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by Kelly Riggs
“Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.”
Oscar Wilde
When art imitates life in business, it almost certainly has to imitate the dysfunctional side of the workplace, doesn’t it?
After all, why do people read Dilbert? Or watch The Office?
The reason Dilbert and The Office are so hilariously funny is that they strike a nerve. In both of these, art imitates real life. Painfully so.
Usually, there isn’t enough money on the planet to get me to watch the (now finished) television show Glee. Definitely not my thing. But, the one episode that I actually saw was the perfect example of art imitating life. The main character, a sassy, sarcastic, sadistic cheerleader coach (and I use the word “coach” very loosely), ripped off this gem:
“I’m all about empowerment. I empower my [cheerleaders] to live in a state of constant fear by creating an environment of irrational, random terror.”
Absolutely amazing. I doubled over and laughed for a week. Pretty funny, even for a tyrant.
Sure, it’s only television, but it’s funny because there is just enough truth in that attitude to make you wince. Like me, I’m sure you have known several managers that share some of her television character traits – belligerent, critical, condescending, insulting.
Tyrants.
There are just enough of those kinds of managers in the workplace that achieve some definition of success that allows them to continue to exist, even flourish. Their bosses justify their behavior with statements like “Hey, he hits his numbers” or “You might not like her, but she gets results” or “We need someone to crack down on that department.”
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, for example, is well known as a difficult guy to work for, but HOLY COW does he get results. Since he makes it work, it obviously must be OK to adopt his style of management.
Or not. While fear, criticism, bullying, humiliation, and other similar tactics may produce short-term results, the long-term results are also predictable: disengagement, high turnover, falling productivity, morale issues, and worse. Very few individuals have the absolute power and the unlimited budget to sustain such an environment, and they have to willingly accept the inevitable results of their leadership style to sustain it. For instance, the right working environment should have proper office equipment (like those available at https://iotecdigital.com/location/copiers-los-angeles/), co-workers, growth opportunities, and more importantly the right leaders to sustain the working condition as a productive one.
In Jobs case, it’s a style that’s more 8th century monarch than 21st century manager, as an HBR article attests:
Jobs, for all of his virtues, clings to the Great Man Theory of Leadership – a CEO-centric model of executive power that is outmoded, unsustainable, and, for most of us mere mortals, ineffective in a world of non-stop change. A Wired magazine cover story from last year made the point well. The article begins with a memorable anecdote – the CEO, in search of a space in the company’s crowded parking lot, regularly leaves his Mercedes in a handicapped space, sometimes taking up two spaces. The pattern became so noticeable that employees, according to the article, put notes on his windshield that read, Park Different.
“Jobs’ fabled attitude toward parking”, writer Leander Kahney says, “reflects his approach to business: For him, the regular rules do not apply.” That means shrouding his company in secrecy; treating his employees to tyrannical outbursts; and refusing basic accommodations that would make beautifully designed products more customer-friendly.
Unfortunately, the Jobs-style of leadership is quite commonplace. Studies indicate that over one-third of employees have been bullied at work by their managers with management behaviors ranging from gossip or slander to verbal and emotional abuse to physical intimidation. To make sure employee well-being is a priority in your company, invest in software such as that offered by Together, whose mentoring programs can help to alleviate workforce discontentment. While not every manager guilty of abusive behavior is a bad person, even well-meaning managers can be guilty of repeatedly harsh criticism, ostracism, and even public humiliation. This kind of behavior in the workplace is of course wholely undesirable and can sometimes culminate in violence which is why conducting a threat assessment when managing a threat and violence risk is a logical thing for any business to do. The cost to the organization is more than significant, as described in this article:
Workplace bullying directly impacts the bottom line by affecting productivity, wellness (with subsequent rise in employer benefit costs), attrition, attraction and retention. One study…showed that “adults with chronically high stress levels performed 50% worse on certain cognitive tests than adults with low stress.” Other studies estimate the financial costs of this lost productivity (at work) at more than $200 billion a year – and that’s a conservative estimate.
While most critics believe that the injection of more rules and regulations – that is, state and federal legislation – is the answer to abusive management styles, I think the solution is far more simple. With clear and compelling evidence that this management style costs companies enormous amounts of money, companies should be more than enthusiastic about making the following changes:
1. Evaluate management hires/promotions as much on leadership capacity as for technical skill.
2. Rigorously train — and assess — managers in critical leadership skills like effective communication, conflict resolution, delegation, and performance coaching. If this is something you’re interested in, you can find out more about GWO courses here.
3. Regularly survey employees to determine engagement levels and to determine if abusive management practices are present in the workplace.
A company simply cannot afford to continue to assert that training has no tangible ROI. The business case for management leadership training is more than well-established, but the challenge is to have a greater sense of the impact of effective leadership development than the current quarterly financial results.
In this day and age, when competitive advantages are hard to come by, the one advantage that you can actually impact is your workplace culture.
Which is hardly a possibility if your leaders are guilty of creating their own brand of workplace terror.
Kelly Riggs is a business performance coach and founder of the Business LockerRoom. A former national Salesperson of the Year and serial entrepreneur, Kelly is a recognized thought leader in the areas of sales, management leadership, and strategic planning. He serves clients ranging from small, privately held companies to Fortune 500 firms. Kelly has written two books: “1-on-1 Management™: What Every Great Manager Knows That You Don’t” and “Quit Whining and Start SELLING! A Step-by-Step Guide to a Hall of Fame Career in Sales.”
