by Keith Martino

Mediocre Mike was a card shark.

He LIVED for the weekends. Saturdays and Sundays were the only mornings I ever knew Mike to leap out of bed. It was in his blood. Mike couldn’t wait to hit the casinos. Every weekend and holiday sunrise, he was among the first to start tossing out his homespun version of “fish bait.” Mediocre Mike loved to brag.

Slowly but surely, each Sabbath unsuspecting, wannabe gamblers migrated into the club where Mike hung out. It seldom failed. A few of the less fortunate souls would land at Mike’s table. No worries. Mike and his cronies were poised for the pleasure. With friendly smiles and sinister hearts, they shook down every novice card player who came their way. What could be more entertaining?

In his mind, Mikey worked hard Monday through Friday sharpening his craft. He stayed up late into the evening hours swigging bourbon, practicing his moves, and watching YouTube videos. When it came to hustling newbies, Mike was good. He was always prepared. He took pride in his winnings. It gave meaning to his life and made his son proud.

Of course, someone had to pay the price. In Mike’s case it was his corporate employer. As they say, one man’s loss is another man’s gain.

Mike got lucky and his bankrupt band of gypsies was bought out by a high-quality Fortune 100 company. Mike couldn’t believe his good fortune when his new ship came in. The sharp household logo added to his prestigious cover at the casino. Mike was on a roll.

So what does any of this have to do with leadership failure? Plenty!

In the first year with his new employer, Mike maintained a low profile. He hid out and let a hundred or so direct and indirect reports do whatever they liked. After all, who was Mike to blow the whistle on anyone else? He figured as long as his fingerprints weren’t on any egregious errors, his gig could go on forever.

And for a while, it did.

Mike sharpened his corporate gaming skills as he flipped the switch on his region to autopilot.

Like any looming bar bill, someone ultimately has to pay the price. Yep. Mike’s employer took it on the chin. Just one floor below him, one of Mike’s managers, Rambling Roger, started running a different racket. Roger began practicing a few new moves on his administrative assistant. Who knew? Everyone. Except Mike, of course.

Mike’s elevator never stopped on the second floor. It was essential to his third-floor strategy.

Yet, Roger’s seedy habits came to light anyway. His once loyal admin turned the tables on him and sued the corporation for sexual harassment, mental duress, and psychological cruelty. Mike wasn’t worried. This manager wasn’t one of Mike’s political buddies. Mike simply ushered in HR and pretended to be appalled by the findings. Meanwhile, he brushed up on his shuffling skills. And Mike shook off the losses as a necessary cost of doing business. At the company’s expense, of course!

Over time, Mike’s regional salespeople were found to be cheating on their commission plans. His operational leaders turned blind eyes to cost overruns. His staff took plenty of time running personal errands and convening for smoke breaks. The billion-dollar brand faltered.

You wouldn’t need to be a member of Mensa to calculate the cost to his company of Mediocre Mike’s leadership failure. It was high into the six-figure range. Likely higher.

What can you do if you have an employee or leader who has poisoned the well?

1. Do nothing and hope s/he doesn’t mess up too badly? Don’t chuckle. It happens daily.
2. Fire the person and replace him/her with someone from outside the company? That’s often an illusion destined to fail.
3. Replace the person internally? Perhaps, but it will be most effective if you do the following:
4. Reset the culture of the company, division, or team by replacing the leader internally and bringing in an outside leadership consultant to re-instill the values of the company.

Mediocre Mike was a card shark.

He LIVED for the weekends. Saturdays and Sundays were the only mornings I ever knew Mike to leap out of bed like a man on a mission. It was in his blood. Mike couldn’t wait to hit the casinos.

Don’t gamble on your losses with a leadership failure like Mediocre Mike. The bar tab will leave you with a hangover that may cost you your company’s reputation.

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Keith Martino has a passion for helping engineering executives achieve stellar results. Martino authored the book Expect Leadership in Engineering. In addition, the team at Keith Martino has designed and launched Leadership Institutes at multiple engineering firms across the US. Martino is quoted in Young Upstarts, Entrepreneur Magazine, NewsMax Finance, Hotwires, Circuits Assembly, and Printed Circuit Design & Fab. For more information visit: www.KeithMartino.com

On paper, Bryce was a rock star.

In person, Bryce was a costly mistake.

When Bryce strolled through his company’s headquarters sipping his gourmet triple latte and waving to the little people (as he dubbed them), every front line employee noticed. They snickered at his confident strut leftover from his days fronting a band. They recognized his disdain for real work. And they were appalled by his self-serving power plays. Sure, Bryce flashed plenty of smiles. He slapped high fives and offered up empty promises like a candidate running for mayor. But poor follow-through was Bryce’s legacy. He seldom kept his word. In short, Bryce was a leadership disaster!

How does one spot an emerging “Bryce” before his decisions crater your company?

Here are five ways to detect a political player like Bryce in the making.

1. Political players fixate on the wrong numbers.

Take our buddy Bryce for instance. Bryce kept “real-time stats” on the total number of employees who reported into his organization. Bryce frequently boasted that a significant portion of the operation reported to him or one of his people. That’s how Bryce boosted his shaky self-esteem. He added people while he talked a great game and tried hard not to mess up in front of his boss. Bryce figured as long as he had an adequate number of people to throw under the bus at the opportune moment, he would be too big to fail. Bryce fixated on employee count, not profitability.

2. Political players recruit, hire and promote people like themselves.

It’s true. Birds of a feather flock together. Self-absorbed power junkies are obsessed with protecting their titles at all costs. Consequently they try to hire people who are singularly loyal to them. Often they find themselves at odds with an underling more loyal to the company. When they do, they will quickly take any measure imaginable to rid their team of those who are looking out for the good of the whole.

Fortunately, oil and water don’t mix. Employees and leaders who are truly concerned about the welfare of the whole are turned off by those who seek to play the system. Case in point. Bryce’s demise began when his peers became as disillusioned with him as his front line employees were. Bryce’s hiring and promoting of other politically minded employees initially went unchecked because his colleagues were immersed in their own immediate concerns.

3. Political players manage up and cover up.

After all, the Bryces of the world tend to perform for an audience of one. Their boss! Political players will often freely (and unnecessarily) sacrifice their team’s welfare for the sake of keeping the boss happy or shielded from the truth. This is not always a reflection on their boss. He or she may have been misled about the details two or three levels down. The political player likes vagueness and fuzzy business practice. Transparency is not typically part of their game plan. They operate in the shadows where almost no one has insight to their treatment of the people.

4. Political players encourage a zero sum mentality.

Some got to win, some got to lose. That’s the chorus to every song for a corporate politician. In their world, there is no such thing as a win-win outcome. And their department heads also propagate this win-lose mindset. The political player seldom takes the time to seriously evaluate a balanced option. They want to win at all cost.  And their politically-motivated direct reports know instinctively not to cross the boss. It wouldn’t be prudent. Political players win by short-changing the organization.

5. Political players come with plenty of hidden costs.

As I later met with the CEO’s management team, we inventoried the true cost of having Bryce in power. It became apparent that he had made dozens of unnecessarily costly decisions. Bryce built a division that could never reach profitability. He pushed technology that he preferred versus exploring for new IT solutions that would best serve the company. Bryce delegated all authority to managers who were either asleep at the switch or pandered for his favor. As a result, the company was paying extraordinary sums for expensive logistics initiatives that delivered a poor customer experience. Bryce’s salary and benefits were only a tiny fraction of his real cost to the company.

Sooner or later the results speak for themselves. The results of Bryce’s self aggrandizing moves were draining the company’s balance sheet and delaying success. Once realized, Bryce was given a fair severance package and hustled out the door.

Avoid the heartache, headache and howling that political players bring to their companies. Ask yourself these five questions about each member of your management team:

1. Does _____ fixate on the wrong numbers?
2. Does _____ overlook or ignore loyal company employees who do good work?
3. Does _____ recruit, hire and promote individuals who pander to them?
4. Does _____ quickly adopt the easy solution that best serves their self-interest?
5. Does _____ make costly decisions because s/he is self-absorbed?

If any of your leaders (or employees for that matter) cause you to answer “yes” to three or more statements, you have an opportunity to lower your operating cost substantially. Consider replacing that person with a competent leader who really cares about your company. If you must, look outside your company. Remember… hire for character and train for skills.

Ironically, Bryce’s follow-up gig gave him the spotlight to swagger like an actual rock star. You can catch Bryce and his new band playing weekends on the Jersey Shore. At least now the only cost for watching Bryce perform is the cover charge.

Don’t let a political player on your payroll. Today is the day to shine the spotlight on each of your leaders and objectively evaluate their performance.

Keith Martino has a passion for helping engineering executives achieve stellar results. Martino authored the book Expect Leadership in Engineering. In addition, the team at Keith Martino has designed and launched Leadership Institutes at multiple engineering firms across the US. Martino is quoted in Young Upstarts, Entrepreneur Magazine, NewsMax Financial, the FedEx Worldwide Manager’s Pak, and several metropolitan business and industry trade journals. For more information visit keithmartino.com.