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How to be a leader when the vibes are off

chaoticgood.management

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Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#21

Post by JohnMakin »

> The right thing to do in this situation is to acknowledge that you see the situation the same way they do, but do it privately, within your immediate team only or in 1-1s. “Yeah, this new policy sucks, I get it. It’s going to affect me in negative ways too.” It’s really important that you validate the emotions that all of these aspects are bringing up in people.

This I wish more leaders did. It can be really demoralizing to the point of leaving a role when you hear company stuff that's blatantly false, in bad faith, or whatever - and your leader, who you know damn well is smart enough to see it as well, looks you dead in the eye and repeats the company line.

In other words, "don't piss on my shoes and tell me it's raining." I'd rather be told you're screwing me than being screwed and gaslit about it. No matter what, in the end I'm going to remember I was screwed and how you approached that.

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#22

Post by DangitBobby »

ajkjk wrote: post #4

Well, this advice is all tailored towards "how to keep your job and make your money as a leader when the vibes are off". But I and almost everyone else would prefer the question you're asking to be "how to start the revolution when the vibes are off"; explanations on how best to not fight the ways everything is going to shit are explanations of how to be complicit with it. For example, buying into the company message…

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The rusted wheel that won't spin when the cart moves gets replaced. If every manager refused to act like a good little toady, maybe this strategy would work, but that's not how the prisoners dilemma pans out in the real world.

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#23

Post by recursive »

ajkjk wrote: post #4

Well, this advice is all tailored towards "how to keep your job and make your money as a leader when the vibes are off". But I and almost everyone else would prefer the question you're asking to be "how to start the revolution when the vibes are off"; explanations on how best to not fight the ways everything is going to shit are explanations of how to be complicit with it. For example, buying into the company message…

Some of us have bills to pay.

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#24

Post by marcosdumay »

theideaofcoffee wrote: post #20

> Even when you don’t agree with decisions the company leadership is making, part of your job is representing and facilitating those decisions with full alignment. Naw, man. Do your work as you were hired to do, as an expert, disagree and push back against idiotic and clueless decisions, loudly and publicly. None of this militaristic, jingoist "the C-suite always knows best and we have to follow their 'orders' blindl…

That will put you ahead in some contexts or completely destroy your life on different contexts. And even make you ineffective for fighting against the problem.

Apply it smartly, and evaluate if forcibly changing your context isn't the right move for you. Blindly sticking to the anti-jingoist approach is as bad as blindly applying it.

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#25

Post by pavel_lishin »

ajkjk wrote: post #4

Well, this advice is all tailored towards "how to keep your job and make your money as a leader when the vibes are off". But I and almost everyone else would prefer the question you're asking to be "how to start the revolution when the vibes are off"; explanations on how best to not fight the ways everything is going to shit are explanations of how to be complicit with it. For example, buying into the company message…

> But I and almost everyone else would prefer the question you're asking to be "how to start the revolution when the vibes are off"

The fish rots from the head. You don't start a revolution within a corporate structure, because you effectively have zero power in any sufficiently large organization with sufficiently bad leadership.

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#26

Post by nsedlet »

Another factor with the vibes being off (at least in the US): mass outsourcing of jobs thanks to remote work. You used to have to be a multinational company with global entities and offices. Now you can be a 10-person startup with half your people outside the country.

When the world went remote many folks were happy with the better work-life balance. But it means that we compete in a ruthless global labor market.

That's why companies rejecting remote work is good for the American worker in some ways.

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#28

Post by dingnuts »

nsedlet wrote: post #26

Another factor with the vibes being off (at least in the US): mass outsourcing of jobs thanks to remote work. You used to have to be a multinational company with global entities and offices. Now you can be a 10-person startup with half your people outside the country. When the world went remote many folks were happy with the better work-life balance. But it means that we compete in a ruthless global labor market. Tha…

"remote" can just mean "far enough from the financial district that I can afford a little space" as it turns out. You're not WRONG but just being in the same time zone as your coworkers gets you 90% of the in person benefits and, realistically, it's too hard to work with a team that is on a vastly different tz.

Local can still be better than global while still allowing people to work from home and convene in meat space as needed

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#29

Post by throw725725168 »

nsedlet wrote: post #26

Another factor with the vibes being off (at least in the US): mass outsourcing of jobs thanks to remote work. You used to have to be a multinational company with global entities and offices. Now you can be a 10-person startup with half your people outside the country. When the world went remote many folks were happy with the better work-life balance. But it means that we compete in a ruthless global labor market. Tha…

> Now you can be a 10-person startup with half your people outside the country.

You can be even if a multinational company moves their employees back to the office.

If you chop off your limbs, not everyone can compete at that game, but why play it in the first place?

Re: How to be a leader when the vibes are off

#30

Post by ninininino »

dasil003 wrote: post #19
ajkjk wrote: post #4

Well, this advice is all tailored towards "how to keep your job and make your money as a leader when the vibes are off". But I and almost everyone else would prefer the question you're asking to be "how to start the revolution when the vibes are off"; explanations on how best to not fight the ways everything is going to shit are explanations of how to be complicit with it. For example, buying into the company message…

This is an easy reaction to have in an internet forum, and of course it will get a lot of support because it resonates with the rank and file, so you'll naturally get a lot of internet points at places like HN and LinkedIn. But as you rise in the org chart things get more nuanced and complicated. First, you have to pick your battles. You can stand up for precisely as much as your reputation allows, and in a large cor…

"I started working in 2000, and had a decade under my belt leading teams and becoming CTO of a Web 2.0 era startup before I made as much money as new grads expect to earn today fresh out of school."

The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.55% per year between 2000 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 87.60%.

In other words, if you were paid 60k in 2000 you would need 112200 to make the same inflation adjusted income (but note that income tax increases as you increase in income in absolute terms, so that new inflation-adjusted income is less net of taxes).

If you reached 100k in 2000 you would need 187k today (and again, tax makes it worse).

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