 | | Till Lauer | |
| Adam Grant Smarter Living Contributor |
| A couple of years ago I was discussing a study of the habits of great musical composers when an audience member interrupted. |
| "That's not true!" he shouted. "You're totally ignorant — you don't know what you're talking about!" |
| Early in my career, I had let nasty people walk all over me. When a client berated me for my predecessor's error on an ad, I gave in and offered him a full refund. When a boss threatened to fire me for defending a colleague who was treated poorly, I said nothing. But this time, I was prepared: I had trained as a conflict mediator, worked as a negotiator and become an organizational psychologist. |
| At some point in your work life, you've probably had to interact with a jerk. They're the people who demean and disrespect you. They might steal credit for your successes, blame you for their failures, invade your privacy or break their promises, or bad-mouth you, scream at you and belittle you. As the organizational psychologist Bob Sutton puts it, they treat you like dirt, and either they don't know it or they don't care. |
| The natural response is to get defensive, but that only escalates the cycle of aggression. Take a classic study in which researchers recorded negotiators with different levels of skill. Average bargainers ended up in three times as many defend-attack spirals as expert negotiators. The experts escaped the heat of the moment and cooled the other person down, too. They calmly commented on their reactions to the other person's behavior and tested their understanding of what the person was trying to convey. |
| I had been studying and teaching this evidence for years. Now it was time to practice it. I called a break, walked up to my heckler and said, "You're welcome to disagree with the data, but I don't think that's a respectful way to express your opinion. It's not how I was trained to have an intellectual debate. Were you?" |
| I was hoping to start a conversation about the conversation — to redirect the discussion away from the topic and toward some reflection on the tone of the discussion. To my surprise, it worked. |
| "Well, no …" he stammered, "I just think you're wrong." Later, I sent him the data and he sent me an apology. |
| My heckler was what Dr. Sutton calls a temporary jerk. We're all capable of those behaviors, and we feel bad about them afterward. One study showed that on days when leaders acted abusively, they ended up feeling less competent and less respected at work — and had more trouble relaxing at home. |
| But sometimes you're stuck dealing with a certified jerk, someone who consistently demeans and disrespects others. A few years ago, I had a colleague who had a reputation for yelling at people during meetings. After witnessing it firsthand, I collected my thoughts and called to say I found it unprofessional. My colleague got defensive: "It was necessary to get my point across!" |
| Research on the psychology of certified jerks reveals that they have a habit of rationalizing aggression. They've convinced themselves that they have to act that way to get the results they want. I didn't know how to respond until recently, when I interviewed Sheila Heen, a conflict mediation expert, for an episode of my WorkLife podcast on office jerks. She suggested finding a way to gently challenge the belief that aggression is necessary: "Really? It was my impression that you were smarter than that, and more creative than that — so I bet you could come up with some other ways to be just as clear without having to actually rip somebody else apart." |
| I can imagine having that conversation with a peer. But what if the jerk is your boss or your superior, and you can't leave? |
| Research in banks and real estate companies points to two effective ways to break a pattern of abusive supervision. One is to decrease your dependence on your boss. If you can minimize interaction, they can't do as much harm. The other is to increase your boss's dependence on you. If they need you, they're less likely to treat you like dirt. |
| If all else fails, Dr. Sutton has a tip for changing your attitude toward the situation: Pretend you're a specialist in jerks, and think about how you're "really lucky to see this spectacular, amazing specimen." |
