Elephants in the office
Gene Mage
Organizational consulting often mirrors marriage and family
counseling. Those who work on the
“clinical” side have a phrase known as the “elephant in the living room,” a
metaphor for well-known weighty problems couples gingerly step around but dare
not openly acknowledge. Everybody knows
when there is an elephant in the living room, but nobody talks about it.
Sadly, organizations also have their elephants. Some of them are old and familiar. We have become accustomed to, and even fond
of, their presence. But these mammoths
wreak havoc in organizations when left unchecked.
Instead of admitting that an elephant is standing right
there in the hallway by the copy machine, we deal over and over again with the
messes and damage the elephant leaves.
Frightened of facing our elephants, we let them take over our
organizations, leaving little room for a healthy work environment.
As a leader, are you being challenged to face-down a few
elephants that are getting in the way of business success? Before you can remove them from the premises,
you first have to acknowledge they exist.
We have to name them.
Here are ten well-known behemoths most organizations avoid
talking about. We will be looking at
these in-depth over the next several weeks.
- Gossip. I have often commented to a client who
needs to hear it that 99% of organizational problems go away when people
talk to each other face-to-face, instead of badmouthing each other in the
cafeteria. Yet most of us will talk
to anyone and everyone except the person involved in the problem.
- Passive-aggressive attitudes. This elephant appears, on the surface,
to be the model of cooperation. But
watch out. Beneath a majestic coat
of civility lies a brute who is ready to crush you when you least expect
it.
- Negative politics. Those who exercise power by undermining
others get things done, but at a terrible price. This elephant clears the jungle leaving
a trail of bodies in his path.
- Unprincipled managers. Lacking an ethical compass, these
charlatans feed like ticks upon the life-savings of shareholders, and the
livelihoods of workers. This
elephant is often more skilled at survival and promotion through the
hierarchy than building a healthy business for the future.
- Ruthlessness. Thinly disguised behind a veil labeled
“tough-minded pragmatism,” ruthlessness sees people as “assets” or
“resources”, rather than human beings.
- Hubris. Leaders often ascribe their past
successes to innate talent, business acumen, and exceptional
judgment. These same titans of
industry blame “market forces” when things go wrong. Leaders who adapt to the future are
learners who never “arrive.”
- Blaming and tail-covering. If we could harness the energy that
organizations invest in deflecting responsibility, imagine all the good
work that could be done.
- Mistrust. Have you noticed that when you treat employees
like naughty children, they tend to act that way? Lack of trust stops information from
flowing in all directions, leading to clueless leaders, baffled employees,
and confused customers.
- Parochialism. We often reward individual performance
while exhorting our people to work as a team. Is it any wonder that people invest
extraordinary effort to protect their personal turf, or department
reputations, even at the expense of the enterprise?
- Mobster leadership. From dapper-dons to gun-toting capos,
these Al Capone wannabees run their organizations according to the law of
the jungle. Is an ambitious
underling threatening your grip on power?
Make him disappear. Upstart
peer moving in on your territory?
Arrange a character assassination.
As with most acts of authentic leadership, facing down these
giants takes a whole lot of courage. If
you’re tired of sharing your office suite, operating room or factory floor with
a bunch of smelly pachyderms, join me over the next few weeks as we discover how
to identify and evict these unwelcome guests.
Syndicated columnist Gene C. Mage is author of the book Managing for High Performance. To contact Gene, visit www.makingitwork.com.
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