a**holes in the workplace

Am I the only one who has noticed that the number of blogs and posts about bullies, naysayers, negative people and a**holes in the workplace has skyrocketed in recent times?

 

Click to Enlarge (and Print)

The people chatting about this phenomenon runs the gamut — from secretaries to HR Directors all the way to C-level executives.

Here is a sampling of some of the tactics I’ve read recommended by the experts:

At their core, all these ideas are about you feeling good.

But life isn’t about feeling good. Life is about becoming great.

When you become great, you will inevitably feel good.

Related: some things can’t be taught

Bullies naysayers and a**holes are a fact of life. They’re everywhere. You can’t run away from them. You can’t pretend they don’t exist. You certainly can’t fix them.

The only thing you can do is to grow yourself — and grow in such a way that the naysayers and bullies grow with you. Grow in such a way that you make the world a better place — for yourself, for the naysayer and for everyone else who comes into contact with both of you.

That would make you great.

And in the long run, this option is actually easier than slaying, eliminating or running away.

Yes, you could escape to a company where the leadership and culture have grown to the point that the naysayers and bullies have also grown up.

But in escaping to such a company, you would be depriving yourself of the opportunity to grow personally and professionally.

You would be depriving yourself of the opportunity to:

Running away is so 20th Century. Establishing rules to squash out the behavior is also 20th Century. Staying and growing is 21st Century.I

n case you think I’ve finally gone looney, I should tell you that nearly every truly successful executive I’ve ever met — including yours truly — was fortunate enough to face a truly impossible a**hole at work early in their career and grow personally from it. And their success came, not despite of but because they grabbed the opportunity to grow up — because they used to the opportunity to learn how to create an environment where the a**hole also grows up.

And every mediocre employee or executive I’ve ever met has used every excuse in the book [some of these tactics are listed at the top of this post] to bypass the opportunity to grow up.

So, stop slaying. Stop complaining. Stop running. Stop setting up rules. Step up to the 21st Century. Stay. Learn. Grow. Become great.

Time for a whole different set of skills,

Aman Motwane

Learn to grow and become great by changing your
Level of Learning
Step up to Skills 2.0
Start here ⇒