Dirt Under Your Fingernails

Do you have a pet peeve at work?  Something that when it happens just bothers the hell out of you?  That can ruin your whole day. 

I do.  In fact, I have a couple.  Here’s one of my most annoying poke-in-the-eye scenarios; the self-appointed or self-anointed expert.

Have you experienced someone like this?  Or perhaps it’s someone you know?  Some examples:

Management decides to hire a bright and shiny new MBA and then drops the youthful new employee into your department with a thud. The new hire is touted as the second coming of Jack Welch (GE) or some other management guru; someone who will know what to do, how to solve the department's problems, how to get the business back on track.  Because they have an MBA, you're told.

They're usually paid a ton of money, at least in comparison to what's paid to those who must instruct them on how things are done here.  When you add in a touch of arrogance and oozing self-importance you often have a recipe for internal conflict, passive resistance, and eventual counter-productive results.

Why is that?  Resentment.  Too often what the MBA knows is what they have been told.  Classroom lectures and case studies. The employees see this veneer of experience, while management seems to look the other way. 

Here's Another Example

When someone is lecturing or offering advice about compensation issues, usually in a webinar, a workshop, conference or even within a published article, I gauge the credibility of that advice and the recommendations that usually accompany them, based on whether I can take what is offered at face value.

If the advice or recommendations is coming from someone with dirt under their fingernails, who has walked the talk and spent time in the trenches of dealing hand-to-hand with employees and their compensation issues, then I listen and take notes.  On the other hand, if the presenter has a progressive track record of college, advanced degree, consulting firm and then telling me what to do at my job, I confess that I usually have a much less positive reaction. The eyes tend to glaze over.

I've been burnt before by the lack of "street smarts" that plague the new certificate holders, academics and "wunderkinds."  So, I don't read those articles.  I don't listen to those speeches.  Because in my view that's not experience talking, that's book learning and a view of common or "best" practices as studied by those who haven't walked a mile in my shoes.  It's "case study consulting."

My father used to complain that college was teaching me "book stuff, not common sense."  He might have been on to something.

In my travels, when I fly, I like to see that the pilot has a bit of grey hair.  Gives me confidence that they've got some hours under their belt and can likely handle themselves outside of the aircraft simulator.

For their part, a seasoned compensation practitioner is one who has been there, has tried different methods, has bumped their head a few times and has learned what works - and what doesn't.  Even more important, they've learned the why of things.  They’ve dealt with practical issues, with employees as well as managers, and they’ve gained a perspective about what would work in their organization.

Those who have only analyzed case studies in a classroom environment simply don’t have the depth and breadth of practical experience to advise on the basis on anything other than what they have read, what someone else has told them.  Or what someone else’s article is spouting.

Because the circumstances within my organization, the internal dynamics, the office politics, the management bias, and even the workforce culture are not the same as you would find in the next organization.  There's no cookie-cutter solution out there, nor any off-the-shelf magic potion that works for everyone.  What I need is what will work for my organization, not yours and not some conceptual average "everyman" business.

But that's me.  You may see things differently.

Likely you have your own list of pet peeves.

Chuck Csizmar CCP is the founder and Principal of CMC Compensation Group, providing global compensation consulting services to a wide variety of industries and non-profit organizations.  He is also associated with several HR Consulting firms as a contributing consultant.  Chuck is a broad-based subject matter expert with a specialty in international and expatriate compensation.  He lives in Central Florida (near The Mouse) and enjoys growing fruit and managing (?) a clowder of cats.

Creative Commons image "Amelia Cat II," by brownpau

Comments

[E. James (Jim) Brennan]

Nice summary, Chuck.

Self-appointed highly credentialed "experts" have proven they know how to pass academic tests but usually lack the most uncommon of human traits... common sense. That may come with the seasoning of real-world exposure to the bewildering and ever-changing variety of people-issues encountered in the Total Rewards field.

Watch for the advisor who listens, confirms and studies rather than snaps out The One Answer to every problem. Rather than arrogantly declare Absolute Truths, they are more likely to minimize reliance on the necessarily highly general academic maxims and to instead emphasize the range of potentially productive options they have found (and not just HEARD about) to be most applicable to the instant situation.

Real experts make no claim to infallibility nor do they rely on Received Wisdom. They are humble. They are also willing and able to explain the diagnostic process by which they reached the handful of prescriptions they recommend as the optimal options for specific outcomes.

While it is relatively easy to spot the snake-oil sellers who claim to know everything, the true experts are harder to find. They require time and broad exposure to grow and learn the difference between what is taught and what works.