Latchkey Leadership

It’s cute, really, watching the kids play, pretending they’re executives with power, earnestly discussing “key” issues and “strategies.” Very impressive, all the card castles and Popsicle stick constructs they’re gluing together –

– And they’re not even teenagers: y’know, those upper-middle-managers who have been there and done that and still aren't executives. Oh, those teens were too expensive to keep around as babysitters. Teenagers, phoo!, always questioning authority by bringing up things like facts and statistics and, and Experience. Like they have Executive Experience in running an entire company. Read a book!, why don’t you?

But the kids now, they’re very serious, talking long and intensely about things they’ve never done before but are really really really excited to be doing now – the occasional weary joke from shared exhaustion – inventing “solutions,” missing Memorial Day weekend, the 4th of July, the– well, their families will understand, these kids are busy sweating out deadlines, bottom lines and organizational fault lines…

The President & CEO is starting his vacation tomorrow. Two weeks. ‘Haven’t seen the Vice President of Engineering for a while, I think he has a mountain cabin that needs fixing up a little. The VP/Production is . . . somewhere.

No matter.

The latchkey kids are doing a real good job of pretending they’re grown-up executives with real power.