How to make senior management actually, well, do something relevant

If you read the headline and recoil, let’s be clear: of course senior management does some stuff. They run the company, right? And they had to be “vetted” enough — or politically-savvy enough — to get to that perch. So whether it’s proving ROI or kissing the right ass, they do something all week. All hail senior management!

Here’s the issue. About a month ago, I wrote a post about global trust in the workplace. The number is about 46% — not bad, almost 1 in 2 people trusting their employer — but there’s a 15% “complete lack of trust” category. Their five biggest reasons for this distrust? The top two are about compensation. №3 is no trust in senior management.

I’d say this is pretty common at most places I’ve worked. In a standard white-collar hierarchy, you have to respect senior management. When people say “professionalism,” they mean how you dress and talk, sure — but they really mean how you behave around senior management. That’s what the term actually means to most people, but we gussy it up in a bunch of other horseshit.

So while people are mandated to respect senior management, often they really don’t. They see them as overpaid people who sit in meetings and glad-hand all day. In some companies, that’s true. In others, it’s just bitterness in effect. People have…