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highly recommended |
A great book ... why you do not want jerks on your team 
It is inevitable that we all have to deal with jerks at the workplace or on your team. Sutton does an excellent job of pointing out the consequences of having these individuals in your organization. He also gives you the tools to handle these jerks.
As a team manager, I needed to recognize the ripple effect and toxic implications that one of these egomaniacs was having upon my team. I had been tempted to keep this person on the team because they were a "rock star" and considered one of the most productive people in their field
Through Sutton's book I recognized the toll that this individual was having upon the rest of the team members. My team is now less one "rock star" and performing better than ever. Thank you Dr. Sutton.
Die Keinearschlochregel
A**holes create a toxic work environment, destroying productivity. Sutton introduces the Total Cost of A**holes (TCA) metric. In the case of a salesman named Ethan, the cost was estimated at $160,000, including time spent by Ethan's manager, HR professionals, senior executives, outside counsel, as well as the costs related to high turnover of support staff.
Sutton warns not to hire wimps and polite clones. "A series of controlled experiments and field studies in organizations show that when teams engage in conflict over ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect, they develop better ideas and perform better. For this reason, Intel requires all new employees to take "constructive confrontation class."
Loved it and used it with great success
I read this book again recently because it's worth learning from. The accounts here are not a "how to", but a "why not?" Why not shift the dynamic so that it no longer favors butt heads? I keep it on my desk and recommend it to anyone having difficult interpersonal relationships. More import, I used it with stunning success in a prison setting to help an inmate defuse an imminently violent situation by shifting the conflict dynamic and getting other inmates to join him. The would-be perpetrator backed off and was forced to find a different way to relate this inmate in the violent and hyper-masculine setting that is prison.
I'd recommend The No "Butt Head" Rule for use in any kind of confrontation training and behavior management education program you can think of. It's a powerful and empowering tool for anyone who'll take the time to explore it.
Dead Bang On!!
Sutton gets right to the heart of what it means to turn the tables so the rest of us can work in ***hole-free zones. Part of the problem in dealing with butt heads is really and truly naming them butt heads and not making excuses for there behavior. Or worse yet, finding fault with ourselves for letting them get under our skin. Well, no more snickering uncomfortably because we don't know what else to do. This should be required reading in business school, conflict resolution training and in behavior management courses. Take the time to plumb the profiles in the book and find yourself rewarded.
reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
"Today's deluge of business books exhaustively addresses problems with leadership, corporate strategy, sales, budgeting, incentives, innovation, execution, and on and on. But scant attention is devoted to a problem that plagues every workplace: Assholes. In a landmark Harvard Business Review essay, Stanford Professor Robert Sutton showed how assholes weren't just an office nuisance, but a serious and costly threat to corporate success and employee health. In his new book, Sutton reveals the huge TCA (Total Cost of Assholes) in today's corporations. He shows how to spot an asshole (hint: they are addicted to rude interruptions and subtle putdowns, and enjoy using "sarcastic jokes" and "teasing" as "insult delivery systems"), and provides a "self-test" to determine whether you deserve to be branded as a "certified asshole." And he offers tips that you can use to keep your "inner jerk" from rearing its ugly head. Sutton then uses in-depth research and analysis to show how managers can eliminate mean-spirited and unproductive behavior (while positively channeling some of the virtues of assholes) to generate an asshole free-and newly productive-workplace. Enlightening case studies include an analysis of how Google's "don't be evil" maxim helped launch the company to unprecedented early growth, how JetBlue and Southwest Airlines "fire" passengers who demean their employees, and how a "belligerent" e-mail from Cerner CEO Neal Patterson made his company's stock plunge 22% in three days (and how his graceful apology helped the stock bounce back)."
no asshole rule, asshole, rule
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based on 112 reviews
