Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

If you are a leader or manager, the people who work with and for you are watching and listening. Bob Sutton recently had a blog post with the theme being,

leaders get the behavior they model and tolerate

Most leaders and managers understand this little concept. Most manageres even agree with this little concept. Few, however, act like they understand it.

One of the managers I worked with in the last ten years was a great guy. I mean he was a G R E A T guy, the kind of guy you love to work with. He was kind, smart, and funny as well. He had one irksome habit:

he would tell us how he practiced duplicity with his bosses

Aaargh. Sigh, grit my teeth, slump over in my chair and twist.

One thing he would say time and again was, “I know that such-and-such is true, but I can’t tell that to Mr.-or-Ms.-big-boss.”

In other words, “I don’t tell my boss the truth.” Yet, he would expect us to tell him the truth.

People were watching him; people were listening to him, and people were doing what he was doing. Sometimes the world is a messy place. Nice concepts are nice and make sense, but living them in the world in front of people just doesn’t quite happen.