In a nutshell, the elephant is your boss and throwing him is another way of saying managing him. In Throwing the Elephant
We all have worked for elephants and I had not thought about it, but that is a great way to describe those that we work for. In my experience, the elephant is not the person who I directly work for, but a level or two above them. It can sometimes feel like we are stuck with a bunch of elephants, having to watch where we walk while we are careful not to be trampled.
One section of the book that reminded me of an experience that I had with an elephant. “A young monk reports that he met Martha Stewart no fewer than four times before she showed a glimmer of recognition at their fifth encounter.” I had the opportunity to meet the head of my agency at least 10 times and each time that I met him, he introduced himself as if it was the first time that we had met. He even explained to me that he was the head of our agency.
I am rather quiet, but am a large man and was perplexed that he never showed any sign that he had ever met me. After the first five meetings I decided to have some fun with it and tried a new greeting. When he introduced himself, I responded “I know. I work for you.” I did it every time and he still never showed me any recognition. This elephant was too far above me (in his mind) to bother to recognize me.
It reminded me of the adage; “It is not who you know, but who knows you.” I could have used this book many years ago so I had to learn about managing up the hard way. Some of the things that I have done probably were not the best career moves. I had an elephant that I got along with greatly. He always was encouraging and I enjoyed working for him.
As he got closer to retirement, his elephants assigned another elephant to be his assistant and replace him after he retired. My elephant was given no say in the matter of his assistant. These two elephants did not get along. I had known the assistant elephant for many years as equals, but now he was an elephant. My association with the old elephant was not a career enhancer. My quick wit did not help me either.
At one of our frequent (and useless) manager’s meetings, the new elephant called me by the name of one of my peers. Since he had only known my peer for a few months, yet knew me for many years, I was taken aback by this (and a little insulted). My mouth engaged before my brain could stop me and I replied by calling him by the old elephant’s name. Bad move. Very bad move. Really bad move.
After the meeting was over, the other managers all clapped me on the back about how funny it was. They held their laughter at the time, but enjoyed it later. The elephant never said anything, but I have come to know from the book that was a bad thing to do. Do not one up the elephant. Sometime after that, I was interviewing with this elephant and his assistant elephant for a new position.
As in every interview that I have ever taken, they asked what made me a good fit for the promotion. I answered honestly that since I had worked in consulting, private business, and government, I had a well-rounded experience that prepared me for the new challenges. I loved that answer because I believed that it was true (I still believe that).
As I sat back after my “home run” answer, I realized that neither of these two elephants had ever worked anywhere else…ever. I had possibly just insulted them. The good news was that I did get the promotion…NOT. I did not get that job, nor any other promotion. In fact I had another interview for another promotion with the elephant that got that previous job (let us call this one “my elephant”). The assistant elephant sat in on the interview also and I was not chosen for that job either (my ego is getting bruised).
“My elephant” called me into her office to let me down. I was disappointed in the news, but she was straight forward enough to share some of the discussion that the three elephants (the elephant, the assistant elephant and my elephant) had. It was made very clear that the elephant and his assistant did not look too favorably upon me. I have been in the same job since then.
There may be some light at the end of this tunnel as the the elephant has finally decided to retire. A search is on for his replacement and the assistant does not seem to be a lock for the position. Some of the elephants in the running are friendlier elephants to me. Hope springs eternal.
Sorry to run on so much, but Throwing the Elephant brought back a lot of memories, both good and bad. It was fun looking back at the elephants that I have known with the knowledge that I may yet throw my own elephant.
Click on the link if you would like to read more about my Problem With Authority.
