Gaslighting & the IT Leader

Just learned a new word – “gaslighting”. Apparently, it refers to an activity that some use to manipulate others’ view on reality and make them doubt their own memory of events. Just look out to the USA to find “Gaslighter in Chief”. I cannot believe how the American people are letting him get away with it, but they are, so I set about wondering why?

Firstly, it is the bluster and confidence of the serial liar. Think about the film “Catch me if you can” about Frank Abagnale. It is clear that the ability to lie with conviction isn’t a new thing – it has been the fraudsters best weapon for years. But lying is one thing. Using lies to manipulate others is a step on from the basic untruth. It requires a more complex set of thinking about repercussions and consequences. More cunning, if you will.

That led my thinking into the world of communications in general. Personal and corporate PR releases for example. Just how straightforwardly “true” are they? Look at Amazon reviews. On the TV the other night up to 30% of the product reviews were revealed to be downright lies, but not just in a simple way. Some are bought by say Company A to slag off Company B products and services, not just to pump their own. You just go online and buy the statements you want. Bingo – falsehoods prevail under a monster brand.

Look also at the COVID-19 situation in the UK (singled out solely because that’s where I am) and the inaccurate press releases and news commentary on the useless planeload of PPE that was/wasn’t bought and on its way from Turkey (or not). Look at the statements being made about shielding in care homes – palpably false, or misinformed in the best circumstances. It’s all about getting the best “Optics”. It is so obviously about spinning a falsehood as truth that it even has an innocuous name.

Politics and communications are no longer about truth – they are about gaining an advantage. The external observer has very little choice but to believe what is being said. Not necessarily to agree with it, but treat it as fact. So, it’s no longer about selling the best factual story or most informed story, but by creating the better set of what most likely will be untruths or stretches of reality.

Financial services do this in a very clever way – aided unwittingly by regulators set up to prevent the very thing they end up exacerbating. I look at the finance world and financial markets through mildly educated eyes and if you keep peeling the onion you never escape the conclusion that you will always lose and financial services product and service suppliers will always gain. Regulated sectors are not as clean as we may believe, in fact pretty much all are “gamed” by the profit-hungry. I have just also today read about the EBITDAC measure used by some businesses to quite frankly invent what EBITDA would be, were it not for Coronavirus!!! Utterly useless and fraudulent on the scale of “Fake News”.

The best irony of our times is also the US CIC’s use of “fake news” to describe anything he doesn’t like!! Talk about kettle calling pot black. Sadly, it says a lot about the average American’s ability to discern anything for themselves. I love America but Jeeesus the mainstream are being gaslighted to death.

Day by day I get more despondent that we are all being led away from the truth by bullshit leaders, arse-covering civil servants and “experts”, avaricious financial services, dubious professionals such as corporate accountants and PR agencies, and salesforces flogging us dead horses. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is so prevalent and insidious that most of us who dislike it are starting to take on attributes of gaslighting as well.

You may wonder where this is going but, being in executive search for as long as I have, I do get a steady stream of CV’s and resumes sent to me daily. They are very revealing. Sadly, they are increasing daily from all over the world. Whilst I get many CV’s from all walks of life, let’s concentrate on CIO’s and Technology leaders whatever the job title. These are the people I work with most. Even in this “digital world” post COVID, many more of you may find yourself in a marketplace of talent vying for a shrinking number of roles. You have a choice – the Trumpian way or the way of integrity. May I suggest the latter.

No more bullshit self-descriptions. “I am an acknowledged leader and visionary and my team love me!” Nobody ever writes “I am a nasty vile shit who stabs everyone in the back and takes credit where not due!” Surprised? So, the paragraph of self-analysis you all mostly use is not differentiated from anyone else and therefore rarely read, let alone believed. The first quarter of all CV’s are thus wasted effort to write and never have the impact intended.

Facts are the thing.  What did you do, how well did you do it, and what did your employer or client get from it? Numbers, numbers and numbers. The “positive impact on sales” was how big? The shift to digital was worth what and at what cost? Readers of CV’s are not, despite what you may think, generally stupid. So, don’t disguise the pint pot to look like a quart. Make it commercial and appropriate and true. Measurable. Not wishful thinking.

Outright lies. NO, NO and NO. You will be discovered at some time and sod’s law states you will be discovered at the worst possible time for you. Dates, class of degree, any degree at all, jobs held, achievements, reasons for moving on are ALL increasingly checked. Not just before employment but also during. Not just with formal referees either but with establishments themselves and connections of connections. Differentiating executive search with high street recruiting is the peer network built over years so we know people we can get a sideways profile on you from. You might not be amazed but you ought to think about the HR community and its inherent linkages from one firm to another. You WILL be found out, as one or two or more CIO’s I know have been.

No Gaps The 2 years you spent discovering yourself on a Kibbutz or the 6 months you lost in Cambodia on a journey of chemical enlightenment need to be on there – just phrase it nicely! We have a duty to establish contiguity in your life so we know that you did not spend four years, say, in Strangeways. (if you did then you have less need of our world I expect.) Also don’t think the early years you hung around trying to dominate the pop charts in the 1970’s are irrelevant. They are not. I often look positively on band experience and certainly musical skills in IT professionals. Don’t ask why but I do. Get it all on there – it’s the “Course of your Life” not just the self-edited highlights!!!

2 Page “Rules” are the proverbial bollox. Once upon a time when you were junior and inexperienced some mass recruiter said all CV’s must be no more than two pages and have a keywords panel so machines could and would “read” it. They did and deeply transactional it was. The systems had no way of looking at what impact you had, just whether you knew the keywords. Young salesmen who knew less than you about the job you did, simply fed the high scoring ones to contingent clients. Two pages marked the volume level the systems would analyse. Analysis without any context or interpretation or focus on results. In fact, not analysis but scoring. You bought the argument and it has stuck. Now let me tell you, more than six or seven pages is hard to get through, but three or four well planned factual ones are not – they are a pleasure, with a first page index to help us check we are all on the same page.

Your CV is the most important sales brochure you could ever write. But what it needs, less than any other kind of brochure, is facts and impacts. Not touchy feely stuff you make up about yourself. At the upper end of the market we will evaluate your personal skills and attributes by talking to you and asking your peers, managers and subordinates and forming a rounded view. Think about it, when you are the foot of the career ladder you are generally one of many and achievements are less numerous. You tend to get a job by having relevant experience and good interpersonal skills. It’s the same at the top but the quantum and balances have changed. You have loads more relevant experience and we hope you have developed some refined people skills. But you cannot tell us what to think other than let the experiential facts lead us to you.

To sum up “quit gaslighting”. Focus on reality. Stop packaging the messages. Use the truth to lead us to understand your personal capacities. Think about Trump and try not to be like him!