Orlando
The world is filled with them. In turn, they fill the air with the noxious odor of maniacal and even deranged arrogance. Too many of us have worked for one or more of these absurd people in our careers, witnessing the true costs of their brutal pathologies and wondering why the boss and the board fail to recognize the grenade that will soon blow up in their faces. It almost always does.
This sentiment comes after so many are now dealing with the shrapnel of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's implosion. Such abusive, self-absorbed people almost always destroy themselves but, tragically, their demise too often comes after much needless damage has been done to other people and organizations. Just read David Margolick's troubling article about Spitzer's arrogance, rage, selfishness and abject disdain for others, The Year of Governing Dangerously (Vanity Fair, January 2008), and you would think he was writing about Spitzer now, after the fall, and not before his abrupt resignation. So many people made past-tense references to Spitzer in the piece because only one year into his four-year run, nobody wanted to work for or with him.
Why? Because he fits Professor Robert Sutton's definition of being an asshole. And a pretty big one at that! As reluctant as I am to use that term in this venue, it can now be found in the title of Sutton's new book, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't. Sutton's is a wake-up call for employers to understand the difference between being tough, firm and decisive and just being a garden-variety "kiss-up, kick-down" asshole. Some friction and creative tension in organizations is useful, if properly channeled. However, Sutton tell us that true assholes care little about balancing such energies in the workplace. Instead, he says these people are certifiable assholes if they meet two criteria: 1) making others feel oppressed, humiliated, excluded and de-energized and 2) inflicting their pain on those less powerful than themselves. Who comes to mind in your office, huh?
Sutton reminds us of some the very best assholes such as "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap. He compares them to tough, driven leaders like Intel's Andy Grove, Men's Wearhouse's George Zimmer and Costco's James Sinegal who endure over the long term and whose organizations thrive because they mercifully emerged from childhood without the need to destroy others to protect their own fragile egos.
Of course, the real test always comes when these jerks appear to be driving effective performance, often coated in tough talk. Here is where those distanced from the asshole, such as board members, too often protect the status quo to derive short-term gain only to find several years later an organization fearful of creativity, innovation and collaboration and a workforce shorn of morale and depleted of its best talent. Sutton quotes Google's Shona Brown whose company "acts on its 'Don't be evil' motto by making Google a place where it simply isn't efficient to act like an asshole." (p.49) And that's the key. Abuse must be seen in operational and financial terms and it must be understood to produce needless inefficiency and ineffectiveness which, by the way, the asshole is typically very good at hiding. Sutton calls these costs "asshole taxes."
Now Sutton reminds us that assholes don't always do more harm than good. Calculated sound and fury has its time and place. Sutton says General Patton and Bobby Knight seem to fit the asshole definition, but on balance they achieved conditions in which, well, people "worked their asses off" for them. (p. 143) Maybe he has a point, albeit he is reluctant to fully embrace it. Still, most of us would decline entering into such a megalomaniacal manipulation. Give me General Omar Bradley and Duke's Coach K anytime.
p.s. The K Restaurant and Wine Bar here on Edgewater Drive in Orlando's College Park neighborhood is an exceptional find. Yes, the wonderfully named Vito's Chop House here has one of the best wine lists in the Southeast, and well worth the trip, but K Restaurant and Wine Bar is one of those subtle, gentle places that can and did emerge unexpectedly.
The world is filled with them. In turn, they fill the air with the noxious odor of maniacal and even deranged arrogance. Too many of us have worked for one or more of these absurd people in our careers, witnessing the true costs of their brutal pathologies and wondering why the boss and the board fail to recognize the grenade that will soon blow up in their faces. It almost always does.
This sentiment comes after so many are now dealing with the shrapnel of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's implosion. Such abusive, self-absorbed people almost always destroy themselves but, tragically, their demise too often comes after much needless damage has been done to other people and organizations. Just read David Margolick's troubling article about Spitzer's arrogance, rage, selfishness and abject disdain for others, The Year of Governing Dangerously (Vanity Fair, January 2008), and you would think he was writing about Spitzer now, after the fall, and not before his abrupt resignation. So many people made past-tense references to Spitzer in the piece because only one year into his four-year run, nobody wanted to work for or with him.
Why? Because he fits Professor Robert Sutton's definition of being an asshole. And a pretty big one at that! As reluctant as I am to use that term in this venue, it can now be found in the title of Sutton's new book, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't. Sutton's is a wake-up call for employers to understand the difference between being tough, firm and decisive and just being a garden-variety "kiss-up, kick-down" asshole. Some friction and creative tension in organizations is useful, if properly channeled. However, Sutton tell us that true assholes care little about balancing such energies in the workplace. Instead, he says these people are certifiable assholes if they meet two criteria: 1) making others feel oppressed, humiliated, excluded and de-energized and 2) inflicting their pain on those less powerful than themselves. Who comes to mind in your office, huh?
Sutton reminds us of some the very best assholes such as "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap. He compares them to tough, driven leaders like Intel's Andy Grove, Men's Wearhouse's George Zimmer and Costco's James Sinegal who endure over the long term and whose organizations thrive because they mercifully emerged from childhood without the need to destroy others to protect their own fragile egos.
Of course, the real test always comes when these jerks appear to be driving effective performance, often coated in tough talk. Here is where those distanced from the asshole, such as board members, too often protect the status quo to derive short-term gain only to find several years later an organization fearful of creativity, innovation and collaboration and a workforce shorn of morale and depleted of its best talent. Sutton quotes Google's Shona Brown whose company "acts on its 'Don't be evil' motto by making Google a place where it simply isn't efficient to act like an asshole." (p.49) And that's the key. Abuse must be seen in operational and financial terms and it must be understood to produce needless inefficiency and ineffectiveness which, by the way, the asshole is typically very good at hiding. Sutton calls these costs "asshole taxes."
Now Sutton reminds us that assholes don't always do more harm than good. Calculated sound and fury has its time and place. Sutton says General Patton and Bobby Knight seem to fit the asshole definition, but on balance they achieved conditions in which, well, people "worked their asses off" for them. (p. 143) Maybe he has a point, albeit he is reluctant to fully embrace it. Still, most of us would decline entering into such a megalomaniacal manipulation. Give me General Omar Bradley and Duke's Coach K anytime.
p.s. The K Restaurant and Wine Bar here on Edgewater Drive in Orlando's College Park neighborhood is an exceptional find. Yes, the wonderfully named Vito's Chop House here has one of the best wine lists in the Southeast, and well worth the trip, but K Restaurant and Wine Bar is one of those subtle, gentle places that can and did emerge unexpectedly.