One of my relatives told me about her office politics last week. In her office, there was a 50+ years old uncle who is not even a director or any of the big C executives. He’s just a senior employee who has been with the company for 20 years, and a very good “shoe polisher” to the Aussie boss.

Whenever the Aussie boss is here, he will walk around the office like he’s very busy but when the boss is not around, he’ll just spend his time sleeping. He is actually in the Finance department and reports to the Regional Financial Controller (FC) but funnily, he scolds the FC more than the FC talks to him! What’s even funnier is, the FC does not dare to raise his voice against this guy. The FC will always say “He’s an old man, just let him be.”

That’s what my friend noticed when she first joined the company. She has been with the company for few months now and has just resigned. The old man also has the tendency to approach newcomers and scold them, just to make them leave. In the end, the entire company hates this guy because he scolds people for no reason. He just likes to show people who is the boss (even though officially, he’s not).

To give you a better idea of this guy – he has a small book (the 555 book we use in schools) which he uses to record the name of the people who have offended him, time and date included.

I really wonder, why is such an idiot still existing in the company? Shouldn’t he be out of job by now? Shouldn’t he be punished severely by the bosses?

The thing is, he is still there because the FC and the managing director of the regional office do not dare to punish him. In the end, the old man crosses the line and becomes more powerful than the bosses.

Frankly speaking, we do see and hear such story quite often. Some of these idiots are actually relatives of the big bosses, or have some connection one way or another. But either way, this is NOT how a company should work. The bosses are there for a reason – to manage the business and to manage the employees. If you have an employee who acts like a boss, without anyone controlling him, one can only wonder what will happen to the company.

Never ever let an employee becomes bigger than the bosses and the company. In this case, the bosses need to play their role – either control him or kick him off. It’s far too risky to have someone like this messing things around in the company.

Unless, the bosses themselves don’t care.

A friend of mine complained to me about her idiotic colleague few days ago. She’s the HR executive in her company. This idiot is a loner in the office due to his unique characteristics – tai chi master, boastful (quite extreme, according to her), childish, loves to laugh at people’s weaknesses, and other things you would expect from an idiot.

To be honest, I pity her because I have quite a similar experience as well.

I then threw her one question “Why don’t you find a way to force him out?”

She replied “My colleagues and I have tried isolating him. But he’s still the same! Our HR policy does not allow us to terminate someone due to their idiotic behavior. And so far, he didn’t do anything which is against the policy of the company (aka misconduct).”

She’s right. If there’s such an employee in your company who doesn’t do anything against the policy of the company and still do his job (pretty good too), there’s no good reason for you to terminate him unless you want the company reputation to go down the drain.

But the fact that this guy is bothering nearly every single employee (except the bosses) in my friend’s company doesn’t help either. I’ve seen such cases before in my previous companies and the idiots actually left soon after the isolation. Guess the case with my friend’s company is that the idiot does not want to leave. There are already few good people who left because of him and this is not good for the company.

And to be honest with you, I can’t think of anything to handle this guy – except for isolation from colleagues and if possible, bosses.

Maybe that’s why people always say prevention is better than cure. Always recruit people carefully. It’s true that it’s never easy to recruit good people, but I feel that it’s even harder NOT to recruit idiots. Reference checks? Those are useful but they are not 100% accurate. But it’s better than nothing at all.

If I were the boss, I will take in an average guy as my new employee rather than an idiot – all the time. No point ruining the spirit of the entire company because of one person.

Remember, no one person is bigger than the company.

When teaching a kid, you scold him for doing bad things so that he doesn’t repeat it. But you praise him if he does something good. The next thing you know, he will try to avoid doing the bad things (if he’s a good boy and not the stubborn kind), and will work harder to do the good things. This theory applies to adults too.

If I do something, I don’t expect to be praised because it’s not a normal thing to do in our Asian culture. But it would be nice if people appreciate or compliment a little for the hard work I’ve done. That will tell me I’m actually doing it right, and I will work harder to improve it. And most importantly, I know there are people who appreciate my work.

On the other hand, if all I get is complaint, complaint and complaint (or destructive comment), I might give up on it. It’s the same thing when you scold a child without telling him or her what is wrong, and what he/she should not do.

It’s okay to complaint or to scold, but you must provide a valid reason. Without a valid reason, the person might end up living in fear, and not brave enough to take up new challenges. Thus, limiting the person’s creativity and overall performance.

But compliment or praise should not be used too freely as well. If you do that, it’ll not have the same strong impact anymore.

So choose the appropriate time, compliment the person and show that you appreciate the work done. That will encourage the person to work harder and to achieve greater heights.

Or if there’s something you don’t like, give constructive comments and teach the “child” what should not be done based on your opinions.

Was reading a book about Warren Buffett – Snowball, at 5am in Cameron Highlands (I couldn’t sleep since I was feeling very uncomfortable with the apartment) and learn this new phrase which is also 1 of Warren Buffett’s favorite phrases – praise by individual, criticize by category.

I feel that this is a very useful and applicable phrase, one which we can use when dealing with people around us.

Most people, especially the bosses, are either not willing to criticize people or they’re being to harsh on certain individuals by criticizing these people directly. Either way, it’s not good. When criticizing or saying something bluntly (in order to wake them up), it is better not to direct to the individual. If you seriously want to wake that person up, talk to him and not criticize him too bluntly. That way, you might be able to keep the good relationship between the 2 of you.

However, if you are planning to give praises, give them to the individuals. It does pay off if you praise someone directly, and not praising the entire group. The impact is much stronger.

As you can see, it’s all about IMPACT. Negative impact is not a good thing to have, thus criticizing by category. On the other hand, positive impact is always a good thing to have, thus praising by individual.

Hope you get what I mean. I’m still seriously lack of sleep. Only slept few hours.

Adios.

Have a brilliant idea? Want to start something up or propose a seemingly good idea to your bosses?

Only to be turned down just because you don’t have enough experience?

This kind of thing happens all the time. Why? Because for an inexperienced person, who is 25 years old, how can he/she possibly have a better idea than someone who has already been in the same industry for 25 years? That person should know how things work in that industry better than a newbie like the 25-year-old person. So in the end, the idea will just get pushed aside.

Courtesy of http://flickr.com/photos/robinbenito/1069638933/

Problem here is that most people who claim they are very experienced and know how things work around the industry, are also people who are afraid of changes. They do not embrace new ideas because they hate changes. Changes bring uncertainties – uncertainties on their jobs and future. That’s why it is always easier to reject an idea, a change, than to accept it.

However, we’re in a world where change is a common thing. Those who cannot embrace changes will wither and perish – just like how some big companies crumbled. If you cannot adapt to the changes quick enough, you will be replaced by those who can. It’s as simple as that.

That is why being experienced in an industry does not mean you will succeed. Being experienced does help, but it’s not enough. You need to be experienced and be willing to embrace changes – and be quick enough to adapt to changes, quicker than your competitors.

That’s the remedy to success in the modern world, though most people are still unwilling to accept that fact. They are still stuck with the mindset of the past.