There's Never An Excuse

7 February 2022

Dr Eric Lander, President Biden's top science advisor, resigned today. It was one of those situations where nobody wins. He resigned because an internal White House investigation revealed that he demeaned his staff in a way that violated any reasonable workplace behavior standards. You can read more in the Wall Street Journal here.

What's interesting is that Dr Lander’s merit as a scientist is beyond question. He was a key figure in the Human Genome Project, and there’s every reason to think that his contributions to the welfare of humanity have been significant. It could be argued that a person of this brilliance is too valuable to lose, or that a great number of personal peccadilloes can be excused by his wider contribution as a leader of science. Precisely these arguments are frequently made in defense of people in a workplace who show significant deficiencies in the way they behave toward others.

Yet, here we are. Dr Lander is out of a job, and while many positions surely await him in the world of science and research, he'll likely have significant difficulty getting another job that involves supervising and leading people. It has to be asked whether this is reasonable, and whether his unquestionably bad treatment of people justifies the loss of his livelihood.

Many - and particularly, many people in the world of scientific research - will disagree with me, but my answer to this is absolutely yes. Doctor Lander deserved to lose his job, and had I been in a position to make that decision, I would have fired him myself. I wish him well in the future, but this is not someone who should be in charge of other people unless there is close supervision.

Sometimes people are appalled that senior leaders take this attitude toward individuals of great talent. The line goes that setting high value on being a “team player” is pure clichéd silliness, and that what really matters is “how the person does their job”. Yet most senior leaders, including the writer, don’t see it that way.

There is literally no level of brilliance that Dr Lander could have that would make up for the harm he has caused to the morale, spirits and productivity of others in the office he ran. The same can be said for the harm caused to the office itself.

Treating people well is not a difficult skill to acquire, and there is never an excuse for treating people badly. Senior leaders don't ask that everyone be a genius at people skills, simply that no one in the team should set out to be maliciously bad. It's a simple matter of ethics, of being aware of and respectful toward the needs of others. No respect and awareness, no ethics.

The damage caused by leaders who demean others runs deep. Mostly, we humans will forgive a lot of transgressions. Being late, being demanding, and sometimes losing your temper are not good things, but they’re almost always forgiven. What’s not forgiven is an attack on the inner self. We all have a core spirit that is inviolate, and when abusers demean us and belittle us, it’s not a trivial thing. A common response from the abuser is to gaslight the people who are abused, claiming that they are unreasonable, or excessively sensitive, or somehow atypical of the group at large - if not downright weird. In reality, if a person in authority demeans and abuses one person, and particularly if they do it in a practiced and skillful way, it's a safe assumption that they have routinely done this before to others.

Only a tiny proportion of those who are demeaned will ever speak out. The rest will leave if that possibility exists for them; or if not, they will remain, suffer in silence, experience bad health consequences, and lower their productivity to a level where they no longer attract negative attention. There's no better way to bring an organization to its knees.

I wish Dr Lander nothing but the best in his future career, and I hope that his many qualifications and distinguished scientific expertise, as well as the high regard with which he is treated by others, have not conspired to put him in a position where he can no longer learn and be humble. Sir Isaac Newton, the great British physicist, once said that he felt like a child who had spent his life playing on the beach, turning over pretty pebbles and wondering at their significance, while all the while the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before him. If Newton can be humble, so can the rest of us. I hope Dr Lander will go on to have a great career and that his talents will be put to good use.

On the other hand, there was absolutely no excuse for this behavior, and it was right that he should lose his job - whatever the cost might be. It's a salutary lesson to all of us who aspire to lead others. When we diminish those we work with, when we attack the inner self, and when we reduce the humanity of others, we cause more harm to our organization than any level of individual talent on our own part could possibly make up for.

It's a simple message. There's never an excuse.

John Kolm is an internationally published best-selling author, a former intelligence officer and the CEO of teamwork and leadership development company Team Results USA which specializes in workplace Simulations.?He can be reached at [email protected],?www.teamresultsusa.com, Facebook and Twitter at?@teamresultsusa, and LinkedIn at?team-results-usa?.