In his 1990 book Million Dollar Habits, Robert Ringer devotes a chapter to “The Drain People Elimination Habit”, who he described as “people who drain you of time, energy, peace of mind, relaxation, comfort and/or money”. A wide range of these “draino’s” populate the corporate world. Let’s examine four categories of them, including one with its own subcategories: The morally challenged, the narcissist, the walking wounded and the situational draino.
The Morally Challenged
A morally challenged individual is likely to act on his worst instincts at some point. If in a leadership role, he can corrupt a culture or deform it. Even if he somehow doesn’t impact others, can you watch him every moment of the day? How much energy will that take? Where can you better use that energy to grow a business?
The human condition being what it is, many people have the potential for morally dubious actions. An organization led by an amoral leader may succeed for a time, but in the long term will be seriously damaged when challenged by unforeseen events. It’s possible to establish an ethical business culture and demand that legal and ethical standards be upheld, but it is much more difficult to reform an unethical adult.
The Narcissist
The narcissist’s consuming goal is to look great. Winning is the best way to accomplish this, which often makes this individual appear to be valuable, whether in sports or business. But if the narcissist can look great in defeat, he will also be satisfied.
The Walking Wounded
The walking wounded have a different psychological landscape from people who are emotionally whole. Their internal strife drives them to create and perpetuate conflict where none exists. Here are the three varieties of walking wounded, from least harmful to most harmful: the crab, the backstabber and the scorpion.
The Crab. As in a pail full of crabs, the Crab will reflexively pull back anyone who attempts to better himself by climbing out of the pail. Every organization has powerful political undercurrents, but the Crab Culture is paralyzed by politics.
A high performing organization will swiftly cast out crabs, but a critical mass of crabs creates a culture where losing is preferred to taking chances. Crabs are losers, or at the very least have become habituated to losing.
Transforming a long-term losing culture may require a figurative “scorched earth” policy, leaving the “turnaround” coach who rids a team of its losing mentality without enough talent left to win.
There is little evidence that corporations with grossly dysfunctional cultures can be changed gradually. In the real world, a better vision for the future and organizational discipline may not be enough. A certain amount of tension, even fear, may be necessary, to separate those willing to commit to the new culture from those who lack the motivation or ability to step away from their losing mindset.
The Backstabber . The backstabber is competent, but puts significant energy into subverting his or her peers. In football, the organizational structure and culture constrains overt backstabbing, with the gap between players and coaches resembles that of management and union workers. But in a corporate management setting, where politics are ubiquitous, a skilled backstabber can cut with the dexterity of a surgeon. A company can make its culture less hospitable to backstabbers, even if it can’t realistically screen them all out in the hiring process.
An organization that puts results above all will give less camouflage to individuals who compete politically. These backstabbers will tend to migrate to companies whose cultural “eco-systems” are more hospitable to their machinations.
The Scorpion. Scorpions are talented, hardworking individuals who are driven to destroy their work environment, and ultimately their own careers, because of inner emotional turmoil.
Terrell Owens was the ultimate scorpion, a cartoon-like archetype of the temptations and perils of bringing talented drainos into an organization. “TO” was a big, fast, powerful, hard working receiver, but deeply self destructive. For all his touchdowns, Owens never won a game beyond the first round of the playoffs.