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January 16, 2008

The problem child

Bad behavior—being arrogant, blind, inconsiderate, mean, and any combination of these—seems to be running rampant these days, as evidenced by the number of frantic calls I’m getting from colleagues complaining about people they work for or with. I guess stress is getting to people, especially those whose mamas didn’t raise them right.

Here’s just a sampling, with the facts changed to protect the guilty:

The Senior HR exec who’s acting like a toddler when it comes to communicating her program: “Me, me, me! Now, now, now! I want it my way!” This gal has no perspective; she doesn’t care about the organization’s needs, employee preferences, or realities of cost and timing—to her, it’s 110% about what she wants to say (loudly and immediately) and not a smidgen about what people need to know.

Other than giving my client an opportunity to vent, I have not been able to offer any helpful advice on how to manage this toxic exec, except: Do the communication and let it fail. Sound callous? No, it’s pragmatic realism: This evil person is not worth losing one’s job (involuntarily) for; bad communication will die of its own weight, and you can (quietly) get your resume in order.

The colleague who rejects data he doesn’t agree with. We conducted a communication survey; employees were very clear about the fact that they hate a certain vehicle, which we’ll call an online newsletter. But since the colleague in question produces the newsletter and has a strong sense of ownership, he’s trying to ignore the feedback, calling it “bad data.”

This is like rejecting the results of a medical test because you don’t like the diagnosis; “if I say I’m not sick, by golly, I must not be sick.” What a missed opportunity to listen to employees! We’re trying to gently lead this guy to truth, but if he wants to keep banging his head against the wall, we’re hoping someday soon he’ll realize what’s causing his headache.

The senior communicator who’s trapped in the past She remembers vividly why she wanted a career in communication in the first place: She saw the 1976 movie, “All The President’s Men” and wanted to be Woodward, Bernstein and the whole editorial staff of The New York Times.

So she has this sense that internal communication should be “journalistic:” complete, factual, serious in tone, important, objective. Meanwhile, The Washington Post, The New York Times and all other media have dramatically changed, but this communicator hasn’t; she clings to an ideal that probably never existed, but certainly doesn’t make sense today.

What to do? We’re advising our clients to keep bringing data (from employee surveys and usage stats) to the table, as well as to leverage the current versions of The Times and The Post as examples of (today’s) best practices.

Got someone like this in your work life? Do what I do: Take deep cleansing breaths, and console yourself with the fact that this person was probably potty-trained too early, had an unhappy childhood and couldn’t get a date in high school. It may not change the situation, but at least you’ll feel a little better.

Posted by Alison Davis at January 16, 2008 03:08 PM