13 April 2009
There is a very good reason why we should expect things like this to happen
Damian McBride is the latest in a long line of casualties who have shot themselves in the foot (or worse) by stepping beyond the realms of acceptable behaviour. He, like in most cases, is a man of considerable intellect and undoubted intelligence. I'm sure that since his demise it may have crossed his mind that his behaviour recently will have been at considerable odds to the way he behaved when he placed his feet on the first rungs of the career ladder. No matter what his personal underlying characteristics are, it is unlikely that back then he did anything other than 'play by the rules' within what was generally accepted as acceptable behaviour. So why now did he find himself acting in a way that when made public brought condemnation raining down him like a vicious hail storm?
His situation is an (albeit high profile) example of the human tendency to unconsciously conform to something psychologists refer to as social norms; in other words, a set of rules for how human beings will behave in any given situation, and that they accept as being normal. The fascinating thing about these rules is that they are almost always unwritten and are inevitably learned by exposure to the situation; we watch, listen and learn to figure out what is and is not acceptable behaviour.
It's likely that most people will have experienced this for themselves; normally when we start a new job. We get the 'official' induction, are told about the company mission, vision and values but it's after that we really learn how to behave. It takes a little while 'to find our feet', simply to get used to the 'way things are done around here'. This may be the unspoken acceptance of what would otherwise be rather odd behaviour; the boss who considers himself the patriarch of the company with a brando-esque self image but is actually despised by the workforce; or the treatment of sick-days as a corporate benefit, to be added to official holidays to make up the real accepted total of paid days off from work over a year.
When the godfather style boss gets a new boss himself, it comes as a huge shock that all is not well with employee-management relations; the poor fellow will be genuinely unaware that his behaviour has caused problems. To recover from this drift in his understanding of social norms will be like a grieving process: Initially he will go into denial, then blame, then pleading and finally acceptance that he was wrong. He won't see the error of his ways until the scales have been lifted from his eyes and he views his behaviour from a new adjusted set of social rules. The employee eventually sacked for taking days off sick without actually being ill will go through the same process. Damian McBride can expect to experience something very similar.
It is part of the human condition to readjust our view of social norms in a constant test and feedback loop
The only reason McBride got so out of hand is because nothing stopped it from happening. If a company wants to prevent its managers turning into the godfather it must have robust systems of review. If employees are to be prevented from developing a warped view of benefits then there must be strict policies in place to prevent it. If members of the Government are to work within social norms that the rest of us might recognise then they have to be managed and led effectively. The buck for the setting of standards rests on one desk; he or she that sits at the top of the pile.
If you are a business owner who wants to thrive rather than survive, I recommend joining the ‘Business Success Strategies’ monthly audio coaching programme from BusinessCoaching.co.uk . They are offering £800 of FREE material just to take a RISK FREE trial. Take a look at http://tinyurl.com/yhh6zjb
First 1 Last