Any Advice on Dealing with "Look Good" Managers? 15

[vpl]

My boss and I had a discussion this morning about our upper management. We both agreed that the current upper management in our organization is more concerned with "looking good" than in "doing the right thing." They are also, by their own admission, looking for the next job up in the company. Since I have a few years left to retirement (23+ with the government, and counting down), I want this to be a good place to work, not just a place for self-promotion.

Anyone have any thoughts on POSITIVE things that I can do, as a senior engineer, to help my upper management care about "doing good" rather than just looking it?

 

[reichertc]

It's good to see some people don't put their own image first. As an engineer who's only been out of school for a few years, Ive had the opportunity to work under both types of managers. By the time they get to the senior level, I don't think there's much you can do about their attitudes, they will be fairly ingrained. My only advice for you is to keep doing the right thing. The junior people underneath you will respect you a lot more and will listen to what you have to say. I know that was true in my situation. Eventually, people who are only concerned with looking good will find themselves surrounded by the same type of people. Over the course of about four years, the company that I worked for lost almost all of their "doers" and are just left with "lookers". Last I heard, they were having a very dfficult time landing any new jobs.

If you weren't so close to retirement, I'd suggest leaving and going to a company with a better attitude. Since you sound like you're going to stick it out, just be the best role model for us young guys that you can be...

 

[FLisa]

There is very little you can do to change the attitudes of upper management. Whatever system put them in upper echelons is the one they know, understand, and at this point prefer.

If you can manage to do good and look good at the same time, since they are not always mutually exclusive, you may just get some at your level to follow you, as well as some newer employees.

I don't know the particulars, but in many jobs I have had it was possible to do both.

 

[RDK]

Lets see- 23 years should make you in your mid to late 40’s, unless you have some industry experience. That makes it at least 10 or so years to retirement.

The way I see it you have 4 options, you can run, you can hide, you can fight or you can join them.

Running- then that means looking for a job elsewhere. You run the risk of getting into a similar situation (or worse). With 23 years government experience then you might have trouble transferring into the private sector. Not in terms of doing the work but in terms of jetting a job. After 15 years government I had trouble being taken seriously as a consultant for a couple of years. The typical response was government worker = no knowledge of how things really work.

Hiding- that means lie low and wait for retirement. Don’t make waves, don’t take risks, don’t take responsibility and don’t get into position to take any blame. Practice CYA, file memo after memo to be able to deflect blame for when things go wrong (and they will). You will have to find any satisfaction and fulfilment in your life outside of work either in family or volunteer work.

Fighting- take them head on. You can try to show the look good managers for what they are. Just remember what they really are, is the clones of higher management. Higher management is most likely the look good type as well. (That’s how you get higher in government in the first place since eventually the ultimate look good manager, a politician, hires you) You better have a perfect case because the higher managers who hired your boss see any attack as an attack on their decision to hire the look goods and they will not like having their hiring decisions questioned. Their main reaction will not to be to correct any problems that you bring to light but to protect the management chain of command. In other words if you are going to take a shot at the king, you better hit on the first try because you will not get a second chance.

Join them- become a look good type. If it’s not your nature then it will make you miserable. This might look like an easy solution but it’s the hardest to pull off, unless you are a look good type in the first place. If you were then you would not have asked the question.

Personally I’d run. I’d take the hit and join the private sector. In smaller companies the doing becomes more important than the looking good. The job satisfactions are greater and the monetary rewards are commensurate with your contribution. Stay away from large companies as the same forces that make government what it is act in large companies.

You don't give a lot of details about your exact situation, so it is very difficult to make any recommendations that will work for you. You have to access your own situation and look at your personality, your work history, your personal situation and the options available to you.

Good luck

Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion

http://www.kitsonengineering.com

 

[TheBlacksmith]

Become a salesman. Wrap your "right thing" appropriately so they see it as making them "look good". I'm not sure I can tell you to do this, I've done it, can't always do it, but its the proverbial win-win. Study your boss, see what pushes his good buttons and highlight those "features" of your design/plan. Feed them what they need to pitch
"their" idea to their boss. They get to "look good", you know you "did it right".

Good luck - think about retirement and be a survivor.

Blacksmith

 

[Wirenut]

Be invisible. Enjoy your life away from work. Get a hobby. Don't be a trouble maker. Do what your told at work. Conform. Live long and prosper. Wirenut

 

[etch]

There is also the old classic of putting the Legally competent person scenario in front of them.

One classic problem is being asked to certify something that is not suitable for the job. The manager pushes cause he is wearing the sales or production hat, and you baulk because to are being a concerned individual. To make them think, tell them that by informing them (in writing, you keeping a copy of course) that this product is not suitable for service and that if anything happens to it, being the legally responsible person, and in full knowledge that the components are defective, or suspect, they would not only face industrial legal action but most probably civil action too. This is usually enough to consider the prospect of how the look to fellow workers, compared to how they would look to fellow inmates.


Just a thought, and it DOES work, ,but when used sparingly

 

[Miper]

The nuclear field is famously political. Your bosses will never get away from the need to look good. Naturally, the best way to look good is to both be good and make sure it's obvious.

I was lucky enough to learn early that, no matter what you do, it's often more important to be convincing than to be right. Applying that fact while keeping your integrity is quite another thing, especially in jobs where you are not allowed to make certain mistakes -- aviation, nuclear, etc.

Above a certain level in any large organization, it is often impossible to find anyone who is willing to look bad in order to do anything new or different, even if it is the "right" thing. Usually it has to do with budget -- stay under, rather than spend the money to do something "better". Rather than admit a mistake, they just disagree that it's better, or simply say that the budget comes first. And so on.

But then, why should a boss risk his career because one of his people disagrees with what he is doing or not doing? You may believe you are right, but are you? He is living in a different paradigm. Is yours really any better?

Of course, in large bureaucratic organizations, things happen because that's the way it is. There just isn't any way to change it, even when you are absolutely right and everyone knows it. I guess that's what bankruptcies and revolutions are for -- to rid the world of fossilized organizations. You are undoubtedly in one of these organizations, and it will plod on as it is until something outside shakes its foundations. You cannot do it from the inside, no matter who you are.

Only small, entrepreneurial companies avoid these pitfalls. Are there any in the nuclear field? If so, I strongly recommend you go there, if possible. If not, then concentrate on the small challenges your job does give you and try to get as much enjoyment as possible from fixing them.