Dominance and Submission in the Corporate Jungle

Dominance and Submission In The Corporate Jungle

Dr. Alan Goldman

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Have you noticed that little everyday workplace exchanges between a boss and subordinate can be explosive? Accusations, put downs, gender wars, culture clashes, and a myriad of potential misunderstandings are part of daily communication. We are constantly engaged in power trips and the struggle of dominance and submission in the Corporate Jungle. Why does a CEO or a floor supervisor verbally demean a secretary into compliance in front of staff? Can a $5,000 suit of Armani clothes serve as armor or Versace power blouses, skirts and stacked heels communicate dominance? Suffice to say that establishing aggressive and excessive Alpha Leader status is high on the priority list of many managers.

Don’t be fooled by the politically correct talk of empowerment and collaborative teams. Who really makes the decisions in your firm? If you work for a company where employees truly have a voice in leadership – then you are among the few and fortunate. Many dreams and visions falter when employees are trapped in toxic work environments where submission is the norm. I applaud Southwest Airlines founder, Herb Kelleher, as a CEO who sincerely did everything possible to deescalate the old world hierarchy of dominance and submission and empower his cleaning crew, luggage handlers and ticket agents alongside flight attendants, pilots and the executive board. But as an Executive Coach and Management Consultant I find that an extreme and sometimes polarizing form of Alpha dominance is common and Southwest styled empowerment is the exception. In the capacity of Executive Coach I regularly work with highly aggressive Alphas and I overhear much double talk and hypocrisy when it comes to the actual distribution and exercise of power. I frequently find that if you peel away the veneer of pretentious, PC empowerment rhetoric you will oftentimes find an authoritarian CEO and leadership team who inevitably control the purse strings and companywide decision making.

The Corporate Jungle is a harsh and oftentimes dog-eat-dog terrain where the farther reaches of Alpha dominance and submission thrives and rules. It is populated by tough leaders who like to exert themselves and make a noticeable public impression – even if it is quite inappropriate. Egos from the top down prevail. Sometimes a primate leader roars out, uttering harsh words and using judgmental facial expression and vocal inflection hardly compatible with a civilized workplace. Shockingly, as a case in point, we still find blatant displays and roars of sexism alive and kicking in 2016. Take for example the Alpha male tyrant who postures as the dominant primate intent upon manipulating and intimidating female subordinates into submission. Witness toxic CEO, Mr. Smith, who blurts out loud to his administrative assistant in front of nine astonished colleagues: “You look very special today, Ms. Harris. You have that sexy X-rated look – just what our workplace needs. You are head to toe so perfectly put together.” Mr. Smith considered this quite a magnanimous compliment but soon found out that Ms. Harris did not smile or approve of his sexist commentary as he had anticipated. She rather stared directly back at Mr. Smith with an icy look of disbelief immediately responding, “I hope someone took a smart phone video of your Neanderthal compliment. Excuse my shock!”

Rather than letting her boss establish a manipulative Alpha dominance and falling into the typical pattern of acceptance and submission, Ms. Harris verbally confronted and exposed Mr. Smith challenging his behavior. The boss’s attempt at dominance was publicly revealed and he was diminished before the eyes of his colleagues. Smiles and looks of astonishment filled company offices and hallways. Subordinates in unanimous support of Ms. Harris successfully communicated via body language, facial expression and commentary that domination by a boss was not available for the taking and that sexism would not be tolerated. With numerous witnesses present during this unfortunate incident the prospect for zealous Alpha Boss retaliation was significantly diminished. Also, and perhaps most importantly, the CEO’s not-so-cleaver attempt at dominance via sexist faux flattery was publicly placed on notice. Within several days the director of Human Resources was investigating allegations of bullying in the Smith-Harris incident. Moreover, news of Mr. Smith’s arrogant and condescending sexism found its way onto Twitter and throughout the social media.

Examples of leaders precipitating acts of dominance and submission in the workplace abound. Attempts at over the top Alpha dominance spew out in the Corporate Jungle under the flimsy guise of optimizing productivity and profitability. For example, a boss publicly reprimands her call center subordinate in a noticeably demeaning, condescending tone of voice in front of a boiler room of approximately fifty five employees. All subordinates listen in shock. Ms. Gloster scolds her young salesman: “Purvis, you have seriously fallen way, way down in your customer call center productivity! What is wrong? You used to be a star on my motley crew and now you are an utter vagabond, a loser, a slug, yesterday’s news, a disgrace! Your former, winning metric was ninety three seconds per call and now you are up to one hundred and twenty seven seconds per! You are embarrassing to our whole miserable team!” The salesman tried to explain but he was abruptly, sharply cut off by his boss when she added “have you turned into a soap opera, chatty boy who’s discussing your ex girl friends with customers? James Purvis, I am thoroughly disappointed in you. Put your tail between your legs and tell me you’ll do better!”

In response, Purvis sheepishly looked up at his boss uttering, “I am ashamed. You are so right. Give me another chance, I vow that I will try to do better, Ms. Gloster.” Alpha Leader dominance and deep denigrating employee submission was clearly on display to fifty five call center subordinates. Abusive language and a long list of workplace offenses were uttered by this boss. In the heat of the moment this agitated and offensive Alpha Leader attempted a public kill of a subordinate’s character in front of his colleagues. Although hotly contested in the minds of employees, Ms. Gloster momentarily emerged as the zealous, destructive and despised leader of the Corporate Jungle! In the weeks that followed a series of grievances were filed with human resources against Ms. Gloster eventually making way to the employee assistance counselors for appropriate action. But in some cases this bullying behavior of leaders such as Ms. Gloster are not questioned or challenged and eventually set a toxic precedent.

What are we witnessing in these workplaces? We are wired in part to exert dominance and pound our fists on our primate gorilla like chests. I have even viewed excessive, ill-disposed and toxic Alpha Bosses who appeared to foam at the mouth and turn wildly hyperactive when in the attack mode. They have a gnawing need to symbolically chomp, bite, devour, humiliate and destroy their subordinate prey. In this myopic, toxic, delusional version of leadership, it is the twisted boss’s perception that the dominators win and the submissive loses. With regularity and repetition dominance and submission spreads and sets the agenda for behavior in the workplace. Left unchallenged this destructive leadership eventually metastasizes seeping deep into the firm’s culture. It will eventually turn viral directly impacting the interviewing and hiring process, annual evaluations, promotions, and sets the stage for those few like-minded deviants who will celebrated and ushered into an expanding toxic leadership elite. Perpetuating and spreading the dominance and submission agenda confirms a destructive leader’s recipe for dysfunctional and delusional success.

Are there alternatives to this destructive dominance and submission routine? Certainly! Employees must attempt to work with human resources, communicate displeasure, express views via 360 degree feedback and when necessary file grievances and seek out counsel with an employee assistance program. The message derived from Ms. Harris, for example, is clear and begins to establish a prototype for responding to a sexist, racist, condescending, demeaning boss. In the best of all worlds you want the incident to be witnessed by colleagues clearly substantiating and documenting the Alpha dominance and submission intent of a boss. A clear, forceful and immediate response may be effective as it was in the case of Ms. Harris standing up to the dominance attempted by CEO Smith. Unfortunately, there is no fool proof formula for dealing with bullying but preparation can go a long ways toward appropriate response in the heat of the moment.

In addition, we must look for alternatives. I find that some of our most respected and celebrated corporate and political leaders shed light on how bosses can better handle leadership and begin to chose cooperation and empowerment over dominance and submission. Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, pointedly told us that “of all the manifestations of power, restraint impresses the most.” Can restraint provide an alternative to domination? Surely we must increasingly hold accountable those leaders who bark at their subordinates, wag fingers in their employees’ faces and otherwise intimidate publicly. The promise of restraint and the words of Colin Powell are inspirational and provide excellent direction toward a more theory Y, humanistic, team oriented approach to exercising power as a leader.

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Rather than resorting to the farther reaches of Alpha dominance bosses can go in a radically different direction – toward humanizing and personalizing relations with employees and embarking upon a campaign to spread an understanding of the company culture and shared leadership via camaraderie. This approach is more geared toward building relationships and prioritizing the needs of employees. I urge leaders who want to walk away from the dominance and submission extremes of the Alpha agenda to reach out and celebrate employees. Consider scheduling lunches with subordinates and share food, stories, family narratives and tear down the barriers – partially leveling the hierarchy. If we look at CEO Herb Kelleher’s approach we find a leader who opted more for collaborative Beta styled Leadership rather than top heavy Alpha Dominance. It is important to notice Kelleher and other empowerment inclined CEOs who remain true to their intentions. Let’s take a serious look at those leaders who have a repertoire of strategies for building up management-employee trust and helping subordinates thrive in decision making roles rather than resorting to an old world corporate jungle’s agenda of controlling, manipulating, distrust, defacing and beating employees down into submission.

I trust that in this article I am able to open a few doors for reflection. In your role as a leader do you verbally or nonverbally “slap” your employees around and publicly demean them in order to demonstrate that you are the boss? Is it your intention to resort to devaluing and disrespecting your subordinates? Think this over. You may achieve submission on the surface but at what cost? You can install more passion, motivation and commitment from employees through restraint and humanity.

If this resonates take a closer look at those who champion empowerment and collaboration and deeply question the old school dominance and submission tactics. Take action before a destructive agenda spreads and turns toxic in your business. Keep in mind that leaders set the tone and the agenda for their employees and that dominance and submission is a poor excuse for leadership in this second decade of the twenty first century.