Like the legendary DJ Deadmau5, our anonymous agency executive anonomau5 dons a mask to do his best work. This month his head honchos are clearly hanging out with men in gray suits.
I’m a bit of a Netflix fan and a bit of a Steve Carell fan too. So now the new series Space Force has landed, I’m a very happy man, especially as watching TV is about the only thing sanctioned by the man! I strongly advise everyone in the world to watch it, especially episode two.
You may think I’m going to go all political can talk about the fun it pokes at the current Dictator President of the US, but I’m not. In episode two (no spoiler alert required) the leaders of the organisation decide to ignore the vast experience of their own personnel and put all their trust in a monkey (literally). You can guess how it plays out. So why talk about this? Well for me the similarity between this comedy series and the reality of business life was too similar (and hilarious) to ignore.
How often have you been providing advice and guidance to your boss or to the leadership team only for it to be ignored? How often have you tried to convince them of the right thing to do only for them to do the opposite. How often have you seen them ignore the pleadings of their employees to onboard a consulting company and hang on their every word? How often has it turned out just as you predicted it would?!
I fail to understand the obsession the C-suite has with ignoring the often-sage advice that essentially comes for free from existing employees, but to instead pay huge sums of money to a consulting organisation to either tell them the same thing or something that is complete overkill. I personally have seen this happen so, so often that whereas before I could rationalise it to myself as an insecure executive requiring confirmation, now I just wonder how those people ever made it to the top. Seriously.
Obviously, there is great value consultancies can provide, if you’re branching out into a new business area, or country or considering a merger / acquisition etc. but for the bread and butter, surely you should have all the answers and knowledge already around you right? If not, then you have the wrong leadership team. I mean you should know your own space, you shouldn’t be the blind man requiring guidance.
So, listen to your people and do your job. Leave the consultancies to the stuff you truly don’t know.
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