Executive

…37

"I'm telling you, Alex, grilling is a sophisticated art form at this address," a cheerful Richard Ferguson stated, putting his fork and knife down on his empty plate.

"So I have learned," Alex replied, still amazed at the refined combination of tastes presented by the pork tenderloin with mushroom sauce. "Our boss knows his way around the grill, that's for sure."

"How have you been? I haven't seen you since we came back from Minnesota," Richard asked. A rare presence at their team reunions due to his client assignment, Richard had lots to offer in terms of the advice Alex was seeking.

After they finished their dinners, they grabbed their drinks and went into the living room, gathering around the small coffee table. Alex took an armchair, sharing it with Little Tom. The cat allowed her to push him over slightly, just enough to make room for her to sit on the edge of the chair, then stretched his legs and yawned wholeheartedly.

Tom was the last one to join them.

"Thank you for yet another wonderful dinner," Alex said.

"Hear, hear," Steve chimed in, raising his glass.

"You are welcome. It's a pleasure to see all of you gathered around our dinner table. That's why," he said, turning toward Alex, "whenever I get the chance, I invite everyone. Alex brought today's opportunity. She wanted to talk through a couple of issues with me, so why don't we do this now?"

"Sure," Alex said. They were all watching her, listening carefully to what she had to say. "First off," she continued, "I need your help to reach out to Dr. Barnaby and ask him to somehow make sure I don't get fired before I even have a chance to do my job."

"Is it that bad?" Tom had concern in his voice.

"I'm not sure, but there is a distinct possibility that it could happen on a whim. These executives are a bit extreme. And, if I get terminated, it would make it very difficult for us to continue to work this case."

"That is a valid point of view," Tom said. "So, how should we do this?"

"Dr. Barnaby could easily put out a memo saying that all hiring and firing of leadership have to go through him for prior approval, effective immediately," Richard offered. "The executives would think that someone screwed up; they would never think Alex is in any way connected to this."

Richard's solution made sense. The rest nodded in approval.

"Solved!" Tom said, rubbing his palms together. "What else is on your mind?"

"I wanted to pick your brains to see how I could be a smoker without really being one. My presence on the smoker's lawn would be beneficial; that's the only place where people open up and chat, but they will be suspicious if I don't smoke. Problem is, I never smoked in my life, and I'd rather not start now."

"There's that e-cig, right?" Steve said. "Have you heard of it?" No one offered a yes, so he continued. "Relatively new on the market, the e-cig has been around for a few years. It's an electronic cigarette, a device that delivers nicotine, without the smoke. It puts out a small puff of harmless water vapor imitating smoke. It even lights up at the end, just like a real cigarette would."

"Then, no one would notice the difference?" Alex wondered.

"I think they would notice. It's like a cigarette, but also quite different. It doesn't consume itself during use; you don't have to throw it away. However, it would help you get accepted as a smoker. You'd tell anyone who asks that you used to smoke, but had to quit smoking the real stuff because of long meetings and days without a break, and you couldn't stand it anymore. Any smoker will relate," Steve said, winking. "All smokers endure hell when they are prevented from smoking, in meetings, during flights, or in airports. They'll understand and accept you."

"I don't see why," Alex said, "Wouldn't you need to get out of the meeting, airport, and so on to smoke the e-cig?"

"No, that's exactly it," Steve clarified. "The e-cig doesn't put out any kind of smoke or smell, so it won't trigger any smoke sensors. It can be safely used indoors."

"How about the nicotine?" Tom asked. "I wouldn't ask Alex to start puffing nicotine either. It would be just as addictive as real smoke, and who knows what other side effects it might have."

"I think we could rig that thing to be nicotine-free," Brian Woods intervened.

"Thank you, Steve, for sharing your in-depth knowledge on smoking and smoking alternatives," Tom said. "I think we have a solution for this challenge. Alex, we could potentially have that set up for you and ready to use in the next couple of days."

"Thank you both," Alex said, "it will be very helpful for me. This particular work culture is strange, and I need people to open up to me."

"Strange, how?" Tom asked.

"Both executives I have spent time with are abusive, insulting, and unbelievably aggressive bastards. Sorry," she said, while a faint blush colored her cheeks, "didn't mean to use that word."

"Why? If they are indeed bastards, then you need to describe them appropriately, right?" Steve said, making everyone laugh, including Alex.

"Yes, they are. Nevertheless, the strangest thing is that no one seems to care about it or do anything about it. They are between numb — which I could potentially understand — and supportive — which I can't."

"Probably these executives have surrounded themselves with enablers, so the interactions you are seeing are unnatural," Steve said.

"Enablers? Could you please explain what you mean by that?" Alex asked. She was not familiar with the concept.

"Enablers are those who will supply the despot what he needs to make things possible for him," Steve said.

"I get that," Alex replied, "I know the definition of the word. What I don't understand is how that plays out in this situation."

"Very simple. Imagine the following conversation, taking place in a meeting. The boss says 'I hate that painting; it's ugly.' Then, enabler number one would say 'It's ugly because it's green, sir.' Enabler number two would say 'It's ugly because it's square, sir.' And so on. Is this what you're seeing?"

"Yes, definitely," Alex said. "But why would anyone do that?"

"Mostly for survival. They know they can't stand up to the despot and actually win the battle, so they build themselves a method of survival, one that would ensure that the despot picks on someone else. It's as simple as that."

"Tell me more about the bastards, Alex," Tom asked. "Do you think they are to blame for what's going on?"

"Yes, I am starting to think so, maybe just in part, if not entirely. Walker, the COO, does not want to listen to anything coming from his head of manufacturing, after he had cut the spending into the ground, forcing them to take cost out of the product. That could well be the cause for the drone failure we've seen — it could be as simple as that."

"Why did he cut spending, do you know?" Tom asked.

"Not sure. I was unaware of any financial difficulties the company might have."

"So was I," Tom confirmed. "I will ask Dr. Barnaby about it first thing tomorrow morning."

"Walker was keen on the cost thing. He kept referring to 'spending my money,' 'burning holes in my pocket,' and so on," Alex added, making quotation mark gestures with her fingers, to underline the phrases she was quoting from Walker.

"I see," Tom said, raising his eyebrows.

"Very interesting," Steve, said. "You know why, don't you?"

"Um… not sure," Alex said.

"In his mind, NanoLance is his. Manufacturing is spending his money. He is the one, or one of those who are behind the unexplained stock price fluctuations. He may be planning to take over the company. We need to carefully watch this man."

"I've set it up so that all email traffic from specific individuals gets cloned as it passes through the email server, and I get a copy of everything that they send or receive," Alex said.

"That must be a gazillion emails hitting your inbox," Brian said, "how do you manage?"

"That's true," Alex smiled, "but first of all, I didn't clone everyone's email account, just a targeted few people. Then, well, that's what evenings are for, right? It's only for a short while. I'm more worried about the budget cuts Sheppard wants me to execute in my area."

"Him too?" Tom asked.

"Yes, I was tasked with identifying and executing a 10 percent budget cut in infrastructure and support."

"Send me a copy of your P&L, and we'll work on it together," Richard offered.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." Alex's exuberance was contagious.

"What's P&L?" Steve asked.

"Aww… you dreamer, wake up, will you? Profit and loss statement, remember? The financial tool of choice to manage departmental or companywide income and expenses," Richard clarified.

"Ah, that P&L, yes, I remember," Steve said, and everyone laughed.

"What would you expect from a shrink?" Richard continued, mercilessly.

"Whoa, buddy, stop it right there, before I quiz you on your corporate culture syndromes and related stress-induced psychological and physiological effects in employees," Steve said, making mock-aggressive gestures toward Richard.

"Tell me more," Alex intervened.

"About what?" Steve turned.

"About corporate culture. From what I have seen at NanoLance, the culture is highly dysfunctional. I know I'm there for a limited time, and with the purpose of doing a specific job, but otherwise I would have run away screaming by now. I wonder if the culture might be, even partly, to blame for this mess."

"OK, let's examine the culture a little," Steve said, all serious now and lighting up a cigar. "What is corporate culture? Not just at NanoLance, but in general?"

"It's the way a company does things, right?" Alex ventured.

"Yes, exactly that. The definition in the big book of organizational behavior is three paragraphs long, but, in essence, it's the way a company does things. Let's apply this to practical examples. The anonymous note's author stayed anonymous because of the culture — he or she was afraid of consequences, which means the company does things this way: when presented with a whistleblower, of sorts, the company causes that person harm in one way or another. Well, what's that telling you about the company?"

"I see," Alex said, "but I don't see Dr. Barnaby being at fault at all in this."

"We've already established that," Steve continued, "but he might be too isolated in his ivory tower."

"Ivory tower?" Richard asked.

"Gotcha!" Steve turned and fired an imaginary gun in Richard's direction. "Mr. Wall Street here hasn't heard of this biblical term, depicting the intellectual who lets himself become disconnected from the real world."

"I see," Alex said again, "so he's essentially not seeing what's going on around him, that's what you're saying?"

"Yes, that's exactly right. All he sees when he's walking those hallways are smiling faces. No one has the guts to approach him with anything, and everything that goes wrong in that company stays behind closed doors, where he does not reach."

"How badly do you think the culture can be damaging things?" Alex asked.

"A company's dysfunctional culture can drive the company into the ground in some cases. We've all seen examples in recent years, a few resounding bankruptcies come to mind, famous for how executives refused to hear the truth from their teams."

"That's exactly what I've seen happening here," Alex said. "But what can we do?"

"Culture is generated, influenced, or enforced by a few people. Culture is just a process, so it can be re-engineered, analyzed, taken apart, and put back together again, or simply replaced with a newer, better one. The key to addressing cultural issues at this level is to identify the drivers of the bad culture and remove them. Just like you would do with the proverbial rotten apple."

"Who are these drivers?" Alex asked.

"They are the people driving the bad culture. The abusers, the deaf ears, the insulters, and the tyrants who promote the climate of fear, the corporate bullies, in one word the toxic leaders."

"Toxic leaders?" Alex asked again for more details, grateful for all the information she was getting.

"A toxic leader is not your typical hard-assed boss. Toxic leaders are much more than that. To qualify, they have to inflict harm on the members of their team, or even on the entire organization. They do this harm with the sole purpose of promoting their interests. They would not hesitate to insult, humiliate in public, threaten with consequences or with physical violence, even violate basic human rights. They would purposely undermine and demoralize team members, as they work their way to dismantle all the mechanisms that organizations have in place to ensure their existence does not occur.

"They are clearly sociopaths, displaying no conscience and no remorse, leaving hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of broken hearts and destroyed careers in their wake. All that, while doing their best and using all their charisma to persuade their leaders that they are the best thing that could have happened to business since the invention of electricity, and that they are, first and foremost, irreplaceable. "

"Sociopaths? Really?" Alex pushed back, surprised.

"Remember your first week's readings?" Steve continued, unabated. "Sociopaths are quite numerous, at least 4 percent of the population. They don't all turn homicidal; unfortunately, some of them just turn to business leadership. I've read somewhere that there is a strong correlation between sociopathic traits and business leadership achievement. Sad, isn't it?"

"Yes, very sad," Alex said.

"Back to our 4 percent of sociopaths at large. How many employees does NanoLance have?"

"Almost 950," Alex replied.

"Let's say 1,000. Shrinks aren't that great with numbers, you know," Steve said, smiling. "So, what's 4 percent of 1,000?"

"Forty," Alex replied, eyes wide in surprise.

"Correct. Chances are there are forty sociopaths among the ranks of NanoLance staff. Because of the earlier mentioned correlation, they are more likely to be found among management, than in any other job category within the organization."

"Wow," Alex said, "I never thought of that."

"There might be more, there might be less, this isn't an exact science. But it seems to me you have already identified at least four or five."

"I thought I only had two, Sheppard and Walker. Who are the others?"

"The enablers. I am biased this way, you see. Although this might well be a defense mechanism, I still think that at least a part of them has to agree with the bully's attitude."

"How come? Why do you think that?" Alex asked.

"Give me an example of an enabler you have seen supporting one of the abusers."

"Um… Robin Maxwell, from human resources," Alex replied.

"Excellent example. The role of an HR leader is to ensure that abuse does not happen. If she sits in meetings, such as the one you described, and nods her head in approval, she not only enables the aggressor, but also doesn't do her job, and she is well aware of it. Does she show remorse or empathy? Does she seem rattled and upset after the meetings? No? Then that's a good candidate for the count of sociopaths. She has no conscience." Steve ended his demonstration by putting his cigar out.

"But you said it's a defense mechanism," Alex continued to probe, sounding confused.

"It is. But let me ask you this: Would you have enabled this individual by nodding your head in approval, while he stepped all over the fellow from manufacturing?"

"No, definitely not."

"You already told me what you would have done," Steve added, "you said, and I quote, 'I would have run away screaming,' right?"

Alex nodded silently.

"They do have options, these enablers; they could always quit their jobs, if their consciences were present to dictate that. They are not hostages, you know, at least not all of them."

"Some of them are?"

"Yes, those limited in their options by lack of financial stability or by lack of a good background. Maybe they declared bankruptcy in the past couple of years, and no one would hire them as leaders of anything with that showing on their records. Maybe they were caught driving under the influence, and now they have a criminal record. Those are true hostages, and if they have consciences and are forced to work for sociopaths, such as Walker, I pity them."

"So, we do have a plan for tomorrow, right?" Tom asked, standing up. "Let's meet with the client in the morning. I'll set it up and communicate with you."