Is Your Workplace Like This?

I was reading the book "A Colossal Failure of Common Sense" by Larry McDonald.  (It's obvious from the title - the book is about the collapse of  Lehman Brothers. Even without reading the book, anyone could tell uncontrolled greed is the main reason behind the recent financial meltdown. This book is a good read.)

I'm not writing about the global financial crisis.

First, some background info. The author and a friend started a website, offering information about convertible bonds. Loads of hardwork researching and offering information about the bonds offered in the market, as well as their evaluation of those bonds - which ones are worth buying and which are crap - made their website popular. Morgan Stanley bought them off, and the 2 friends became dotcom multi-millionaires.

Moving to MS, they felt the huge difference between how things work and get done in their start-up company and in an organization like MS.

In Chapter 3 of his book, the author said :

"The whole ethos of a major company is different. There’s people forever trying to cover their own asses, people who have somehow carved an entire career out of making small but telling criticisms of other people’s work. That’s because in a big corporation, the guy who spots a screw-up is somehow cleverer and more valuable than the guy who wrote the forty-page marketing plan in the first place."

Nice!  So eloquently put, don't you think?

Have you worked with people like that?  Made you feel like you want to smack them in the face hahaha

My three common-sensical take-aways :

1.  The colossal failure of common sense is if the head of any company allow such culture to permeate, much less flourish in the organization. My view - that will only happen if the head is like that himself. The leader sets the tone, pace, values in the organization. The buck stops with him/her.

2. Learn to be thick-skinned. One cannot avoid presenting to smart people (and smart-a__s).  Gotta learn to deal with them -- if the tough question is from the smart ones, they're adding value.  Don't be on the defensive. If from the smart-a_s, maybe say "that's a good question, what do you think we should do?".  

3.  Focus on doing excellent work, in adding value. Be sincere, no matter if everyone else isn't. (I think I've experienced that!)  Be a role model and contribute to creating a culture that builds values.