If your startup employs people who exhibit more than half of the 16 dysfunctional personalities listed below, you are probably in trouble. Some would say the toxicity level is through the roof.
The Overreactor – this is someone who takes a single data point and, based on it, tries to change the corporate strategy and direction …
The Passive Aggressive – this is someone who does the politically correct thing and agrees to do something that the majority agrees to in a meeting only to go off and do exactly the opposite thing …
The Rice Paper – this is someone who repeatedly takes disagreement over an idea or issue as a personal attack and indictment …
The Head Faker – this is someone who purposely “tests” another by taking a position on a matter that is contrary to what they really believe in order to gauge another person’s stance …
The Barfer – this is someone who is never pleased with anything and spends all of their energies to finding flaws in everything …
The Dark Cloud – this is a hybrid of The Barfer and The Passive Aggressive who is always unhappy …
The Silent Killer – this is someone who maneuvers behind the curtains and engages only in hallway chatter; this person hates to write anything down or share anything in a group setting - why leave a trail of evidence …
The In-The-Looper – this is the person who squeezes into every meeting and project on earth because they need to be kept “in the loop” although he does nothing of value or benefit …
The Title Lover – this is usually the executive who confuses job title with authority …
The Monkey Wrench – this is someone who comes in at the last second and suggests changes without having any context or information about all of the prior discussions, considerations, and decisions …
The Lazy Efficient – this is someone who always masks laziness with efficiency; this is the person who spends all of his time explaining why he can’t or won’t do something instead of using a fraction of that time just to do it …
The Idea Machine – this is someone who has a million ideas but never knows how to execute on just one …
The Hijacker – this is someone who changes the font size on page numbers then takes full credit for the entire work …
The Socialite – this is someone who burns precious time by talking about personal and social matters throughout the day – only to pause near day's end to frantically get things done …
The Sketch Artist – this is a sketchy person who takes his family (of five no less) on a company paid vacation to France but asks sales to set up customer meetings and the marketing people to register him for an obscure business seminar to justify the expense …
The Michaelangelo – this is someone who thinks everything is beneath him; as in “you’re asking Michaelangelo to draw a coloring book for you …”
There must be more but the list above is fairly exhaustive. What have I left out?
- John
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