> Really, I've noticed that at upper management this is literally your job: ensure that people make the right decision, whether they're your team, your peers, or upwards to the CEO.
To expand on this, there has been one defining difference in good companies and bad companies I've worked for.
In good companies, everyone has expertise. Your PM can talk about details. Your director can talk about details. Your VP can talk about details. They do this because it's culturally expected that they know this. So they spend enough time to familiarize themselves and do normal paper-pushing responsibilities.
In bad companies, that's just... not there. If you ask anyone of those roles about details, they don't know and can't speak intelligently.
Consequently, in the former, you get much smarter decisions from all players. In the latter, you get ignorant decisions because there's less shared knowledge.
The strangest thing is that it seems more cultural than training / education. Either the company has this expectation of its people, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, no amount of degree will paper over that. If it does, it doesn't matter if your people are sharp but lack degrees.
To expand on this, there has been one defining difference in good companies and bad companies I've worked for.
In good companies, everyone has expertise. Your PM can talk about details. Your director can talk about details. Your VP can talk about details. They do this because it's culturally expected that they know this. So they spend enough time to familiarize themselves and do normal paper-pushing responsibilities.
In bad companies, that's just... not there. If you ask anyone of those roles about details, they don't know and can't speak intelligently.
Consequently, in the former, you get much smarter decisions from all players. In the latter, you get ignorant decisions because there's less shared knowledge.
The strangest thing is that it seems more cultural than training / education. Either the company has this expectation of its people, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, no amount of degree will paper over that. If it does, it doesn't matter if your people are sharp but lack degrees.
There's a famous story from Microsoft back-in-Gates-days, whereby Gates was notorious for his detailed questions in meetings: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-rev...