Throw Away the Elephant: The Art of Managing Your Boss

Author: (USA) Ben
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-05-01
Features: This is a book about what "You can't choose your boss." A former supervisor once told me this highly philosophical statement. The idea is somewhat disheartening, but it's true. However, we can seek emotional resonance from our different positions within the same company. Since this "unselectable" supervisor disappeared from my view and spent the rest of his life with golf, I have repeatedly reflected on the words he spoke. The more I think about it, the more I believe he was right. If we compare the company we work for to a "tropical rainforest," we can imagine ourselves and our colleagues as various animals living within it. Elephants are the largest land animals in the world, so it's natural to mentally equate company supervisors with "elephants." Elephants are strong and powerful creatures with incredible energy and memory, and they also possess wisdom and moral authority earned through their own efforts. We interact with them day and night, drawn to, led by, managed by, and driven by them, but we can't help but think: Throw away the elephant!