It's not lonely at the top. It's lonely at the end.
For 17 years I have been running a company here in Australia, and I have never been lonely. If I had a visitor in my office, the chances were good someone else would pop their head in during the meeting. It was a dead cert that the phone would ring in the middle of any meeting.
Well, that is until this year.
Just before Christmas holidays last year, I told the company I was retiring in September and named my successor who is working as my deputy this year until taking over when I go.
And just like that - I swear, before the last person had left the company meeting - I became the guy nobody had to suck up to anymore. You could feel the air rushing from my office as the power vacuum set in. I had become the Maytag repairman of company presidents, the lamest of lame ducks, the old guy in the corner who new employees wonder who he is - and never get told.
(Cue "The Lonely Bull") Yesterday is a good example. Nobody came into my office all day. What was once the hub of the business is now an abandoned warehouse. Actually Davy, my successor, came in toward the end of the day. He's a really good guy and will do a great job but the best thing about him is that he rang and asked, "Have you got a minute?" before coming down. He knows I have hours.
He came to tell me some things he had done which was nice in a courteous sort of way. It was kind of like the fact that ex-presidents of the US still get national security briefings. As if the new guy ever really cares what they think. I mean, I imagine whoever gets the job of briefing George W next year won't consider that they drew the long straw.
And George W, of course, brings me back to my main point. A lame duck may still have the big office, but those of us who are short-timers know that the seat of power ain't what we are sitting on anymore.
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