socialmedian: Leaders and Grunts

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Leaders and Grunts

Source: 43 People: Joe

Mar 06, 2008

Summary

At a former job of mine, every time some big hairy news was announced, we got a visit from a prominent member of the Board of Directors.

His job was to reassure us that everything would be alright, and that the board still had full faith in the company and its leaders. He usually peppered his talk with some personal philosophies or casual anecdotes about his life.

Without fail, I usually came away from those meetings feeling somewhat uninspired and disillusioned, but I couldn't put my finger on why. Was it that I thought he was being dishonest? That couldn't be it. Money talks and he was still putting his reputation out on a limb to back us financially.

A couple days ago, I read Joel Spolsky's article called Lessons I Learned in the Army, about how leaders can't lose sight of what it means to be a grunt. And it hit me. This board member's stories of difficulty finding valet parking, and his fancy loafers, and free-market economics lessons were all poisoning his message.

Or as Joel puts it: "Long after the general drove off, we remained astonished that he wa ...Read the full article

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