Corporations on the Couch

Lynn Friedman, Ph.D., Psychoanalyst, Clinical Psychologist and Executive Coach

A monthly column published in the Washington Business Journal

Second in command first to suffer chief's vices

You have accepted a prestigious position as a vice president, managing a large division. You report directly to the president. As you begin to get acclimated, you learn that over the last five years the four previous VPs have been squeezed out, fired or resigned in haste. Your excitement gives way to apprehension as uncertainty over the turnover creeps in. One thing is certain, though, you are determined to avoid the same unhappy end. So you set about trying to understand the situation. The president seems to be a highly effective leader. He's affable and has an open-door policy. You see a red flag, however, when you hear a junior employee extolling this virtue: "The president has never been afraid to override the VP's decisions." You're new enough that you haven't made many decisions yet. But already you notice a lack of deference on the part of your employees. They seem to spend a fair amount of time talking informally with the president. Your anxiety mounts when you find out the president is inquiring about your performance. You know you have a problem when one of your staffers confides that employees routinely made end runs around your predecessors. You wonder how you can be effective if your employees are rewarded and reinforced for going behind your back. You feel sabotaged. But how can you avoid being casualty No. 5? There are many reasons bosses may tolerate or even encourage end runs. Before developing a strategy to address this behavior, consider why the boss is engaging in it. And don't forget that this behavior can be appropriate. If numerous employees complain, a boss has an obligation to investigate. But if there's an obvious pattern --four VPs in five years gone -- it's your turn to investigate. Allowing end runs may reflect managerial ineptitude. The president may have been hired or retained because of his skill in generating business or his reputation in the field, not because of his managerial talents. Alternatively, such behavior may be indicative of the president's insecurity about his own position. To better understand the dynamics behind this demoralizing situation, the first step is to become curious about the boss's relationship to his boss (in this case, the board). Often, an executive who undermines his manager, repeatedly, is uneasy about his own standing with his bosses. Pay careful attention to the president's relationship to the board. Odds are it's problematic. But is it problematic because the president is not meeting the board's expectations or does the insecurity and self-doubt reside within the president? Typically, it's a mix of both. Escape scapegoating One very likely reason is fear. The president is doing to you (and your predecessors) what he fears the board may do to him. By encouraging employees to do end runs, he may be attempting to ensure that you will never be in a position to displace him. He's ensuring that you will never be so effective and so respected that you can usurp his position. One way of addressing this s to become more cognizant of the president's apprehensions about the board. Try to learn what the board expects of the president and in what ways the president worries he will fall short. If he is deficient in some way, then it's possible your predecessors were scapegoated for his shortcomings. Don't be the next scapegoat. Help him overcome his limitations. For example, if he tends to be a good "external person," then serve him as a "inside person." Let him know that you view yourself as part of his supporting cast and that you recognize you have a lot to learn from him. If board members attempt to engage you in an end-run effort, don't go along with it. Instead, include him in your communications. Inner child, outta control? But, what if your efforts to better understand his relationship to the board reveal he is actually on solid ground with the directors? Often, bosses who repeatedly allow employees to engage in end runs do so out of their own sense of insecurity. They've often had childhood experiences in which they were displaced. For example, a first-born boss, might have experienced the world as blissful until he was displaced by a new sibling. Or he may have grown up in a family in which the children were allowed to undermine the adults in some way. He may be merely repeating this maladaptive pattern. Unfortunately, these patterns generally operate outside a person's awareness.The best antidote is to be straightforward with the boss about your plans and intentions, checking and double-checking to ensure you two agree. Colleagues can be helpful advisers, particularly when they have a good understanding about the president/board dynamics. In more sensitive situations, it can be constructive to bring in an outside executive coach. A skilled coach can help the VP, the president and the board communicate forthrightly. This article, Second in command first to suffer chief's vices by Dr. Lynn Friedman, clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst and work-life consultant, is reprinted with permission from the Washington Business Journal. (Find the original article here.) Lynn Friedman is a clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst and executive coach in Chevy Chase. She is on the associate faculty in the Organizational Development/Human Resource Management Program at Johns Hopkins University.

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Dr. Lynn Friedman provides organizational consultation and works with professionals and professionals-in-the-making to help them to achieve their work-life goals. Is your career off-track? Are you unhappy at work? Do you find it impossible to follow through on the suggestions of career books and coaches? Download Dr. Lynn Friedman's pdf file examining the kinds of help that might be useful. If you'd like to schedule an appointment with Dr. Lynn Friedman, feel free to give her a call at: 301-656-9650 Subscribe to Dr. Lynn Friedman's blog feed, "All Things Psychoanalytic" Corporations on the Couch Read Dr. Lynn Friedman's monthly, Washington Business Journal, column on understanding workplace dynamics. For your questions about relationships, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, check out Dr. Lynn Friedman's new website, The Washington Psychoanalyst.

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