OT: Corporate Politics
GACA
Un-retired: Met my ATF. Married her. Divorcing her.
For anybody that works at a corporation...
I am always surprised when Executive Management can't tell that the upper manager reporting to them is a complete and utter moron. A moron that it is so obvious to their peers and reports.
I always wonder how seemingly intelligent Execs hire/promote such obviously incompetent managers?
Seriously. I'm looking to get into an upper management position, for any exec members or people who hire decision makers, how are do you evaluate people?
I am always surprised when Executive Management can't tell that the upper manager reporting to them is a complete and utter moron. A moron that it is so obvious to their peers and reports.
I always wonder how seemingly intelligent Execs hire/promote such obviously incompetent managers?
Seriously. I'm looking to get into an upper management position, for any exec members or people who hire decision makers, how are do you evaluate people?
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When it comes to hiring execs, the general evaluation framework I apply is: executive leadership skills, enduring business impact of accomplishments, and business/organizational/product breadth & depth of skills. I find that, rather than organizing your qualifications into a timeline-based or project-based stream-of-conscioussness, if you organize your qualifications & accomplishments along those three main areas, it is far easier for a hiring executive to build the big picture of what you've done and what you are capable of. And in the interview, whether or not you can quickly build a clear picture of your strategic accomplishments, rather than give me a dump of a zillion unorganized details and make me sort through them with questions, is itself a huge test of how high-level a thinker you are.
Beyond competency, traits like loyalty, emotional balance and a committed attitude are key in my experience. Senior executives have broad areas of responsibility and are subject to a variety of ongoing political considerations, so they tend to promote people who they can rely upon (in a number of ways) and who won't make them look bad.
There are a couple things at play:
1. Management used to be a realm for engineers, those who best knew the product (think Henry Ford). It's now become more of a realm for sales, those who best sell the product. Sales is often better at communicating, understanding the politics and making deals happen, but isn't as good at understanding the technical side or details -- they hire Engineers to know that stuff. So, as a result, yes, management nowadays tends to be less detail-minded and "intelligent" as in understanding of processes and causes and effects, but more apt to have the connections to make deals happen and the persuasive skills to do so. Whether that's made things better or worse ... hard to say.
2. Part of the problem with intelligence is smart folks tend to dote on what is the best or right thing to do versus all other options and go into painstaking detail as to making something as great as it can be, taking hours or days. Honestly, this isn't real good for business, which isn't so concerned with things being perfect as it is with things getting done quickly and efficiently. That "jerk" that ended up being a manager? Yeah, he's a jerk, but he gets people to do what they need to do and gets stuff done. So of course the folks above him love him.
So yeah ... one thing I've come to realize is that "being smart" doesn't really help you all that much if you want to climb the ladder. If you're smart, I think the best thing you can do is find something at a middle or lower level that allows you to do the kind of thinking you want to do, make enough to survive, then have enough free time to pursue other passions that stimulate your mind more.
Engineer CEOs are making a bit of a comeback as everything becomes more process-oriented and advanced metrics take hold, but it's still going to be a while before we see the trend return.
If there's anything I've found after leaving school, it's that being smart almost hurts you more than it helps you in the business world. There are a variety of reasons why intelligence correlates with depression. And this is part of why I club -- for a small (sometimes not so small) price, the ladies come to me, I don't have to chat them up all that much, and I can feel a little less like I'm getting pushed around by those with power but no brains, even though I know I'll go back to it the next day.