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I think mainly what's wrong is our thinking of it as hierarchical. The "leadership" position should be/is a support position to help production staff perform to the best of their abilities. That could be someone less experienced as long as they're good at eliminating obstacles for their team(s) and communication.

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I agree with you in general. I just don't think a person 6 months out of college can effectively do what you describe.

When I was six months into the job I certainly didn't know how the org functioned, nor did I have any political capital to move things my way.

That I agree with. Experience is hard to shortcut.

It definitely helps to be familiar with an organization to actively participate in it. You can accumulate political capital independent from the management structure, though, and you can manage without playing politics.

I always suggest folk to embrace and understand an existing organization's culture before attempting to effect change within it.

It's usually a bad idea to try to change a process without understanding the reason behind it. It's always a bad idea to try and change it without TRYING to understand the reason behind. it.

That might be true if you didn’t actually get power over your team.

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