Page 67 - Executive Warfare

Bosses

While this book is about the many
“bosses” you acquire as you rise, this particular chapter is about your
relationship with that one person your organization calls your boss. Of
course, if you happen to be unlucky enough to work for one of those
matrix organizations where you not only report to the head of an
individual business but also to the organization-wide grand pooh-bah
boss in whatever your function happens to be . . . well, my condolences.
You not only have many “bosses,” you also have more than one actual
boss to keep happy.
And that is difficult, because the relationship you have with your imme-
diate boss is one of the oddest you’ll have in life. You generally don’t
choose this person, you generally don’t
care for this person, yet you have to
THE RELATIONSHIP
honor and obey this person.As you rise,
YOU HAVE WITH
that relationship only becomes odder
YOUR IMMEDIATE
and more slippery.
BOSS IS ONE OF
It’s complicated now because you
THE ODDEST
have some power of your own. You’re
YOU’LL HAVE IN
no longer just a foot soldier.You may be
LIFE. YOU
running a legion of 5,000 soldiers, and
GENERALLY DON’T
your job is to protect that flank and take
CHOOSE THIS
the Gauls over there. One minute you’re
PERSON, YOU
barking orders at your troops, who look
GENERALLY DON’T
to you for direction. Then the next
CARE FOR THIS
minute you have to ride the entire line
PERSON, YET YOU
and go to the general’s tent.And now it’s
HAVE TO HONOR
your turn to listen to orders.
AND OBEY THIS
You have to be very adroit at switch-
PERSON.
ing roles. At this level, I don’t care
whether your boss is a dictator, a
deceiver, a maniac, or a pussycat. I can guarantee you one thing: That boss
has a head somewhere between the size of a hotel room and an entire

47