Asshole Management

The last night into my Easter break, I realize that I had a book – “The No Asshole Rule” by Robert Sutton due for return to the library. Not wanting to return yet another book unread to the library, I put in two hours of effort to read this delightfully easy to read book.

Bob Sutton deserves all credit in propping up a word confined to the dark unspoken business world, in fine professorial scientific finery. This book and Bob’s earlier article in HBR with the same title is path breaking in bringing into the common business lexicon – ASSHOLE. After being driven to the state of numbness by the repeated usage of the word, I, despite my catholic upbringing, see the power of the word that the author brings out of the closet.

Bob lists a “dirty dozen” list of common actions that Assholes use, including personal insults, sarcastic jokes, dirty looks and treating people as invisible. It is important to realize that all of us can be temporary assholes so the key is to identify the certified Assholes. They more often than not, stand out in their ability to consistently make their “targets” feeling belittled, put down, humiliated, disrespected, oppressed, de-energized and generally worse about themselves. The cost of such individuals to an organization is evaluated through the calculation of the Total Cost of Asshole (TCA). TCA includes the attrition costs, legal lawsuits, counseling time, loss of productivity, stress levels, etc. Many assholes succeed in remaining in an organization as they also sometimes are high achievers. In one instance, the TCA was computed and discussed with one such individual and a percentage of these costs was threatened to be taken from the bonus of the individual.

Hiring and Firing policies of companies has an impact on the prevalence of Assholes in organizations. Harvard professor, Rosabeth Moss Kanter calls the process of hiring similar personalities as “homosocial reproduction”. So left to themselves, Assholes hire assholes. The opposite of this is not to hire spineless wimps. Instead, as Cisco practices, Constructive confrontation teaches people how to fight and when to fight. Robert Cialdini’s research on paper pilfering advances a “One Asshole rule”. Under this rule, it is necessary to have one asshole for the rest to know how not to behave. Such an individual tends to have a more positive impact on the rest of the group. It is important under this rule that the Asshole is not seen to receive any benefits by being an asshole. Of course, this will be a nightmare for HR to be able to find the right Asshole for a team. Instead Bob suggests that it is not necessary to look for an asshole – looking for perfect individuals will anyways result in one or two assholes slipping in through the cracks – and they should be just fine. Before we go trigger happy and start branding people as Assholes, pipe down and be slow in branding people as assholes.

So, how does one avoid being the Asshole? Apply the same test for an asshole upon yourself (target feeling belittled… etc). The crux of this test is not what you think about yourself but what others think. As successful assholes tend to have strong influence, you need to avoid “Asshole poisoning”. If you know that you are entering into the presence of assholes, it is more prudent to avoid. As Leonardo Da Vinci said, “it is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end”
Of course there are virtues in being an asshole. More often than not, Type A people are characterized as Assholes. They tend to gain personal power and stature, intimidate and vanquish rivals, motivate fear driven performance and perfectionism, bring unfair, clueless and lazy people to their senses.

So will there be a new definition for “A” in MBAs?