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The Pros And Cons Of “Stay In Your Lane” Management
For part of 2023, I worked at this place called “Culture Partners,” which I think is also sometimes called “Partners in Leadership” in the market. Basically it’s “culture consulting,” so they go in and try to help a company deal with cultural elements and hopefully those changes are tied to revenue. This company does some good work, but in reality most “culture consulting” is really just a front for executives wanting to seem like they care about something they don’t, a cheaper way to pay for training, or a smokescreen for future layoffs. Internally, this company is mostly reformed PA-based and UT-based sales guys who do OK on closing deals, but once the deal is closed, the actual “culture shift” you get is … well, hard to measure.
I worked at this place eight months or so. I liked it for 5.5 and then I got a new manager. This guy was a classic middle Manager who thinks he’s an executive, to a tee. He’d call all sorts of pointless, useless meetings and tell stories about how he hosted a BBQ for 30 that weekend and his son was the lead in a play and also starred in a soccer game, and he’d constantly talk about being “data-driven” even though every single decision we made was based on his gut. He got rid of me in about 2-3 months. It was hard for a while…
