Woman’s bleak conspiracy theory about the kinds of workers who will ‘NEVER’ get promoted is hailed as ‘painfully true’

Oh, man, I don’t know if this is a conspiracy or the embodiment of one of the styles of management.

In my opinion, there are two ways to oversee a workforce management team. As a boss of management, you can either surround yourself with people that are smarter than you, or dumber than you to accomplish your mission.

If you choose smarter than you, typically, you will be able to collaborate more effectively, with divisions of tasks being accomplished by a team that has capability.

If you choose dumber than you, you’ll be stuck spending time overseeing their work, correcting it, re-assigning it and generally taking longer to achieve similar end results.

However, if you choose smarter than you, you do open yourself up to underlings wondering if THEY are capable of doing your job and taking your position. If you choose dumber, you are generally more secure in your position.

I’d contend that the people that are more incompetent or unworthy of their position that know they’re in over their head choose underlings that are dumber, leaving them one less worry as they continue their own climb up the corporate ladder without someone knocking them over on their way up.

I’d also contend that the person who taps into a pool of intelligence that is as good or better than themselves may also recognize a rising star and take action(s) to prevent that person from passing them in ascent upward.

I’ve worked for stellar management and abysmal management in my career, and a bunch in-between. My very best experience was a senior manager that surrounded himself with people as smart or smarter than him, and took a mentoring role to make room on his own ladder for others to pass.

I asked him about that when he was retiring. He said that he never had to work that hard because he had great people around him. He didn’t begrudge any of them rising past him, because he always reminded everyone to remember where they came from and the little guys beneath them. And, if he ever needed a favor from upstairs, he always had a resource and a direct line to the former underling, now one of his bosses.

He was middle-level management, and I had no idea that the CEO was a former underling. But, when he, the CFO, the COO and CTO all traveled cross country and showed up to the regional office for the retirement party, and bringing really kickass gifts in tow, along with my own feeling of losing a phenomenal boss and mentor, I knew this guy was spot-on.

We all have bosses. I think the majority of them lean more towards incompetent and insecure in their positions, with the guy I mentioned being a refreshing anomaly. But, I have tried my best in my career to emulate that guy. Because there are three types of people in your life. The person who’s wake and funeral you will not attend. The person who you’ll make some time to attend their wake for a little bit, but no time for their funeral. The person who you’ll gladly take the time to not only attend the wake, but, the funeral, the burial and the luncheon as well.

For the guy I mentioned, I’ll be at his wake, his funeral, his burial and the luncheon. I’d also be honored to be chosen as one of many who hope to be his pall bearers for his final walk on terra firma.

That’s a bingo.