Always Looking Down His Nose

Cheryl

After knowing and working with Mike Rinder for years—decades—I can honestly state that Mike was the epitome of haughty. His view of other people was that they have lesser minds. And “lesser” means “lower than” to Mike.

His attitude to other staff was always patronizing, always looking down his nose. This would happen whether it was a single person passing him in the hallway or in a meeting with him. When someone else was speaking, Mike would make his impatience obvious. “Oh, my God, how long is this going to go on?” Or, “Somebody get this person off….” That’s Mike.

Mike could not tolerate having to listen to another person—he could not endure someone else having to talk to him. It was almost laughable because you can’t get anything done unless you interact with other people. But Mike couldn’t stand listening to anyone other than himself.

The one thing Mike could do was talk. He’s a hot-air talker. Mike could seemingly talk about anything. And it would sound erudite. However, you would be hard-pressed to find something that Mike then did as a result of that talking. This was not a man of output.

One time, we were sweating bullets getting everything prepared in time for a briefing. As simple as it sounds, to actually prepare a briefing, a seminar or event for a large or small gathering, it was work. I personally spent a lot of time preparing and caring for every little detail so it would come off seamlessly.

And where was Mike? Kicked back in another room, television on the screen, checking out what happened with the sports that day. When push came to shove to make it happen, he wasn’t the one to do the work.