Chapter 11. Managing Up
We wanted the VP fired.
The architect, the director of product, and I wanted him out. It was a startup, and he was absent when we were grinding away on weekends. When he was in the building, his ideas felt reactionary and knee-jerk—he lacked vision. Most importantly, during a time when we were pouring our souls into the startup, he did not inspire us.
The three of us stood at the whiteboard in the boardroom for three nights, enumerating our reasoning, documenting our experiences, and cross-checking our evidence. After constructing our arguments, we finally scheduled a meeting with the CEO.
“What’s up?”
Our pitch was clean. Each of us had a well-defined role in describing, relative to our jobs, how the VP was a zero. Twenty solid minutes of incontrovertible professional negligence. Solid and sold. When we finished, the air was filled with potential.
“So?” said the CEO.
So? we silently thought.
“So, what’s your proposal?”
Proposal? Aren’t you the boss? Don’t you decide what…
“It’s clear you’re justifiably upset, but what are you going to do about it?”
What are we going to do about it? What are you going to do about it? You’re the boss.
On Experience
In order to appreciate this chapter, you need to make a leap—you need to believe that your boss’s experience is valuable. You need to believe and accept the fact that since he’s been doing this 10 years longer than you means his opinion is more informed. His decisions are based on something more than gut feeling ...
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