Surviving The Leadership Of Others - Martinette

Wow! The opening illustration of this 2004 article (also published in Fire Engineering) is brutal. Some leaders are compared to snapping turtles snapping up innocent baby ducklings in the pond every spring. They continue to do this until everyone learns to behave like snapping turtles in order to survive!

This article discusses what to do when you end up working for a snapping turtle leader. What do we do when we end up working for someone who does not share our values and concerns? Martinette discusses several related issues.

1. Change your perspective on the situation. Stop whining and consider the situation a teaching opportunity.
2. Happiness. Understand it is not your boss's job to make you happy in life. Don't focus on your unhappiness; focus on understanding and changing the unhappy situation.
3. Their right to be as they wish to be. Regardless of how noxious we may find their behavior, we have no right to determine it. We can't control other people.
4. Don't expect others to change. Don't waste a lot of energy trying to change a difficult boss. You may or may not be effective; and it isn't our responsibility.
5. Understand you first. Take a long look at yourself first. Perhaps your boss isn't the one who most needs to change.
6. Understand your boss. Take a long look at your boss - perhaps there are aspects to his/her background or character that might mitigate some of the difficult behavior.
7. Individual expectations. Take the opportunity to openly discuss expectations with your boss - both professional and personal.
8. Take advantage of style. As an Army major once told me on a mission in Honduras, "We must learn to become one with the bureaucracy, Grasshopper!" If a leader wants things a certain way and we are able to provide it (even if we hate doing so), why not play the game and see what happens? Speaking from my experience in Honduras, a few weeks a playing the leader's game ended up setting us free to work as we wished for the rest of our time in country.
9. Work to the middle of the two poles. If you're absolutely at opposite ends of the spectrum, at least look for ways to work toward the middle.
10. Get out of the pond and watch how the turtles operate. Step back and see how others interact.
11. Focus on something other than work. Sadly, sometimes we must learn to find our satisfaction elsewhere. While not withdrawing at work, intentionally stepping away emotionally can be valuable.
12. Resist the urge to fall on the sword. This will probably accomplish nothing and demonstrate nothing to other followers watching you.
13. Seek professional help. Make sure the problem isn't with you.
14. Move to another pond.
15. Don't burn your bridges. Even if you decide to move on, don't take advantage of the situation by burning your bridges. This is never productive in the long run.

Some helpful advice for gruesome follower situations. However, I will say that Ira Chaleff's advice on these issues is much more valuable.