Why must you bully a bully?
I love Jessica Chastain in the movie Miss Sloane where, as a lobbyist, she deals with political bullies using the philosophy “Lobbying is about foresight. About anticipating your opponent’s moves and devising countermeasures. The winner plots one step ahead of the opposition, and plays her trump card just after they play theirs.”
My management philosophy.
I have come across many senior management corporate bullies in my career and have earned a reputation as “The Equalizer” due to my track record in dealing with these abusers.
This is not in my nature, but a learned negotiation skill from my diverse experience. My boss, Alan Jones, in Dataproducts, established my philosophy of management when after I had screwed up a project, “I get paid to take the blame for your mistakes and give you the credit for your achievements — how else can you learn?”.
This has been my guiding principle for over 40 years and has never let me down with loyal team members.
I believe best management practices must align people products and processes to best meet customer needs and drive profitability. I have found this to be impossible when toxic management and staff resist inappropriately.
How I build high-performance teams.
I have learned that people either work for themselves or their teams and the only way to build a high-performing team is to eliminate those who are selfishly working for themselves as they usually blame everyone but themselves for their failures.
This toxic behaviour is easy to manage at a team level with communication and accountability but a challenge when the practitioner is part of the SMT.
How I eliminate toxic management.
Their historic success has been achieved through fear and it works. They are like when Icarus ignored Daedalus’ instructions not to fly too close to the sun, causing the beeswax in his wings to melt. Icarus fell from the sky, plunged into the sea, and drowned. They may succeed while their business is thriving but they have nobody to save them when things get hot.
Sadly the havoc and destruction they wreak on their journey destroy lives through stress and abuse.
Ensuring I have the power to resist and defeat bullying is the key — the tactics and timing are the skills I have learned from experience.
Conclusion
Effective communication is always the key to establishing a high-performing team but sadly normal communication processes are ineffective with bullies.
I have found that bullies' inability to manage their teams appropriately is usually due to unconscious incompetence. Their preferred method to win regardless of the impact reinforces their toxic behaviour.
For communication to work, I must speak their language and this is where the philosophy espoused by Jessica Chastain comes into play — it has always worked.
They have made me what I am — however, rewarding them for failure by naming them would be self-defeating.
