The Art of Decision-Making (cont'd)

NOTE: Make sure you read the preceding post titled "The Art of Decision-Making" before reading this post.

Let's review yesterday's quiz, shall we? If you answered A to all of the questions from yesterday's quiz, then you are probably a young, altruistic college hire. Good for you. Unfortunately, nobody else in the workplace is like that. So allow me to save you from years of frustration, false hope, and confusion with management by offering one simple anecdote.

If there is ever a decision to be made by management where the result will:

A) Benefit the entire company

B) Benefit your boss, and your boss only

Your boss will always choose option B.

This anecdote is probably the best tool you can use for all your future expectations. As simple as it seems, it can be easily dismissed by some. After all, we each come out of college with an altruistic outlook on life, and we expect others to be like-minded. In addition, we are constantly told by our executive leadership, middle management, HR, and training classes to always do what is best for the company, customer, etc. because when you do that, everyone benefits. “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

But in the real world, there aren’t that many good, altruistic people out there. To complicate matters, the few good people get left behind, stabbed in the back by the do-nothing brown-nosers who claw their way into positions of leadership, who only let their no-good buddies follow them in. So the decision makers with the power to “do what’s best for the company” are the very individuals who got there by doing what’s best for themselves-only. So you shouldn’t be surprised when they make selfish decisions that are only beneficial to them. That kind of decision making is what got them there in the first place.

Because expecting the worst from my superiors is the best strategy, I throw rocks.