Everyday Office Jargon · Executive level

"The tail wagging the dog"

"The tail wagging the dog" means a minor or secondary factor is having an outsized influence on decisions, reversing how priorities should work.

Say this instead: a minor factor driving the whole thing

How "The tail wagging the dog" shows up at work

Executives deploy this one when a lower-ranked team, metric, or process is steering strategy in a direction they dislike. It sounds diagnostic but mostly signals that someone is annoyed the wrong people have too much say.

Buzzword

We can't let compliance concerns become the tail wagging the dog on this product launch.

Plain English

We can't let compliance concerns drive all the decisions on this product launch.

Corporate Rank: Executive  ·  Category: Everyday Office Jargon

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