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Will You Add? - When the Boss is a Bully
It’s Not The Economy Stupid, It’s The Hiring PracticesSlipshod hiring practices, managers and ineffective corporate recruitment policies are to blame for white-collar professionals unable to find work.“White collar professionals who can’t find work in the 21st Century shouldn’t blame the economy only,” says Eva Jekins of VIP Innovations. She cites “incompetent corporate recruiting practices” and “under-trained, over-tasked hiring managers who don’t prioritize the importance of the hiring process enough to focus or take the time to define the position itself rather than the person in the position.”Where Have All The People Gone? Today’s marketplace is experiencing high job turnover rates and a prevalence of unfilled jobs. And the future looks bleak. “In the next five years, a Baby Boomer retirement wave is going to leave many companies high and dry,” says Jenkins.Jenkins prescription for companies whose hiring practices are ailing is “training, training, and more training of hiring managers; for recruiting departments, review, revamp and streamline current hiring processes” she says. She believes that management training should include a heavy emphasis on the hiring and interviewing process, but adds that, “A very specific training program aimed at retention is critical.”
While it's no longer cool to throw around your authority, counterforces are leading to greater tolerance of negative behavior. Stybel points to a growing 'What can you do for me now?' stance. "There's a new generation of CEOs who expect to be in place four years and move on. This fosters emotional distancing from employees, an excessive focus on transactions; it does not foster a positive relationship mode. Companies are growing increasingly performance-oriented; do they care how anyone feels about an executive's behavior?
"Where I have been retained, it's not because they don't like bullies" notes Stybel. "Only the underlying economics make it a dysfunctional behavior."<
A lot of big inventions were discovered " by chance ". Let's take the case of the penicillin. In 1928 the scholar Alexander Fleming discovers it after to have forgotten a culture of mushrooms in his laboratory. He notices that a mildew that had developed (Penicillium notatum) killed all the bacteria around the mushrooms. 17 years later he shared the Nobel price of medicine.Another example, the discovery of Velcro. While taking a walk in the mountains, Georges De Mestrallet, engineer, is irritated by the small balls of a plant that hang themselves to its clothing and to the hairs of his dog. The tiny hooks of the seeds of bardane that it observes to the microscope give him the idea of the closing Velcro.Velcro has become a multinational corporation.There are hundreds of examples of this type as the history of the Archimedes principle discovered in his bath, the apple of Newton (universal gravitation) or the post-it and its adhesive that sticks and puts back itself, etc.These examples show that persons in contact with a circumstance, capitalize on that by making their creativity work.This astonishing faculty carries a name:The serendipity, or the creative exploitation of the unforeseen.1) The serendipity is the art to do a happy
If the schoolyard is the stomping ground of bully boys and bully girls, then the office is the playground of adult bullies. Perhaps because power is the chief perk in most companies, especially those with tight hierarchies, offices can bring out the bully in people.
Everyone has a war story. There's the boss who calls at 2 A.M. from Paris--just because he's there. The boss who asks for your evaluation of a problem and then proceeds to denigrate you and your opinion in front of the whole staff as you seethe with hopefully hidden rage. "It's a demonstration of power. It's demeaning," contends Harry Levinson, Ph.D., the dean of organizational psychologists and head of the Levinson Institute in Waltham, Massachusetts.
"I haven't studied office bullying systematically," he says. In fact, no one has. Despite common perceptions of its prevalence, it's essentially virgin tuff for organizational psychology. Trouble is, organizational psychologists are often called in at the highest level of management; nowadays, most bullies are weeded out before they get to the top.
Nevertheless, says Levinson, 40 years of consulting have given him some idea of what they do and why. They over-control, micromanage, and display contempt for others, usually by repeated verbal abuse and sheer exploitation. They constantly put others down with snide remarks or harsh, repetitive, and unfair criticism. They don't just differ with you, they differ with you contemptuously; they question your adequacy and your commitment. They humiliate you in front of others.
There are two kinds of bullies, observes organizational psychologist Laurence Stybel, Ph.D., a principal of Boston's Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire & Associates: "Successful ones and unsuccessful ones. The latter don't last long in organizations. The successful bullies create problems, but they are competent"
Often they are very bright workers. And therein lies the problem. They make a significant contribution to the company as workers. They get promoted because of their technical expertise. Then they wind up supervising others, and spew on people in support functions, on competitors, perhaps even their own bosses.
They are especially rampant in high-tech companies, engineering firms, and financial organizations--a stock fund manager doing an incredible job with investments, for example. "The typical successful bully thinks, 'They won't do anything to me--I'm the best they've got,"'Stybel says. But sooner or later, it's too costly to tolerate their behavior.
It's getting too costly much sooner in most companies. Stybel cites the example of a large New England hospital where the bully is a brilliant physician who has been the director of radiology for 11 years. The bullying was an issue over the years--'m the exit interviews of departing technical staff.
Why did the hospital decide to do something only now? The administrator told Stybel: "We can't tolerate the high turnover anymore. It's too costly in the face of managed care."
Occasionally, bullies do get to the very top. Levinson points to Harold Geneen, the legendary head of ITT, and coach Vince Lombardi. And then there's the issue of Fortune magazine devoted every couple of years to America's "toughest" bosses. Take the female CEO who reportedly yelled at the executives of a division she felt was underperforming: "You're eunuchs! How can your wives stand you? You've got nothing between your legs!"
At least in large corporations, bullying is not as blatant as it once was. "The John Wayne image of a leader doesn't go over so well in the '90s" notes Pat Alexander of the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina. "It affects the efficiency of the entire organization." Intimidation tends to be more polished.
While it's no longer cool to throw around your authority, counterforces are leading to greater tolerance of negative behavior. Stybel points to a growing 'What can you do for me now?' stance. "There's a new generation of CEOs who expect to be in place four years and move on. This fosters emotional distancing from employees, an excessive focus on transactions; it does not foster a positive relationship mode. Companies are growing increasingly performance-oriented; do they care how anyone feels about an executive's behavior?
"Where I have been retained, it's not because they don't like bullies" notes Stybel. "Only the underlying economics make it a dysfunctional behavior." How Your Company Benefit From Private Labeling Beef Jerky
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Nevertheless, says Levinson, 40 years of consulting have given him some idea of what they do and why. They over-control, micromanage, and display contempt for others, usually by repeated verbal abuse and sheer exploitation. They constantly put others down with snide remarks or harsh, repetitive, and unfair criticism. They don't just differ with you, they differ with you contemptuously; they question your adequacy and your commitment. They humiliate you in front of others.
There are two kinds of bullies, observes organizational psychologist Laurence Stybel, Ph.D., a principal of Boston's Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire & Associates: "Successful ones and unsuccessful ones. The latter don't last long in organizations. The successful bullies create problems, but they are competent"
Often they are very bright workers. And therein lies the problem. They make a significant contribution to the company as workers. They get promoted because of their technical expertise. Then they wind up supervising others, and spew on people in support functions, on competitors, perhaps even their own bosses.
They are especially rampant in high-tech companies, engineering firms, and financial organizations--a stock fund manager doing an incredible job with investments, for example. "The typical successful bully thinks, 'They won't do anything to me--I'm the best they've got,"'Stybel says. But sooner or later, it's too costly to tolerate their behavior.
It's getting too costly much sooner in most companies. Stybel cites the example of a large New England hospital where the bully is a brilliant physician who has been the director of radiology for 11 years. The bullying was an issue over the years--'m the exit interviews of departing technical staff.
Why did the hospital decide to do something only now? The administrator told Stybel: "We can't tolerate the high turnover anymore. It's too costly in the face of managed care."
Occasionally, bullies do get to the very top. Levinson points to Harold Geneen, the legendary head of ITT, and coach Vince Lombardi. And then there's the issue of Fortune magazine devoted every couple of years to America's "toughest" bosses. Take the female CEO who reportedly yelled at the executives of a division she felt was underperforming: "You're eunuchs! How can your wives stand you? You've got nothing between your legs!"
At least in large corporations, bullying is not as blatant as it once was. "The John Wayne image of a leader doesn't go over so well in the '90s" notes Pat Alexander of the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina. "It affects the efficiency of the entire organization." Intimidation tends to be more polished.
While it's no longer cool to throw around your authority, counterforces are leading to greater tolerance of negative behavior. Stybel points to a growing 'What can you do for me now?' stance. "There's a new generation of CEOs who expect to be in place four years and move on. This fosters emotional distancing from employees, an excessive focus on transactions; it does not foster a positive relationship mode. Companies are growing increasingly performance-oriented; do they care how anyone feels about an executive's behavior?
"Where I have been retained, it's not because they don't like bullies" notes Stybel. "Only the underlying economics make it a dysfunctional behavior."<
Recent events like the Enron disaster have left hitherto unconcerned employees worried, and they have now begun asking questions about their benefit plans and filing lawsuits if they do not receive satisfactory answers. Fiduciaries and companies are being frequently dragged to court over actions resulting from their employee benefit plans. A well-thought-out employee benefit plan thus has become an important recruiting and retention tool.It is becoming increasingly necessary to find an advisor with the right background and expertise to help you in a specific situation. It is of utmost importance that you find an advisor who is concerned about you and keen on professionally resolving your problem.ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) or employee benefits attorneys provide a great service to limit the liability of plan sponsors and help protect employees. An employee benefits attorney should be involved in any area of merger, acquisition or divestiture. In addition, whenever a company enacts an employee benefit plan, the involvement of such an attorney should be welcomed. In case a company excludes attorney review in their employee benefit plan implementation, it is wise to seek counsel and review those plan documents and procedures. An experienced ERISA attorney should review all aspec
Often they are very bright workers. And therein lies the problem. They make a significant contribution to the company as workers. They get promoted because of their technical expertise. Then they wind up supervising others, and spew on people in support functions, on competitors, perhaps even their own bosses.
They are especially rampant in high-tech companies, engineering firms, and financial organizations--a stock fund manager doing an incredible job with investments, for example. "The typical successful bully thinks, 'They won't do anything to me--I'm the best they've got,"'Stybel says. But sooner or later, it's too costly to tolerate their behavior.
It's getting too costly much sooner in most companies. Stybel cites the example of a large New England hospital where the bully is a brilliant physician who has been the director of radiology for 11 years. The bullying was an issue over the years--'m the exit interviews of departing technical staff.
Why did the hospital decide to do something only now? The administrator told Stybel: "We can't tolerate the high turnover anymore. It's too costly in the face of managed care."
Occasionally, bullies do get to the very top. Levinson points to Harold Geneen, the legendary head of ITT, and coach Vince Lombardi. And then there's the issue of Fortune magazine devoted every couple of years to America's "toughest" bosses. Take the female CEO who reportedly yelled at the executives of a division she felt was underperforming: "You're eunuchs! How can your wives stand you? You've got nothing between your legs!"
At least in large corporations, bullying is not as blatant as it once was. "The John Wayne image of a leader doesn't go over so well in the '90s" notes Pat Alexander of the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina. "It affects the efficiency of the entire organization." Intimidation tends to be more polished.
While it's no longer cool to throw around your authority, counterforces are leading to greater tolerance of negative behavior. Stybel points to a growing 'What can you do for me now?' stance. "There's a new generation of CEOs who expect to be in place four years and move on. This fosters emotional distancing from employees, an excessive focus on transactions; it does not foster a positive relationship mode. Companies are growing increasingly performance-oriented; do they care how anyone feels about an executive's behavior?
"Where I have been retained, it's not because they don't like bullies" notes Stybel. "Only the underlying economics make it a dysfunctional behavior."<
These rules must be followed and learned by each organization manager and employer as their strict and common regulation would definitely lead organization to success. Organizational structure defines the structure of groups operating within an organization, be it an institution, government or military, firm or company.As far as the innovative technologies are concerned, these have greatly affected the mobility of an organization elements allowing roaming inside the office and mobility outside the office without losing valuable information. Wireless LANs allow mobility within the organization structure without fixing employees to a specific point. Cellular networks with third generation devices of course allow constant contact with the office from any side of the world with advanced services as Internet connection and visual contact between the parties as talking goes on. Wireless network enabled laptops, PDAs and notebooks exploit the satellite networks to permit contact with the office and the associates upon traveling or performing out of the office chores. Finally, a combination of the telecommunications and state-of-the-art technology equipment allow employees of multi-transnational organizations located in diverse geographical locations to come together and perform meeting in real time as if all
Why did the hospital decide to do something only now? The administrator told Stybel: "We can't tolerate the high turnover anymore. It's too costly in the face of managed care."
Occasionally, bullies do get to the very top. Levinson points to Harold Geneen, the legendary head of ITT, and coach Vince Lombardi. And then there's the issue of Fortune magazine devoted every couple of years to America's "toughest" bosses. Take the female CEO who reportedly yelled at the executives of a division she felt was underperforming: "You're eunuchs! How can your wives stand you? You've got nothing between your legs!"
At least in large corporations, bullying is not as blatant as it once was. "The John Wayne image of a leader doesn't go over so well in the '90s" notes Pat Alexander of the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina. "It affects the efficiency of the entire organization." Intimidation tends to be more polished.
While it's no longer cool to throw around your authority, counterforces are leading to greater tolerance of negative behavior. Stybel points to a growing 'What can you do for me now?' stance. "There's a new generation of CEOs who expect to be in place four years and move on. This fosters emotional distancing from employees, an excessive focus on transactions; it does not foster a positive relationship mode. Companies are growing increasingly performance-oriented; do they care how anyone feels about an executive's behavior?
"Where I have been retained, it's not because they don't like bullies" notes Stybel. "Only the underlying economics make it a dysfunctional behavior."<
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While it's no longer cool to throw around your authority, counterforces are leading to greater tolerance of negative behavior. Stybel points to a growing 'What can you do for me now?' stance. "There's a new generation of CEOs who expect to be in place four years and move on. This fosters emotional distancing from employees, an excessive focus on transactions; it does not foster a positive relationship mode. Companies are growing increasingly performance-oriented; do they care how anyone feels about an executive's behavior?
"Where I have been retained, it's not because they don't like bullies" notes Stybel. "Only the underlying economics make it a dysfunctional behavior."
While bullies inhabit the middle ranks of large concerns, they are positively thriving at small companies. "There are lots of bad bosses out there,' says Atlanta-based management consultant Neil Lewis, Ph.D. "In smaller companies the quality of management is not as good as at large companies. They're not professional managers."
Stybel warns workers not to focus on where bullying comes from. "When observers see a boss behave as a bully, they attribute it to trait characteristics. That may not be the case. It's almost always a product of individual history and make-up--and the company atmosphere. But who cares? The most important thing is the behavior."
Bullies do a lot of damage in organizations. They make subordinates run scared. They put people in a protective mode, which interferes with the company's ability to generate innovation. They don't build in perpetuation of the organization, says Levinson. "It keeps you in a state of psychological emergency. And add to it the rage you feel towards the bully and a sense of self-rage for putting up with such behavior." These are hardly prime conditions for doing your best work--any work.
As with kids, bully bosses have blind spots. They don't see themselves accurately. They see themselves as better than others--which only acts to justify their bullying behavior--a feeling reinforced by promotion. Another big blind spot: sensitivity to others' feelings. Often, says Levinson, this arises in competitive settings, where "you learn to focus on your own behavior. It breeds a kind of psychological ignorance."
Stybel has developed a psychological karate chop to "unfreeze" executives's attitudes--a customized letter of probation. It essentially tells an executive that, due to changes in market conditions, or some other external factor, his weaknesses now outweigh the strengths he has long displayed. "It spells out desired behavioral changes in a positive way--not 'people are complaining that you are a bully' but 'if you make these changes you'll have a reputation as someone who is considerate.'" It gives honchos 90 days to shape up--or else.
It's never easy to make headway with an office bully, observers agree. The first step is to recognize when it's happening. Repetitive verbal abuse. Micromanagement. Exploitation. Any activity that repeatedly demeans you or is discourteous. "Whenever you're dissed, you're dealing with a bully," says Levinson. "Sometimes it's inadvertent. We all get caught up in that--once. You apologize and it's over. But bullies don't recognize their impoliteness and they don't apologize."
Tactics from the Pros
Here are tactics from seasoned organizational consultants:
Confront the bully: "I'm sorry you feel you have to do that, but I will not put up with that kind of behavior. It has no place here." It can be startlingly effective. "Bullies lack boundaries on their own behavior. Some external controls may force them to back off" says Levinson. "A bully can't bully if you don't let yourself be bullied."
Conduct the confrontation in private--behind dosed doors in the bully's of-rice, at lunch outside the office. The bully won't back down in front of an audience.
Specify the behavior that's unworkable: "You can't just fire from the hip and demean me in front of my staff or others." Don't play armchair psychologist. Restrict the discussion to specific behaviors, not theories of motivation.
Make your boss aware by showing him or her the consequences of his behavior on others. "I've been noticing how Jim seems so demoralized lately. I think one of the contributing factors may be last week's meeting when you ridiculed him for producing an inadequate sales report" Many executives have no inf
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