Bullies, Leaders and the IT Business Analyst

Funny thoughts from Marcus...

The term “Business Analyst” is from an ancient Greek term meaning “Even that enormous sweaty dude in the boiler room that everyone avoids has higher status than you.”

In general, Business Analysts have to get promoted several times to make it to “Raggedy Cinderella before the ball” status. At one of my engagements, the categories in the workflow management tool were:

Project Manager

Architect

Developer

Road Kill

More Road Kill

Vultures picking at Road Kill

Lawyer

Business Analyst

Lawyer for a Business Analyst

* * *

For many years, one of my jobs in the IT industry was as a professional Business Analyst.

One of the things that happen when you are Business Analyst is that you come face to face, early and often, with the concept of bullying.

Of course, this is not unique to BAs.

I managed a large project once where – true story - one of our users was literally banned, by his boss, my boss, and security, from entering the floor where the developers sat. It was difficult for him to understand that screaming at our developers “I need this NOW!” did not make them code / debug / deploy any faster.

In other words, bullies suck. And not in the good way.

* * *

The most controversial thing about workplace bullying, it turns out, is defining it.

There are definitions that are legal, and precise, and helpful.

But these definitions are also so formal that it’s often hard to prove that a person’s behavior “rises to the level of” bullying.

My red-faced, spittle-spewing, utterly clueless user could be absolutely charming when he wanted to be. His behavior was sporadic. It was not directed towards a specific target. It probably would not meet the criteria of bullying – unless you were there during an eruption. Snot and spittle and obscenities flying everywhere, people running to get rabies vaccinations afterward… it was awful. I later heard that the poor guy actually had a heart attack at some point. Bullying is not good for anybody.

The solution to the problem of workplace bullying lay in recognizing the core, fundamental reality of a bully:

A bully is bad at relationships.

Pretty obvious, right? But look at the ramifications of that observation.

The ability to manage relationships skillfully is the crucial skill for all high-performing teams – indeed, for any team. To put it bluntly, any endeavor that involves human beings will also involve human beings creating and managing relationships with one another.

Teams that are good at managing their relationships to one another will outperform teams that are bad at managing their relationships to each other.

Teams that are good at managing their relationships will fight to preserve the culture that makes those relationship management skills possible.

And most of all, most of all, teams that are good at managing their relationships will never, ever have bullies.

Therefore it is wholly justifiable, even essential, that leaders create Relationship-Smart workplace cultures. Not only does this make bullying hard; not only is it a wonderful contribution make to yourself and your team members, but it also makes bullies miserable.

Yup. Bullies hate being on teams that are good at relationships and relationship management. Bullies are completely miserable in environments that skillfully deter and penalize lousy relationship management skills.

There’s a scene in one of the Harry Potter books where Voldemort, the quintessence of evil, touches Harry on the neck, trying to strangle him I think, and the pain Voldemort feels was so unbearable that he was unlikely to ever try that again (at least until he figured a way around it. Harry Potter books are amazing. Another essay).

It’s kind of like that with bullies and relationship-smart cultures. Bullies find such environments so distasteful that they simply can’t wait to find another job. To paraphrase Collins and Porras from Built to Last, the culture ejects them like a virus.

This is very critical for technical organizations, because the bullying in tech organizations often takes a very different form than in other kinds of organizations. It’s not always shouting, or showering spittle, or throwing things.

Sometimes it’s as subtle as a word.

Here’s my favorite: “Really?” as if to say “Are you really so stupid that you just asked that question?”

Sometimes it’s refusing to help when a person clearly needs it and has asked nicely.

Sometimes it’s making a big show of having to slow down the meeting to help someone understand a crucial point.

It gets to the point where you just don't want to open your mouth and say anything for fear of being humiliated.

If, as a leader, you want to get rid of bullying, or prevent your organization from ever having a problem with bullying, then create an environment where being good at relationships is valued. Invest in creating what I call a Relationship-Smart Culture ?

Now.

The next three points are crucial.

It gets to the heart of what it means to be a leader:

1. Nowadays, as leaders we know a lot about healthy relationships;
2. We know a lot about managing cultures; and
3. We know a lot about bullies / jerks / malicious smart-asses and the impact they can have on the workplace.

In other words, as leaders we have the tools to create environments that help everyone get better at relationships, environments that bullies hate.

We just have be willing, as leaders, to do it. To take the time to implement these tools. Tools we already know exist and know how to use.

If it helps, the identical toolset will help you with your Diversity issues (retention primarily; less so with recruitment. Another essay).

In fact…. One could argue that to avoid creating relationship-smart cultures nowadays is kind of like seeing bad things happening, and having the power to change it, and then doing nothing. No one wants that karma. Not for their organizations. Not for the people they lead. Not for themselves.

As leaders, we have the power to stop bullying, of all kinds and severities, in the workplace. If we want to call ourselves leaders, then it’s time to get started making the world a better place by helping the organizations we lead become extremely skilled in Employee Relationship Management ?.

I’m passionate about this topic because I have seen lousy requirements being gathered – and creativity and energy get shut down - because the culture of the team is such that no one wants to slow down the momentum long enough to make 100 % sure that the discussion is clear and clearly understood by all. And I have seen teams that do take the time to ensure that level of clarity, and the difference in software quality and client satisfaction is simply astounding. People love and want the freedom to ask the “dumb” questions; it usually clarifies things exceptionally well, and can actually bond the team in a way that few other work activities or team-building exercises can.

I guess I’m saying it’s clear, now, that it’s both good business and good karma for us to build strong, relationship-smart organizational cultures.

The principles and the steps to make it happen are well understood and not that hard.

Learning and implementing these skills together -

ü Can be fun

ü Helps the team bond, and

ü Helps make the world better because, you know, the world could use one or two more people who are good at relationships, ya know?

It can be done.

It just requires good leaders with the balls and / or ovaries to step up and take the challenge. I’ll bet money women step up first. No one in business have more balls / ovaries than female leaders. Just sayin’.

Next up: Relationship Smart Cultures, Step 1