All Hat and No Cattle
Dealing with the Phonies in Our Lives
A traditional Texas putdown is “All hat, no cattle” or “Big hat, no cattle”. This refers to someone who is all talk with no action, power, or substance behind his / her words.
Too often we come across people like this. They boast about miniscule accomplishments as though they are world altering. And if we peek behind their curtain we may find that they had little or nothing to do with what was done or accomplished by others.
I have come across people like this, way too often. They talk a good game. Maybe even a great game. They know all of the key phrases and points. But that is where it starts and stops. Probe them beneath the headlines and you get little or nothing. They really have no idea regarding the depth of the subject or subjects they are spouting about. And they are usually taking credit for the work of others, without giving the doers any of the credit for what was accomplished.
I worked with a fellow like this.
He became a “C’ suite favorite because he wife got a number of executives rich in real estate. He had nothing to do with it. His wife did everything, but he got all of the credit.
I succeeded him into two positions. The first was as Operations Manager. He was touted for doing a great job, especially with cost reduction work. Yet when I got into the details of his efforts, not only hadn’t he saved any money, but the costs were actually higher than before he did his thing.
I worked just to get back to a breakeven point. That in itself was a savings, but since he already had gotten cost savings credit, there was no recognition for the work I did.
He then became the Director of Quality. We met often to discuss issues in the 3 divisions I was Operations Director for. In each case he refused to work on any of the issues, even though that was his job. So, I and others worked on the problems. As we solved each one, guess who issued memos to the corporate world claiming credit for the quality strides we had made? You got it, the do nothing Director of Quality.
I then followed him into the Quality Director’s position, something I really didn’t want but was told I had to take by the company president. Lo and behold, I inherited a mess. It took me a few months to clean up the problems he left. The thanks I got was one of the Human Resource Directors asked me why I was changing what was an already successful Quality program. I guess it depends on what you consider successful.
I didn’t get into the mess I had inherited. Instead, I told the Director that it was my job to get quality to the next level, just as the fellow who took my old position as Project Engineering manager was supposed to. I asked if he got the same question. Crickets.
I am sure that many of you reading this have come across a similar person or persons that I have described here.
The odds are greatly in your favor that you already have or will in the future. In a world of 7 billion people it is almost impossible not to.
So what do you do about it? While it is certainly aggravating to have to listen to pretentious nonsense, it can also be detrimental to you to say or do something about it. Unfortunately many of the braggards have endeared themselves to powerful individuals at work or in important business or social circles.
It is hard for me to enumerate the number of people I have come across who are raved about by others for accomplishments.
I know they had little or nothing to do with. To speak ill of them would only cause me to be chastised by the powers that be or have them declare me jealous of the person and trying to elevate myself by bringing him or her down. This is something I would never do, but it is certainly something I could have been accused of. So I suffered in silence wondering how others could be so blind to not seeing what I am.
A case in point is a very good friend of mine. He has another friend he thinks the world of and someone who I really do not like and try not to associate with. This other friend has screwed my friend on a few occasions, but that has made no difference in their relationship. My friend passes off the slights and moves on, proclaiming how wonderful this other friend is,
I chose to stay silent and have never uttered a word about my feelings to my friend. I know I risk a good friendship by doing so. What I do instead is to change the subject if this person’s name comes up. And I try not to be with him at any events, if possible. Sometimes we have to do what we have to do as the loss by exposing the person could be greater than any gain we get by doing so.
So what should you do when coming across and possibly having to deal with someone who is all hat and no cattle? Well, there are various options, which are:
· Call them on their false bravado. It is something we all think about doing and maybe even dream about. Unmasking a phony is indeed satisfying, but as I mentioned it may have some not too good consequences for you. If they are popular, it may look like you are being petty or trying to promote yourself at their expense. That could cost you, so be careful.
· Challenge them in a nice but stern way. Pretend you are interested in what they are saying. Ask them to elaborate so you can learn from them. Most if not all will fumble and stumble to do what you have asked. They will make themselves look foolish and those listening who understand what is going on will get it. You will get what you want without looking petty.
· Ignore them and deal with it. Remember to pick your battles. Some things are just not worth fighting over. Dealing with this type of person may be one of those. If it doesn’t impact you, let it go. Feel sorry for those they are fooling and be glad you are not one of them. You have more important things to concern yourself with. They aren’t thinking of you so don’t get tied up thinking of them.
There are other terms for a person who is “All hat and no cattle”.
One is “An empty suit”. Whatever the term, it is still the same, a person attempting to be more important than they really are.
You can pick them out a mile away. And that is as close as you need to get to them. There are so many good, smart and accomplished people in our lives. They are usually humble about who they are and what they do. You know that they know what they are talking about. And they are the ones you keep close, listen to, and learn from. They have both a hat and plenty of cattle.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter H. Christian was a founding partner and president of espi, a business consulting firm in Northeastern PA. Previously he was an Executive at Crayola Corporation. He has worked with 300+ clients in business development, profit improvement, operations, IS selection and implementation, and Project Management. He has 40+ years of experience in strategic and facility planning, CI, lean, and supply chain. He has helped companies to realize millions of dollars in cost reductions and profit improvements adding and retaining thousands of jobs. He has authored the Amazon bestselling business books, “What About the Vermin Problem?” and “Influences and Influencers” (4 out of 4 star review on Online Bookclub) and is published in a variety of professional magazines. He is most appreciative of Dr. Rodney Ridley and Donald Schalk of the O’Pake Institute, Alvernia University for their support in allowing him to teach this important course.
