I am working on the certification curriculum for becoming a Director or VP in Honeywell. The student will get a globally-recognized certificate with the trademark "Jerk-Certified" by Honeywell. Help me put together a list of quality traits these people share.
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@jtl, that is a naive and idealistic assessment, and is NOT how things work on Planet Honeywell. As others have pointed out, the edict comes down from the toxic top, and directors on down are obliged to make it happen. If they try to push back or make a case for common sense, reason, or justice, they will be viewed as incompetent or as obstructions, and removed.
It is true that at many other companies bosses at this level are allowed to make decisions and actually lead, but at HW they face the choice mentioned by @tcf: stay or leave. If they want to stay, they must execute the will of their superiors, which is designed to keep lining their pockets at the expense of all else.
@kds Another ex-d here. Same experiences. Pushed back on everything I could and fought for the team. Might as well have been talking to a brick wall once leadership team and/or HR got involved. Many d's I worked with were decent and tried to do the right thing. Top of the organization was poison. Most of the good ones are gone now. Glad to be finished with all of it.
@cyu, ex director here and your experiences match with mine. My Sr. Director was a great guy to work with. He actually cared and would visit with all of the folks in his organization several times a month.
He would call in his direct reports and give us the latest unachievable new targets from his leadership. We would shake our heads and go WTF it's impossible to make the current targets with the available assets. He would simply smile, shake his head and tell us this is one of those "salute and execute moments". He told several of us at the time that he could see the writing on the wall and to prepare to leave the company.
Most of us including him, myself and several other directors & managers were let go between one to two years ago. In my case my financial situation allowed me to call it a career and retire.
OP… get a hobby.
@jtl, having sat in meetings with both directors and VPs, typically the VPs have a magic number from the Pres/CEO, and pressure the directors to raise their targets, which the directors initially try to keep realistic. Under such pressure, the directors will indeed raise the targets, sometimes in senseless ways just to show that they "moved the needle".
I will defend most directors I worked with (except the last one, who would sell his mother to get out of his country of origin), but the VP up the ladder from me was definitely a DA in the making, and had the temperament and (lack of) people skills for it.
That's a complete copout. The directors and the VP's are the ones who actually can make the needed changes. They have plenty options because that's what they're supposed to be doing. It only takes one director or VP with morales and some backbone to stand up and say no. That's how change begins.
I have to echo @tcf, at least regarding directors. Worked with a number of them who were fundamentally decent sorts, and apologetically handed down the edicts from above for the managers to impose. The VPs, I don't know...some, not all, in my SBG seemed to be DA wannabes. At the VP level, all you are able to care about is the numbers, and will do whatever it takes to get them to the President/CEO's liking.
You truly have no one looking out for you as a person for valid issues that you raise to upper leadership.
Sorry OP but you are chasing a useless topic. directors and VPs are just normal people.
Their decisions come from the priorities of the business. Like us worker bees they have only one real decision … stay or leave.
If you decided to stay then consider that they are in the same trap.