“Unthinking Respect for Authority is the Greatest Enemy of Truth” – Albert Einstein
What’s fun about having your own blog is that you can juxtapose a topic like bucking authority with a quote from an authority on bucking authority. Quotes, of course, are an indicator of authority. So if Albert Einstein says we shouldn’t unquestionably respect authority, I agree with him. Wait…
I could spend the rest of the time talking about how great Gen Y is because we’ve figured that out but that would be completely untrue. Generalizations about other generation’s relative success or failures in this light would be untrue as well. The fact is every generation deals with figuring out how to respect authority properly while still making smart decisions. More importantly, individuals still make poor decisions. It is the reason why you see “Stripping Grandmas Go Wild” on The Jerry Springer Show. If experience and authority ultimately bought competency, you shouldn’t see that. We shouldn’t see it anyway bit that’s really beside the point.
Now I am trying to get that image out of my head.
We’ve seen this in history before too. Citizens become blindingly loyal to a particular political leader for a variety of reasons but some do this simply because the leader is the leader. That’s not a good enough reason. We should be looking at results. We should be looking at how they handled challenges. We should be looking at what they do not what they say.
It happens all of the time with authority.
“He’s been in accounting for 25 years. I am sure he is right.”
“She’s the president of the company. We need to support it.”
“He’s saved three companies before ours. We should take his recs.”
It is a total cop out. Instead of reasoning, instead of explaining, you simply say this person knows what they are doing because they are an authority. And people in authority eat that up, especially when they aren’t confident in their own abilities. They don’t need your pesky challenges.
Of course, great leaders know that results today are infinitely more important than results yesterday. They don’t need someone defending their years of experience. They understand that the plan is bigger than the man (or woman). If the plan works, then your age doesn’t matter. If the plan fails, then your age doesn’t matter. Depending on the results, someone might say your age explains why you succeeded or failed but that’s really an after-thought.
When I see older folks relying more on their years of experience than monitoring and improving results or younger folks relying on their ability to generate new ideas without concern for results, I see two groups of people that simply don’t get it. If they find success, it will be in spite of themselves.
That’s why I am leery of authority that is built on years of experience rather than results. It is also the reason why I don’t write everything that comes to my mind (or I am careful about how I present it). If I am just throwing an idea out there, that’s one thing but if I am going to make a recommendation, it is going to be based on results. And I wouldn’t buy any authority that doesn’t rely on the same standards.
May 19, 2009 at 8:57 am
Lance – you make a great point. The older generation(s) base themselves on their experience – assuming that their tenure speaks for itself. Folks in our age group think we know everything, we have all the answers, we know the best way to do everything, and we don’t have anything to really back that up. We’re the best and that’s all there is to it – or at least that’s what we think. As you said, results are the only true measure of success – and they speak for themselves. Gen Y’s sense of entitlement is nothing with results to substanitiate the mindset. As for the older folks with lasting tenure’s – they’ve paid their dues, but age isn’t a determining factor of success. Again, it’s about results – companies look at the WIFM (What’s in it for me) factor – and with that, they want someone who has proven their worth in objective results.
Good post Lance (by the way, I just subscribed). Cheers!
May 19, 2009 at 9:31 am
Dude, how many people have you ever interviewed that think they have 10, 15, 20, however many years of experience, but really have 1 year of experience repeated over and over? It happens all of the time in peoples heads. I start by focusing them on the difference between “experience” and “progressive experience”, and always results are king!
May 19, 2009 at 9:53 am
@Matt – I agree 100%. And thanks for subscribing!
@Puf – That’s exactly my feeling with some folks. It seems like I always have to clarify with questions like “Do you have a more recent example?” “Tell me what you’ve done with your education in the last five years?”
May 19, 2009 at 12:59 pm
None of us have been at this same crossroads before. Too much has changed. If those with ‘authority’ are true leaders they know they must, learn and gather help from every resource they have available. The best will give credit to their sources of inspiration – then you know why you should listen.
May 19, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Puf summarized the post perfectly!
May 20, 2009 at 6:32 am
@Puf – What an awesome differentiation I had never considered before. Thanks for sharing!
May 20, 2009 at 8:27 am
I want to frame the title of this post and put it up in my cube. Of course, I might get a talking-to if I did that.
Puf’s point about progressive experience is excellent as well.
May 21, 2009 at 11:05 pm
My father once told me as I described our 80+ next door neighbor. “Just because he ‘s old doesn’t mean he’s wise.”
So yeah, count me in for results and nothing else. The top bit of advice I give job seekers, is years don’t matter, it’s what you’ve done and how relevant that is to the position and the company you’re interested in.
May 22, 2009 at 6:11 am
@nelking – great comment. My only contention with it is that if you value innovation, irrelevant experience is worth just as much as relevant experience.
May 27, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Lance,
As a young professional in Gen Y, I agree that results are most important. However, I work in the banking industry and banks don’t appear to “get” results based management. They are still stuck in the mindset of tenure and experienced based promotions, or filling a hole as a result of attrition. Maybe we will make it into the new millenium sometime soon.
May 27, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Josh
As someone who escaped the banking world in 1993, old school thinking is what brought us to where we are. The industry can’t afford to continue with business as usual, but it’s going to take awhile for the inertia to stop. Stick with it, and be the voice calling out the BS , offering workable solutions and executing on new ideas as much as you possibly can. You may help make change the order of things.
June 3, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Lance,
I was just wondering, doesn’t results = experience? For example, if I were to be in an interview and told the interview I did this and that, wouldn’t that be equivalent to me being experienced in producing a result? Just a thought.
Another thought about questioning authority, isn’t that the fastest way to get fired?
June 18, 2009 at 6:19 am
Reminds me of the anti-Obama voters last fall. Just because his number of years of experience don’t come close to McCain, the results are not any less important! Just sayin!
I actually voted for Barr, though…