> Well, no, the priorities are often whatever the CEO thinks they are right now...
They are not, and I say this as someone who has reported to people who reported to CEOs and now has CEOs "report" to me.
In most cases, Executive Leadership Teams largely depend on upper-mid level management as their primary filters for initiatives (think VPs/SVPs) and those members of management depend on mid-level management (Engineering Directors, Engineering Managers, Principal/Staff Engineers, and IC Product Managers). If you are an IC Engineer and actually want to make something you care about a priority, you need to:
1. Convince your manager (usually an EM) and skip manager (usually an Engineering Director) and your PM to fight for you.
2. Think about how to show that an engineering initiative actually has a positive impact on ARR or COGS.
3. Find a way to craft an argument around how your proposal aligns with an OKR - OKRs are purposely made open-ended in order to act as a soft filter.
> People have to be open to being convinced...
Yes, but you also need to be able to convince them in their language. You have to be able to understand every individual's incentives and then explain how your proposal aligns with their incentives.
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The amount of learned helplessness on HN is counterproductive for anyone hoping to maintain a career over the long term.
Have you ever worked under a CEO that has been arrested?
You having a different experience just means you've had a different experience. I'm not claiming that's a normal experience, but there are all sorts of leaders. You can't fix the leadership as an employee.
> Have you ever worked under a CEO that has been arrested
Nope, but neither have most ICs or HN users either.
> You can't fix the leadership as an employee.
Absolutely, but you can still make a good faith attempt in most organizations simply because most people are not working in organizations that are those kinds of edge cases.
Poor leadership does exist and fairly common, but assuming that poor leadership is the default is a cop-out and a bad mindset to have if you want to keep working in any industry, and is oftentimes used as a crutch.
If you are not doing anything to better your position (eg. trying to build allies internally or trying to leave a bad employer) I frankly have no respect.
People have to be open to being convinced. It'd be nice if that was always true, but it's clearly not always the case.