Respect

Every once in awhile you’ll come across a new boss, someone brought in from some big corporation who refuses to accept a change in corporate culture, always referring to “how it used to be done” in the old place. It’s as though they were moved out “screaming and kicking” to the new company which in most cases they jumped into because of the money.

So, they’ll go on and on and on about how they used to run several hundred other divisions or so “back then”.

Honestly, if you asked me, I do not have a good impression of fellas from big corporations simply because they’ll all about image and less so about getting any job done. Huge corporations always have places to hide and I have seen how buckets of responsibility is shifted from one to the other without ever having to answer for not completing them.

Almost always, someone will be made the scapegoat so that the rest of the pack can stay bundled up in safety.

Then there are the ones that will be hired to run smaller companies. Overnight, they’ll make a psychological change to become an emperor or empress since they’ll be given a free reign to mould the company. However, the biggest folly is that their minds are still very much conditioned to how things are run in a large organization and this actually makes them quite ineffective in smaller ones.

The wielding of the rod to “demand respect”, that is, to ensure that everyone is kept into a formation “just like how it used to be done” can have a very adverse effect.

First off, these new so-called generals cannot hope to gain the respect of his/her subordinates without having first to earn them. Just because one is put in a place of command doesn’t mean that he/she will be able to play the tyrant role without dire consequences.

They will demand for absolute respect while showing utmost contempt for the staff that they command. This is about the most stupid and lethal ideology I’ve come across.

Make not mistakes about it. Respect cannot be demanded. It has to be earned, both ways.

That is the difference between a Napoleon and a King Louis 16. One rule by first gaining the respect of his men while the other ruled, well… as an emperor who did not bother to obtain their respect.