Post Tortoise

So what is the post turtle? The old man says, "When you're driving down a country road and you see a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle. You know he didn't get up there by himself; he doesn't belong there; you wonder who put him there; he can't get anything done while he's up there; and you just want to help the poor thing down."

We use this analogy in leadership because of all of those scenarios. A lot of leaders are probably not supposed to be in that position. They might not have any idea why they are in that position. They might not know what to do once they are there or even how to get down from this position, and even in our society it's almost frowned upon and detrimental to try to get down from there.

Side-note, that is a huge pet peeve of mine. I think that if people get promoted into a position that they are no longer fit to be in or they have no business being in, companies and managers should give them the opportunity to get down from there.  But, that’s a topic for another day.

Most notably, about the post turtle, is that they have no business being there in the first place. As we know, a turtle needs to be on the ground walking around finding food protecting themselves inside their shell.

A manager needs to be there on behalf of the business, but sometimes we have managers who get promoted for alternative motives.

Sometimes the position is just there and needs to be filled. Sometimes that position is given to somebody because the higher level manager likes them. Sometimes that position is filled by people who have a lot of years of experience in that business or in that industry. A lot of people have been promoted and put in the leadership positions for no good leadership reason.

We are changing that. We are building this site to help all the people who may be post turtles.  Just because you were put there and you're floundering and you need help doesn't mean that you can't become a great manager. Management and leadership can be learned but they must be practiced, and when you practice it, just like anything else, you can do great things and you can get better at it.