Growing or swelling?
by Miki SaxonRan into a great quote while reading an article about a modest hedge fund manager (sounds like an oxymoron). The comment, about partners who became too impressed with their success, was made by John L. Weinberg, former senior partner at Goldman Sachs.
He said, “Some people grow and other people swell.”
Brilliant comment, and, unfortunately, too applicable to a growing number of bosses.
I don’t need to elaborate the point here, there have been dozens (hundreds?) of articles written about the growing ranks of celebrity CEOs, and other high profile business people, who have bought into their own press releases. Swollen bosses, from CEOs to small business owners to managers at almost every level, happen all the time.
The question I want to pose here is: Are you growing or swelling?
You see, it doesn’t matter if your entire organization believes that you’re swelling, if you
- see it as growth;
- believe that your management errors have evaporated in the face of your new-found confidence; or that
- your promotion makes you intrinsically better than your team
then you will continue on that path, continue swelling, until you finally pop.
Which probably wouldn’t matter that much, except that when bosses pop they take out a lot of innocent people (lots of recent examples, mostly in jail).
So, if you think there is even an infinitesimal chance that you’re swelling, open your mind and actually hear those around you; watch their body language when they’re interacting with you; and really listen to their silences, which are often more eloquent than their words.
If your mind is truly open you’ll know if your concern is real. If it is, do whatever it takes to get back to growing—because going pop is no fun at all.
