Love For The Dickhead

I recently met an old friend of mine on a flight. While the conversation shifted to familiar territories of "leaders" in his company, his fondness for his division leader didn't betray any disgust. He cussed his division head about the rude arrogant language, consistent venom spewing anti-people behavior. However, he said that his division head appreciates his work and he is happy with that. He didn't want to see anyone else as his division head. He saw his division head as aggressive, hungry for success and a charismatic personality. The rest didn't matter!

Interestingly, if you google the word 'dickhead', you will come across words like rude, obnoxious, disrespectful, impatient, unrealistic, stupid, irritating, etc. For reasons unknown, the word is also largely associated with men. Rarely will you hear someone calling her lady boss a 'dickhead'. Working with a 'dickhead' leader isn't easy and can be extremely frustrating. However, our love for them rarely seems to subside. They are popularized in popular media, business journals and across real life offices. Maybe, it has something to do with our inner psychology!

The article below doesn't belong to the scholarly category with pure play academic research being its backbone. It is anecdotal and meant to be taken with a pinch of salt!

Over the past few years, popular mass media has glorified the role of dickheads. Popular sitcoms and movies with dickhead leaders are in plenty; think of Wolf of Wall Street, Mad Men, Suits, American Psycho and Horrible Bosses. The only exception is that the protagonists are shown as extremely successful and in some cases brilliant in their profession. Some of them are probably based on real characters. Most famous businessmen are not known to be people you would want to hang out if given a choice; a famous internet company lead is known for his micro management, disrespect for his people, uncouth laughter and someone who condemns work life balance. However, every quote from him has people flocking to him like honey to the bees.

There is abundance of management research that shows the adverse effects of 'dickhead' like behavior. A Washington Post1 article carried out the results of the survey that indicated 98% of workers reporting uncivil behavior at work. It went on to suggest that such an environment comprising of increased rudeness, passive active aggression can lead to obesity and poor health.

So, are the benefits of a 'non dickhead' leader substantial and long lasting? A Harvard Business School2 study comments that the effect of a good boss doesn't stay for long; in fact only 18% of the boost stays in 6 months. Not enough incentive for the boss and the subordinate!

Akin to the multitude of self-help books, there are numerous articles online on how to deal with 'dickhead' bosses. Although most take a pacifist tone of 'trying to communicate well', 'understand where he is coming from', 'be proactive''; the efficacy of such articles is questionable if not laughable. If they were effective, you wouldn't have so many articles on it in the first place. As a sample, imagine a conversation where you are being pro-active and trying to understand where the 'dickhead' is coming from and he starts with, "I don't think your soul is in the project. You are not fully passionate about this work. If you were, you would have been contributing much more." Other common notions of 360 degree feedback, 10 point checklists are questionable at best in an Indian context.

The larger question is why people get away with it. Maybe people are inherently wired to accept curt, dismissive or abusive bosses above them in a workplace hierarchy. A classical illustration is the Stanford Prison Experiment where mock prisoners tended to accept the brutal behavior of mock prison guards. There is reams of similar research which has thrown up similar results. In fact, the Washington Post article quotes a research that people would regard their bosses as less of a leader if they behaved more civilly. Almost 40% said that they were afraid they would be taken advantage of if they were too nice and nearly half said it was better to flex one's muscle. Finally, our generations of having faithfully complied with strong hierarchies does have a substantial subconscious significant impact on our psyche.

In summary, 'dickhead' leaders are in vogue. The days of the polite, structured, inspiring leader are majorly restricted to academic universities and late night conversations. Although people will associate the 'dickhead' with uncharitable expletives, they will rule the roost! In 70 mm, story books and at workplaces! On forums that matter, they will be fondly remembered with phrases ranging from 'aggressive', 'contemporary' to 'authority' and 'strength'.

So, go ahead, be a dickhead! That is your best shot to getting to the top if not being immortalized on silver screen.