Why middle-managers must rely on corporate doublespeak
A manager has to make many decisions for which he is accountable. Unlike an entrepreneur with his own business, however, his decisions can be reversed at any time by someone higher up the food chain (and there is always someone higher up the food chain). It’s important for your career that these reversals not look like defeats, and more generally you have to spend a lot of time managing what others think of you. Survival depends on a crucial insight: you can’t back down from an argument that you initially made in straightforward language, with moral conviction, without seeming to lose your integrity. So managers learn the art of provisional thinking and feeling, expressed in corporate doublespeak, and cultivate a lack of commitment to their own actions. Nothing is set in concrete the way it is when you are, for example, pouring concrete.
via nytimes.com
The unfortunate upshot of this style of doublespeak is that you lose transparency and honesty. When people are too busy looking for ways to cover their ass and avoid looking bad, the business suffers.
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almost 4 years
ago
11 responses
Patrick Au-Yeung
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rchk
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John Haydon
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Nash
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Ning Zhang
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Ola
said
So true.
Stephen Beynon
said
It doesn't have to be like the article. The author is acting as an apologist for people who don't get it. Suspect the author has never seen good.
creacion design
said
I agree that that is how people do act, but I do not agree that is how they must act. As a long time small business owner now working for one of our major corporations I can say first hand that being honest and consistent actually makes you stand out among the weak middle management of today's corporate world. Most middle managers default to doublespeak because they lack the substance or confidence or both to impact the company. They sense if not rationalize the fragility of their jobs.
spotcher
said
just joined posterous. great system. secondly, on middle management - it's just striking how similar the nyt breakdown is to how america runs its politics. caution is the order of the day and as a result very little happens.
Oli
said
So what about the solution then?
Outsourcing? Consulting? Auditing? Firing?
And keep small and medium co. And set teams, 6 p. Max,
Following previous observation within large structures,
To keep proactive active and dynamic developments
With dedicated responsabilities
Or what else?
Let me know I need more original ideas
no just basic blured as I said.
I am poorly educated in management and need to read
More concrete brief and efficient settings
To improve our business.
Let me know the worth and best only.
Outsourcing? Consulting? Auditing? Firing?
And keep small and medium co. And set teams, 6 p. Max,
Following previous observation within large structures,
To keep proactive active and dynamic developments
With dedicated responsabilities
Or what else?
Let me know I need more original ideas
no just basic blured as I said.
I am poorly educated in management and need to read
More concrete brief and efficient settings
To improve our business.
Let me know the worth and best only.
danwilliams
said
I think you are right, it's all about decisions. In consumer products companies as Buy Generic Viagra
online, general managers are often given the title brand manager or category manager. In professional services firms they can do everything about increase its markets.
online, general managers are often given the title brand manager or category manager. In professional services firms they can do everything about increase its markets.