Corporate Psychopaths - We all know who you are

We are either working with them or have worked with them. They are company killers who end careers and cause significant mental distress to their colleagues who they are paid well to support and lead.

They walk amongst us in company corridors and attend meetings like snakes in suits. They are dangerous. 

They think we don't know what they are all about, but that's because they think they are smarter than us all. Remember this, they are self entitled, they believe they are superior (although deep down they know they aren't) and have zero guilt, empathy or remorse. 

They don't care about you, the company or anyone else. They care simply about themselves, their immediate needs, their bank balance and the shiny things they can gain from their "career". They couldn't give a hoot about the company's success or employees well being. Instead, they receive a perverted pleasure from abusing and hurting their victims.

Unfortunately, most companies don't have management teams at a senior level that either care enough or have high enough emotional intelligence levels to identify them and smoke them out early. In many cases senior managers and executives are overcome by their charm during the recruitment stage and appoint them proudly with a big announcement. They are easily able to lie, charm and exaggerate their past achievements at interviews, that is the stage they thrive on. A forum to gas bag about their favourite subject, themselves. 

A corporate psychopath getting past the interview stage and being employed is akin to the scene in Jurassic Park when the power is shutdown and the electric fences are deactivated. Like the rampaging dinosaurs, the leash is off and the carnage begins. Employees who previously enjoyed working for the company and have integrity simply get devoured. They don't play this game nor do they want to. They just want to do their job to the best of their ability and genuinely want the company to succeed.

When employees highlight that the corporate psychopath is bullying, humiliating and harassing them and others, they are often ignored as the employee's mental health and the success of the company take a back seat to politics. Don't expect a fair or thorough investigation exposing the corporate psychopath because it won't happen.

Politics tends to prevail over the actual success of the business and mental health of employees. This is because senior managers would rather retain the corporate psychopath and allow them to continue to create carnage than admit they made a howler when they appointed them. This is when you know a company is broken and the values displayed are mere empty platitudes. It is hard to walk the talk with safety and values when you whistle and look the other way as you walk past the carnage created by them.

Remember Enron - their values were Respect, Integrity, Communication and Excellence.

Enron further elaborate on their values and proudly stated "We do not tolerate abusive or disrespectful treatment. Ruthlessness, callousness and arrogance don't belong here"

We all know how that story ended and they didn't end up being the smartest guys in the room.

The corporate psychopath will "kiss up and kick down". They will, in a subtle manner, denigrate employees behind their backs. They will take credit for other employees good work and then dish out the blame and are not accountable when shite hits the fan. They will never say sorry. You will look on in amazement at the way they present themselves so differently to different groups of employees. Gushing, polite, respectful and understanding with senior managers. Rude, disagreeable and aggressive with subordinates. 

When they are in a room with both, they go with the former as they must keep the mask on. It is truly sickening to watch this chameleon at work. They create their own fiefdoms and demand undying loyalty of their subordinates who become their flying monkeys a la Wizard of Oz. The flying monkeys (some unwittingly) become their carriers and are used to attack and bring down well meaning and hard working employees.

The flying monkeys ultimately place a greater emphasis on self preservation than on their own beliefs, integrity and self-respect. They are timid and scared of the corporate psychopath. Importantly, they are made to feel insecure about their ongoing employment. That is why they are selected and willing to perform the dirty deeds doled out to them. They are easily discarded when they reach their use by date and are also a convenient fall back to blame when the corporate psychopath is being challenged. 

The corporate psychopath is amazingly effective in rendering detractors harmless by downplaying their achievements, talking smack about them to leaders in the business and over emphasising any errors they make. They will try and marginalise employees and prevent them from having contact with upper management so they can control the conversation and shape how employees are perceived by the business.

If you take their approach at work and translate it to a real-life situation, the example below best sums up their mindset:

Let's imagine they are with you in the middle of the Nullabor without water and a blown out tyre. They will spend their time and effort criticising you about why the tyre blew out and why you are in the situation rather than actually help jack the car up or find water. At work, they do the same, they point out errors, problems and grandstand, yet don't use the same vigour in coming up with business solutions.

What appears to initially be a leader within the business is a remorseless, manipulative, lying bully whose goals are to create a successful career path for themselves, brag about their status and maximise their financial rewards. They derail careers, bring on anxiety related stress and depression in co-workers and never accept responsibility for their mistakes or poor behaviour. They are master blame shifters and importantly, they are brilliant actors. They can quickly act scared, sorry and upset at a drop of a hat in order to manipulate others and help them advance their self serving agendas.

In simple terms, working with them is like going to war and being in a bunker with someone who throws grenades at you, not the enemy.

Companies need to place a greater emphasis on picking up on their behaviour as it occurs, listening to the corporate psychopath's targets, recognising the patterns and appreciating the damage being inflicted on the business. They must act swiftly before it is too late. Don't cover up or ignore this destructive behaviour, it will only get worse and people will get damaged and injured. It is like walking past an employee who is working at heights without a harness or putting employees in an asbestos pit without PPE. 

Remember the Titanic, despite 7 ice berg warnings during the day, the lookout only spotted it when it was dead ahead.

When your Company has Jumped the Shark

All Gen X'ers probably remember the Happy Days episode where "The Fonz" jumps the shark whilst water-skiing wearing his signature leather jacket (yes, even when water skiing!).

This episode became renowned as a desperate attempt by the writers and producers of the show to maintain viewers interest. Given the Happy Days crew lived in the cold climes of Milwaukee and this episode was set in California, it was a tell-tale sign that the writers had run out of ideas. 

This episode was seen by many as the moment it telegraphed it's decline.

Just like Happy Days did, companies have their very own "Jump the Shark" moments where employees collectively go "what the....!!" and it's all downhill from there.

These are moments when the company strays from its original vision, compromises its values and in simple terms does some pretty dumb things. Tanking of the business then ensues rapidly.

Such pivotal moments may be when:

• After mass lay offs and redundancies based on a new "lean" but forward looking approach an ASX announcement detailing the award of a $1.5M annual bonus to the CEO is followed by one in which he/she has just cashed in 4 million share options. He is then unavailable for the next 8 weeks, holidaying in the Maldives and taking some time off caring for alpacas on his hobby farm

• The Managing Director appoints his son as the new CFO of the company. The same son who failed to complete year 11 (he got kicked out for dealing ecstasy) and whose last role was a 3 month stint as Marketing Manager of a nightclub in Seminyak

• A toxic and poisonous executive director (insert department) who has done more than anyone else to destabilise the business through "House of Cards" backstabbing, manages to wrangle himself a massive "out of policy" redundancy pay. He returns the following day as a $2,000 per day consultant with even less checks and balances on his behaviour. His smirk arrives half an hour before he does

• A senior executive of the company gets angrier about the removal of free muffins at morning tea each Thursday than the fact that the whole company's profits have nosedived and it is on the brink of receivership

• A toxic manager who has helped destroy the business through his behaviour is kept on because he "knows where all the skeletons are"

• You hear the mail delivery guy and the receptionist whispering to each other and they momentarily stop when you walk past

• You ring the special Whistleblower hotline and the Director who you are blowing the whistle on answers the phone

• You play bullshit buzzword bingo at every meeting and you snigger every time you hear - “let’s take this offline”, “low hanging fruit”, “let’s socialise this”, “touch base”, “open door policy”, “helicopter view” and my favourite of all time - “not enough bandwidth”.

You get the idea. The key for any business is to maintain the focus on why it was set up in the first place and remain true to it's values, which simply can not be compromised or altered to suit circumstances. 

The moment that self interest, hypocrisy and power plays become more important than the business's vision, values and it's "product" is the moment that the CEO and the board have donned the water skis.