September 21, 2007

“Never has so large a reputation been created by so little actual success.” 

We all know them.  We’ve watched them for years.  One example of this breed is the corporate informant disguised as a vice-president.  The informant V.P. lives to do nothing but move data.  The data can be old or new, accurate or inaccurate, complete or incomplete.  Pertinence is immaterial to the informant, as long as there are data to pass up the food chain.

On the other end of the data supplied by the informant is the corporate consumer disguised as an executive vice-president.  To this individual, as long as there is a steady flow of data, life is fulfilling.  One of the consumer’s favorite pastimes is to call meetings whose sole purpose is to drill down into data that were useless or made up to begin with.

These are the people within our companies who have built notoriety that far exceeds their capabilities.  One such person was seated next to our company’s CEO during a review of our business unit’s performance.  The CEO, reading from a script prepared by this person (an informant), proceeded to highlight our unit’s achievements, attributing them all to the informant’s leadership.  The rest of us at the meeting were amazed that the informant even knew of these accomplishments, much less was able to communicate them upward.  As the accolades mounted, the voice seated next to me nearly made me chuckle as I heard it say, “Never has so large a reputation been created by so little actual success.” 

Whatever renown or respectability we attain, or credit or character we establish, it must be deep to be enduring.  It must be based on knowledge, not memos.  Distinction is an honor best awarded by our peers…and since informants know no peers, real honors don’t know them.