intimidation | The "O" Zone

The Human Resources Department in this one organization was reminiscent of a trauma center. Its personnel were extremely busy handling emergencies. People were not necessarily in the facility, but they were backed up on the phone lines and in the e-mail system. HR technicians were anxiously utilizing their expertise to treat each employee for their affliction. When the scene was extremely hurried, calls were routed to the answering service and placed in a queue until the messages could be returned. They often stated that they will get back to you at the earliest convenience. When contact is made, there is the nebulous comfort of knowing that your call is being monitored for quality purposes.

At times the department could have been labeled ER instead of HR. With the ER standing for employee retention, employee recovery, employee replacement or employee rescue. The counselors were there to listen to the grievances, perform attitude adjustments, and recommend strategies that would benefit the patient as well as the organization. Sometimes they had to perform surgery to extract misunderstandings and misinformation and settle claims that could resort from managerial malpractice.

One employee at an insurance company described a situation that reminded me of a trauma center. It was as if she was in a combat zone with warring factions all around her. Some people kept their heads down and continued to fight through the workload. Others went AWOL and left the organization. The climate was similar to a MASH unit. This terminology is familiar to those in the military who fought in combat situations. MASH was also the name of situation comedy which was very popular years ago. MASH in our HR situation stands for Managers Are Stifling Hope or Managers Are Spreading Hostility, as their employees are demoralized and afraid to resign. The tragedy is that these Managers Are Sacrificing Heroes, when they really need their people to deliver heroic efforts beyond expectations in a competitive marketplace.

The ER department’s data bank reveals that many employees have problems with their manager. Their managers are unable to function in a stressful environment without taking it out on their people. They were not given stress management courses in leadership school. Employees are complaining about the way their managers treat them and speak to them. Employees cite circumstances where they feel threatened and intimidated. They describe wounds to their egos and blows to their self-esteem. There are complaints of verbal bashing, name-calling, being betrayed and stabbed in the back by lies and innuendos. The manager’s actions created a hostile work environment that borders on harassment at least in the minds of these individual.

One individual from an insurance company described a toxic climate where the following statements were said to her.

“Someone is going to lose their job and it won’t be me.”
“If you don’t like it you can leave. There are plenty of people ready to take your place.”
“I know I shouldn’t be saying this. And this could get me fired, but……..” (She continued with her inflammatory remarks against her employees)

Veterans of the workforce have commented that they don’t recall seeing things this bad. They are astonished by the lack of trust that exists between employees and management. Some are pessimistic about change in the immediate future. However, some are optimistic and say this is part of a cycle and improvement will occur when business performs better. As sales go up, people perform better at every level and much of the tension is removed from daily interactions between employees and supervisors.

I look forward to the world pictured by the optimist. It will be comforting when people are more engaged and the culture improves at work and at home. I will probably receive fewer telephone calls from people who feel threatened on their jobs and are very nervous because they fear being unemployed. There is hope now that the job market is getting better, but jumping ship is always a nervous thing to do. To the workers who are losing sleep, unable to eat or eat too much and drink to calm their nerves, they want relief. They want the resilience of those who are exercising more to increase the ability to handle the stress until the world improves.

Managers have different ways to handle pressure and stress associated with it. Those who are very skillful and competent, recognize that intimidation is a short term means of getting results. At some point this approach will become counterproductive when the manager really needs his people to deliver their maximum levels of engagement and results. It is easy to say that an employee should control what they can and work to become an indispensable member of the organization. Individuals with superior skills can generally land a job in any economic environment. But employees still need the ER to help them through the tough times.

Periodically, it is important to assess the injuries that are being treated in the Human Resources Department. Responsible leadership should evaluate these cases and the use these data points, along with employee surveys and focus groups to determine the health of the organization.

The question is what can be done to prevent the assault on HR from wounded employees who view it as their Emergency Room where Employee Restoration is practiced before returning them back to work? What can be done for the manager to remove the incentive to intimidate others? How can we turn HR into the ER which is the engagement room, or the empowerment room, where people are revitalized, and energized and anxious to go to work?

The Human Resources Department performs a vital role in the health and well-being of any organization. Its ability to ensure that the company’s greatest asset, its people, are hired, trained, developed, and placed in situations that are best for the individual and the organization, will have a profound business impact.

Organizations must work to ensure that if HR becomes the ER, it is a positive place where people receive the treatment they deserve. If HR becomes a MASH unit may it be because Managers Are Sanctioning Hope. Where the treatment they deserve empowers them to be more engaged, more productive and committed to exceeding the objectives that will make the organization and its members successful.

Managers often talk about the heat generated in many organizations by their superiors. A solar fire storm comes down from on high, whenever Senior Leaders are dissatisfied with results. These measures vary within companies, but usually relate to financial outcomes. When pressured, these leaders want immediate improvement. Their words may be indelicate with crude language and their words and demeanor may be threatening. This intimidating method of getting higher performance has been successful in the past and is a knee jerk reaction to falling profits.

Employees of these fire wielding executives need an ozone layer, like the one that circles the Earth. Science classes from the past and the current discussions on climate change make us aware of the ozone layer. The American Heritage Science dictionary defines it as “A region of the upper atmosphere containing relatively high levels of ozone, located mostly within the stratosphere. It absorbs large amounts of solar ultraviolet radiation, preventing it from reaching the Earth’s surface.” It is essentially a protective layer that prevents the full burst of the sun’s rays from striking the Earth. The earth’s ozone layer does not filter out all of the heat, just the harmful ultra violet rays.

The ozone layer in our context can also be described as a supportive culture that protects employees from intimidation and excessive pressure from people in authority. The ozone layer metaphor is useful in many areas of our lives, but we will use it in a business context.

Like the Earth’s ozone layer, a business ozone layer working effectively, can effectively protect the organizational culture and the results for which leadership is accountable. Middle managers jobs are based on their ability to implement strategy and tactics to achieve share holder and stake holder value. In organization where senior leaders employ an intimidating management style, their managers may be required to serve as the ozone layer for their people.

Managers as effective leaders must regulate the heat to see that if falls appropriately. They know their personnel and realize that some individuals in the organization may need a hole in this ozone layer to feel the additional heat. If they are not performing properly they cannot be pampered and allowed to give less than their best. Some people may need to be shocked into working at expected levels. This must be done in the context of a respectful workplace and honoring them without bullying, intimidation or harassment. There may be a window in the ozone layer to allow them to be excised from the organization, as skillfully as a surgical strike with a laser beam.

When the solar winds cascade down the leadership chain the Middle managers feel the full brunt of the energy surge. One manager recalls being told, “If you are not tough enough to get the job done, we will replace you with someone who will.” Threats are generally a part of the vocabulary of solar expectations. Fear is believed to be a potent motivator. For years we have learned that the KITA (Kick in the Ass) approach only works temporarily and the stick part of the “carrot and stick” approach also has limited sustainability. When people can leave an organization, they will leave if their current organization abuses these methods.

The middle managers know their people are hard working and that some of the shortfall in performance is a shared responsibility. Leaders and the rank and file may have under estimated the size of the challenge. It is therefore, a shared responsibility to fix the problem. Local leaders modify the threats in the message for they realize the negative effect it has on morale and productivity. They know from recent literature that positive expectations and clear focus will allow people to think better. What are needed are calm minds to solve the problems. These leaders therefore, form a force field around their people to shield and buffer them from a direct hit. They usually;

• Gather their teams together and explain the dire situation around performance
• Evaluate the current state to determine how they got there
• Brain storm ideas and establish a list of things they should stop or start doing
• Work to develop strategies and tactics to improve sales and financial performance
• Adjust the tone of the demands from Senior leadership, while developing solutions to address the concerns of upper management

The company achieves its objectives due to the passionate, insightful work of the managers and their teams. People recognize that they dodged a solar bullet and everything is fine until the next crisis.

When Senior Leadership sees the positive results; the reversal of negative trends, increased market share, they are pleased and complimentary. However, they are convinced that their firebombing directives caused the change. Senior leadership are prepared to reach for the flame thrower and use whatever draconian methods necessary to keep their organizations focused on reaching the results required to keep share holders happy. Therefore, with the next crisis they can be predicted to respond the same way, but with greater intensity.

A solution

If the practice of leaders in your organization is to respond the same way to every crisis, the objective should be to eliminate or minimize the number of crises. It is incumbent upon leaders to keep their teams always anticipating competitive and market pressures to prevent the initial crisis. Otherwise the fire drill will repeat itself and they may not be able to blunt the impact and consequences. This will require a change in mindset at all levels of the organization.

All leaders, including middle managers should control the area within their jurisdiction. They should;

• Ensure that their people exceed their stretch goals
• Conduct simulations and “What if” drills to anticipate competitive responses
• Develop a “What else” mindset directed toward other things they should do to tackle or prevent a problem. This mindset will also help generate and evaluate alternative solutions
• Monitor competitive activities
• Ensure that customers are steadily assessed and surveyed to determine their level of satisfaction
• Highly value customer service and customer surveillance as a high priority to provide the kind of market intelligence needed to make better decisions

Leadership needs to construct an environment of innovation and a culture that inspires people to give their best and offer solutions with fear of reprisal and ridicule. Trust and respect will go a long way toward eliminating a culture of fear and intimidation and ultimately produce the ideas and innovations needed to exceed objections.

The ozone layer should be a part of the corporate culture. This will prevent the untoward effects of leadership striking the panic button and forgetting everything they learned about motivating people and driving behavior. Or it will ensure that local measures are put in place to achieve the objectives of senior leaders without torching and scorching the very people responsible for correcting the problems and creating the solutions.