Page 69 - Executive Warfare

Bosses

claim credit for both. But I’m not going to be happy if your career gets
better and mine doesn’t.”
Move toward the upper reaches of an organization, and even the pre-
tense of parental concern tends to drop away.You are now an orphan.You
cannot count on your boss to protect
you now that you are visible to the pres-
ident, the CEO, and the board. Mess up THERE IS A VERY
with these people, and you will be GOOD CHANCE
treated as roughly as Oliver Twist on the THAT YOU ARE NOT
streets of London. GOING TO GO TO
Your boss is not there to mentor you. THE FUNERAL OF
At this level, she wants you for what you THE BOSS YOU
know, not for what she can nurture in SPENT 10 YEARS
you. And you are not there to serve her WITH BETWEEN THE
out of childlike gratitude, either. AGES OF 30 AND
The first rule of your relationship 40. THERE’S A
with your boss is to understand that it’s GOOD CHANCE
a business transaction. That doesn’t THAT IF SHE
mean it has to be unpleasant. That does- OUTLIVES YOU, SHE
n’t mean some of your bosses won’t be WON’T COME TO
wonderful people. Some of mine were. YOURS.
But it’s a cold fact of ambition. If you
really want to get to a place where there
are the fewest possible people issuing you orders—and the greatest number
hanging on your every word—bosses are, at best, a means to an end. Most of
the time, they are merely the major obstacle standing between you and the
prize. Love them or hate them, what you really want is to get beyond them.

MAKE THINGS HAPPEN FOR THE BOSS
Though they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, bosses are all interested
in precisely the same thing—in having you make them look better. Any-

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