And the TRAINING focus does my head in. You cant train new ways of thinking, the servant nature of leadership, self awareness or the value of structure to support peoples growth to managers that believe they are already amazing and who have brains that fundamentally cant prioritise outside of their own motivations and desires.
In my current role, i see a lot of potential and love the challenges these issues present. But its my first role in 5 where i havent felt compelled on a daily basis to run away screaming and flailing my arms in exasperation at the cynical, lazy bullies that are in charge.
So their is hope.
But its a crack of light under a door level at the moment.
I'm a manager. My only job is set people up to be excellent. That means I sacrifice my own happiness so others can succeed. Life is miserable so I may as well help other people while I exist.
Yes there are lots of terrible managers out there, but then there are lots of terrible people, so it's hardly surprising that some of them are managers.
I'm instantly wary of any manager or executive who refer to the company as a 'family'. And it makes me wonder how they treat their actual family.
This is way too accurate a summation of corporate life. In a more macro example the current NZ prime minister is a classic example. He thinks the country is a business and acts in the same way as when he was a CEO. Rewarding the wealthy at the top and cutting costs by impacting those people who actually do the work to make the country a productive and positive place to be. The only difference is people don’t have to be nice to him the way you have to be nice to your boss.
Thanks for this. Question for Paul: has ANYONE ever got a PhD out of writing up what I call the Skipping Stone school of management? It’s the one where the wunderkind arrives in an organisation with dazzling ideas for change, comprehensively fucks things up but has already been promoted elsewhere when the magnitude of his (usually “his”) incompetence becomes apparent.
The longest job I ever had was as a sex worker and the mangers in brotels are a whole other type of psychopath, mostly all the same. But then again your not talking about that type of manger so I'll slowly walk away from the keyboard 😂😂😂
And this is why Office Space is such a cult favorite for us office drones. It came out in 1999, but it’s still relevant today.
1. A couple months ago I googled "best disturbing documentaries" when looking for something to watch and Tickled was on almost every list I looked at. 👍
2. The title of this article immediately caught my attention because not even half an hour ago I was ranting to my mother about this very thing. She was talking about scheduling issues at her job, which are a constant problem there, and I was like, we're in this time rn where so many people are struggling, people with lots of credentials are applying to a hundred jobs and not getting a single response, yet we've got managers at places like my mom's work who are so very clearly incompetent enjoying full employment with zero consequences.
My dad used to frequently cite the Peter Principle, a theory that proposes that people rise to their level of incompetence. The concept was presented as satire, but it turns out to be true all too often. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
3. Yesterday when I let my dog out, I noticed that the big tree in the backyard was in bloom. Never paid attention to that tree before, but I noticed it now because it looked familiar...after a closer look and quick sniff test, I realized that yes, I have one of THOSE damned trees. Thanks to your FB episode on it, I'm now researching ways to get rid of/replace it!
I don’t think all managers are mediocre or brain dead, but it also depends upon whether that person is wanting to grow for the betterment of the staff or the company and their place in it. I’m a huge fan of Simon Sinek, and he often tells the story that the number one priority of a manager is the employees, not the customer. That’s my approach to management. Look after those who are doing the job.
But I’ve had my flaws and when I relapsed during the pandemic, my alcoholic thinking led me away from treating the staff fairly to being a self centered prick. I say all that because if a manager really doesn’t care about the staff, that’s where you find those greedy, brain dead assholes. When I was only caring about me, it put everybody in the hot seat to where it wasn’t about them anymore, but about my ability to keep my position so I could keep drinking. It’s one of my biggest regrets yet I take full accountability for it. But sadly, those who are more important and higher up the food chain than I was won’t do the same. Human beings are but canon fodder to afford them the luxury of having a high paid job. Their position makes them feel invincible.
It’s a shame knowing that about Vice as it was one of my personal favorites for years. Watching that downfall was sad. As was Andrew Callahan on Channel 5 on YouTube. Though I think he learned his lesson, it’s still sad to see people act like that.
IMHO, it all comes down to servant leadership. Too many bosses lose sight what it was like when they weren’t the boss (or they’ve always been the boss, which is even worse).
As a slight side-track, HR departments also have a significant role in the existence of idiot managers. These are the people who make appointments without proper checking of CVs, so that in come cases, total frauds with made-up qualifications get appointed to senior positions (does no-one ever think to contact the university they supposedly qualified at?). They have also been know to appoint people who have completely mismanaged other organisations, and whom they have been warned about by those who had the misfortune to work for them. There have been several high-profile instances in NZ, some of them involving hospitals, which really are the places that should be making sure the staff are who they claim to be...
I need to say this. I’m an ex nurse with a Masters degree. Hospitals were never run by doctors. They were run by nurses.
I'm getting so many Luxon vibes from all the comments and from Hayden's letter....is this a symptom of too narrow a world I inhabit? Or is our new Prime Minister an example of the Peter Principle at play?
I feel like, as a middle-manager (or perhaps a little more senior) that a lot of what Hayden suggests is right, but I also feel that as a lefty, my brain is wired so differently to those who excel, climb the management ladder at the expense of others and have little understanding of the carnage they leave behind.
All my decisions are prefaced and closed with the questions "is this the right thing to do?". It's such a simple philosophy at face value, but requires a bit of a re-wire when considered in the context of modern business ethos (profit at all costs).
Managing business and people with positive, productive goals in mind versus "will this make me look better" or "Can I make more money by shitting on someone else" means we have low staff turnover, an awesome collaborative culture and a workplace where people belong as part of the team, not because they're here solely for their paycheck.
I'm not going to lie, when I arrived here 9 years ago I was a bit of a dick, but the boss saw my abilities, helped me iron out some ignorance, embrace a culture of mutual success and we've grown massively while employing more staff at better rates while running a productive, profitable company in Aotearoa.
End result, when people do ever leave they go off to be the sort of managers you want to work for (with)!