The great alienation!
Constant performance pressure, ever-increasing competition, and a falling stock price. These are challenging times in which no leader can afford to be anything less than fully on top of things. Like a captain at sea, managers therefore always have a reporting dashboard with the most important metrics at hand. At a glance, they can conveniently track the development of all KPIs and OKRs. Any imbalance is supposedly detected immediately—and the “leak,” to stay with the metaphor, can be fixed right away.
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What is the so-called “top management illusion”?
You sit in air-conditioned conference rooms—far away from the “engine room,” far removed from employees’ day-to-day reality, and far from customers. The metrics, after all, are only part of the truth and are subject to many distortions:
- Oversimplification: Metrics reduce complex reality to simple numbers. In doing so, important nuances and qualitative factors that would be crucial for understanding the situation are often overlooked.
- Focus on the wrong things: The very selection of metrics leads to other relevant aspects being ignored or trade-offs not being sufficiently considered.
- Misinterpretation: Every metric is only as good as the input that goes into it. “Garbage in – garbage out.”
- Lack of context: Metrics without context can be misleading. A number on its own, without understanding the context, is like fishing in murky waters!
But most of the time, we don’t have the time to question how these metrics are created or to better understand their context. Instead, based on the current situation, the metrics are tracked even more closely and even more pressure is put on employees. In turn, they complain about a lack of closeness from management and a kind of blind activism.
The result is a growing alienation between leadership and the workforce.
Anyone who truly wants to lead must therefore—despite, or precisely because of, increasing pressure—leave the bridge, the ivory tower, and the dashboard, and go to the front line. Not to control—but to understand. Not to judge—but to listen. Not to preserve status—but to build trust.
Why not, for example, call your own call center—anonymously? Or buy your own product—without any special treatment? Or join an informal team dinner—not as the boss, but as a human being and colleague?
Those who gain a first-hand understanding of what is really happening within the company and with customers not only strengthen trust in leadership, but also create the foundation for interpreting metrics correctly and steering the company safely through rough waters.
This post was published by Wolfgang Jenewein on LinkedIn on October 17, 2025.
