It has been my experience that the closer you get to the CEO position the more a person believes “I don’t have to know how to do the task, I just have to employ someone who does!”
As someone who has been a CEO (on paper, it was largely meaningless) before…yes…but also have some fucking humility and wisdom and the ability to know what you don’t know.
I don’t know shit, and I’ll admit I don’t know shit, and if I feel the need to comment on something I don’t know shit about, then maybe I’ll defer to someone who is better educated to answer. Jesus christ.
I’ve found there are two types of “leaders”. One are the people you describe, the others are knowledgeable staff who somehow ended up in management at one point and realized they had to stay less the idiots take over.
One also calls themselves “thought leaders” while the other group is still working at 8pm.
I’m no where near the CEO level, but I am a mid level manager. There are enough different things going on in my org that there is no way I could know how to do everything. However, I view my role as empowering and supporting those who do. I understand I can’t do the things, so I spend most of my time listening to those who can. The problems come when people start thinking they know better than those doing the work. I strongly believe I work for my team, and if that ever gets me out of alignment with upper management, I’ve accepted that means I’ll be let go. But this model has gotten me great success.
It has been my experience that the closer you get to the CEO position the more a person believes “I don’t have to know how to do the task, I just have to employ someone who does!”
As someone who has been a CEO (on paper, it was largely meaningless) before…yes…but also have some fucking humility and wisdom and the ability to know what you don’t know.
I don’t know shit, and I’ll admit I don’t know shit, and if I feel the need to comment on something I don’t know shit about, then maybe I’ll defer to someone who is better educated to answer. Jesus christ.
I’ve found there are two types of “leaders”. One are the people you describe, the others are knowledgeable staff who somehow ended up in management at one point and realized they had to stay less the idiots take over.
One also calls themselves “thought leaders” while the other group is still working at 8pm.
I’m no where near the CEO level, but I am a mid level manager. There are enough different things going on in my org that there is no way I could know how to do everything. However, I view my role as empowering and supporting those who do. I understand I can’t do the things, so I spend most of my time listening to those who can. The problems come when people start thinking they know better than those doing the work. I strongly believe I work for my team, and if that ever gets me out of alignment with upper management, I’ve accepted that means I’ll be let go. But this model has gotten me great success.