You can't expect your officers to be loyal to you unless you're loyal to them... When they have that confidence in you, they'll go to the ends of the world for you.
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@1crx+1cCi6XGG Thanks for sharing this piece! I might add - true leaders have achievable visions and aspired to rally for the visions with genuine care (protecting) for their soldiers. Sadly, true leaders don't exist at EM - only commanders. All - observe closely through your daily interactions with your "leaders", you will find the truth.
I heard this from someone a while back and try to paraphrase as It resonated when I heard it the first time…and saw this topic discussed.
Six Kind of Leaders (paraphrased)
1) The leader runs up the hill in front of all his/her troops and takes the 1st bullet in the head and dies; the troops continue on but then ultimately bring the leader’s body home experiencing tremendous grief.
2) the leader runs up the hill right beside all the troops, yelling encouragement and takes a bullet to the body; and some of the troops stop to provide immediate medical aid, but the leader dies within an hour on the hill; the troops then continue on and ultimately bring the leader’s body home experiencing tremendous grief.
3) the leader runs up the hill behind his troops, instructing many 18 - 23 year old men in the prime of their life to provide cover fire and clear the area so the leader can traverse the live fire zone with reduced risk; and upon successful mission the leader thanks the troops for their tremendous efforts and the troops thank the leader for his brilliance in capturing the hill.
4) the leader runs up the hill after the 3rd wave of attack, and a private puts a 5.56 round into the back of the leaders head by accident because of the lack of clarity in mission and the broad confusion of the mission; and the troops after the battle carry the leaders body off the batttleground, but only about 50% of the troops shed a tear for the lost leader.
5) the leader decides to run up the hill, and two privates had colluded before the battle field action was initiated to ensure a friendly fire “accident” occurred. No one picked up the leaders body and no one shed a tear.
6) the leader starts running up the hill in front of all his troops, and he his purposefully tripped by the first wave of privates behind him. Two privates then pick him up and say they are taking him back down the hill, and if he resists they will knock him out and carry him unconscious back to base, and then tell him the troops will not let him die that day on that hill as he is too valuable to the mission.
Leadership is only earned; it is beyond comical that anyone self anoints themselves as leaders because of being assigned as a group lead or supervisor or manager or vp or p position.
You can’t be a leader because you say you are a leader, you can only be a leader if others, uncoerced, say you are a leader.
Number 6 exists, but only rarely like a unicorn.
Number 1 and 2 are aspirational, and rarely achieved but they are in all organizations.
Number 3 was the norm many years ago but is a dying breed but many still remain.
Number 4 and 5 … all that can be said is very sad state of affairs if they are in your organization.
@OP Long long time ago, it used to be with mutual loyalty. It was destroyed decades ago. Who did the destruction? Nowadays, the convenient mindset in my opinion is - let's make a deal.
A shift in mindset does the trick, I view myself as a walker. Wage for my time. Be happy and do not be greedy.
If you want loyalty, get a dog.
All OP is saying is if you have hearts and minds of team they will move mountains for you. If you don’t good luck.
The way this company selects future “leaders” is the problem. Total BS system. You can’t tell at 22 who will be the best and who will be the worst. System is flawed. Giving people HiPo attitude causes problems as they start to develop god complex.
Yeah, what @hub said. EM isn’t the military, or a calling, or whatever else they tell you to get you to do more work for less pay.
Corporations need to stop acting like they’re a branch of the armed forces. It’s tone-def and counter-productive.
- OEF/OIF Veteran
So the EM management are the officers, supposedly ? I thought they’re a group who get their positions because very early in their career, when they are totally unproven, some high-level mediocrity sponsors them based on the impression that “they’re just as arrogant, pushy and ignorant as me at their age”.
Have you heard of the expression “raising through the ranks” ? It’s exactly the opposite of what EM does with its “officers”. Do you think a private in a real army would be told as soon as recruited that “you’re going to be a general, it’s a done deal, because I like you” ?
The right word here is not “officers”, but “parasites”.
OP has it backwards. Leaders should LEAD. and should BACK their people. That is where trust and confidence come in.
An officer in uncon IT has a pillow of the Apple po-p emoji sitting against a window in her office. It’s a little hard to have confidence in her or her po-p. Seems to be juvenile.
I gave up on “my officers” long ago. The faux/farce ranking system sealed it for me.
@hub+1cCi6XGG the people care so much because they were sold a career to them saying if they worked hard and ranked well they would have a good career. Then because of mgmt. bad decisions that social contract was broken but the bad actors at the top continue cover for each other and continue to earn hefty money at company's cost without any punishment for their bad decisions, and still have the audacity to tell worker bees how underpaid they are and how well paid worker bees are. People feel betrayed and therefore feel hurt and care so much after giving in so much. Do you know how we force good undeserving people at the bottom rank and then how badly we classify and treat them? Did you even see how inhumanely and insensitivity the layoff was carried out? If not, then just see all insensitive LI posts from mgmt. slaves saying how great it is to work at XOM and how happy they are making $$$ and bad for people who were forced out.
Now you know why Exxon loves to hire former service men and women ha! They even have an open job posting for just service members. Again, this is not against service members at all but posting out culture XOM has created and maintains but fails to acknowledge and own it.
Some thoughts from the quasi-military mentality which drove EM into the ground...
EM is not the military, it’s just a job. Stop caring so much and be happy.