Nomad Gypsies

I lead a team of gypsy nomads. The executive level must have an objective to realign their organization at least once a quarter. My team seems to be included in most of those realignments. I was just realigned again to a new director team.

Between August of 1996 and November of 2003, I had 4 bosses. That works out to over 22 months between boss changes. Since November 2003, I have had 7 bosses including the next one. That is a boss change every 10 months.

Each leadership change brings a little stress into my life and the lives of my team members. You never know if you will get a banzai ladder climber who will burn through people to get his next promotion. That is the fear, but fortunately it usually turns out to be untrue. The herd of those types of bosses was culled long ago. I had one and he was fired soon after I realigned out of his organization. I called him the buffoon.

buf·foon
n.
1. A clown; a jester: a court buffoon.
2. A ludicrous or bumbling person; a fool.

Never was a more accuate name given. His idea of impressing his leadership was to create 200 page Powerpoint decks on every aspect of the work his team did. He would also calculate the Return on Investment of the team's work using bogus formulas that produced astronomical dollar amounts and could not pass the first level of fiscal scrutiny. His leadership saw through the act very quickly and he soon became the butt of their jokes. While they were joking, those in his organization were sweating. The buffoon thought that his message wasn't strong enough and that additional accomplishments would make the impression he was hoping for. So he would press harder.

Deliverable upon deliverable were piled on each of the buffoon's direct reports. Soon, it became impossible to keep track of everything we were asked to do. I tried an approach I had never used before or since. When he asked me to do something that served no value other than puff him up, I refused. At first he was taken aback. No one had told him no in the past. He recovered by saying that he would just assign it to one of my peers, hoping to shame me into compliance. It did not work.

Many of his requests started to make absolutely no sense. For instance, he wanted a custom rewards program and job family created for his team. That is the territory of human resources, not individual work groups, so was clearly out of line. As word of his requests leaked out to other teams it served only to hasten his demise. He was soon realigned to a job he did not want, and made statements that got him fired. Good riddance. Since that time, my bosses have been good people. We sometimes disagree, but I have never questioned their motives.

I am sure the next guy will be the same. And the next. And the next.