I had the displeasure of working with a company recently that had a Vice President who thought so highly of himself that he actually said, “All ideas come from me!”
Now, you have to understand that this is supposedly a culture where they say they want new ideas and ask at meetings for ideas to be brought forward. I wouldn’t normally put an idiot like this in the spotlight since most organizations are big enough to handle a blow-hard like this guy, but this one is at the top of the food chain in the franchise.
In fact, they promoted him to his new rank and gave him free reign of the place. If that doesn’t make you wonder what the future brings for this franchise then you aren’t thinking very clearly.
No I am not going to tell you which franchise it is. I will see if you can spot it. Tell me in the comments what you think. I like the franchisees a lot and will not cause a ripple in their sales because of a man with less common sense than a south end of north-bound mule. No need to let his name be known either. The ones closest to this guy can spot him in this article. I will leave it to you to figure it out.
So what do you do with a guy who thinks all ideas come from him? I left the business. All my ideas are my own and I won’t let someone else take credit. That is one reason I put my ideas here. I was quoted the other day by a group of students. One of them thought the quote came from someone else. They pulled up my website to show the doubter the article.
So, how many good employees leave because there is a moron at the front office? Plenty. Remember Bulldog Rule Number 14 – “The right people never want to work with the wrong people.” If you think you are going to be able to move your business forward with someone no one respects at the helm, you are delusional. I don’t care if you really, really like him and he was a childhood buddy or even if he has dirt on you. If you want your business to grow, you have to remove the loud-mouth.
Respect is something I lead with in every conversation. OK, so here on my blog, I can be direct enough to make people cringe. If you are not respectful of your team or your brand, I am going to call you out. I respect the people who earned it even if they don’t realize it. Leading with respect makes it easy to find the people who need to go. They push back when the see respect. It’s their kryptonite.
When I start a conversation, I like to move slowly. I learn more about a situation when I can make the other person shift gears. They think they are leading the conversation.
