h2>Dating : Make the Money, Don’t Let the Money Make You
Corporate America makes it rain on its leaders. Money is always tempting you to compromise yourself to make more.
“Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants.”–Benjamin Franklin
Once you are in the top echelons of the work world, it is easy to lose yourself to the money.
One of the most dangerous times in a Leaders career is when they take a new position. Values are tested when your values do not match those of your new boss.
Foundation values must kick in to prevent long-term damage. Transitions are danger points. Changes provide the chance for everyone to show their true colors, good or bad.
Knowing that transitions are dangerous is often enough to keep a person from faulting when changing positions.
When taking a new position, a leader is in a vulnerable position. The workplace gets worst if their new supervisor is behaving in a way that makes them question their values. It is so easy to go along with the program when you are the newbie.
When your boss is acting in a way that is hurting your team, you must act even if it means telling the boss something he won’t like. If a conversation with your boss does not stop the behavior, then you must think of a way to maintain your values but get the problem solved.
The New Position
I took a job as a Senior Director at a large aerospace company.
When I walked into my office on my first day, the previous Director’s personal items were still there. The office looked as if he stepped away to get a cup of coffee. In reality, security walked him out while I was completing my paperwork in HR. I was the third Director in eleven months.
They walked the prior boss out for missing profit and shipping goals. Fortunately, Operations Management is my personal superpower. I’m good at leading and manufacturing. Slowly but surely, as we addressed problems, our team began to meet the objectives consistently.
The Dilemma
I was annoyed at my boss’s tendency to travel to my facility and take over my staff meetings.
Although we went from missing our objectives to meeting our goals, it wasn’t enough. My boss expected the team to beat the objectives. After all, he was paying me a stack of money and he let me know that he expected more than meeting the goals.
At the meetings, once the numbers weren’t going the way he wanted, he would curse. It would be “fuck this,” and “fuck that,” “fuck you” and “fuck them” and “fuck everybody.”
My boss said that no one was doing their jobs and we were all going to be fired. He thought that I was not doing enough to motivate my team.
No one was ever fired except the bosses (that would be me).
My supervisor would finish the meeting; I’d be left with my demoralized staff to figure out what to do next. The worst thing was that we had gone from missing our plan by 20 to 30 percent to making our plan. But the boss wanted more.
I asked my leader, “to stop coming to my staff meetings.” I did not mention the cursing. He agreed, but his behavior did not change. He was still showing up once a month.
I spoke with Human Resources (HR). My HR manager looked at me and said, “What do you want me to do? I can’t stop him. This behavior has been going on for years.”
When asked if HR would just speak to my supervisor, the HR manager told me, “No. I will not. I need this job. The last person that approached him on that subject is no longer with us.”
Ok, I see that it is up to me. I had to overcome a power imbalance with strategy, I could not force my boss to do anything.
The Solution
The next time he came to my building, sat down, and began to curse, I put my head in my hands and began to curse like a sailor with him.
I’m from Chicago, and I grew up on the rough side of town. For every curse word he said, I said four. When he got going, I said five to his one until he finally stopped cursing. He was embarrassed by my potty mouth.
My boss stopped cursing; I stopped cursing with him. At last, we had a conversation about the objectives.
No one can force their supervisor to do anything. You cannot tell your boss what to do, but you can exert influence over their behavior. It takes creative thinking, planning, and action. I did not allow my fear for my job or that money to stop me from acting.
My values were you cannot bully a team to better performance. My boss did not have that same values, so I was forced to do something. I did not want to participate in in his ongoing terror campaign against my team.
I found a way to keep making that money and to keep my values and sanity intact. You can too.
“Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing.” Sun Tzu’s Art of War, Weak Points And Strong
There is always a way; finding that balance is the key to success.
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Toni Crowe retired as the Vice President of Operations of a division of a multi-billion-dollar company to pursue her dream of being a writer.
Toni has written six books, two of which have won Reader’s Choice Gold Awards. Her bestselling business book, ‘Bullets and Bosses Don’t Have Friends was one of the winners.
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