Some of the simple observations I made indicate the need to question the authenticity of the leaders who talk more about these parameters. Many people like me are victims in many situations by simply talking these words as they are and unknowingly they become the target due to the hipocrocy of the same leaders. For example, if such hipocrite leader invites open criticism, you - like any innocent person provides some frank feedback about a few areas of improvement and the leader in general appreciates your frankness in public but will keep you in the hit list. You will never know about it in your circle and probably you share your excitement of the attention you received from the leader during the feedback and the kind of appreciation you received. You only realize the effect when you find yourself in the corner, when no leader picks you up for any role and you may be shocked when you come to know that all your managers were internally building negative opinion due to your "Open" feedback. But are'nt they claim to be encouraging such "Openness". The truth is any humanbeing likes Open feedback about anyone else but not about themselves. The same will be case when these pseuodo leaders talk about integrity, collaboration, and team spirit. Such leaders talk about collaboration when they are the beneficiaries. They talk about flat organization to others but worry about even mean things like possessing Cabins, Laptops, and Corporate Cell Phones.
If you ask for a title, you are a power savvy, but they cry for a cabin. And some of them write nasty exit letters when they leave the organization for reasons like not getting promotion or not liking to report to someone whom they believe as inferior.
I wanted to share a funny incident that really happened in one of my previous companies. There were two leaders always talking about team spirit and talking very low about hierarchical working style. Incidentally both of them were close allies to the Director of the company and came in to the organization through simple nomination rather than any recruitment process.
Whenever someone approaches them for concerns like Promotion, Hike, or good workplace they were eager to tell the associates about how low is their thinking and explain that why comes first than the individuals. While both of them have great differences among themselves they have this one common factor like many hypocrite leaders.
One leader came from Airforce Background (Wing Commander) and joined as a Consultant I want to call him as WC from now. Other leader is from Army (Colonel) and he too joined as a Consultant. I will call him Col.Both of them used to sit in adjacent cubicles. From the day one, the WC kept on talking low about the colonel because he as Wing Commander is higher ranked compared to Army Colonel (I dont understand why it matters when they are no longer colonels nor wing commanders!).
One fine morning, the colonel became the joint director (probably because he is more close to the director than his enemy :) and he desperately needed visitors place and the best place he found was the Cubicle of WC. When the WC went for a training, the highly enthusiastic Colonel got the cubicle vacated and made it as the visiting place for the Joint Director (for him). And he asked the Office assistant to move all the stuff of WC to another Cabin (better than Cubible ofcourse as per the standards of these leaders) and started using the visitor space.
When the WC came once to the office in the middle of training, he was surprised to see his place converted to visitor's place. He instead of checking with the right person (his enemy Col), enquired the office assistant on who did this and why. Poor office boy explained that it was the decision of Joint Director and showed him the wonderful work place (Cabin!!) elsewhere. Honestly that is much better place. But WC's Ego was hurt and he was probably upset simply because the movement happened without discussion.So he came at 8 AM in the week end (He never came to office before 10.30 AM in his life) and hurriedly moved all his stuff back to the original place. He asked the office boy to make all the changes and started sitting there even by ignoring the training. And I am afraid he was scared to go even to rest room as the place can be occupied by the respected Joint director again.
On the other hand, the Colonel came to office and noticed the change and started burning within himself. He called the boys and asked how it happened and was furious and fired the boys on why they obeyed WC's orders. He asked the boys to inform the Wing commander to vacate the space immediately shouting at them loudly ensuring that WC beside the cubicle can clearly hear what he said. But WC was quite determined and ignored all that and protected his space very well. the cold war went for 2,3 days and than the colonel sent a formal letter ordering the wing commander to vacate the place. The order dicated by him to the typist with as loud voice as possible and every word was clearly heard by WC. Still the typist typed the letter got it signed by COL and then circulated to Wing commander through internal dispatch process. It all took about a day while these two people were sitting side by side. However, the wing commander when received the order, tore it in to pieces and the eagerly watching colonel kept silent and continued to suffer from burning stomach.
Ultimately the Colonel talked to him and questioned him on how can a circular from Joint director can be ignored. Wing commander equally shouted and clearly communicated that he was ready to resign but can not vacate the work place. All juniors, office boys and even visitors had good entertainment on that day.
I do not want to elaborate on what happened later, because this is enough to explain how nastily can the socalled responsible and matured leaders behave for a work place. I wonder how these leaders have right to talk to any of their team members about some unknown terms like Professionalism, Integrity, Official protocol, commitment and other silly words that these people dont even understand.
I see some of my colleagues in the career who worried about their cabins, laptops and the company cell phones more than their life. There was one colleague who invited medical emergency when he was informed to vacate his cabin for accomodating a critical project team member.
I came across another leader who was desperate to have coffee but could not have it because the office boy was not available for 2 hours (For him, going to Coffee machine and getting a cup of coffee is not leadership. A new dimension ! )
I personally believe that a leader needs to first know how to be led, how to behave exemplary rather than making statements that he / she doesnt practice.
Why did I write this?
For some entertainment to myself :)
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