Part 1: Cutthroat Culture

There can be no security where there is fear.

—Felix Frankfurter

Culture is set by chief executive officers (CEOs). The workplace tone, whether positive and empowering or cutthroat and destructive, is in leadership's hands. In the book Winning,29 Jack Welch describes how to deliberately pit worker against worker to “allow the cream to rise to the top.” But you have to be willing to designate 10 percent of the workforce unworthy and scheduled for termination. Relying on the fear of losing one's livelihood is Welch's motivational tool. If you are that type of leader, then bullying within the ranks is good. It destabilizes everyone. It keeps workers worried and guessing.

More likely, a cutthroat culture has developed without your awareness or deliberate intention. How could this happen? By default, organic development in our capitalistic society. It happens if you do not specifically declare to workers how you expect them to behave. Backstabbing, betrayal, and undermining authority are exactly the types of behaviors that will naturally emerge from a work group. Positive behaviors require clear expectations, constant attention, monitoring, and reinforcement. Negative emotions and negative conduct emerge when no attention is paid. Negativity dominates unless you, as leader, take deliberate steps to preclude it.

The notion of a Darwinian, survival-of-the-fittest mentality explains bullying very well. It converts the workplace into a jungle. The players in ...

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