The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
The Cranky Middle Manager 107- All Bosses Are Dictators Chetan Dhruve
Posted on 16. Aug, 2007 by Wayne in Podcast
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #107
This is the reason I do this show; conversations like this one. Seriously, this week’s show is designed to cause trouble, stir arguments and make you think. Sorry, I know thinking isn’t what we do best around here…..
Chetan Dhruve is the author of Why Your Boss is Programmed To Be a Dictator. There, I said it…. well he did but the same thing. Does the modern corporation set up an inherently flawed system? We’ll cover philosophy, politics, work and pretty much everything in between. Share this one with your friends… and your boss if you have the nerve.
This conversation may spark strong feelings one way or the other. Let’s hear them! Drop me an email or post to this blog site.
Don’t forget if you enjoy the show, my new e-book is available for purchase: “The 4 Disciplines of Highly Effective, Leadership Exhibiting, Project Nailing, Cheese Moving Managers”. Buyers will also receive 100 Free Web Resources All Managers Need.
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the Cranky Middle Manager Show. Todays’ interview runs a bit long and I thought it was more important than a historical dedication. Besides we talk about what some schmuck like me will be dissecting years from now, so today’s news is tomorrow’s history.
3:18 The quote of the week tells us few monsters are worth the fear we have of them….. okay believe that if you can.
3:55 Welcom Chetan Dhruve. We first met on The Working Week podcast Episode 9 and talked about his book. I also wrote about it in Management Issues last month and also in this article from January The problem is not that bosses act like dictators sometimes… they are ALWAYS dictators, sometimes they are just more benign than others.
8:04 The Boss-Subordinate relationship is inherently a power game. It’s not done on purpose… it just exists. Warning… we are about to discuss “Systems thinking”. God help me….. never could get around Peter Senge or the Fifth Discipline. When you have an unelected boss and someone who is afraid of them, the emergent property is fear.
15:45 Don’t get defensive, it’s the system, not you. Gandhi and Mother Teresa were tough to work for. When someone has power over you, there’s a fear relationship and it breeds resentment.
20:00 This is not about you or your boss…dictatorships create their own outcomes and even a good person will succumb. The Stanford Prison Experiment is a great example. We start to veer into politics here….
22:43 The Iraq war is an example of this…. it’s not fear of George Bush as a Dictator, it was the fear of George Bush as a boss… George Tenet didn’t want to lose his job so he told the boss what he wanted to hear… so did their subordinates, and theirs, and their subordinates’ subordinates’ subordinates. This is a management problem, not a political one in Chetan’s view. Before you get too snooty and holier-than-thou about this… have you ever told the boss what they wanted to hear for way smaller stakes?
31:00 So what do we do about it? The solution is not perfect, but it starts with everyone getting appraised, they get to appraise the boss and the stakes are real. Way beyond 360 degree feedback…. imagine the future….. yeah, I can’t see it either but I’m a pessimist. Chetan talks about how hard it is and quotes Jack Stahl in last week’s episode.
Chetan’s Resources:
He listens to us… who knew?
He has read The Fifth Discipline, he’s a better man than I.