When should you keep a curmudgeon?

The worst part of having a curmudgeon on your staff is that you may have to put up with him, at least temporarily, if he’s valuable to your organization.  But he has to be very valuable.  And “temporarily” is the key word. Imagine, for example, a senior manager who criticizes every idea and decision openly at meetings and also behind his boss’ back.  Sometimes, he simply rolls his eyes, snorts, drums his fingers or overtly uses his smart phone.  The major expression of his negativity is “harrumph.”

To read the rest of this article from the Memphis Business Journal, see: When should you keep a curmudgeon? http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2007/02/05/smallb3.html

He’s worse than impersonal.  He’s an active curmudgeon.  He makes clear he won’t go to birthday parties and other celebrations because they’re a waste of time and he’s too busy.  Or he goes and grumbles audibly the whole time.  You can almost hear him saying, “Bah. Humbug.”

He always knows the “right” answer and thinks “discussions” are him expressing his opinion, followed by everyone else acting instantly on his plan.  He’s an expert at harassment, bullying and abuse of power.  If he’s entrenched in the organization, he’ll even criticize his boss publicly.

This curmudgeon’s actually pleased he has a reputation as a no-nonsense guy.  When employees leave his department, he’s sure they couldn’t stand his high standards, weren’t willing to work hard enough or didn’t have the brains to keep up with him.

The most devastating effect of allowing such bullies to stay is that your actual culture – not the politically correct statements you’ve posted on wall plaques – is exposed.  Around these cranky, negative, toxic people, performance decreases and behavior sinks to the lowest level tolerated.  Also, creativity is destroyed, morale plummets and turnover increases around him.  That may convince you to make a thoughtful decision about removing him.

Many experts tell you to get rid of the curmudgeon right away; it’s the people-oriented, moral thing to do.

Dealing with “special cases” I have a somewhat different view.  In some fields and with some tasks, you may decide to accept the behavior because he’s unique and successful.  Typically, those are the fields in which genius counts.  Some examples are: the arts and theatre, surgeons, researchers, inventors, programmers, architects and athletes.  Or a special case may be the owner’s mother or children.

If you want to retain other valuable managers and maintain a respectful culture for the rest of the organization, make clear to everyone, including the curmudgeon, your reasons for keeping him, the behavioral lines he can’t cross and your plans to minimize brain damage to the rest of the staff.  Otherwise you’ll simply allow him to victimize everyone.

As his boss, you’ll have to micromanage him.  The words “communicate better” don’t have any meaning to him.  He thinks he’s communicating just fine and doesn’t know or value any other way.  Use behaviorally specific cue cards, “Say this. Do that.”

Peers will often put up with a curmudgeon because they can minimize contact and laugh behind his back.

But if he’s your boss, decide whether to put up with his behavior cheerfully, try to get upper management to change the behavior, transfer or retire.  Don’t endure behavior you can’t live with cheerfully.  Life is too short.

High standards protect everyone from unprofessional behavior.  You can learn to eliminate the high cost of low attitudes, behavior and performance.

All tactics are situational.  Expert coaching and consulting can help you create and implement a plan that fits you and your organization.

Leaders Who Ignore the Human Element Will Fail

To be a successful administrator, basic operational savvy is necessary.  But to be a successful leader, you must also master human savvy. For example, Joe worked his way up through the financial ranks and had mastered three of the major skills of internal operational savvy:

• Setting high performance standards.
• Project management.
• Financial soundness.

Joe’s teams met their goals within budget and deadlines.

But Joe was always passed over for promotions to leadership.  Why?  Basic operational savvy isn’t enough to make leaders even partially successful.

To read the rest of this article from the Memphis Business Journal, see: Leaders who ignore the human element will fail http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2007/10/01/smallb4.html

When I explained to Joe that he was missing the human savvy I’ll describe below, he said he couldn’t change.  He had strength of character and responded successfully to the ups and downs, and the challenges of business.  But he said he was an introvert.  He could achieve high performance in operational areas but it wasn’t his personality to excel in people areas.

Joe’s response is nonsense.  He doesn’t need to become an extrovert or develop the personality of an archetypal used-car salesman.  But if he wants to advance his career, he does need to master his innate human savvy—the universal human attributes for empathy and sympathy, for knowing what makes people tick, and for transmitting and enhancing passion and dedication.

Joe’s progress was halting when he was simply memorizing lists of how-to’s.  But his learning took off when he modeled himself after the subject of one of the best leadership books, “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Joe saw himself as having a personality similar to Lincoln: a melancholy introvert who could come out of his shell to make human contact.  Lincoln’s human savvy was a crucial component of his success.  Joe resolved, “If Lincoln could do it, so can I.”  Joe drove himself to use Lincoln as his guide and to learn what Lincoln learned.

One of the important personal skills Joe learned was critical listening.  Instead of listening only to the dictionary definitions of words, he trained himself to hear “the message behind the message.”

That essential information taught him what concerns other people have and what they really want.  Joe used what he learned in order to connect with his team on an emotional level, so he could help them dedicate to their mission.

Lincoln said that the most important task of a leader, once he has finally decided on a course of action, is to educate people so they are inspired to proceed on that course.  Lincoln used insightful comparisons and memorable stories to transfuse people with his vision, dedication and perseverance.  Joe realized that appropriate stories have an emotional impact greater than the effects of logical arguments.

Like Lincoln did, Joe can now tell memorable stories of his team’s effort and progress.  His staff is now enthused to achieve team and personal goals in the face of challenges that demand their best.

Joe also sets high behavioral standards and holds his staff accountable for behavior that reflects good attitudes.  He’s stopped bullies and even had some success getting difficult messages across to abusive, toxic staff.  His best workers are happier now that he’s weeded out the slackers and bad apples.

Now his superiors say:

• “Joe seems to guess what the next steps are, even when I haven’t said them.”
• “He’s a good confidant. I can count on him to rally the rest of my leadership team and to see that his people are on top of what’s truly essential.”
• “He’s a go-getter.  He’s stopped bullying, manipulation, negativity and meeting sabotage in his new department.   He can inspire people to overcome change and adversity, as well as to keep innovating when times are good.”

Many people teach basic operational savvy as if it’s all that’s necessary for leadership success.  But good administrators aren’t necessarily good leaders.  Basic operational savvy is necessary, but it’s not enough. Leadership success is more all or none.  You can succeed only if you master human savvy.

High standards protect everyone from unprofessional behavior.  You can learn to:

• Master the human element.
• Eliminate the high cost of low attitudes, behavior and performance.

All tactics are situational.  Expert coaching and consulting can help you create and implement a plan that fits you and your organization.

Don't let turf controllers undercut authority behind the scenes

We all know micro-managers who need to back off.  But just as often, I see employees who refuse to accept accountability and supervision.  They want absolute control of their turf and will resist, sabotage and badmouth any supervisor who wants to integrate them into an effective team. For example, Rita, a high-ranking professional, goes over Tom, her direct supervisor, to complain to a senior manager that Tom is micromanaging and wasting her time, so she can’t complete her tasks.  Rita also complains that Tom doesn’t inform her of meetings, springs deadlines on her without warning and talks down to her.

To read the rest of this article from the Memphis Business Journal, see: Don’t let turf controllers undercut authority behind the scenes http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2008/09/29/smallb2.html

We found that Rita simply didn’t want any oversight.  There were records of calls and e-mails documenting timely announcements of meetings, requests for her to attend meetings, and clarity in expressing tasks and timelines that she pretended she didn’t know about.  She also hadn’t return calls so she could say later that she misunderstood assignments and timelines, had good-sounding excuses to avoid meetings where she’d have to report progress and had never brought her issues to Tom.  Instead, she had badmouthed him behind his back to other managers and employees.

She sabotaged, harassed, bullied and abused him behind his back.  She tried to form a clique to disparage and undermine him with her constant negativity.

What could Tom do?

• Realize he was in a battle with a person who was out to be her own boss by undercutting his authority.  Every attempt he’d made to accommodate Rita was met with more demands from her to be in total control of her own work.  She didn’t want to report to him or the team.  He’ll never make her happy.
• Document every request to her and every action plan developed by the team.
• Shine a light on her bullying behavior to the team and especially to the senior manager.
• Express his dissatisfaction with Rita’s performance and behavior in writing in order to counterbalance her complaints.
• Ask the senior manager not to listen to Rita in secret, but to bounce her complaints back to him or to hold meetings with both Rita and Tom together to discuss both their complaints.and-say-no/

What should the senior manager do?

Call Ben to learn what you can do to eliminate the high cost of turf controllers’ low attitudes.  All tactics are situational.  Expert coaching and consulting can help you create and implement a plan that fits you and your organization.