Two-Faced People Should Not Become Leaders (Yet, Often Do)

A promotion problem.

Written a lot about bad bosses — 12 types, 7 more — and today we’re going to quickly discuss two faced people becoming leaders.

It’s pretty much a horrible, no good, very bad place for your organization to go — and yet, it’s increasingly normative.

Many C-Suiters are, by definition, two faced people. What do I mean?

To the company: Buzzwords, mission statements, no real information.

Behind closed doors with lieutenants: Bellowing about margins, market share, and essentially only financial topics.

So let’s say you’re a middle manager in Operations, right? You go to this all-hands meeting and you believe “Oh, this leadership team cares about people and their growth and all that. That’s good!” But then every iota of space between those meetings is “Too busy, got other stuff to do!” or “Can’t talk, Q2 revenue plays standup!”

Then you start thinking: Maybe this guy and his team don’t care about people and growth. Maybe they care about money and just money.

Two faced people.

Now, look — this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. People inherently gravitate towards what’s in a situation for them. Executives at companies…