Every Day Your Boss's Agenda Takes Her For a Walk.

Watching owners walking their dogs (or is it the other way around?) the metaphors tumble out like hounds unleashed on a dog beach.

(Is it a ‘leash’ or a ‘lead’? Could whether an owner calls it a ‘leash’ or a ‘lead’ be a form of Rorschach test revealing insights into the psychology of the owner?)

The dog trots from one side of the busy footpath to the other and sniffs at the ground, stretching the leash/lead across the width of the path. Inattentive pedestrians absorbed in our headphones or gazing into the middle distance or otherwise daydreaming, trip over the leash/lead tightly running from the gormless owner’s grip to the dog’s collar.

We think we know where the boss stands.

We assume we know her position on an issue.

We think we know the direction she’s heading.

We think we know where her attention lies.

We predict how she will respond to us.

The problem is - we don’t always see she’s tethered to something else. We don’t see the leash of attachment, obligation, loyalty, debt, sycophancy, agenda, fear, trauma, hope, or her application for a new job stretching across our path between her visible position - and what she’s attached to - until we tumble over it in shock and confusion.

Every day, your boss’s agenda takes her for a walk.

Beware the trip hazard.