The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back by James Waldroop Ph.D

Author:James Waldroop, Ph.D. [James Waldroop, Ph.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780385504843
Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 2002-02-04T17:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

NINE

EMOTIONALLY TONE-DEAF

TERRY’S EXTRAORDINARY abilities in the area of technology were vital to the investment bank for which he worked. He was an information technology guru and had created for the bank an advanced and integrated system for analyzing economic information that was both far more sophisticated than those of the bank’s competitors and a tremendous leap forward from what the bank had used previously. The system gave the bank’s investment professionals immediate access to the changing and comparative values of an entire universe of financial instruments, a critical tool in valuing businesses, structuring mergers, and investing for the bank’s own account and in a range of the bank’s other activities.

Unfortunately, only a few people at the bank were using this wonderful tool—for one single and fundamental reason: Mastering the system’s intricacies was difficult even for technophiles; and the technically “challenged” found it bewildering. It was not exactly “user-hostile,” but all of Terry’s energy had gone into making it faster, more powerful, and more comprehensive—and none into making it user-friendly. It was like a stock car designed for speed and handling, with an enormously powerful engine, great transmission, and tight steering, but no sound insulation, air-conditioning, or comfortable seats.

This is not to say that it was impossibly complex, by any means. With either a few modifications or more energy put into training (and perhaps a little hand-holding and patient instruction from Terry), people could have learned the system—as a few of the more skilled and motivated already had. But Terry ignored his “customers.” He didn’t try to simplify what he could or even go out of his way to make time for those who came to him for help. Those who did manage to make time with him got responses to their questions that ranged from indifference to rudeness. Terry’s answers tended to be cold and monosyllabic; there was not a hint of understanding or sympathy in his voice, not even a smiling half apology for the complexities of his system. A couple of the bank’s senior managing directors left his office with the clear impression that he thought they were idiots—a fact that did not endear him to them. Most significant, Terry had no idea how his behavior was affecting these important people in his work life. He had not the faintest notion that his indifference to people’s feelings of frustration and/or inadequacy was insulting and that by his remoteness and inability to understand their feelings he was stiff-arming himself out of a job that he loved. From his point of view they asked him questions and he answered their questions. He was blind to the questions behind the questions, to the fact that, brilliant though his system was, it was worthless if no one could take advantage of it. Terry could not see that his “just the facts, ma’am” responses were discouraging people from using it.

THE DYNAMICS OF THE PATTERN

We sometimes refer to these emotionally tone-deaf people (like Terry) as “Mr. Spock,” after the character played by Leonard Nimoy in the television series Star Trek.

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