I’ve served under many types of bosses from various backgrounds.  Some were quite good and others should never have been conceived, much less given birth to.  Some even had elite educations, including from Ivy League schools.  My God, these were some of the poorest ones I’ve severe under.  They would sometimes literally look in a book for answers to real life situations like how to deal with going to a difficult neighborhood.  Invariably, they would often ask me for my input after the books failed.

But I just found that all merely amusing.

What I did not enjoy was the often entitled impractical expectations they often had.

I used to manage a unit with a good number of staff and roles.  They were half competent and half not so much.  The main problem was that they all were mostly unqualified to handle the tasks in front of them – which was to investigate the inner workings of the NYPD.  Almost all of them had neither the background or skills to adequately do the job.  But you go to war with the army you have, not the one you want.

So I did my best to cobble something together.

I don’t really like using military terms although law enforcement in general is paramilitary.  Instead, I thought of my responsibilities more as a chef.  I would quip that I was given McDonald’s ingredients and managed to make an Applebee’s meal out of all those

The problem with my bosses, however, is that they expected a steakhouse dinner with all the fixings.  And that in the words of Don Corleone, that I could not do.  We Malaysians know how to do a lot with little but there are limits.

I often think of some of my early jobs.  They weren’t easy and menial at times, but they gave me a good understanding of people and human nature, skills that would prove useful in many of these complicated positions and scenarios I was placed in.  One of my guides was the late John Boyd, who emphasized that people are first, ideas next, and technology last.  Sadly, this sequence is often reversed to detrimental effects.

There’s nothing wrong with an elite education.  It opens up doors to many opportunities.  But without complementary skills, you’re asking for a world of hurt.