The Situation

In business meetings or business relationships the more that people care about the company the more aggressive the meeting or interaction can get. As a leader, it’s a mistake to be afraid of or intimidated by aggressive employees, but many leaders are.

I have been in meetings where people don’t really concern themselves with the direction of the company. The meeting is like a cocktail party. Everybody is in accord; everybody is laughing it up, and having a good time. They all agree on the outcome of the decision and all go back to their respective work spaces, cash their paychecks, and the company goes on. At least it does for a while.

I have also been in meetings or business relationships where things get heated. As a leader, I never let this be a problem for me, as I knew something that many leaders fail to comprehend. This is a room of people that cared enough to get aggressive about the direction of the company. Small companies are very much different from large companies because one bad decision in a small company and employees lose jobs. They feel the pain of a bad decision very personally. This makes for an aggressive caring purpose driven group of individuals. Small company employees are more concerned about the company’s viability; whereas in a large company, only the shareholders suffer from bad direction. Large company employees can hide behind a decision made by a large unaccountable committee instead of purpose driven individuals held accountable for the chosen direction. In a large company many people even forgot who or why the bad decision was made in the first place. Everybody gets paid, but the large business takes a blow to the bottom line. Not enough to cost jobs, at least not now, but eventually this culture will catch up (see Sears and many others). This causes an incremental loss in identity but the company is big enough to absorb it because losing has a grace period. By the time the hard times come the large company employees have moved on, new employees have moved in, and the situation repeats itself. They make bad unaccountable committee decisions to overcome the bad unaccountable committee decisions made by the last employees, but everybody gets along famously. It’s the Camelot Crowd. They parasitically drain the large company and the leader allows it because they either fear or are intimidated by the purpose driven caring employee because, they say, “he’s aggressive”.

Due to out of control Human Resource departments many large companies fear the aggressive employees and eventually remove them. The employee becomes a “Situation”. This Situation, it’s thought, has to be removed to alleviate the possible liability created by the purpose driven caring employees actually caring enough to fight for a good decision on behalf of the company. The unprepared not purpose driven employees might get their feelings hurt. When you have Situations in your company you have to be prepared for meetings. These purpose driven caring Situations aggressively challenge facts, decisions, and suggested directions. If you arrive unprepared for meetings and you make a statement about the direction of the company you will be shown a fool in these meetings because the purpose driven caring people have done their homework for the meeting. The purpose driven caring people make everybody around them better. Even though they initially appear; too aggressive. Removing the Situation promotes a culture of complacency whereas it’s more beneficial to the company to mentor The Situation. The problem is, for the leaders it’s a larger challenge to harness this energy than it is to remove it.

A good leader can always tell who cared enough to show up prepared and cares enough to actually fight for their principles. The Situation risks being disliked for the benefit of the company. I like the Situation, not the parasitic Camelot Crowd. 

I would encourage you to either be the type of employee that prepares for meetings, does their homework, and intends on fighting for the benefit of the company or be the type of leader that welcomes a little professional discomfort in these meetings. As a leader, you must understand that not everybody in the room is equally prepared, equally intelligent, and hasn’t done equal amounts of work, nor even cares about the company an equal amount. If somebody is getting passionate about their positions don’t let their passion scare you but embrace their motives. Even if they are wrong this time, you can harness that energy in the future for the benefit of the company. This is the employee I would rather mentor than attempting to mentor an employee that doesn’t care enough to fight for the benefit of the company. It's ok if the unprepared, uncaring feel discomfort because they are overwhelmed by the intensity of the purpose driven.

Going along to get along doesn’t improve the company’s revenue, profitability, or culture. Eventually the host company dies and the Camelot Crowd searches for its next victim.

I challenge you to show up to your company tomorrow and care enough to fight for the benefit of the company. I am not saying be a jerk. You need to respect people but still be purpose driven enough to challenge the status quo. Care enough to make the unprepared uncomfortable. Yes, eventually you will be identified as a Situation. If you don’t have a leader that embraces your purpose driven attitude then you are wasting your life in a place you don’t need to be anyway.

This is a tough ask because when you begin to stand out you will stand apart. Your peers will dislike the standard you are setting because they will either have to level up or they will stand apart also, but in a bad way. Your manager could become intimidated by your purpose driven caring attitude. I have intimidated many myself and it doesn’t always end well but living with purpose isn’t for the faint of heart. While you make those unprepared uncomfortable, you need to become comfortable in discomfort, because it’s not always easy being a Situation.

Leave Nothing to Chance.

David A. Penney