Every CEO has his/her elephants: big, powerful and dangerous, especially when they’re charging at you.
To survive, let alone be effective, executives need to determine:
Who are the elephants?
Here’s a 4-step “elephant test,” which generally signifies something that “is hard to describe, but instantly recognizable when spotted,” according to Wikipedia.
Step 1. Look at the organization chart and map the players by title, responsibilities, and distance from the CEO.
Step 2. Determine the real pecking order, since all elephants are not created equal.
- Listen for who’s loudest.
- Determine whose bad jokes are laughed at, almost always a result of power rather than comedic skill.
- See who has a reserved seat at the head of the table that no one else takes.
- Observe how the room dynamics change when different players enter the room.
Step 3. Realize that some elephants are relatively less obvious but equally deadly. Some potential indicators:
- CEO relationship.
- Peer relationship.
- Budget control.
- Process control.
- Approval control.
- Institutional knowledge.
- Previous successes.
- Gravitas, which I’ll redefine as ability to impart fear.
Step 4. Understand that a bull elephant in one meeting or division is a baby in another. It’s all about context.
When there’s one or more “elephants in the room,” they can’t be ignored, so the usual idiom about a risk that no one wants to discuss isn’t too far off.
Where do I want to dance?
You have to make a decision where to position yourself within the herd to survive and prosper.
- The best move is to dance with the other elephants as an equal. They’re both pleased to work with you and concerned about upsetting you. You’re an equal in running and protecting the entire herd as well as your department.
- You dance nimbly between the elephants as a valued resource. You and your team need to be seen as valuable, honest, non-political, and doing a great job…a job that the elephants know they need but don’t want to directly control because it’s too hard…too different…too dangerous…not glamorous… Usually the elephants do not want you aligned with another one.
- It can be safest to dance below one of the elephants, protected by a bull elephant. Of course, this assumes that “your” elephant survives and continues to want to protect you. In this situation, you can flourish or die based more on another’s power than your own performance.
You may need to assume each of these roles in the same company at different times.
Obviously, dancing with elephants is dangerous regardless of how you position yourself. Elephant games can turn into stampedes where executives are forced out of the herd… hopefully unhurt.