Companies don't want Linchpins they want sheep

03/08/10 02:03 PM Filed in: Business of marketing

Seth Godin's new book "Linchpin" is a good read. In short the book makes the case that you should be indispensable and stand out to make a difference even though it may mean "you will no longer be loved" by coworkers and managers. On paper it's a good argument, in reality too many organizations want people who will do a decent job, not make waves and do it for less money than others.

I consider myself a marketing linchpin. I walked away from a corporate job because the company was NOT interested in doing what was best for customers it was interested in doing what was best to protect the territory of others. Instead of open dialogue there were endless meetings, instead of asking "what if?" there were the production of Power Points and redoing Power Points. I tried to make a change but rather than be assimilated into the culture and have the position become another job I decided it was time to move on. I made my choice and have never looked back.

I believe that there are a lot of people in the workplace who strive to be Linchpins but either they don't have the courage or they have been beaten down so many times that they are reluctant to raise their hands for anything.

workcomic1

A very close friend of mine recently completed two series of interviews with a company on the East Coast including the a presentation on branding that she was asked to give. She was extremely qualified for the position and could have done a wonderful job but because one person of the dozen people she interviewed has a slight issue with her she was dropped from further consideration. This is the kind of bullshit that is just killing American companies today.

They don't want people who are motivated and can make a difference they want people who can sit in a cube and do what they are told. Incompetent managers are deafly afraid of these people because these are the type of people who could show what frauds these managers really are and thus they find an excuse not to hire them. This is the hard reality of working in corporate America Seth. I follow a lot of very talented people on Twitter who could easily fit your definition of a Linchpin but most of them work for themselves doing consulting because hiring managers are afraid of these bright lights.

Until corporate America starts to put talent ahead of connections companies will continue to hire those that follow instead of lead and thus another reason why some companies are losing their competitive spirits.

Tags: Linchpin