To think that most managers are all mouth and no trousers?

[BeCoralSeal]

I’ve worked under quite a few managers, and time and time again, I’ve noticed that a lot of them talk a big game but don’t actually do much. When you scratch the surface, it’s all buzzwords, meetings, and delegating, but very little actual skill or leadership. Is this just my experience or do most managers operate like this?

Honestly, I think that’s where middle managers often get stuck if not progressing their careers due to only using buzzwords and there not being much substance. In lots of cases I’ve come across, bad managers kinda plateau and can’t progress so there are lots of them floating in middle management, whereas actual good leaders keep progressing and end up at the top, or starting their own companies. Obviously there are some exceptions!

I think you're unreasonable for not knowing the phrase is "all mouth and trousers", i.e. men who think people are happy to listen to them boast and talk nonsense just because they're men. This is true of a lot of managers, of course.

I've had plenty of managers who do know what they're doing (and some who don't) but they do all tend to adopt the corporate bullshitese, even though they are very capable of speaking & writing proper English. My current big boss is someone I've worked with for a long time, and I can point out when what he says is meaningless bollocks. But there are others whom I have to ask politely to explain what they actually mean when they spout a load of jargon & abbreviations.

The people I think you need to look out for are the ones who preface every statement with some rambling account of prior achievements, trying to suggest that those achievements were a result of their brilliance rather than happening to have someone good in their team.