The Workplace Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for members of the workforce navigating the professional setting. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I've worked with a CEO of a small company who never admit its mistakes, but usually choose a scapegoat which will be blamed publicly. How to deal with this kind of situation in general?
Edit: I would prefer constructive solutions to conflicting ones.
Make sure you're not the scapegoat:
Find a way to make whatever you are assigned work out. If it works, he can't blame you for its failure, and it won't have been a mistake.
If you think the boss is making a mistake, there's a good chance he can tell you think he's making a mistake. That means that if the project fails, he may very well blame you for that failure.
Assume he's right. If he asks you to move a mountain of sand with a pair of tweezers within the next 20 minutes, smile, pick up those tweezers, and get moving! A positive attitude toward an unreasonable request will make the task seem more absurd (and stand a good chance of making the boss feel bad about you rather than throwing you in the public stocks).
For tasks less obvious than moving a mountain of sand with tweezers, it may help to regularly point out that you're doing it, and seem to be visibly doing it to the people around. The goal is to show that you're really giving it an honest shot, and any failure isn't due to a poor attitude or lack of effort.
Your CEO, as stubborn as he may seem, is also a human. He may have trouble at home. Or perhaps he took a hit in the market. Or his gout is acting up. Or his pet just died. Or all of these and more at the same time.
Separate the job he does (CEO with a mean streak) and the person he is (when not said CEO) and make sure you don't hold his actions as CEO against him as a person. Treating him like a human should (hopefully) take a bit of the edge off your interaction, and it may inspire him to view you as more than just another drone from sector C.
Couple options:
As Harry Truman would say:
The Buck Stops Here!
The sign of a good CEO is to take ownership for failures. However it is not your job to teach your CEO this, but "leading upwards" is a skill that people need.
First determine if the CEO is receptive to feedback. Do you trust the CEO to take honest critique? If not, do you have any kind of anonymous feedback system in place? Again if you don't, you might want to suggest that first.
Next know, when you can say this. If the CEO is currently blaming someone, coming out with a comment on it is not going to be received except negatively.
As with dealing with any manager, you need to focus more on solving the issue rather then explaining what they are doing wrong. The CEO is already avoiding looking bad, so pointing out is going to end any form of dialogue.
For example: Maybe suggest an internal review board to track issues, so that they can point out to their customers they have a process board to handle problems as they arise. This allows the CEO to have documented feedback of what went wrong, who was involved, and how you plan to resolve it in the future.
In that instance, you can say something like:
Rather then telling the customer X screwed up, instead you can say 'This is how we are going to make it right in the future'.
One contention point I have on your post is this:
... but usually choose a scapegoat which will be blamed publicly.
In some countries this can lead to litigation by the employee. Actually in some countries the companies can't even comment on the employee beyond "They worked here from X to Y".
If you are looking for material to read up on. I recommend "Lead your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up" by John Baldoni.
The right thing to do is leave - this is an oppressive environment and you shouldn't put up with it. However, for various reasons that option may not be available.
An alternative is to conference with the 'audience', the people that are being told the 'not quite right' story. If the boss spreads the manure around evenly then everyone gets theirs and everyone knows better. Otherwise, it might help to present an alternative point of view in settings where the boss isn't nearby.
The 'passive aggressive' response is to have some kind of poster or desk toy with a saying such as: '1. The Captain is always right. 2. If the Captain is wrong, see #1'. Perhaps you can find a mug or something that goes in the kitchen where the quote can't be attributed to any one person.
I'm not going to pretend this is an enjoyable situation, but are there any other negative consequences?
If so, this is a serious problem.
My guess is this person feels he/she should never show weakness by admitting failures and is doing a little venting as well. He's in charge so there's nothing any of you can do about it (as far as he knows, but you can all slack off behind his back). If everyone starts acting like scared little children who have been scolded, he's being reinforced into thinking you'll all go back to your desks and work harder.
