Les absents ont toujours tort

History is written by the winners, we are told.

You can’t win a game you are not in. So turn up.

And you totally see the truth in that, the longer you live, don’t you?

History is written by those who show up, we are also told.

Because they have a chance of winning, if they are there. No-shows never win. It stands to reason.

And they have a chance of being heard. No guarantees, mind. Nothing in life is certain other than death and taxes and all that. I am on a cliché roll today.

But it stands to reason.

Clichés work because they are true.

You can’t win a game you are not in.

So turn up.

For a chance of winning.

But also for a chance to say your piece.

Les absents ont toujours tort.

The absent are always wrong.

Let that settle for a moment.

I don’t know about you, but in my own upbringing, silence was often an answer. Maybe it’s a Greek thing. We even say to people ‘my silence is the only answer you are getting’, thereby breaking the silence to make sure it is noticed.

If you think that’s contradictory, welcome to our culture.

But back to my point.

The absent are always wrong.

It stopped me in my tracks the first time I read it. But of course. You are not there to give voice to your opinions, your experiences, your side of the story.

It explains groupthink.

It explains office politics.

It creates an urgent fire in all diversity conversations because silence isn’t the worst thing that happens to the people who are not there. In the room when things happen. In the room you are not in, you are not just silent. You are often wrong by default.

So assume, for a moment, that you have absolute choice and control and agency as to which rooms you will be in, in your career.

For the avoidance of doubt, in real life, you don’t. You don’t have absolute control or choice. Some rooms you have to be in whether you like it or not. Others you may not have access to for love or money. But indulge me here.

In a world where you could be in any room. In order to avoid silence. In order to avoid what you stand for and what you have to say being… not there.

In a world where you can choose the rooms that matter to not be wrong in… to not be silenced in… and realising that you can’t be everywhere…

You can’t go to every meeting your company holds.

You can’t be in every planning session.

You can’t be in every steering committee.

You can’t be at every meeting with every client across every engagement.

You can’t be at every industry consultation.

You can’t be at every event.

You can’t.

I know that I have given you a magical hypothetical in your ability to choose to be anywhere, so I could waive the same magic wand here. But I won’t.

I am not lifting this constraint. This constraint is the whole point.

In a world where you have only so many hours in the day, only so many days in the week and only so many years in the workforce… which rooms do you have to be in? Which rooms would you absolutely choose to be in in order to voice your view on strategy, product or equality?

In order to raise a banner or voice an opinion, on any topic big or small?

You can’t be everywhere, but you can be anywhere you choose, in this exercise.

Please indulge me and take a minute to actually think about it.

Done?

OK.

Now back in the real world.

Have a look at your diary.

I will wait.

Meetings, meetings… Meetings everywhere.

How many of those meetings are meetings you chose in your exercise above?

How many of those conversations that you are attending are happening at the same time as the conversations you would have chosen to be in are taking place?

Or maybe they aren’t taking place, and maybe that’s the thing you should be doing. Making sure that they happen and you are in them.

Of all the things that demand your time, which rooms do you need to have a voice in?

For yourself, for your clients, for your career, for your product, for those coming after?

It may be small things, like budget allocations for the quarter. Or big things, like giving a known bully a promotion.

It could be operational things, like changing testing schedules for convenience. Or strategic things, like aligning pricing to what you know about how your clients spend money rather than preferences.

It could be team things, industry things, visionary things or personal things.

At times, it will be all of those.

Look at your diary.

Look at what is not in your diary.

Are you in the right places, in the right rooms?

Being there won’t save the day. Being there may not result in a different outcome than would have transpired if you hadn’t been there.

But the absent are always wrong.

Just remember that, when you choose what meetings and events and trips and sessions you say yes to.

Because you can’t be everywhere.

So be where it matters.

#LedaWrites

Leda Glyptis is FinTech Futures’ resident thought provocateur – she leads, writes on, lives and breathes transformation and digital disruption.

She is a recovering banker, lapsed academic and long-term resident of the banking ecosystem. She is chief client officer at 10x Future Technologies.

Leda is also a published author – her first book, Bankers Like Us: Dispatches from an Industry in Transition, is available to order here.

All opinions are her own. You can’t have them – but you are welcome to debate and comment!

Follow Leda on Twitter @LedaGlyptis and LinkedIn.