Foul!

Over the past two years, I've received feedback that I was too soft. Too soft, in the sense that or in relation to treating people that I disagree with. Knowing myself, even if it were true that I have played my cards too kindly with some people that I could have been harsher with, or have spoken straighter with, it wouldn't be coming from some esoteric principle to be congenial.

I know that I operate in an environment where there is a lot of superficial congeniality, but I don't necessarily subscribe to the thinking that I should practice diplomacy for its own sake. I have withheld treatment that a subordinate or peer may have deserved (at least apparently) not because I wished to be kind, but because I intuited that the conclusions (that would justify the harshness) were too hasty.

Years later I now know that I was right about most things. I'm very happy that I withheld from telling people off.

These days, however, I feel thoroughly provoked to take the kid gloves off and just serve people their own asses back to them. Why? Because I am certain that I have an enemy. By enemy I mean someone who actively and purposefully acted against me and my interests unnecessarily, unfairly, and maliciously.

I'm not sure if it was Drucker or Deming who said that "In a growth industry, anybody can be a good manager." Whoever said it, the statement is golden. I'm working with people (senior managers even) who can't manage their way out of their own hair, and yet act with such arrogance - as if their positions in the organization were owed to them (my enemy specifically). All because we belong in the high-growth (for how long I don't know) call-center and BPO industry where revenue is so high that investments in the hundreds of millions (in Php) can achieve ROI in 4 years (even with the shittiest of contracts).

In meetings I act with tact (though the cretins in the company may disagree, since they perceive my questions and participation in meetings as insolence and not work); I say this because I don't want to show up the amateurs in the group - people who don't and won't have an idea of what I'm talking about. Now, I have no incentive to protect the charlatans. They are not interested in cooperating or valuing my contribution, so there is no compelling reason for me to relax my expectations of people occupying these management seats.

If I talk about things that are beyond their competence, then I won't apologize for their own inadequacy. The organization has rewarded not only incompetence, but also counterproductive behavior. I won't stand for it.