As promised last week I detail some of the ways you can tell if you have “midlevel tyranny” in your organization. See last weeks episode if you want to know about it.

Over time I’ve seen the following five things be fairly good indicators that there is a problem.

1. Complaints from multiple angles
2. Supposed Hero's singing their own praises
3. Many “prep meetings” or meetings for the meeting
4. Look out for relabeling
5. Independent Third Party Gambit

The mid-level tyrant will no doubt have a defense for their behavior. This will be something along the lines of their irreplaceability or genius. They are neither irreplaceable or a genius. They may however be worth of retention if they can be guided along a path that works for the organization. This is always the first step. Any manager however must be willing to do the right thing for the organization by pushing the toxic person out.

Trillion Dollar Coach - The book about Bill Campbell

Independent Third Party Gambit

A brief clip of a Q&A session at the end of a talk by the psychologist and professor Jordan Peterson caught my attention last week. Here’s the clip of the question and Peterson’s answer.

Peterson mentions a few things to look for to tell if pathological things are happening.

1. Being required to do things that make you weak or ashamed.
2. Systems go terribly out of control when people don’t stop them when they are going mildly out of control.
3. So much foolishness going on in the midlevel bureaucratic world. The tyranny is there.
4. It multiplies because sensible people say nothing when they should say something. But the thing is there are so many more sensible people; they are just not as noisy.

How does this happen even when we don’t intend it?

As organizations grow larger and more complex and additional hierarchies are put in place the leaders of the organization move farther and farther from the point of work. That opens an opportunity for disfunction if not activly managed by the leadership of the organization.