If we look at it the way an agency or law firm with a retainer and hourly billings – would we want or need to invite all the layers of people to meetings that we do internally within corporations?? No. We would be more careful with our time. And we should be. The people working at a company are also expensive – some functions are kept track of this way because they are billed to a client. But salaried employees spending their work lives in meetings or doing a wasteful or superfluous job (the article here argues that the traditional account manager – the hand-holder, schmoozer, coordinator and other such activities – is a waste when duplicated again and again within a company or agency). Agreed.

Being a good schmoozer or networker, though, is a great skill. I know a woman whose entire career is built on being a schmoozer and networker. I assume she has more skills than that – schmoozing, networking and then asskicking – so it’s like the coordinator mentioned above but on steroids. She calls herself a “vigilante” – and in many ways that is what is so valuable about her. She will ruffle feathers and circumvent bureaucracy and the chain of command to get things done. Many organizations could use a vigilante of this caliber. And a real professional at it will be able to ruffle feathers and upend the status quo while smiling and without creating internecine strife.

Speaking of vigilantes, I think of Mexico – which has legalized and armed civilian vigilantes to fight violent Knights Templar drug cartel. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. The frontier is a new front line.