On the Campaign couch… with
Q Our managing director (male) has created a macho, sexist culture in the company and it’s really beginning to bother me (male). He’s an effective leader in many ways, but his laddish jokes and near-harassment of staff (anything in a skirt) are borderline illegal. It amazes me that everyone seems to go along with his behaviour and, indeed, imitate it to stay in with him, including some very senior executives (female). But it looks to me like an accident waiting to happen. I can just imagine a disaffected employee being made redundant deciding to blow the whistle on him and take him (and us). He’s important to several of our top customers, and I’m loyal to the company, so what should I do?
My answer will offend both you and many readers. I fully expect hate mail.
On one condition, leave him alone and risk the tribunal. The condition is this: if you have good reason to believe that his near-harassment is even occasionally actual harassment, then you’ll need to do something. If not, not. It seems to me that the world has become overpopulated with impeccably recruited and interchangeable graduate trainees who, in the course of time, grow up to be impeccably trained and interchangeable execu- tives. Like the young officers they might have been in an earlier age, they show admirable leadership qualities. They publicly praise winning teams, always thank the catering staff and are particularly good on births and engagements. Some even send out handwritten notes.
The trouble is, those handwritten notes could have been written by anyone. And a handwritten note that could have been written by anyone is not half as gratifying as a handwritten note written by a real person.
Say what you like about your managing director (and you have), he’s clearly a real person. Like quite a lot of good leaders, he seems to have developed a useful front for himself: one that’s loosely based on the true him but with added hyperbole. And the whole value of hyperbole, of course, is that people learn to recognise it and decode it and aim off for it – and, best of all, enjoy it.
So the residual effect of hyperbole may be exactly the same as if achieved through a flat statement – but with a welcome dressing of individuality.
You say you’re amazed that everyone – including some senior women – seems to go along with your managing director’s behaviour, even to the extent of imitating it. Might you, I wonder, be the only member of your company unable to recognise hyperbole? Or, to be even more offensive: are you, I wonder, an ex-impeccably recruited graduate trainee who has become an impeccably trained all-purpose executive, who finds it impossible to understand why your laddish managing director should attract such a loyal and affectionate following when, to put it bluntly, you don’t?
Q The other day, I noticed our managing director picking up litter outside our front door. Is this OCD, OTT or just odd?
None of the above. It’s admirable. Your managing director clearly knows about brands. He knows that the smallest of gravy stains on a restaurant menu may be enough to lose a customer for life. He knows that one misspelt name on a PowerPoint slide may be enough to get you bumped off that shortlist. If he’s as scrupulous about your work for clients as he is about doorstep litter, he must be running an excellent agency. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was a she.