Trigger Question #105:
You’re the boss. (Don’t be coy. You know every manager must act like a boss now and then to be effective.)
Because you’re the boss, you get to make decisions. And because you’re the boss, you get to decide based on incomplete data, with suspect information, resulting in uncertain outcomes. Mostly, you get to decide on your own. Alone.
That’s your job. You understand, don’t you?
But doesn’t it just get to you when you make a poor decision only to find out that other people had information that would have influenced your decision or even have changed your mind? Other people, like colleagues and subordinates. People you thought were on your side.
So what do you do next? Do you blame them? Or do you admit that something is wrong with… hmm… let’s call it your team culture? (Culture is just a word for the-way-we-do-things-here.)
Maybe you, with help from your colleagues, have created a dysfunctional work environment. For example, where you label the person who critically assesses ideas an obstructionist. Where the one who speaks the truth is undiplomatic. Where the expert hired for her knowledge is told that we’ve always done it this way. And where you promote the one who agrees with you, the one who tells you what you like to hear.
Maybe you designed a workplace where you make stupid decisions because others are unwilling to speak up. Or afraid to contradict.
Maybe, just perchance, you did this unwittingly. Because you have become immune to incomplete data, suspect information, disengaged subordinates, and people being, well, human.
But then again, maybe it’s just a boss thing.
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.
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Quote of the Moment:
“A hierarchy is where those at the top have ideas that those at the bottom ‘believe’ in.” The Chief Nonsense Officer.
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