How to Grow a Backbone Book

I don't think the author and I share the same definition of "backbone." There were examples that she gave that did not sound like "backbone" to me. There is a story of a guy whose colleague steals credit for his idea. Furious, he storms over to the guy's office and says "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Apparently this isn't backbone, though. Someone with "backbone" wouldn't get upset, they would have grilled the other guy on the idea until it became apparent that he didn't know what he was talking about. Then everyone would realize whose idea it really was.

It's not a bad idea, but it's not really "backbone", is it? What if, halfway through your session of grilling this guy on your idea, he says to your face "Excuse me, do you have something that you need to say to me? It seems like you have a point that you're trying to make." Now you look like a complete asshole and you're being exposed as the toothless jerk you are.

No, most of these examples aren't "backbone," they're just politicking around in an organization where you don't matter and you don't have control. Another example: a young guy invests lots of after-hours work in developing and idea that he came up with. At the last minute, he gets squeezed out of the project by his "partner" who is higher up the corporate ladder and a johnny-come-lately to the project (who is also higher on the ladder.)

The guy is pissed off and confused, and his boss tells him to take it as a learning experience. Apparently, people with backbone would not get upset, they would view this as a learning experience and try to offer their help implementing the project. But this isn't really "backbone" either, is it? It's just, as Wayne Campbell would say, "getting shit on." It takes backbone to take your licks, for sure, but it takes gutlessness not to ask for better treatment. The author gives some reasons why the guy might have been squeezed out, like lack of credibility with the board. It sounds like a lot of hooey to me. His partner up the corporate ladder could have given him introductions and advice to get him started on the right foot with the board. No, this is getting abused, pure and simple.

The overarching problem I see with this book is that it operates from a narrow mindset--the mindset of the powerless employee in the big bureaucracy. That's probably what the author has experienced, but it makes her advice more limited than the reader could use. In the example about the young guy getting squeezed out, it seems like his options in the book are to raise a futile row about the issue, fume silently in his cubicle for a while, or have a "learning experience." These aren't the only options, though. He could say "I can't countenance working for an organization that treats its people in such a shabby fashion after their hard work," and send out his resume. No backbone here, the author might say. But it depends on your perspective and your goals. I don't see much backbone in getting used and discarded and then being mollified with business platitudes like "learning experiences." Maybe the learning experience he needs to have is "At this company, they're treating me like dog shit."

Also, the audiobook version is probably not the way to go. The woman who read the book sounded so cheesily confident, like she was pretending to be a big-shot executive for her character in reading this book. I was rolling my eyes so often that I could barely watch the road while I was driving.

Two stars for some decent practical ideas, but the concept of the book is weak.