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Last Word: The Wimp's Two Faces
May 05, 2008
Attend another meeting, fill out another form, then attend another meeting. These are the demands of The Wimp, a boss that speaks weakly and hides behind a big bureaucratic stick. This month Stanley Bing explains why you should watch out for this species of crazy boss.
By Stanley Bing
This is the wimp. He or she needs to cover his or her tail with his or her paper and protocol in every situation, no matter how trivial, and is fond of delegating every decision up to and including what he or she is going to have for lunch. This behavior is generally found and welcomed in large organizations where flawless procedure is valued in its own right—like the military, large urban school systems and television networks. The wimp seeks to spread responsibility for his actions so thin that blame cannot be fixed on him. The bureaucracy is a social structure that encourages this general approach, a system in which following orders is the highest good, and accountability for any act is spread so thin that no individual need worry about his personal share of it. The tool by which this is done can be found in profusion in all wimpy organizations. It's called the Meeting. Find a company that has a lot of meetings, and you'll discover a nest of wimps.
The animal comes in two distinct breeds, like certain kinds of dogs. The teacup version is more common, but there is an industrial-sized model with big teeth. This is the organization fascist who preys on underlings with a variety of fads, enthusiasms, reorganizations, reengineerings, and other obnoxious mandatory exercises he gets out of business schools or management books. Both types of wimp depend on the structure to confer power, eliminate challenges, and negate individual accountability. The small, tremulous, pure wimp finds personal action fearful and difficult. The organizational fascist finds comfort within the exercise of his function, and free rein for the manipulative and sadistic impulses that rage within the breast of every deeply insecure person.
These are two faces of one beast. The fascist is simply a wimp who has found an ideological shield behind which to hide. They both like to have a lot of meetings.
In certain industries and individual firms, management by weakness is the only means for survival. The wimp survives in such an environment because, in the course of a lifetime, he takes so few risks.
Excerpted from CRAZY BOSSES by Stanley Bing. Copyright © 2007 by Stanley Bing. Reprinted by arrangement with HarperCollins Publishers. Readers interested in bulk purchases of Crazy Bosses may contact the HarperCollins special markets department at (212) 207-7528, or by e-mail at spsales@harpercollins.com.
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