In my close to three decades of corporate career, I have worked with many different people across all levels of the organization. From the most junior staff to C-suite and even Board Members who were in very distinguished careers in their respective fields.
One of the things I have observed is that meritocracy only goes so far when one is climbing the career ladder. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that those who have reached senior leadership and apex roles did not get there by their performance and track record.
However, one would meet one’s supposedly “upper and better”, i.e. senior management that behaved more like a middle manager when dealing with issues beyond their expertise. Their behaviour brought into doubt their competence and capability on how they manage to rise up to senior ranks within the organization.
One example was a Senior Director whom I did not directly report to but was peripherally involved in my area of work, which at that time was internal audit. This senior director received a query from the Audit Committee Chairperson on an audit issue where he did not quite understand how to address and provide a reply to her.
Being the Head of Internal Audit then, I was forwarded the query from the Audit Committee Chairperson by the Senior Director. Having served three Audit Committee Chairs and being a former Audit Committee Chairperson myself besides having decades of experience in internal audit, I replied to the Senior Director on the issues and provided the explanation which I believed was in sufficient detail that he could summarize or paraphrase and then reply to the Audit Committee Chair.
Lo and behold, after I had replied to the Senior Director, this was his next reply:
“Can you draft for me the reply?”
I was flabbergasted, surprised and shocked!
In my mind, I was thinking, goodness, a senior director is not able to comprehend my reasonably clear explanation to paraphrase and answer to the Audit Committee Chair in his own words?
Nevertheless, I proceeded as a good corporate staff and drafted a reply which the Senior Director took and sent off almost verbatim (word for word) to the Audit Committee Chairperson, without giving credit to me for providing the explanation or information.
Mind you, the Senior Director was well above my pay grade which in smaller SMEs would have been equivalent to a CEO or ED’s salary in a small company.
As a junior staff working my way up the career ladder in the past, I had been admonished by other C-suite bosses at times that staff needed to exercise initiative, be proactive and not be expected to be “spoon-fed” for work.
Yet, what I encountered was the total antithesis (opposite) of what had been preached to me when I was a junior staff.
Here I am, “spoon-feeding” my senior director who did not credit me for my work when he replied to the Audit Committee Chairperson.
I am sharing this story not to be bitter about what had happened but to illustrate an important life lesson I internalized over decades of working life.
Life is not fair.
It is not always the most competent and deserving that rise up the ranks. Promotion and progression is a product of many variables including performance, potential, networking, intelligence, emotional quotient, relationships with senior management, opportunities to showcase one’s work and luck etc.
My experience has been that you may occasionally encounter folks that leave you wondering how did they climb the career ladder while playing the corporate “Game of Thrones”?
There are definitely good bosses and senior management as well, who do the best that they can to meet the corporate objectives while taking care of their staff who are the ones who contribute much of the actual work that delivers on the corporate objectives.
I count myself lucky that in my earlier career with the Auditor-General’s Office under the then AG Mr. Chuang Kwong Yong and my former team leader Mr. Cheah Siew Teck where I learnt many applicable career lessons from them and others whom I have tried to share with mentees who I come across through the various mentoring programmes I have participated with NTU’s Careers and Alumni Office as well the Institute of Internal Auditors, Singapore.
I wish for you to also encounter good leaders and mentors in your own careers.
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