Leadership and “The No Asshole Rule”

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Can a Great Leader be an Asshole?

Competency: leadership

Who benefits: those interested in leadership traits and characteristics

Consultant Usage: executive coaches, those involved in 360 degree feedback, leadership trainers

What’s it about? Today’s debate is “Can a Great Leader be an Asshole?”.  At the moment of this writing the vote is 2 “NO” and 1 “YES”.  Where do you weigh in on this issue?

Robert Sutton and I vote “NO”.  (I love throwing myself into the company of a top 10 leadership guru!)  Professor Sutton is of The No Asshole Rule and Good Boss, Bad Boss.

Apparently voting yes is David K. Williams, a Forbes writer.

Let me make a significant digression.  I came across William’s recent article on his Top Ten Leaders of today.  He gives some good reasons why and my original intent was to encourage you to read his article and think about what each leader brings to the table.  If are interested in the topic of leadership and have time constraints, this is a good summary of what it takes to be a leader: Top 10 List: The Greatest Living Business Leaders Today.

Let me recap who is on his list with my own one word vote.  I urge you to go to the article and read the reasoning for each.

1. Jeff Bezos, Amazon, (Yes)

2. Anne Mulcahy, (Yes)

3. Brad Smith, Intuit, (Yes)

4. Howard Schultz, Starbucks, (Yes)

5. Larry Page, Google, (Yes)

6. Tim Cook, Apple, (Yes)

7. Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo, (Yes)

8. Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, (Yes)

9. Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group, (Yes)

10. Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation, (NO, NO, NO, 1000 times NO – guess I violated my one word vote)

Now back to THE NO ASSHOLE RULE.  How on Earth could anyone name Rupert Murdock to a top ten list?  In my humble opinion Murdock exhibits characteristics and traits associated with Assholes of the worst sort.  Words that come to my mind include ethically challenged, sleazy, ethically challenged, manipulative, ethically challenged, ruthless, ethically challenged, insensitive, dictatorial … and did I mention ethically challenged.

Several of his reports are currently charged with felony offenses.  Murdock himself faces police and government investigations into bribery and corruption by the British government and FBI investigations in the US.  His News of the World newspaper closed in July, 2011 because of the hacking scandal.  A Newsweek International editor referred to him as “the man whose name is synonymous with unethical newspapers”.

His British newspapers are famous for selling sex as a marketing ploy.  Women are frequently exploited in story and picture.  Britain’s The Sun (10th largest selling “newspaper” worldwide) is notorious for its topless Page Three girl(s) with risqué poses.

He micromanages and those who disagree find themselves looking for other employment.  The list goes on and on.

And this is a man on a top 10 list of leaders?  Too bad because it diminishes the accomplishments of the other 9.

I propose we “capture” the list, delete Murdock and substitute another name.  Off the top of my head (and because I am a sports junky), I would nominate Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots.  He is known for having and communicating a clear vision, making decisions because they are the right thing to do, supporting his reports decisions even when he personally disagrees, and is considered an outstanding labor negotiator who consistently demonstrates exceptional listening skills and brings all sides together.

Who you would nominate for that remaining Top Ten position?

Oh by-the-way, do you know about the Boss Reality Assessment Survey System (BRASS “test”), Robert Sutton’s 20 question survey to determine if your boss is a BRASSHOLE?  It’s good fun.  (Secretly) take it on your boss.  I took it with Rupert Murdock in mind.  He scored 15 out of 20.  Higher scores are bad.  According to the survey, RM suffers from many chronic flaws and is rated as a BORDERLINE BRASSHOLE.

Catch you later.

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.