Do we need rule busting rebels? They fight the system, they refuse to be constrained by the bureaucracy. They have no time for senior management who are risk adverse and obsessed with budgets. They have no ambition to join the senior ranks preferring to stay close to the action where the real work is done. They are every maverick tv detective, they are the  insubordinate James Bond and the defiant Captain Kirk . We cheer them on.  But in the real world 007 has a mortgage on an expensive London flat and several outstanding child maintenance claims, James T Kirk didn't get to be a captain of a star ship by disobeying orders and maverick police officers get disciplined and take early retirement.

In the real world those with an independent spirit, a willingness to challenge authority and the courage to back their own judgement do move up the career ladder. Maybe not as fast or as far as those who play it safer but it's not true that they don't become senior managers. Whilst those in charge may be risk adverse, worry about how decisions may play out in the media and be  more concerned with cost than effectiveness they still need managers who deliver and they want some high profile successes.

 

Of course the common complaint is that once the outspoken  critic of the system becomes a senior managers  they sell out and are no different to these they once challenged. Some undoubtedly do lose their rebellious edge on the way up but not all. The thing is you would not necessarily know which was which because the willingness to speak the truth to power most often takes place behind closed doors.

There are however some tell tale signs. If your generally even tempered and good humoured director regularly comes back from corporate senior management team meetings with the chief executive and shuts their normally open office door, if your director can be seen sitting out side the chief executives/leaders office waiting to get five minutes in between meetings because they can't get an appointment. If the directors' meetings are frequently interrupted by phone calls from the chief executive/leader demanding updates. If your director seems to be out of the loop and colleagues in other directorates hear about controversial proposals before you do. If your director starts saying we must be seen to be more corporate. If in presenting the budget savings targets the director tells their senior management team, 'the chief executive has told directors to come up with proposals for 3% cuts but one eager to please director has already offered up 5%'. 

These are indications of a director out of favour and there are only two reasons for a director to be treated this way -  either they are suspected of disloyalty or guilty of dissent. Some chief executives and leaders think dissent is disloyalty.

Blair Mcpherson former director, author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk