How To Sabotage Your Leadership

In my first real job after college, I went to work for a large, international firm. Because of its size, and my job, my first task was to report to a nondescript office building off a highway in New Jersey for three weeks of primary training. I learned about the company’s history, its product, and the chosen process that sales and marketing decided I should be guiding clients through.

I arrived back in my “territory” fully trained, with three weeks and likely tens of thousands of dollars of knowledge in my brain. The following morning, I met my manager and was promptly told that now it was time for me to learn how everything works in the “real world.”

You probably had a similar experience. You might have even been on the giving, instead of receiving end of this same phenomenon.

But think about that for a second. It may have seemed like a great way to frame whatever was about to be shared. But really, it’s a terrible idea.

Yes. Middle and front-line managers often manage a tension between what their team needs, what works in their region, and the prescribed — home office approved — methods. But think about the message it sends to new employees when everything senior leadership has crafted is tossed aside in favor of a self-appointed guide to the way things reallyare.