A Boss that's smarter than you

What do you do when your boss is smarter than you? Or thinks he is...? After which, comes up with this gargantuan plan for the company that encroaches on how operations have always run (Some hints on what you shouldn't do appear as well)
  1. Congratulate the almighty prescient leader like it's Godsend.
    Some people would think that, hey, gee... what if the idea has loop holes...?
    Well, what you shouldn't do is tell him about it, that's what we peons are for - to clean up the mess. With all due respect, not all of the ideas are bad, some of it may even be half good; but like all bosses, they see things at a higher plain of existence, the details, well...

    Secondly, because the idea came from the top dog, that's 75% of the battle won. You've just got top-down muscle to bulldoze through bureaucracy (<-see blog entry)
  2. When the resident expert tries to put up challenges and threats to the plan?
    That's the opportunity to shine baby, SHINE! Stand up and declare to the rest of the world that the threats and challenges are so minor that its nonsense. Tactfully, to make them techies happy, provide a political solution that goes along the lines of "that problem can be solved via top-down arm twisting"... most techie issues go back to a top-down levering anyway, so remember that; it works 95% of the time.

    Keep them techies happy, they're a considerate bunch that's unfortunately, too conservative to run organizations. However; they're good at crossing the 'T's and dotting the 'I's...

  3. What about that other 5%
    Hey, that's where you nominate yourself to lead the task force to come up with the mitigation plan and be the "man" to present it to the boss. Everyone loves task forces... heck; it even sound good in your resume. But remember, THE PLAN STILL GOES ON...!
Lastly, bosses are humans too... for all their training to say the 'right' thing and pat people on the back for a job well done; they need positive feedback too.

Problem is, bosses can't be human because of the power that they wield; and because of that, most people end up telling them stuff that he wants to hear for fear of a lightning bolt. This spiral of ass kissing and radioactive fall out clean up are the activities that kill even large organizations...

No comments: