Here’s a book I think every CEO and HR person should likely read: The No Asshole Rule
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It’s just what you think it is: A breakdown of how assholes in the workplace, far from being the big rainmakers or motivators they’re sometimes perceived as being, actually hurt the bottom line.
Author Bob Sutton — a smartypants Harvard Business Review columnist, so maybe his ideas will gain some traction — is an online kind of guy, whose son plays World of Warcraft, so his blog is full of discussions of how online businesses — guilds — exemplify a lot of the stuff he’s talking about.
Everyone who’s played an MMORPG, either in a hardcore raiding guild, or simply knowing people who are in one, knows all about the yelling, demeaning, nasty raid leader. Not surprisingly, most of these outfits fall apart the moment the members feel like there’s another viable alternative out there. But so many members are so indoctrinated that they think that sort of thing is necessary to success in the raiding game that they just find another dysfunctional outfit and repeat the process until they finally quit the game in exhaustion.
(In my EverQuest guild, and to a lesser extent in my WoW guild, I myself was known for barking orders a bit, but I tried to make sure to keep it targeted on issues, not personalities, and to be generous — and specific — with praise when it was appropriate.)
If anyone in the newspaper industry who ever has or feels like they’re likely to hire me at some point would like a free copy of this book, just e-mail me. It’ll be money well spent.
You can listen to the interview or read the full transcript of the Marketplace interview with Bob Sutton here.
