Why Being a Jerk Will Fail You
From the Project Management and Workplace Respect Blog
by Paul Pelletier
This blog is dedicated to raising awareness about workplace respect in relation to project management. Workplace disrespect is a worldwide problem that is exceedingly damaging to projects and business. Incivility negatively impacts project success and results in financial, human resources, productivity, risk management, and legal costs.
There are many things PMs and organizations can do to prevent and address workplace disrespect. This blog aims to help guide the way.
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The Atlantic (June 2015) features a fascinating article about whether it pays to be a jerk in business. After deeply exploring different perspectives, available research and presenting a very balanced essay, Jerry Useem concludes:
“To summarize: being a jerk is likely to fail you, at least in the long run, if it brings no spillover benefits to the group; if your professional transactions involve people you’ll have to deal with over and over again; if you stumble even once; and finally, if you lack the powerful charismatic aura of a Steve Jobs. Which is to say: being a jerk will fail most people most of the time.”
Does this help convince you that rudeness, disrespect and bullying aren’t a leadership style?
Useem, Jerry. The Atlantic Vol.315 – No. 5. June 2015 p. 48 – 58 “Why it Pays to Be a Jerk”
Posted on: July 21, 2015 10:17 AM |
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Comments (5)
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Thanks for the post; quite insightful.
Paul Pelletier
Project management key note speaker, author, corporate lawyer, and executive| Paul Pelletier Consulting
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Thanks Ebenezer. I found the article really interesting. If you are generally interested in the topic of workplace respect, I will be presenting a webinar on PM.com next week on Bullying in PM (July 28).
I appreciate all feedback and ideas. Great to connect with you as well.
Paul
Thilo Wack
Head of Existing Product and Test Lab| optimed
Tholey-Hasborn, Germany
Paul, very interesting article. Thanks for posting this here. While reading it the little QA guy in my head mumbled the following: When in an experiment you have a factor on two opposite settings (i.e. jerk and nice guy) and the results for both groups are all over the scale (i.e. success and failure), then probably this factor is irrelevant and you have overlooked the relevant one(s).
Might it be that successful leaders have some other personality trait in common that can be present both in nice guys and jerks?
Paul Pelletier
Project management key note speaker, author, corporate lawyer, and executive| Paul Pelletier Consulting
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Hi Thilo. Thanks for your very good comments. This is exactly what Jerry Useem considered in his article. It clearly isn't a black and white issue and the complexities are many. There are a number of potential common traits in both "givers and takers" (to use Jerry's terms). At the end of much research and very balanced analysis, his general conclusion was the quote I provided. Since he was only asking if it pays to be a jerk, he didn't get into the other factors.
However, that is definitely a topic for further consideration.
Thilo Wack
Head of Existing Product and Test Lab| optimed
Tholey-Hasborn, Germany
Paul, so very true. Seldom things are either black or white, most people just can't cope with uncertainty, so (apart from ideologist who do this naturally) they resort to categorization. What triggered my comment was the thought whether there really is a cause-effect relationship between being a jerk and being successfull and if there is what direction that goes. If it really pays being a jerk in the sense that being a jerk causes success then it would be really easy for all the nice guys to become successful because being a jerk is easy. But if there is some secret ingredient for being successful and just maybe jerks tend to have this more often, then becoming a jerk just will make the nice guys more unhappy.
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