(no subject)

[kradeelav]

i know it's ultra cringe to say this but i honestly have so much more sympathy for why managers are Like That sometimes after being in the same position for a while now :v

gently poking $pisces_art director_underling like 'hey, you good for the upcoming meeting, man....'
love the dude but omfg i do need to know if you're set!!!! don't give me crickets!

anyway, also a little funny when my former intern was safely ranting to me about our VP giving him useless powerpoints/decks to design and i had to explain like. yeah, it's useless shit *to us*, we're not the audience for those specifically, but those funny graphs and shit are a critical part of upper management politicking and leverage. leadership is the audience. make your boss look good, you get paid good (or at all).

ah man this reminded me one time years and years ago when i was surprised in one of the big town hall meetings that the no3 (design-esque) chief of staff) didn't have anything to show (and commented it to my immediate team). and then. two weeks later, he was fired lol. it's stuff like that.

Comments

[karel]

Oh, legitimately feel this. Having now been presenting things to director+ level for long enough, if I don't have everything in order well in advance of those meetings, I'm getting nervous and I'm on people about it. We're doing our quarterly reporting and I'm in the fuck of it XD One of the trickiest things to learn in this role was in fact, "how does executive level like to see their funny little graphs," and I learned it FAST to make sure they were getting it.

Makes me remember how early on in my old role, prior company, I had some things to present and absolutely didn't prepare and fumbled it and the talking to I got...hoo. I get it now. Had my manager sweating in front of the (dept director) that his report was out here messing around.

[kradeelav]

yeah it really does seem like the director+ level really is the invisible tipping point across industries, as far as who the (newer) IC's get to talk to or not. one fumble is one thing but yeah it really is a whole specific skill to learn even beyond just generic public speaking or design skills.

goood luuuuuck <3 <3 you got this.

[karel]

It really is - I'm not even on the design side, but the speaking side and the anticipating questions about various data sets that are on that higher level, it's definitely been a process to learn it. Worth it, though, for sure, especially knowing how to spin it to get what my dept wants, and so on.

And thank you, you as well!! I know it's been a lot lately, fingers crossed it can settle down for you soon!