Category: The No Asshole Rule

Michael Lehmkuhl from Electric Pulp sent me the new stats for the Asshole Rating
Self-Exam (ARSE) this morning.  The total number of "self-exams" is now over 11,000 — one week after Guy Kawasaki  posted it. Above, you can see the pattern of "test-taking" and scores. Here are the totals from Mich

As of Monday, February 12^th (7:00 AM PST): 11193 completers /6.59877 average score

Here’s
a breakdown:

2/9
–588 completers /6.16156 average score

2/10
–291 completers /6.32990 average score

2/11
– 246 completers /5.43902 average score

2/12
– 109 completers
/5.82569
average score (so far today)

It
looks like there is a lot of self-examination going on out there!

The February American Lawyer just appeared and it contains a story about The No Asshole Rule.  I haven’t seen the story as it isn’t available online, but I do know that they are printing an excerpt.  If you have seen it, please let me know what it is like!

Aric Press is the editor of the American Lawyer, "the nations leading publication for lawyers."  They have over 100,000 subscribers. Aric has been a strong supporter of the concept of the no asshole rule since I first published my 2004 essay, "More Trouble Than They Are Worth" in the Harvard Business Review. Aric wrote an editorial right after that essay was published suggesting that law firms implement "jerk audits," which included this wise advice:

Partnership and brilliance have their privileges. And, to their
credit, most lawyers seem to manage a decent politeness even under stress.
Which only makes the outliers seem worse. At a minimum, what I’m suggesting is
that you ask yourselves this question: Why do we put up with this behavior? If
the answer is 2,500 value-billed hours, at least you will have identified your
priorities without incurring the cost of a consultant.

Aric’s 2004 editorial also resulted in a funny — and I confess very satisfying — little twist. At that time, my wife –who is a partner in a large law firm — was in senior management. We have different last names. When Aric’s editorial came out, one of her partners sent her an email about the article, suggesting that it was a topic she might be interested in… he didn’t know it was her husband’s article!

I don’t think that there are more assholes in the law than in other occupations, despite the popular stereotype.  In fact, although law gets the rap for having the most assholes, surveys of different occupations suggest that doctors are more abusive than lawyers, with nurses being their most frequent targets.  But there are some special challenges for law firms that want to enforce the rule.

First, there are big power differences in law firms among people at different levels, and as I’ve shown, there is a lot of evidence that power can turn people into selfish insensitive jerks, who act is if the norms of civility that the rest of us have to follow don’t apply to them!

Second, as I show in The No Asshole Rule, one of the primary causes of demeaning behavior, backstabbing, and an nastiness of all kinds is severe competition between individuals, when life is seen as an I win-you lose game.  Most partnerships divide up the profits every year among the partners in a zero-sum game, where if one partner gets more, the others get less. Moreover, the American Lawyer — the most important publication in the business — fuels this problem by ranking firms (among other ways) in terms of profits per partner.

Third, let’s face it, one of the reasons that people hire lawyers is to help intimidate rivals in litigation and negotiation, yes partly through facts and logic, but also through demeaning interpersonal moves meant to unnerve and intimidate opponents — dirty looks, put-downs, teasing, glaring, and intense eye contact.  The problem is that, although these very same skills may help in the courtroom, a deposition, or a negotiation when used at just the right moment,  when attorneys use them on their peers and underlings (and aren’t stopped)  the asshole poisoning spreads.

Indeed, you might say that one key to law firm management is learning how to turn your assholes on and off!

Guy Kawasaki, as usual, has provoked a compelling mix of weird, silly, thoughtful, hostile, absurd, and revealing comments. His post yesterday on Is Your Boss an Asshole? was followed by 31 comments. As almost aways happen when the term "Asshole Boss" comes up, there was discussion about Steve Jobs (and some argument that he isn’t an asshole, which is rare).  I use Jobs as the poster boy for my chapter on "The Virtues of Assholes" (e.g., To this point, just a few weeks ago, I mentioned my book at a meeting in the Stanford engineering school that had a lot of Silicon Valley insiders, and without prompting, several of them chimed-in –"so did you mention Jobs?" Afterwards, one of them came up to me and commented that he had been at a lot of meetings with Jobs, and saw him demean a lot of people, and made some of them cry. The problem — and fascinating thing about Jobs — was, as this insider commented was "He was almost always right."

There were also comments from  some pretty well known names in high-tech, including an extremely thoughtful one from John Lilly, COO of Mozilla, which brings us the Firefox browser. I’ve known John almost a decade now, and seen him in action — he is one of the smartest people I know. And I was a bit shocked to see T.J. Rogers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor chimed in too (He is known as a mighty tough boss himself — although that isn’t the same as being an asshole), who added ‘Al McGuire had a quote that went something like "A team usually can stand one ass, but not two because they’ll breed." ‘  Not bad, and a funny way of saying that asshole poisoning is a contagious disease that you get from and give to others, as I emphasize.

The most discouraging comment  — and one of the most careful and well-crafted — came from "Jon." It is pretty long so I won’t print all of it, but consider three items that he adds to Guy’s list, based on what he endured from his former asshole boss:

12. Uses his title to intimidate and bully others. Lacking the general
ability to win over minds by offering a compelling viewpoint, the
asshole resorts to intimidation and bullying tactics in order to kill
ideas or discussions that threaten his ‘vision’. Anyone who challenges
an idea or product feature ‘owned’ by him might be accused of
insubordination or have to deal with an angry come back. Another
favored tactic of the asshole ‘visionary’ is to keep all discussions
focused on peripheral topics that avoid addressing why the main
‘vision’ is failing.

16. Is too arrogant or threatened to learn from others. Seeing all
around him or her as potential adversaries and competitors, the asshole
carefully avoids opportunities to let others lead in ways that would
grow the company or dramatically improve the product. For the asshole,
keeping his or her image intact as the singular visionary and talent in
the company is paramount. Any threat to the asshole’s image or total
control is not tolerated.

17. Loves to fire. The asshole typically sees himself as a great
victim at the hands of others who lack the talent or vision to work
with him. When progress is sidetracked by a problem, there’s always a
remedy that’s so fulfilling that it compensates for any lost time- a
good firing. When firing, the asshole likes to help the exiting party
understand that there’s absolutely no chance of ever working at the
company again. It’s also important for the firee to understand how much
the asshole has suffered over the course of their working relationship.

I also want to thank Guy for ideas and for creating a place where some mighty interesting conversation is happening, and of course, for the ARSE test.

The No Asshole Rule is officially released on February 22nd, but copies are already appearing in various places (Maureen, thanks for your report that Barnes & Noble has some and is displaying them).  As I noted before, Amazon has been shipping for a few days. But there is a pretty weird twist at Amazon. It turns out that, although they are not censoring the title in their advertising, BUT if you want to mention the title on The Amazon No Asshole Rule page, they will reject your post — whether it is on their product forum (as I’ve done) or in a review (thanks Kent and Leslie). In fact I got a note from a reviewer who had sent in in his review, but it never appeared even though he got no feedback from Amazon about why — but he eventually figured from reading Kent’s review (which mentioned the Amazon policy) that it was probably because he had mentioned the name of the book.

I had three quick reactions to this: 1. My first reaction was to be annoyed because they won’t allow reviewers to mention the name of the book that they are selling and they mention and because at least one thoughtful person had taken the time to write a review, and it had apparently disappeared in ether; 2. My second reaction was to realize that, although the policy doesn’t quite work for this book, that Amazon has a zillion books and they can’t make special policies for each book, as the inefficiencies would cost them a fortune (and have to be passed on to us — they have small margins); and, finally, 3. I realized that the entire thing is pretty silly and I was taking it entirely too seriously, and one cost of writing a book with a dirty title is that these kinds of things are going to happen, and I should just laugh about it — but  try to let people know why their comments on the forum or reviews might not appear.

P.S. Another weird thing about Amazon is that they still list The No Asshole Rule as #2 for pre-orders among Business and Investing books, even though it is shipping. I guess that is because the official date is still about 2 weeks off.

Guy Kawasaki just put up a post called Is Your Boss an Asshole? He does an effective and somewhat horrifying job of listing the kinds of things that asshole bosses do — calling on Saturday, destroying other’s careers, seeing others primarily as means to satisfy their own needs, and a host of other nasty and all too common things.  The point I would add, and as I commented on at Guy’s blog, is that it is important to remember that — although some people are more prone to it than others — power can turn any of us into assholes.

Being an asshole isn’t just something that only happens to others and can’t possibly happen to wonderful people like you and me —  all of us are at risk. As I like to say, assholes are us. To elaborate a bit on what I said in Guy’s blog, if you take a position of power, there are several things you can do to stop yourself from turning into an asshole, to fight back against the focus on your own needs and the tendency to act as if social norms don’t really apply to you:

1. Eliminate as many unnecessary power differences between yourself and others.  There was a great story  in the New York Times earlier in the week about Home Depot’s new CEO ,  Frank Blake, which shows how this is done. He has eliminated the executive dining room, so now employees have to go to the employee cafeteria like everyone else.  He cut his own pay, and most interesting to me:

Mr. Blake has distributed an old company
icon, called the Inverted Pyramid, that lays out the retailer’s
hierarchy, with customers and employees above the chief executive on
the bottom. The image, which fell out of favor under Mr. Nardelli, has
begun popping up in store break rooms and office cubicles across the
company.

“It’s not about me,” Mr. Blake has told investors and
analysts in introductory meetings, according to people who have
attended the sessions.

2. If you don’t have them already, get some friends and colleagues who can and will tell you when you are acting like an asshole. And when they tell you, listen to them.  Remember, power will blind you to all the ways that you are acting like a jerk and all the ways you are hurting other people. If other people tell you that you are an asshole or there are other warning signs (see the ARSE test), and your reaction is that they wrong, odds are you are fooling yourself.

3. Even better yet, hold your subordinates responsible for telling you when you have been asshole and make it safe for them to do so. If you haven’t seen it already, check out "My boss thanked me for calling him a jerk."

Michael Lehmkuhl from Electric Pulp just updated me on the new stats for the Asshole Rating
Self-Exam (ARSE). The total is now over 9,000 responses and he predicts that we will break 10,000 before it is all over:

On February 5, the
first day, there were 2432 completions with an average score of 5.44860.

On February 6,  there were
5063 completions with an average score of 7.21272.

On February 7, there were 1608 completions with an average score of 6.99316

Today, so far, there are 448. So, although things have slowed down, it looks like we are going to hit 10,000.

Guy Kawasaki’s post earlier in the week in the ARSE test also listed the 14 rules of engagement that new employees at SuccessFactors are required to sign.  This provoked a number of cynical and critical comments, such as "In my experience, good companies build an environment where people
don’t want to act like assholes – nobody needs to be bound by an
agreement." I guess that there is a good argument that some companies and teams follow the rule so strongly that they don’t need to write it down. But my view is that such clarity isn’t so easily dismissed, and in fact, you can see the power of such expectations if you follow the history of Southwest Airlines, which has espoused "we hire and fire for attitude" since it’s early days, and you can see the spirit still throughout the company. 

I would also add, as I wrote in an earlier post, that such agreements mean nothing unless they are backed by action.  Indeed, two measures of the power of a norm are:

1. What happens when someone breaks  it: Is the transgression immediately discussed and identifed?  Does the rule-breaker accept responsibility for the violation?

2. Do peers and subordinates — not just superiors — feel psychologically safe — even obligated — to enforce the norm.

An example that I have a lot of experience with is brainstorming sessions at IDEO. One of the most important norms is "don’t criticize" because the fear of evaluation stifles the idea generation process.  And people at all levels of status and experience are obliged to enforce the norm no matter who breaks it.  I’ve seen David Kelley — Chairman and Founder, and a truly inspirational and modest leader — break the norm at a  brainstorm and seen a young engineer call him on it.  David’s reaction was immediate: "Sorry, I blew, I can’t believe that I did that."

Now, to return to SuccessFactors, consider the last paragraph of Max Goldman’s amazing and inspiring post on their Performance & Talent Management Blog on "I agree not to be an a-hole:"

"My own personal experience with no assholes is very simple. Once, my
boss was being a jerk. I told him so – in those words. Instead of
getting mad, he accepted the comment and we moved on. Later, he thanked
me for telling him. My boss thanked me for calling him a jerk. Let me
repeat that. My boss thanked me for calling him a jerk. Calling the spade a spade helped everyone work better together and get more done. Can you do that at your company?" 

Max asks a damn good question.  I bet that 95% percent of the American workforce would answer a resounding "no." I sure can’t do it at Stanford. ( Well, I guess I could do it at the d.school as David Kelley  is the founder and leader, although he refuses to accept any title but "co-founder," but nowhere else.) I should also add that Max is pulling in another rule of engagement at SuccessFactors, "I will be transparent. I will communicate clearly
and be brutally honest, even when it’s difficult, because I trust my
colleagues."
 

The No Asshole Rule is my fourth book (excluding several academic volumes) and I am still bewildered by many aspects of the publishing business. I thought that the release date of 2/22 would mean that the books wouldn’t ship until that day, but apparently that means the day that the book has been shipped and shelved in enough places that is safe to say it is widely available. I was pleased, and a bit surprised, to discover that both Amazon and Barnes & Noble started shipping the book yesterday. And Kent Blumberg has already posted a review on Amazon — thanks Kent! So it is out, I am a bit shocked, as I was assuming I had a couple more weeks.

This also strikes me as a good juncture to thank all the great bloggers and all the people who have sent me so many great comments and stories. I started to put down a list, but it was so long and, as I am a bit rushed, I was worried I would leave someone out. I will do that later in the week. In the meantime, you know who you are, and I am most grateful for all your help and wisdom.

I have written multiple posts about SuccessFactors, the fascinating HR software company that espouses and works to enforce a "no assholes" rule since it was founded about 7 years ago. I have visited the company, had the honor of talking to all 400+ employees about the rule a few weeks ago (it felt more like a pep rally for the rule than a speech, it was really fun), and I sat down with CEO Lars Dalgaard for 45 minutes — a bundle of energy and brilliance.

All new employees who join the firm are required to sign 14 rules of engagement.  You can see the complete list on Guy’s blog, and note that #14 is "I will be a good person to work with—I will not be an asshole." And also note that the rules end with a commitment to enforce these rules, a very important step for making sure that what people say is actually done,  And there is a statement that their rewards will be linked to following the rules:

"I agree to live these values. If my colleagues fail to live up to any
of these rules, I will speak up and will help them correct; in turn, I
will be open to constructive criticism from my colleagues should I fail
to live by these values. I understand that my performance will be
judged in part by how well I demonstrate these values in my daily work."

The rules of engagement appear to be spreading. Another firm is considering adopting these rules since their leaders read about it on Guy’s blog. Check out this post at Architel, an IT support firm in Dallas, Texas. They appear to be asking their employees if they should adopt the rules. They also thank SuccessFactors and Guy for it. 

My view is that  considering  the rules are a great first step.  But just posting them and having people sign them  won’t help if the rules clash with how people are treated and treat each other. When I talked with Lars, he emphasized that although they had laid out these rules in early days of the company, they still have to work every day to make them come alive, that there are still people who break the rules at times (including himself), and he constantly talks about the rules, calls people on it, and calls himself on it when he has transgressed.  So I hope that the rules will help Architel, but they need to be something that people work on every day — as Jeff Pfeffer and I wrote about in The Knowing-Doing Gap, the absolutely worst thing is to talk about values and post on them on the  wall, and then to violate them constantly.  When that happens, leaders are seen as hypocrites, which breeds cynicism and lack of trust.

P.S. Check out what Lars wrote on BusinessWeek.com  on the talent wars. 

Michael Lehmkuhl from Electric Pulp mailed-in new stats for the Asshole Rating
Self-Exam (ARSE)  early this morning. The total is now over 8,000  responses  and the keep rolling in:

On February 5^th, the
first day, there were 2432 completions with an average score of 5.44860.

On February 6^th, there were
5063 completions with an average score of 7.21272.

So far today we’ve seen 631
completions with an average score of 7.28685.

As Michael says, we are still
on a pretty good pace.