I found myself recalling a morning a few years ago when one of my employees, a woman, walked into my office and asked me a rather direct question about a new vice-president in our company’s marketing organization. “Is she just fluffy?”
I waited to take in all that the woman might mean by that word “fluffy.” Was she referring to the VP’s physical appearance? I thought not. The new VP was not unattractive and certainly not fluffy in terms of size. My employee must mean something else. So I took the bait and had to ask, “What do you mean, fluffy?”
She told me that, to her, fluffy meant an executive who knew enough to talk her way through new products and services in order to look intelligent to the people above her in the organization chart. But did the new VP really know her stuff…
- Did she know the details of the products that so glibly rolled off her tongue?
- Did she understand the requirements the product would put on production and engineering?
- Did she realize all the changes that would be required for the company’s sales channels? Or its advertising departments?
- Did she have any notion of the hurdles ahead for the people who do I-T work?
My inquisitive employee thought not. She sat down and further unburdened herself.
“I am pretty sure the new VP does not know, nor does she care to know. Too many execs in this company don’t move up by getting their hands dirty. They move up by ‘pretending to know,’ which is what I mean by fluffy. They just fluff the details and are good at saying the right keywords that higher execs will appreciate.”
Does this sound familiar? Have you had a similar question from one of your employees? It’s likely you have. Makes you wonder what it really takes to move up in some of today’s large companies. The answer used to be hard work, making employees happy and productive, and meeting the targets for financial goals. But, in a “fluffy” world, it seems you can say the right things at the right time for just the right audience and, magically, good things happen for you–budgets expanded, key initiatives approved, excellent employees re-assigned to work in your department.
Fluffy leaders (executives AND managers) exist and they do harm. In particular, they undermine the hopes and dreams of real performers to the point that these good employees move on to other companies. Fluffy leaders make us question our own career plans and how we thought we’d move up the ladder on merit. On reflection I’m sure my employee who came with her fluffy question was troubled.
I asked her, “Are guys fluffy too?” “Sure,” she said, “Anybody can be fluffy.”
Are we willing to forsake real knowledge for learning a few key buzzwords? I think not. Strong senior leaders should out those spouting fluff.