Task:
Frost and Robinson tell the following story.
Michael, a senior project manager in a public utility, worked with a group of 24 engineers. A new CEO was appointed whose style included making fun of people, openly criticizing them, and generally walking all over them. People became scared, felt betrayed, some were hospitalized with ulcers, and productivity declined rapidly as people contemplated leaving. Michael intervened in the situation for a period of three years until the CEO was finally fired by the board. He allowed his colleagues to express their frustrations to him in private, was often the one who spoke up in public when the CEO picked on someone, and helped the CEO by translating policies and actions and trying to present them as being not as bad as they appeared. After the CEO departed, Michael’s colleagues informed him that a major reason why they had stayed on was the compassionate and smoothing role that he adopted on their behalf.
Frost and Robinson outline five ways that toxic handlers operate:
• Listening empathetically, such as by cooling people down when they are angry and frustrated.
• Suggesting solutions, by helping to solve problems and providing advice about how to proceed.
• Working behind the scenes, easing pain, for example, by helping to get disaffected staff transferred to more congenial departments.
• Carrying the confidences of others, like priests, listening to and keeping secret individuals’ fears and anguish.
• Reframing difficult messages, by presenting difficult messages in a language that makes them more manageable and palatable.