Prepare for Bad Behavior

Posted on March 23, 2009

When times are tough, people and businesses act badly. But we can insulate ourselves from bad behavior by being essential. People and companies in collaborative agreements where there is mutual dependence will act kindly toward each other. But don’t EVER let the balance slip.

You know what happens in shortages. People hoard, some people steal, people get greedy, desperate. “I win you lose” is an easy mindset to adopt. Humans behave badly in shortages.
We are in a prosperity shortage. A money shortage. So prepare for bad behavior. Otherwise you’ll be taken by surprise, you’ll be more disappointed in people, and you’ll have insomnia trying to figure out why it happened, and what to do now. By bad behavior, I mean:

• Board members acting to save their own skins, not the company’s.
• Customers being disloyal, thinking short term and dumping you for a nickel savings.
• Vendors unrealistically raising prices or refusing to honor agreed terms.
• Business partners working less, demanding more, acting emotionally, not rationally.
• Employees turning on each other like caged rats, or turning on their manager or on the company.
• Peers in organizations whispering mean things about others, cranking up feuds into active campaigns, trying to get the other guy fired before they are laid off….
• Banks, insurers and other supports for a business pulling back so far that they “fire” good customers and destroy relationships, or don’t honor their commitments like they would in good times.
• Friends and neighbors who become jealous of you as you buy a new car/have your house painted when they can’t afford it anymore.

No business stands alone. All these relationships form what I’ll call a collaborative environment. Collaboration isn’t all rosy. People collaborate for a reason.

In hard times, people’s true colors emerge. If you’ve helped someone in the past, you’d think they’d feel obligated to return the favor, when you need it. And a few people in your world do have that kind of character set. They’ll help you even if it costs them. In my world, I try and collect those people, but I only know their true colors when they show them a few times. Still, it’s a bad practice to rely on the kindness of others, ever.

If you’re relying on the kindness of others, you will have insomnia, because one hard truth has not, and will not ever change. People and companies do what is best for them. If they collaborate, they do it because they need to. If they believe they can do it themselves, they will try to. This is true in work groups too. And it’s true during layoffs. The people that keep their jobs are the ones the company needs. The companies that will survive are the ones that their customers and clients need.

The solution today is the same as it’s always been. Find skills, situations or products that your customers need, and are depending on you to deliver. If you stop delivering, they have pain. They lose. They suffer. You’ll need to be dependable too, so they can always count on you, and trust you. In return, they’ll pay you a fair price for it, which you’ll need. I’ll call it mutual dependence. Or balance of power.

People and companies in collaborative arrangements where there is mutual dependence will act kindly toward each other. And that’s nice. There might even be some genuine caring there. After all, we are human. But don’t EVER let the balance slip. If it ends up that you’re not really needed, their kindness will likely disappear, probably when you need it most. If you end up giving more than you’re getting (either in price or value), you’ll likely look to move on yourself. Doing what is right for your company (or your career) with solid logic and done in the right way is NOT bad behavior, although it may be hard to do, and may hurt other companies or people. There is no black and white here.

In groups of people, where collaboration really must happen, or in communities of any sort, it gets messy. People hurt other people, they say things in the wrong way, at the wrong time. They pick up attitudes and biases that may or may not be true. They do insensitive things. Talk starts, and stirs. During shortages, this problem intensifies, and the games people play accelerate and have more consequence. It’s a mess.

You’ll want to try and manage the mess using the best techniques of organization behaviorists, PR firms, and the like. You’ll want to avoid ever creating or adding to the problem. You’ll meet with your customers, your co-workers, your “team-mates” and your collaborators to keep the relationships open and on-line. All this is good, and important, and best practice. But there’s one more thing.

You’ll focus the most, the very most, on being truly needed. On having exactly what they need and can’t easily find elsewhere. And they must know it and believe it. So no matter what, you are one of the legs they are standing on, and without you, they’d fall down. It would be oh-so-much worse for them without you.

If you’re doing your job at that level, or if you’re company’s products are that essential, you’ll be one of the last ones standing, even in a nasty recession, even if there’s a negative rumor about you, even if someone else in the collaborative environment has taken a shot at you. Your customer who needs you will protect you and shield you, and will fight with you, shoulder to shoulder, if they need to. That, you can sleep on.

Because you deliver what they need.

Key Takeaways:

1. Identify all your key relationships and identify those that are essential for you and your firm. Establish if they REALLY need you, and if they know they really need you.
2. Increase and acknowledge mutual dependence where possible-these are the relationships that will persist through the shortage of prosperity and will become foundations of growth.
3. For those relationships that don’t make the cut, prepare for them to disappear by creating backup plans.
4. As you look to cut away costs, make sure you look at the realities, both short term and long term, before you sever ties. If shattering a relationship is the right thing to do, do it as fairly as is possible.