Hey folks! Happy Belated Women’s Day to all the extraordinary women out there, in business, at home and everywhere else in between. To my beautiful wife, Shannon, thank you for being my partner (in everything), a wonderful parent, an advocate and just a force of strength, love, and peace. Now, to move into a different direction, today’s blog is focused on how we can treat the victim disease that pervades today’s landscape. More specifically, we’ll be focus on how it negatively impacts corporate culture. A heavy topic, yes, but it’s a constant challenge we face as business leaders that must be treated. Today, call me Dr. Jamail and let’s get clinical.
Society, the Enabler of the Victim Disease
I flipped-flopped back on forth on whether I should call this section, “Society a Genesis of the Victim Disease” or speak more to the enabler aspect. I chose the latter because while something can start a certain way, it doesn’t mean that it should propagate that way for the rest of our lives. To be blunt, the root issue is that we live in a society that tends to raise victims. We (I know I too fall victim to this habit at times), don’t teach kids how to fail and recover. Instead, we blaze a path to the nearest person we can find (unfortunately often the teachers), and blame them for not giving all their students, good or bad, medals.
Essentially:
But then later, as business leaders we encounter a now fully grown Suzie and Johnny in our offices. We are left to attempt to treat the victim disease, least it spread and jeopardize the organization.
Identifying the Victim Disease in Corporate Culture
Allow me to WebMD this bit for you.
When left unrecognized, not addressed, and not removed, you should prepare for the viral spread of a decaying team morale and tolerance of underperformance.
During the hiring process, we have to be more vigilant in the vetting process.This ensures we keep these persons infected by the disease out. Unfortunately, in truly troubling circumstances, a victim who has somehow managed to become a leader, will find a kindred spirit in these hires. For the rest of us, this can only spell disaster. Being overly sympathetic enables the victim mindset. As strong leaders we must separate the need to self-identify and sympathize from who will make a valuable contribution to the growth and development of the organization.
One remedy for this is building in questions that will offer a prospective hire a chance to make excuses. If they bite, the only recourse should be, “Thank you and goodbye!”.
Dealing with Victims Who are Already in the Organization
I’ve hired my fair share of victims and by the time I’ve caught on they’ve already made it to their desk. But I promise, all hope is not lost here. When we embrace the coaching principle of embracing conflict and facing the problem, our situation will become less bleak. Granted it can be a bit of a rough patch to get to the other side. Per my book, The Leadership Playbook:
There will be some emotional upheaval, but if the employee truly has the potential for greatness beyond their victim status, then as leaders who coach we must try. Our main goal will be to:
Help the victim understand that being a victim is a choice, and not being a victim is a choice as well.
Here are a few other things to be mindful about:
- Change the victim to victor- or change the player.
- Victims never make anyone feel special, except those who enable them.
- Recognize that an obstacle is a fact. An excuse is a result for not achieving our goal. A solution is a result that means we’ve overcome any obstacles to win and achieve our goals.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to the victim disease, call me a germaphobe and you should be one too! Wherever possible block the affliction from entering our organization, if it’s too far gone, coach. If that fails and the victim blames you, the organization, their mousepad, and parking spot, then it’s time for them to go.
See ya next week!
For more leadership antidotes, check out my bestselling book, The Leadership Playbook. It’s available in print, Audible and Kindle.
