Man At The Top

A little bit of The Boss to start us off this week.  Bruce recorded a song called Man At The Top for the Born in the USA album but it didn’t make the final cut.  He performed it rarely until he released it 15 years later for the Tracks album.  It’s a pretty simple song – kind of reminds me of Hungry Heart married to Ben E. King‘s Stand By Me.

In any event, I was in the car yesterday morning and it came on the radio.  As I was singing along, the thought crossed my mind that the folks who want to be the man at the top should be careful what they’re asking for.  Let me explain.

Here are some of the lyrics:

Man at the top says it’s lonely up there
If it is man, I don’t care
From the big white house to the parking lot
Everybody wants to be the man at the top

Here comes a banker, here comes a businessman
Here comes a kid with a guitar in his hand
Dreaming of his record in number-one spot
Everybody wants to be the man at the top

Now, I’m not going to say I was ever “at the top” but I’ve been fortunate enough to be fairly high up in a couple of different places.  I’m also not going to say that it is terrible – the money is usually pretty good, there are occasional perks – but there are a few things folks might not think about as they’re looking up the ladder.

As your responsibility at work changes, often the time and attention available for non-work stuff does too.  You know – pesky minor things like family, hobbies, etc.  Does that work for you?  Your relationship with peers changes.  I advanced faster than some of my friends both inside and outside companies.  That changes your relationship – you can’t speak as freely, you can afford to do things they can’t, there is often jealousy.  Your true friends will be happy.  You’ll find out who they are.

You need to make decisions.  That might not sound like much but when people are waiting on your opinion to take action you can’t spend a lot of time waiting on the opinions of others.  Yes, you want to solicit as much information as you can but at some point YOU need to make a decision.  That can be more uncomfortable than you’d think.

You need to motivate others while keeping yourself highly motivated.  I didn’t come to work every day pumped up but I don’t think my subordinates ever knew to what degree I might have been “off.”  Your folks rely on you for that.

You have to praise and punish, both in equal measure, both without destroying the person or your relationship with them (and praise can do that too, folks).

I can extend this list for a week of posts (I won’t) but hopefully this has you thinking about being “at the top”  What’s really important to you and is “the top” worth it?