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I Forge Iron

We don't heed warnings


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As managers. Simple math will tell you what ego hides. 50% of everyone is statistically  below average at everything, you can only hope that you find one thing that you really shine at in life. The human factor is that the higher up the ladder you go, the worse the ego problem gets, until you reach the level that led to the "Divine Right of Kings".

A Gallup poll suggests that 70% of people change jobs because of bad management.

Morally weak or questionably sane individuals will abuse any power that they get, as long as they can get away with it. That covers the gamut from schoolyard bullies to homicidal dictators.

Long ago, there was a series of books about the 'Peter Principle'. Redux, people keep getting promoted (or elected) until they end up somewhere they are totally our of their depth, but can not or will not go backwards. An example from my acquaintance, an engineer who taught classes part time, then full time, then program chair (where he cleaned house), Division Director, and finally Dean. He just wanted to retire with his pension and reputation intact, so lots of things got handled with kid gloves or just swept under the rug that should have had aggressive actions taken.

Also, common sense is like oxygen: the higher you climb, the thinner it gets.

Seriously, when have you ever sat in a bull session where each and every person there was SURE that they could do a better job than those clowns in charge. Call them Monday morning quarterbacks, or just folks watching the news, the vast majority think that they know better than everyone else in the room.

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In my experience, one of the things that the vast majority of people who believe they could do a better job than those tasked with making the decisions have in common is they have never actually done the job.  It's easy to criticize someone else when you have no responsibility for outcomes.  Most of the time people who think they could do a much better job are basing it on the relatively small slice of the big picture to which they have access, but it rarely occurs to them that there are a lot of other factors that go into managerial decisions. I have noticed a marked difference in mindset between those who have previously held managerial positions and those who never have.  Guess which ones are more likely to be "team players" and react reasonably when faced with the fallout of decisions made by someone higher up than themselves.

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Those who can, Do.

Those who can't do, Teach.

Those who can't teach, Administrate.

Makes sense to me, put the people who aren't really good for anything in charge. What's the problem?

The theory of management is based on the notion a person doesn't need to know how to do a job to run it. Handle the books maybe, run the plant?

Frosty The Lucky.

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Dunning-Kruger strikes again?    Many of us have probably experienced managers who couldn't understand how the physical world could oppose their wishes. 

On the other hand; I've had a boss that fought the Peter Principle; he was a supervisor but was paid at the same rate as his Boss's Boss. He had lead the small team that had developed a system that was netting 3 to 7 billion dollars a year---back in the '90's.   They wanted to promote him way up the ladder; but he was an engineer and liked working hands on with his team and was able to understand that about himself.  He was a great hands on supervisor...

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I've known some people who have achieved great success in one field and done extremely well in another -- not because it was guaranteed, but because they were really good at learning. Moving to a new field, they had the humility to acknowledge their shortcomings, and already had well-developed skills in how to study and how to go about applying the results of their study.

It's a rare gift, though.

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While I agree that job specific skills may not translate to leadership/management, I think there's another angle here. Being good at something doesn't necessarily make it enjoyable.

For example, I'm effective and productive in stressful situations involving angry people.  

There are lots of leadership applications for those characteristics , but experience shows I'll get stuck putting out fires.

 

 

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