Humor and teasing certainly have their place in organizational life. But, as researchers who study humor tell us, jokes and teasing can be dangerous — and are prone to backfire — when they are used to convey hostile messages. In particular, teasing can hurt targets (teasing is used as an "insult delivery system" by many workplace assholes). And nasty jokes can also backfire and make a person — especially a leader — come across as angry, unwilling to accept responsibility, and out of control.
I got a note from a reader this morning about this New York Times story on After Chief Holds a Chat, Sallie Mae Stock Plunges. It demonstrates the danger of a bad joke (and of losing your temper at the wrong time). Here is the opening:
"You known the conference call is going badly when the chief
executive tells shareholders they will have to walk through a metal
detector the next time they meet.
The joke, delivered on Wednesday by Albert L. Lord, the chief executive of Sallie Mae,
flopped. Mr. Lord had instigated the conference call to reassure
investors and analysts alarmed by the deteriorating financial health of
the student loan giant. Instead, his gruff and at times profane performance baffled investors and sent Sallie Mae stock into a tailspin."
It sounds to me like Mr. Lord was seen as an asshole, and one that was lashing out at others, rather than using his energy to fix Sallie Mae and to portray the company in the best possible light (standard leadership responsibilities).
This story reminds me of an incident that happened to Neal Patterson, CEO of the Cerner Company in 2001. Patterson wrote a pretty nasty email to the top 400 people in the company that, among other things, threatened layoffs and pay cuts if people didn’t start working longer hours. The stock plunged over 20% in a few days. BUT to Patterson’s credit, he apologized appropriately, and also helped repair Cerner’s reputation and his own by laughing at himself. Taken together, these incidents do suggest that being seen as an asshole can hurt a company’s stock price, but they also show that it is possible to recover from such gaffs if management apologizes and goes onto demonstrate leadership skill.
As a final note, although it sounds like Mr. Lord had a bad day, I also feel quite a bit of sympathy for him as it is impossible to do a job like that without making mistakes, and we all have bad days. Plus leading a company under those conditions is no fun at all. So my view is that, rather than just slamming the guy and the company, let’s give them a few months to turn things around, as the best attitude toward failure and setbacks is, I believe, to "forgive and remember."
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