A few weeks back, just before my surgery, I was interviewed by Sue Shellenbarger of the the Wall Street Journal about an article she was doing on workplace jerks and their management. The article on Banishing the Office Jerks appeared today, and I must say — after reading hundreds of these things over the last few years — this is one of the very best. It focuses particularly on Lars Dalgaard, the CEO of HR software firm SuccessFactors. I have written about Lars and his firm's "no jerks" rule several times, including here and here (they used to call it "no assholes," but cleaned it up right about the time they went public). I am glad that I introduced Sue to Lars. He admits that he was an workplace jerk early in his career, As I suggested to Sue when I told her about Lars, one of the things I admire most about him is that in a world where most executives are so guarded and so defensive that it is difficult to understand what the hell they are actually saying, Lars tells the truth. (Indeed, as I was watching the Goldman executives testify to congress yesterday, I realized that — no doubt with help from their lawyers — they seemed to have mastered the art of talking on and on without ever actually conveying any content.) I have talked to Lars about how he sees himself as a recovering asshole before, but I was struck to see how, in the article, he traced it back to family dynamics when he was growing-up (a topic that people who study workplace assholes rarely touch on):
He has since realized that an old family pattern was at work, he says.
His father was so tough and blunt with him when he was small that he was
behaving the same way with others, trying to be "the hero CEO, the
Rambo" who ignored people's feelings. Now that he is conscious of the
problem, he says he has changed his ways. He has even instituted a
"no-jerks" policy at his company, banning similar behavior by others.
I was also pleased to see that Sue included a bit of information about another one of my favorite executives, Paul Purcell of Baird, who as I have written here before credits his firm's no asshole rule for both its civilized culture (it keeps rising on Fortune's best place to work list) and also credits it for helping Baird — a financial services firm — grow stronger during financial meltdown. I write a fair amount about Paul and Baird in my next book, Good Boss, Bad Boss, as I find him one of the most impressive CEOs around in terms of his ability to build a culture that strikes a healthy balance between humanity and performance. I was interested to see that Sue reported:
Paul Purcell, chairman, president and chief executive, estimates he has fired more than 25 offenders in the last five years,
including people who "hurt and belittle other people," or who put their
own interests ahead of clients or the firm. When he speaks to groups of
prospective recruits, he warns them: If you're a jerk, "don't come,
because we'll figure it out. It will be worse for you than it is for
us."
A final little point, Sue writes that Baird "has a no jerks rule." That is actually a bit inaccurate. As the Fortune story makes clear, they call it The No Asshole Rule at Baird. Apparently, although the WSJ had enough courage to write out the name of my book once or twice a few years back, and called it the The No A——- Rule on their bestseller list, they have lost their nerve again as they not only censor Baird's rule, they described me as "an author of a book on bad workplace behavior." Oh well, I am more optimistic that they will spell out the name of my next book, as Good Boss, Bad Boss is very clean title.
My whining about censorship aside, check out the WSJ article, it is excellent.
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