Leadership Wise

CHAPTER 1Business Books Suck

We've all been there. Your manager or the CEO or the head of HR has read a new business book. God help us.

All of a sudden, there they are on stage in the company all-hands meeting, gesticulating like a madperson, talking about some dude who climbed Everest and dropping bombs about what it's like to make decisions when you're “low on oxygen in white-out conditions.”

Hold up…Everest is now floating in the ocean? Ohhh! It's now a floating glacier. We've gone maritime. We're talking about how 80 percent of glaciers are below the surface—“people, processes, and technology.” You're trying to keep up with the shifting metaphor, but you're drowning in the cold, glacial sea of this all-hands rant.

Now we're on a boat sailing toward the glacier? Or maybe it's the competition sailing at us and we're the glacier? Someone is about to hit this glacier; it's unclear who at this point.

When the town hall is over, the leader has basically given the world's worst business book report disguised as a motivational speech. Meanwhile, you've gotta trot back to your desk and make heads or tails of how ramping a glacier in a Zodiac boat is supposed to change how you allocate your budget across hiring and software spend. Good luck.

Do business books ever make our lives better? Or do they just lead to the world's worst company all-hands meetings and even worse decision-making? We've all been “managed by a business book,” which is worse than having to read the book yourself. ...