No Greater Threat.
There is no greater threat to a person dependent on positional power than a subordinate with a better argument and an audience.
Airmanship.
Airmanship.
Pilots, aircrew, and anyone involved or interested in flying knows what ‘airmanship’ means.
They know what a compliment it is to say of a pilot: ‘She demonstrated fine airmanship’.
What is the equivalent in a workplace? In a boss? In a board? Executive? Worker? Manager?
It appears the only equivalent is ‘Leadership’.
Perhaps explaining why ‘Leadership’ is both over and mis-used.
Why haven’t workplaces developed an ‘airmanship’ equivalent over the years?
What about the term ‘workmanship’?
Is ‘workmanship’ confined to manual, artisanal labour - and even so - how seldom do we hear of anyone being described as ‘demonstrating fine workmanship’?
‘Deskcraft’? ‘Thoughtship’? ‘Executiveship’?
Language tells us a lot about a culture.
Words matter.
In the absence of an ‘airmanship’ equivalent, we’re reduced to complimenting someone as being ‘a hard worker’. Or ‘busy’. Or ‘working late and on the weekends’.
Thus, while aircrew refine their situational awareness, cockpit scans, flight preparation, and other technical and attitudinal skills in pursuit of airmanship, the 13% or so of us who are not disengaged from our work strive to work ‘harder’ or be ‘busy’.
Or worse.
Nominate for the Aspiring Leader Programme.
Eject, Eject, Eject.
Pilots facing the decision to eject from an unstable aircraft often report thinking two things in quick succession:
‘This can’t be happening’, and
‘What must I have done wrong?’
‘What must I have done wrong? is the burden of competent people of integrity and humility who accept agency and personal responsibility for their lives.
Like a Drunkard.
The bad boss stumbles along like a drunkard, supremely confident in their judgement and poise, oblivious to their staggering path and incoherent mutterings.
The bad boss attracts sycophants who cheer on their boss’s wisdom and navigation skills.
Thanks to the hidden efforts of the workers with mortgages, enough works out to create and strengthen a false sense of confidence in the meaningless meanderings of the bad boss.
Contradictor.
All decision makers need the benefit of a contradictor.
Not the annoying contrarian, devil’s advocate argumentative type.
The person who values the better argument over keeping the peace.
Every boss needs to be worthy of a good contradictor.
The Unthinkable.
The task of anyone involved with child safety begins with making the unthinkable obvious.
We Affirm Them.
Every day we continue working for a bad boss we affirm them.
Even if we privately disengage, we only strengthen the bad boss’s conviction that, but for her firm leadership, we’d all run amok.
No Surfing.
The job of the boss is to hold back the entropic waves of oppression, injustice, mistrust, and abuse of power.
Not to surf them.
Recap.
Your Widget is where you want to be.
A good decision is one that advances you towards where you want to be.
Good decision making is a deliberate process of inquiry that advances you towards where you want to be.
Your process of inquiry leaves a path behind you.
If you look around and at least one person is following you …
…you’re leading.
Vigil.
Changing the world demands nothing less than hunting down and rooting out of our subconscious all the limiting beliefs inherited from our families and teachers, naming and debunking them, then maintaining a constant vigil of our behaviour to prevent visiting them, especially those disguised as virtuous, upon our children.
Commentry.
‘This place is terrible!’ they mutter. ‘Someone needs to do something.’ they complain.
‘Did you see what she did?!’ they decry. ‘How does she get away with it?!’
The Boss is a Jerk.
Many go to work to literally disengage.
Work is a break from the pressure and anxiety of being a grown up.
Turn up. Predictable. Few surprises. Follow a routine. Follow (mostly) clear (mostly) directions for (mostly) clear outcomes.
Good social life, too.
Surrender autonomy and agency to the boss in return for having someone to blame for your unhappiness.
Boss getting a little uppity in their demands and causing a little pycho-social hazard?
Don’t worry. The government will rescue you.
Work is respite care from Life.
Daydream on the journey home of all the things you could achieve with family and work.
If only the boss wasn’t such a jerk.
