First Penguin

"It's good to poke the fire with someone else's hand" — Yiddish proverb

In previous times, I worked for a company that paid at least 10% of your compensation as a year-end bonus, with more at risk as you went up the ladder. This company also had a quarterly conference call with all locations, led by the CEO.

So in the fourth quarter conference call, being the person I am, I asked if we were still on track to get our bonuses. The answer was yes. I didn't really expect any other answer; I asked the question so that our host would know that someone cared enough about bonuses actually being distributed to ask.

After the call, a co-worker approached me. Let's call her Kathy. She had many more years with the company than I. Apparently she had an experience where the company had met the goals, but — no bonus! Kathy said, "You asked the wrong question. You should have asked whether bonuses would be paid for this year."

My first thought was: what was the likelihood that the CEO would tie himself to the mast and forego the motivational opportunity to have a big end-of-year push to get the bonus? "Hey, let's coast; the CEO committed to paying bonuses!" The question I asked allowed for a backloaded annual forecast, which I am sure we had. I had put considerable care into how I worded it.

But it was my second thought that I went with. "Kathy, you've got a tongue in your mouth. Why didn't you ask?"

Kathy wanted no part of sticking her neck out in public. But she felt free to egg someone else on.

When a group of penguins approaches the sea, they don't know if a shark is waiting for them. So they push one of their own number in first. If the unlucky penguin doesn't get eaten, everyone else knows it's safe to go in the water.

Leadership includes voicing what no one else will, and I have no problem with that. But I'm not into being used by cowards whose policy is to hang to the rear on every issue. I don't want to volunteer to be the first penguin anymore.