“If I knew then what I know now…” But that’s the way it always is. You are so busy in your day-to-day tasks at work that you don’t always pause to see the signs of mismanagement that may exist in your company.
Case in point, years ago I was attending one of our company’s many management meetings when one of my fellow managers leaned over and whispered the following in my ear (to paraphrase): “You can always spot the new managers. They are still under the delusion the top management wants to hear what they have to say.” He went on to say something along the lines of “our management meetings are not designed to discuss business – it’s a sales pitch, pure and simple.”
Now this manager had been at the company for several years whereas my tenure was measured in months. But as I thought about what he said, and observed who was actually trying to participate in that particular meeting and in the next several that followed, it was a true statement. Even with my relatively short tenure at the company, I too, had learned not to bother to try to participate.
It appeared that those of us with six months or more tenure at the company had learned to sit back and enjoy storytime (or, more often than not, we practiced selective listening while planning the rest of our day). Top management of our publicly traded company was disproportionately represented by former marketing executives – and boy could they tell a story. Unfortunately, they came to believe their own stories and neglected the reality of their own business. In fact, if you attempted to tell them how their own version of our company’s future did not mesh with the economic and business realities of the business your voice was silenced.
In retrospect, that should’ve been enough to prompt me to start sending my resume out. However it was not. I listened to my faulty logic which said the CEO and the CFO of a publicly traded company must know what they’re doing, I must be missing something. And so I stayed. Not until the end but well beyond when I should have.
After I left I stayed in contact with some of my former associates. Apparently, they came to work one day only to find that the doors had been literally chained shut. I don’t know the stories top management told after I left. But I can guarantee you that having the employees locked out of the business was never one of the ones they told while I was working there.
The take away: whether you’re talking about a specific boss, or a pervasive company culture where the upper echelons of management refuse to listen to issues or concerns expressed by lower-level management (and/or front-line employees) that is a sign that you should start paying attention. It is a big bold flashing sign shouting "Pay attention NOW."
Maybe you can fix the problem (it depends on how pervasive it is). If not, then maybe you can take action to safeguard your income (if not your job) before you become collateral damage. Business reality has a tendency to self-correct when top management lives in a world of make believe.
