So recently I learnt of a particular aspect of [American] corporate culture that scared the hell out of me. I put America in brackets, because I know it’s not unique to here – but, to be honest – it’s where I’ve seen the worst of it compared to all the other countries I’ve lived in.
The paranoia of performance.
Put simply, some people seem to waste an incredible amount of their energy convincing themselves others are getting the opportunities they want – or feel they deserve – and so spend their time continually looking for signs that say, at least to them, they’re ‘out of the loop’.
These signs could be anything …
The way a boss said hello to a colleague.
The fact a client said hello to someone who is not directly linked to the core team.
An agency colleague sat next to the client at a meeting.
Sure, sometimes that can be true, but unless I’m utterly naive, I’m pretty sure in the main it’s not.
But here’s the thing …
If you’re constantly looking for the hidden meaning behind everything, it means you’re spending all your energy and angst on feeding that negativity rather than doing something that could make a difference and so at some point … the paranoia becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Now while that might make these people feel better about what they suspected all along, it’s a hollow victory given they created the situation rather than anyone else.
But what I find even worse is what it say’s about [American] corporate culture.
Or at least some of it.
Where people continually feel frightened.
Threatened.
Unsettled.
Suspicious.
All that does is make these people un-cooprerative, un-collaborative and in-efficient.
That’s not just horrible for them, but it also creates an incredibly toxic environment.
As I wrote a while back, enjoying your work is not just important personally but it’s also commercially advantageous as a whole and while I appreciate not everyone will achieve what they want to achieve, creating an environment where everyone thinks someone is out to get you rather than encouraging them to show what they are capable of is an outcome where everyone loses.