As a recruiter, I battled to understand how from time to time I misread an individual completely. I kept fastidious records and began looking for trends. At this time, I looked at the leadership within the organisation. Looking at where there was a steady turnover of staff, low levels of engagement, poor attendance and high levels of disciplinary and grievance issues.
There was a consistent style of leadership and leader. A colleague recommended I read Snakes in Suits. The book linked all the dots. What follows is a brief synopsis.
The authors suggest recruiters look for the following traits which suggest they may be recruiting a sociopath at best or a psychopath at worst.
Some traits include
The fact that they appear affable displaying a superficial charm.
They are insincere and rarely display any form of empathy or sympathy for others.
Their brains simply lack the circuitry to process such emotions.
This allows them to betray people, threaten people or harm people without giving it a second thought.
They pursue any action that serves their own self-interest even if it seriously harms others.
They are delusional lacking a clear understanding of the world around them and their relation to it.
They have a distorted image of their ability often claiming to have skills that they don’t, their CVs are rarely a true reflection of who they are and what they have achieved.
They wildly exaggerate things to the point of absurdity, but when they describe it to you in a storytelling format, for some reason it sounds believable at the time.
They are unreliable and totally self-absorbed, if it doesn’t suit them it doesn’t happen. They have a tendency to distort the truth to suit their own cause and make themselves look good at the expense of others.
They will spread lies and rumors about others in order to make themselves appear better and to manipulate the people they want to control.
There is a complete lack of any remorse, guilt and shame.
They are never wrong. NEVER. If they are unable to distort or obscure the facts they respond in one of two ways: blame others for their misfortune or play a victim card. The facts are never addressed.
Sociopaths are delusional and literally believe that what they say becomes truthmerely because they say it!
They possess poor judgment when assessing individuals, trusting them implicitly only to be deceived.
They have no ability to think strategically and make no long term plans. They treat their money similarly.
They fail to learn by experience, their inability to accept responsibility when something goes wrong means they never believe they have to learn from a mistake – they simply never make them – even when driving.
They are never wrong. They never feel guilt. They can never apologize. Even if shown proof that they were wrong, they will refuse to apologize and instead go on the attack.
Sociopaths never apologize, they cannot bring themselves to say the words, “I am sorry”, and don’t see the need to as they are never wrong.
Sociopaths
Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations, they have few friends as their ability to communicate and show emotions is absent. There is often a disregard for laws and social mores, anyone in authority from teachers and referees to politicians are viewed with suspicion.
They possess an equal disregard for the rights of others and will simply ignore the fact that their actions might impact negatively on someone else, even those close to them.
They hate to lose any argument or fight and will viciously defend their web of lies, even to the point of logical absurdity. They cannot distinguish between their opinion and the truth. Their opinion is the truth and they will argue as such.
Sociopaths are incapable of loveand are entirely self-serving. They may feign love or compassion calling others dear, darling and honey, complimenting them in order to get what they want, but they don’t actually FEEL love in the way that you or I do.
Sociopaths are masters are presenting themselves as heroes with high morals and philosophy, yet underneath it they are the true criminal minds in society who steal, undermine, deceive, and often incite emotional chaos among families, the workplace and even entire communities. They are masters at turning one group of people against another group while proclaiming themselves to be the one true savior. Wherever they go, they create strife, argument and hatred, yet they utterly fail to see their own role in creating it. They are delusional at so many levels that their brains defy logical reasoning.
You cannot reason with a sociopath.Attempting to do so only wastes your time and annoys the sociopath.
Tips when interviewing sociopaths:
One simple method for dispelling sociopathic delusion is to start fact checking their claims. Do any of their claims actually check out? If you start digging, you will usually find a pattern of frequent inconsistencies. Confront the suspected sociopath with an inconsistency and see what happens: Most sociopaths will become angry or aggressive when their integrity is questioned, whereas a sane person would simply be happy to help clear up any misinformation or misunderstanding.
Beware of fact-checking the sociopath by asking other people under his or her influence. A sociopath will usually have a small group of followers, even family members, who not only believe their fictional tales, but who actually internalize those fictionsto the point where they rewrite their own memories to be consistent with them. If a sociopath talks about his rugby career over and over again, some of his believers will sooner or later start to form false memories. So if you ask those people, “Did you actually ever see this person play rugby?” They will enthusiastically say, “Yes!” Because in their own minds, that illusion has become something indistinguishable from a vivid memory.
Another very valuable red flag to recognize when trying to spot a sociopath is to see how they deal with attacks on their own integrity. If a sociopath is presented with a collection of facts, documents and evidence showing that he lied or deceived, he will refuse to address the evidence and, instead, attack the messenger!
If you really try to nail a sociopath down to answering a documented allegation, they will quickly turn on you, denounce you, and declare that you too are secretly plotting against them. Anyone who does not fall for the brainwashing of the sociopath is sooner or later kicked out of the circle and then wildly disparaged by the remaining members of his/her group.
Once you are able to detect these traits in an individual, you are better able to avoid the trap of recruiting them. Even better to avoid them at all costs. If you are to work with them on some project you are at least armed to protect yourself.
Have a look at any number of state or corporate failures in recent years and see if you can determine some of the traits displayed by those implicated.
There are two truism that apply to goals and planning: “if you don’t plan your life, somebody else will” and, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of a clear, simple achievable plan for you to give effect to your dreams and achieve your full potential.
The Saige Goals Workshop focuses on firstly developing personal goals that equip the individual with the skills to achieve their full potential. Goal setting is an effective tool for making progress on a personal level towards a specific or desired outcome.
The process I use when setting goals is to establish SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bounded objectives) in the following areas of an individual’s life:
Definition of areas of self-development: 5 Ps
Personal: Values, purpose, family, home [me & others]
We then assist the individual in aligning their personal goals with the organisation’s strategic objectives. A comprehensive talent management program is then drafted with the organisations HR Department.
The Saige Goal Workshop ensures that individual employee goals and objectives align with the vision and strategic goals of the entire organization. Goal-management provides organizations with a mechanism to effectively communicate corporate goals and strategic objectives to each person across the entire organization. The key consists of having a centralised strategy (we recommend the Saige SCORER process) and providing each person with a clear, consistent organizational-goal message so that every employee understands how their efforts contribute to an enterprise’s success.
The greatest gift any CEO, Owner, MD, Consultant can give an organisation is to give it a simple set of marching orders – a strategy. No strategy means no vision, no goals no direction and eventually poorly directed inertia. The Saige Scorer established a simple, clear unambiguous strategy with a clear set of objectives to EXECUTE the strategy. The failure of organisations is not that they lack strategic direction, but they have no idea as to how to implement it. After the strategic session, they place the file on the shelf and go back to managing their day-to-day activities.
Over many years of working with good and great organisations, we have developed a simple easy to use system that not only provides clear direction for the organisation, but also measures the organisation on a constant basis, builds in excellence, instant self-correction, pulls organisations together, breaks down SILOs, and in our experience is the single biggest factor for moving from Good to Great.
If the question is, “how to I move my organisation form good to GREAT”?, then the answer is:
SCORER
SCORER is the Swiss Army Knife of business management. A MacGyver tool that can be adapted and adopted to suit to any team or business.
With business experiencing constant change and disruption, SCORER is a simple effective system that cuts through the clutter and gets things done. If we all agree that leadership is all about energy, all about movement, all about action, then SCORER provides us with the perfect system for developing strategy and executing our objectives.
SCORER develops a crystal clear unambiguous set of “marching orders”.
SCORER creates a shared language for execution.
SCORER clarifies expectations. It simply says, “what do we need to get done (and fast), and who is working on it”?
SCORER keeps employees united and aligned vertically and horizontally.
SCORER demolishes silos, cultivates cross-team connections, highlights concerns early on, holds the entire team accountable and up to date.
The Saige SCORER is tried and tested, our many successful clients are proof of this.
It is my experience that irrespective of the nature of the organisation, the successful ones are remarkably similar. They are [to paraphrase the first line in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina],
“happy organisations are alike; while each unhappy organisation is unhappy in its own way”.
I have been fortunate to work in wide variety of industries, private enterprises, family businesses, independent schools, universities, listed entities, charities, and more. Without exception the successful ones share the following characteristics.
They have a compelling direction; a clear vision, purpose and strategy. Their leaders are committed to and live this vision. They use the vision to trade in hope and create the image of what the future will look like.
They are serious about talent; they recruit the best possible people for each position and empower them – they attract, train and retain talent. As Jim Collins commented, “people are not your greatest asset, the right people are”. Great organisations get the right people on the bus and hold them accountable.
They have an appropriate structure; their form fits the function. They constantly perform “paper audits” to ensure the organisation is fit for purpose, flat, efficient and functional.
They have clear roles and responsibilities; job descriptions are clear, concise, and relevant so staff know exactly what to do. These roles are directly linked to the strategic objectives of the organisation.
They have effective measurement and feedback systems and processes; these are built in as part of a continuous improvement, growth and development, and striving for excellence process rather than a “surveillance and annual tick box exercise”. Staff know at what level they are required to operate. KPIs are one thing, but having OKRs is critical.
They celebrate their successes; when you measure success, you can celebrate it. This creates a culture of positive reinforcement and an environment where employees become ‘winners in the workplace”.
They have enabling environments; with high levels of emotional intelligence where staff are mentored by senior staff and encouraged; what I call HERO environments where the leaders create a culture of Hope, Effectiveness, Resilience and Optimism.
They encourage and respect multipliers people who perform above the requirements of their job functions. People I refer to as valuable citizens, people who possess good sound values. These are staff who continually check in on their colleagues, who support them, who are loyal to the organisation, who are team players, and create positive work environments. They deal in the intangibles, building relations, developing communities building within the organisation and outside. They are the ones who steer the organisations moral compass. They are the ones who allow stakeholders and shareholders to sleep at night.
With reference back to Anna Karenina, what are the traits of an “unhappy” organisation?
When I perform an organisational effectiveness survey, it always the case that one, a combination of, or all six of the abovementioned characteristics are absent.
The most common one in alumni organisations (as it is in schools) is the absence of effective measurement and feedback system.
I conducted an audit at an independent school recently and began by saying, “why is it that the quickest way to empty a staffroom is to talk about appraisal/performance review systems”?
Staff went swiftly on the defensive, “because we fear the commoditisation of education”, came one answer. “We have no control over the calibre of student we receive”, came another. “Some of our greatest successes come from getting the most difficult student to simply pass”.
There were many other reasons given. I responded by asking the question, “do you measure your students?”, “yes of course”, came the answer, “why” I asked. “So, we can evaluate their performance, give them positive feedback in the areas where they are doing well, asses areas for improvement and put in place measures to help them develop to their full potential”. The school has a comprehensive record of every intervention, every test, every exam and every assessment with a pupil that follows the progress of the student through the school.
“Well it may surprise you that this is exactly what an effective staff review system entails”, I replied, you measure the aspects of your job that are within your control. You do not measure the “uncontrollable”.
The purpose of an effective set of key performance areas is in order to assist the employee in performing their function optimally, provide the support they require, the assistance in terms of mentoring and training to do so, and the opportunity to receive what I call “feed-forward”. A concept based on Marshall Goldsmiths concept of always looking forward in an attempt to become the best version of ourselves we can become. It has a strong element of mentoring and is a co-created, collaborative relationship.
In short, you cannot manage what you cannot measure. The best organisations build the striving for excellence into the DNA of the organisation. It becomes built into the processes and policies. It becomes more than just an outcome, it is a way of working.
My experience of having worked in and evaluating alumni departments leads me to believe that the successful ones are successful because they are run along the lines of successful organisations.
Where they are unique is in that they operate in an environment where there are multiple stakeholders – the university [including current staff and students], the alumni [who range from last years graduate to a 99-year-old farmer in the Karoo], donors, and future alumni.
Furthermore, they have had to evolve rapidly [as Robert Forman commented], from “ex-coaches who are good at golf, fine story-tellers, and know lots of people to professionals required to operate in a highly competitive field of work as executors of strategy, event coordination, liaising between the various constituencies and delivering on strategy. How one measures them is critical to the success of the organisation.”
As Bill Gates who battled initially when establishing the Gates Foundation commented, “In philanthropy I see people confusing objectives with missions all the time. A mission is directional. An objective has a set of concrete steps that you are intentionally engaged in and actually trying to go for. Its fine to have ambitious objectives, but how do you scale it? How do you measure it? I think its getting better though. Philanthropy is bringing in more people from high performance business environments, and they are tilting the culture.”
When we measure the effectiveness of an alumni relations department, we look at the following:
Is there a purpose or a vision? Is there a clear concise strategy to achieve the support the purpose and achieve the vision? Is this known to employees? Are employees absolutely clear as to what their roles and responsibilities are in delivering the strategy? Are there a clear set of metrics to measure an evaluate progress and performance of employees in achieving delivering on the strategy? It is this final point I wish to elaborate on as it is the single biggest short-coming in alumni relations organisations.
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