If You are So Smart, Why Don’t You Take His Job?

August 31, 2009 | Comments Off

Many acquaintances complaint about the poor management of the companies for which they work. I feel bad for them for two reasons:

If management is really bad, you should run for cover — or at least a better job. Bad management tends to destroy companies and with them the jobs of the people working for them. You do not want to be in a job about to be destroyed.
Out of Alignment – If you are not in alignment with management’s goals, chances are you will not be promoted – as you may not be a good fit in that company anyways.
Either way, you need a career change! It could be taking your boss job, if possible. Chances are, finding an organization where your skills and personality is aligned with the management is an easier option.

Sometimes, however, we just have to recognize management is not that bad. There are two realities we should confront:

We may not be better – Sometimes we think we will be better at running a company (or department). That is easy to say when we have run an organization of comparable size and complexity. Most of us have not. Even if we think that we could be better – others, even smarter ones or more experienced ones, have not recognized it. It may be due to our lack of marketing. Or our lack of desire/motivation. But chances are, if we have not taken his/her job, we may not be better at that job than the person we are criticizing.
If He/She Gets Better, He/She Has to Move To Another Company – Many small companies lack extraordinaire management. That is due to a very clear reason: good management can take a company from point A to point B. Great management can take it from point B to point C. And Extraordinaire management can take it from point C to point D. If your company is at point A and your management is extraordinaire, he/she will be offered a job at a company that is at level C for a lot more than he/she is earning right now. Unless he has a superior amount of equity on your company, he will be inclined to jump ship. Small companies have it harder to compete for the better managers: it is a fact of life.

Next time you think bad about management, think about why it is bad, if it could reasonably be improved, and how it could affect you.

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