Are you a "Yes Man"? You might be surprised as I will explain in this blog.
Have you ever worked for a dynamic boss? I am talking about a boss who was both very competent and a good salesman. I know that you have. Have you ever been in a meeting with your boss where he or she made some kind of proposal with the objective of finding out if his group of managers agreed that it was a good idea? I have been in those types of meetings many times. What do you think that I found? I found a big group of "Yes Men".
Why are people "Yes Men" in the first place? It is because they want to keep their jobs and if possible, to get promoted. It is human nature isn't it? Why would you ever want to take the personal risk of telling your boss that his idea was worthless? Most would not want to do that. I know from experience that telling the boss that his idea is no good often bring the boss down on you big time. Why does the boss act like that when his manager only wants to be honest about the idea?
Many bosses get there by pushing their ideas and so why would they want to stop once the had the top job? Sounds logical to me. Like many good ideas they are mostly "luck", but those ideas that work out have many fathers, while bad ideas are orphans. I think that you can see the bias that operates in this area. If a boss is surrounded by too many "Yes Men" the die is set. The boss will be fed a picture that they are the smartest person in the room and it will go down hill from there. How many "flash in the pan" bosses that you have seen? Many!
What is the answer? We need more managers and people who want to get promoted to be more honest and not fall into the "Yes Man" category. It is like the "go along to get along" idea that I blogged on earlier. We need more people with the back bone to be honest and not cowards to share what they really think. Democracy depends of following the honest opinions of the voters, but if the voters are dishonest, where does that leave democracy? It is the same with our economy and business. I feel that we can do better if more of us were just a little more honest. Think about it!
