Managing "yes men" in modern organizations
They are conspicuous by their presence. They are potentially very dangerous to the health of any organization, but carry tremendous clout in the organization, irrespective of their formal position or authority. They can make or mar any career, of any person who does not fall in line and who creates trouble for them.
These people are the "yes" men. They can create maximum trouble for any youngster or just about anyone.
They are also called "chamchas" in Hindi or "jalra" in Tamil.
Who are these people? This tribe of people are those who do not have any claim to fame, except that they sing praises of the boss, at any point in time, and will stoop to any level to keep such bosses happy. They are very cunning and can tell what exactly the boss or bosses want to hear, and will do it very successfully.
The tales they carry are often very dangerous and can cause immense harm to the reputation or even the performance appraisal of any employee at any time. They know how to adjust the verbal communication about anything and very well know all the weaknesses of the bosses, and what will make them fall flat to all their designs.
In fact, some of them simply exploit some weakness of the boss. In one particular organization in North India, where I was employed, the boss had a weakness for astrology. Though he had come up purely on merit, he always believed that some "star' in his horoscope was responsible for his doing so well.
One shrewd "yes man" from Tamil Nadu, who was employed under him, enticed him saying that if the boss were to do some prayers in a special temple near Tanjore in Tamil Nadu, he would be even more blessed. The boss fell for the trap, took the subordinate along with him. The family of the boss did not like the subordinate, but had to tolerate him for some reason or the other. The boss had a nice pilgrimage trip around some temples and was amazed at what he saw, in terms of ancient architecture of a number of temples. some of which, are famous throughout the world.
Not to let go a golden opportunity, the subordinate took him to a village, well known throughout India, for palmistry. The boss had to give a full right hand impression and was told to wait for a while. Thereafter. the astrologer told him several things about his past, each of which was deadly accurate. As regards his future, the astrologer had told him certain things, and also asked him to do some special prayers in a nearby temple. The boss faithfully obeyed the instruction given, and did all the special prayers.
Back home in North India, the boss found that the predictions were true over a period of six months. It must have been that some good fortune or good times, could have made things possible. The boss was so happy that he promoted his "yes man" that very year!
It is another story that the "yes man" was not a great performer at all.
The aforesaid story gets repeated with monotonous regularity in many organizations. The "yes men" seem to all powerful, and it is high time that modern organizations attempt to do something more fruitful in this regard..
Such solutions need to happen, both at the individual and at the Company level.
What can any individual do?
Firstly, it is wise to ignore the yes men and concentrate purely on his or her job. If the boss were to ask him or her about some matter that the yes man would have told him ( a huge amount of "masala' is normally added and the spicy story is told as if there was a big truth in it!), the employee will do himself a world of good by standing firm and telling his side of the story, without ever distorting any fact, or hiding any fact. In reality, it is wise to take the help of any other employee, possibly a like minded employee who would support him or her, without any fear.
Once this is done, the employee would stand a far better chance of making the boss understand. However, there are irrational bosses who simply and blindly believe only their " yes men",. If this were to happen, the individual would have to make a representation to the higher authorities or try to seek a transfer to another department.
If even these steps do not yield any result, the employee would have to take it on himself, and even quit the organization. In any case this is exactly what happens to professionally qualified engineers and MBAs who would strive to drive their performance, purely on merit.
The " yes men " should be handled very carefully by the HR department and its Chief. It is wise to confront these people with all facts, and also proof of the canards that they had spread about any particular employee. Once this happens, they would have at least some fear.
The HR department could also talk it over with the concerned boss and let him know that his rather irrational belief and trust of unworthy yes men, does not do any justice either to themselves or pride to their positions.
Certain organizations like to expose the bosses to what is called "experiential learning". In a group of all the bosses, each person is asked to write down all good things about every other person in the group, without mentioning who is writing the positive thing about him. The entire group goes to hear very nice things about the person concerned, when all the slips are collected.
The next step is for the group to write down all the negative things, intelligently worded as "areas of improvement". In one such exercise, a particular boss was asked to explain his open support to an unworthy subordinate, who was his "yes man". Since the Chief Executive was himself present, the HR Manager adopted a shrewd strategy of asking the Chief Executive to give his views. The Chief Executive issued a mild warning to the concerned boss, confronting him with facts of a particular incident blown up by his "yes man".
This set the boss thinking, who finally understood the dangerous games of his "yes man". He stopped encouraging him any further, and the subordinate was soon transferred to another department with a boss who would not tolerate any nonsense at any point in time.
The entire department thanked the HR Manager for the intervention.
Of course, a very stern warning from the HR department would help in unsettling the 'yes men". The concerned bosses would also have to understand that their behavior can do no good to the organization, and desist from encouraging "yes men" at any time.
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