Loved the "Sinecures for sycophants" bit.
Although a bit one-sided, the article reinforces what many already know: those at the top, know-not-what-they-are-doing. Look at the CEOs of the Fortune 500 and tell me how many are truly qualified for their post? Big businesses are a collection of many smaller businesses, each with its own particular risks, challenges, demands, intricacies and rewards. There is no way any individual or even small group of individuals can amass the knowledge to intimately understand each business. All you can hope for is that they have business smarts, are fed the "right data" and make a sensible (not always correct) decision. Many decisions are nothing more than a crap shoot. No one truly knows the outcome. Sometimes, they're playing with loaded dice.
You need not look too far up the food chain to know this problem exists even at managerial or department head levels. Our immediate superior often makes puzzling decisions or fail to appreciate what we've told them. They suffer from a lack of knowledge and so do you. It's very easy to be overwhelmed in this day and age. The amount of specialist knowledge required is just shocking and unattainable. Just look at your "ideal" trust person: needs to know trust law, company law, immigration law, probate law, succession law, marital law, contract law, banking regulations, investments, anti-money laundering laws, tax laws, etc.......
The superior decision makers are the ones that question, probe, make comparisons, seek alternatives and "see the big picture" before rendering a decision. Having direct experience helps but the key is having good data and keeping an open mind. If the person is misinformed, under-informed, biased or steered in the wrong direction then the decision they make is tainted or flawed.
Before I worry about my decision-makers, I would worry about those providing the data. Are they specialists? Do they understand the problems? Have they analyzed the alternatives? Can they put their findings in "layman's" terms? What are their biases? Shit rolls uphill too. You're only as good as the shoulders you stand on.
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