For a good ten years now, many executives and managers, particularly in the tech world, have been suffering from a new virus: the “punchline” virus.
Nothing to say, it has an effect. Pithy, striking, impressive phrases.
But phrases that solve nothing.
They give an illusion of vision, of leadership and work wonderfully in a TEDx or a keynote but can be destructive in the real life of business, especially when they are the mainspring of managerial communication.
In short :
- Punchlines oversimplify complex situations and do not reflect the realities on the ground.
- Most often borrowed from recognized entrepreneurs, they are often used to mask the absence of analysis or an appropriate response.
- Their use can create fear, confusion or disengagement instead of mobilizing teams.
- Contradictory and changing messages undermine managerial clarity and consistency.
- Managing is about explaining, listening and making sense, not impressing with slogans.
Shock phrases and operational vacuum
A punchline is, by definition, an extreme reduction of a message. This is what makes it so interesting and makes it as memorable as it is problematic.
In a business, the rule is complexity when it is not, even worse, complication (The organizational complication: the #1 irritant of the employee experience).
Nothing is ever black or white, contexts are constantly changing and there are rarely any obvious decisions to be made. What’s more, there are rarely any good decisions or principles that work one day that work a year later or in a different context.
The punchline simplifies something that deserves deeper analysis and, to use an expression that is dear to me, it sells you a bill of fare instead of teaching you how to invent recipes and cook.
Let’s start with a classic example:
“Move fast and break things” (Mark Zuckerberg).
It may be relevant in a fast-growing business, when its technical debt is low, when radical innovation is in its DNA or when it is in such a bad position that a turnaround requires doing everything except protecting the past.
But what about a business in chaotic growth, with fragile processes and teams under pressure?
It’s an incentive to break everything without thinking about the consequences, and while I myself am a fan of constantly questioning the status quo, we mustn’t forget that when there are load-bearing walls in a house, it’s often for good reasons and we should think twice before knocking them down (Destruction, disruption, change and transition strategies).
Quote to avoid explanation
Another problem is that many punchlines do not come from the manager himself, but are borrowed from successful entrepreneurs (Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Simon Sinek, Jeff Bezos).
But we must not forget that, despite their great principles, they have generally experienced failure at one time or another and that while they are not always relevant for predicting the future (Why do leaders and experts make big mistakes when it comes to anticipating the future?) they are no more relevant for telling you how to run your business.
Using a phrase from a recognized leader serves several purposes.
Firstly, to benefit from a kind of halo effect to give oneself importance. If I quote Jobs, I inherit his aura and no one can question my proposals.
Then to give oneself the posture of a visionary. Being a visionary is not given to everyone and quoting a visionary allows you to buy a vision for cheap… even if it is 5 years too late.
Then it avoids having to think about the problems and the context and develop an appropriate response. You tell yourself that copying and pasting something that has (or may have) worked elsewhere will work everywhere
But it is a rather fragile position because, when you listen to the employees, it creates distance where they expect closeness, explanations or even dialogue.
The perverse effects of punchlines
Very often, the leader who uses a punchline thinks he is going to mobilize and energize his audience, whereas sometimes the opposite happens: he creates fear, hurts or even paralyzes.
I remember a well-known speaker whose relevance and sobriety of expression I liked. At the time, we often spoke at the same conferences and he had given me some advice.
1°) You can say things at a conference that you can’t say in front of your own employees. The audience at a conference comes to be inspired, to listen to you, to get ideas. The internal audience “endures” your decisions and anticipates their effects.
2°) When you say things in front of an external audience, it always ends up being known in your business and it comes back to you like a boomerang, either because it is anxiety-provoking for your employees or because the reality of your business has nothing to do with the story you are telling.
Let’s look at a few examples.
“Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.“
To put it another way: “don’t bother me with what you can’t solve”.
We can look on the bright side: we can question and challenge everything if we come up with a solution, but most of the time that’s not what happens.
In reality, problems no longer get escalated, alerts are filtered by the hierarchy and we lose touch with reality.
“If you’re not working weekends, you don’t belong here“ (attributed to Hank Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs and former US Secretary of the Treasury).
This can indeed encourage people to work hard, and I would even say that in terms of employer branding, it means you only have candidates who know what to expect.
But in reality, it produces guilt, exhaustion and rarely performance.
“Only the paranoid survive” (attributed to Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel.)
Question everything, trust no one, your partners of today are your enemies of tomorrow… I must admit that this is advice that can be relevant.
But in practice it establishes fear as a driving force and mistrust as a system.
The effects are quickly seen in the business: lack of trust, withholding of information, every man for himself.
In all these cases, the punchline becomes a weapon that you turn against yourself.
When you use a punchline, you keep it
Another perverse effect that I have noticed is that of the incoherence of messages.
One day, the manager advocates boldness (“fail fast”), the next day rigour (“zero defect”), the following week empowerment (“be autonomous”), then conformity (“be aligned”).
When the punchlines change faster than what is happening on the field, the message becomes inaudible, the team no longer knows what to trust or what is expected of it.
When the guiding principles of management change every other day in a lapidary manner, the only result is oftendemotivation.
The business is not a TEDx stage
There is a persistent confusion between inspirational leadership and impactful style.
But a catchphrase, no matter how good, is no substitute for clear direction, reasoned feedback, explained decisions and consistency in attitude.
Being a manager is not about shining or impressing, but about creating the conditions for others to do their work in a clear and coherent framework.
Bottom line
The punchline marks a moment, summarizes a vision, and initiates a dynamic, but it should never replace the work of explanation, listening, and alignment that is the job of a manager.
A team does not need a manager who quotes Jobs or Grove, but a manager who understands the field, provides meaning, and demonstrates consistency.
To conclude by returning to my culinary metaphor, the punchline is fast food management. It’s fine once in a while, but on a daily basis, it’s better to make your meals yourself.
