My workmates think our boss is a genius. How do I convince them otherwise?
A leader in my workplace is considered by many to be a brilliant debater and negotiator. I just don’t see it. I find much of what they say unpersuasive and sometimes plain dopey. The problem is that they now have a big say in how things are done, and because any pushback is met with “brilliant” rhetoric, their way almost always goes. Some of their decisions are objectively dire.
How do we, the few people who aren’t convinced about this person’s genius, overcome this difficult situation?
You’re right in thinking this person is not the corporate mastermind they think they are. But convincing others of this will be far more difficult.Credit: John Shakespeare
I really wish we could repeat some of the examples of your leader’s rhetorical wizardry that you provided in your longer email. Some are so dumb they made me laugh out loud. Others certainly have the shape of a good argument but are completely hollow inside.
To be clear, you’re not imagining it: this person is not a good debater. There is no substance to their arguments, just a knack for employing thought-terminating cliches and abruptly ending important discussions.
“Thought-terminating cliche” is a term coined by the American psychiatrist and author, Robert Jay Lifton. It’s a platitude that closes off someone else’s argument, not with reasoning, but with what Lifton himself describes as a “brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrase”.
This is language that is abstract, jargon-filled and, “to anyone but its most devoted advocate, deadly dull”. At the same time, though, it is “easily memorised and easily expressed”.
A cult of personality is never a good thing – certainly not in a professional setting.
Lifton wrote about this more than 60 years ago (he is still alive and nearing his 100th birthday), and in his original work, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, he was talking about Chinese communism and reeducation camps. More recently he described how Donald Trump uses this kind of language, such as when he lies about the 2020 election being stolen.
How’s all this information going to help you? Well, my point is that you’ve correctly identified that this person is not the corporate mastermind they think they are. By understanding the specific tactics they use to furnish and plump their undeserved reputation, you and your fellow non-believers may be better able to undermine it.
