Name: Bill - the rainmaker
Age: 30
Role: line leader
Personal wins over collaborative wins
After an early personal training session, Bill downs a protein shake at his desk. He opens an email from Fatima, a senior colleague from an overseas office that reads ‘Hi Bill. I just want to make sure that we talk before you pitch to BigCo. I spoke to them recently – we need to be joined up, and I have some useful intel. Best, Fatima.’ He replies ‘There is no need to send me emails like this. I saw BigCo yesterday, and it went very well. If there is an opportunity for you, I will let you know.’
If Bill had collaborated with Fatima, BigCo would have given them a massive piece of work. Instead, as Bill went solo, they tested him out with a small job. Still, Bill celebrates his tiny win by sending a self-promoting email to his peers and leadership, as well as going out for drinks with his favourites, during which he shared his negative views about Fatima ,“off the record”.
Costs
The costs of not collaborating are almost too obvious to state but happen too often to ignore:
The organisation misses opportunities that it probably will not even be aware of.
Self-advancement undermines collective endeavour. If management lets it go unchecked, it will facilitate a rat race, which suits the rats just fine.
Colleagues who bad-mouth others sour relationships and build walls between people and teams.
Choosing competition over collaboration
Bill is waiting for someone in a control function to approve something urgent. He sends an email demanding same-day clearance. When he does not receive an instant reply, he leaves voicemail after voicemail chasing. Grayson, in the support team, replies 10 minutes after the original email and politely reminds Bill that he’s not provided the information required to progress his request. A furious Bill calls Grayson, bawls him out, calling him a “time-wasting overhead”, and forwards the email exchange to Grayson’s head of department, editing out the part that reflects badly on himself. Bill slams Grayson’s competence. Grayson’s head of the department sympathises with Grayson and says not to take it personally. What is certain is that no further action will be taken as Bill is too powerful to risk being on the wrong side of.
Costs
If there is one thing leaders hate, it is process. If there is one thing leaders expect, it is to be in a well-run organisation. Business support professionals get squished when those wishes collide in a culture of disrespect.
Rules get broken, exceptions are made, and toxic game players rise. If the organisation tolerates Bill’s behaviour, it becomes complicit.
The root cause is a culture that demands servility towards the favoured ones, treats some people as inferior, and fails to support them with the demands they face. The higher up the organisation’s management this attitude goes, the deeper the poison spreads.
Promoting toxic behaviour
Bill bumps into Hero, his favourite member of business services, for whom he recently lobbied for uniquely favourable treatment. Bill likes throwing his weight around for his favourites. He rates Hero because she smears colleagues, helps Bill find ways around the rules, and echoes Bill’s opinion almost everyone is a waste of space.
Hero is a ruthless careerist. With powerful patrons like Bill, her ascent rate has outstripped her abilities. This has been no impediment, as her signature strength is her ability to thrive despite gross misconduct levels of bullying and manipulation. People are scared of her, and their silence is enabling and emboldening. The Chief People Officer and other seniors know Hero’s impact but take no effective action. She was once provided with remedial coaching, but it was positioned so badly that Hero’s understanding was that the coach was there to learn from her. Of course it made no difference. The problems she causes are swept under the carpet. This suits Hero perfectly – she is secure with HR and leadership in her pocket.
Costs
Hero is a major risk to people and the organisation; she is a threat to the health and career of her team and peers. Her games can lead people to quit their jobs, get ill and even contemplate taking their own life.
Complaints and turnover will rise, the organisation’s reputation will suffer, performance will be hampered as collaboration withers under Hero's influence, and the organisation will pay the price for providing her with a safe harbour.
Putting aside the ethical, legal, regulatory, and financial ramifications, the organisation will find itself drawn into the drama of managing one incident after another. Until they wake up to what is happening and remove Hero, she will play them for all they are worth. Hero will be prepared and play the victim if they decide to manage her out. To draw the line under the mess, the organisation is almost certain to send her packing with a payoff that insults those she harmed, a false narrative about her departure that sets her up to do the same elsewhere, and a failure to report her to a regulator if there is one.
Solutions
The keys for underperforming rainmakers are:
Ensuring their reward is affected by how collaborative their behaviour is.
Control any exception-seeking for themselves or their favourites.
Deal with their damaging behaviour in a way that gets their attention.
