Succession Planning
I know a man with a strange quirk. Although capable of fakery, deception, and mismanagement, he was always a good administrator in some ways. These were not the strange quirk. The quirk was an incredible sense of persecution and insecurity.
His latest exercise had the whole earth-and-heaven buzzing. He asked (not for the first time) that each of his staff members name the people that they wanted to have as their leaders in the next era. Of course, each ballot had the name of the writer on it. What an illusion of democracy!
As a previous participant, I have seen the hidden files. This is not about choice; it is about testing the waters of the red ocean for signs of trouble. The results of the poll would never be made public. As usual, it is also about control of information, lack of transparency, and a habit of manipulating people.
The problem he has, as acknowledged by those observing him from above and below, and besides, is that he has no legitimate or competent successors around him because of what he has done in the past. He now has to manufacture a guardian for his legacy; a truly competent successor might erase the memory of his time as dictator, but an incompetent one might sully the sheen.
His latest exercise had the whole earth-and-heaven buzzing. He asked (not for the first time) that each of his staff members name the people that they wanted to have as their leaders in the next era. Of course, each ballot had the name of the writer on it. What an illusion of democracy!
As a previous participant, I have seen the hidden files. This is not about choice; it is about testing the waters of the red ocean for signs of trouble. The results of the poll would never be made public. As usual, it is also about control of information, lack of transparency, and a habit of manipulating people.
The problem he has, as acknowledged by those observing him from above and below, and besides, is that he has no legitimate or competent successors around him because of what he has done in the past. He now has to manufacture a guardian for his legacy; a truly competent successor might erase the memory of his time as dictator, but an incompetent one might sully the sheen.
Labels: Leadership, Management, Strategic Planning, Succession
etched with acid at 11:41:00 pm
5 Comments:
Oh...under this grand scheme, was self-nomination possible?
@YHN: Hi there! Yes. I remember being told that I had the most votes for and the most votes against. Polarising much? :D
Ooh. Pseudo-Democracy.
/Sorrows
Quite indeed. This negative-vote thing just serves to make the whole affair more bizarre. Do you expect that the replacement might come from outside?
@YHN: There's a shortlist of replacements from outside. None of them is acceptable to the incumbent, most probably, or to his coterie. Each would probably want to bring it at least two half-decent deputies, for a start, to replace some of the existing sub-echelon. It is all very exciting to watch.
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