Torture Does Not Work At Work

 

Being in COVID captivity, I’ve had plenty of time to research leadership pitfalls and missteps, and the consequences that come from this behavior. If you follow my work you know that bad leadership impacts the people, the organization, and the bad leader him or herself. So does good leadership so do it for yourself. One particularly disturbing case involved an employee and his manager at Prosper Inc.

Prosper Inc. (Salt Lake City, Utah) is a company that offers entrepreneurship, finance, stock market, personal and professional guidance and coaching. One of their managers, Josh Christopherson, was known to draw mustaches on the faces of underperforming employees with a permanent marker, he would remove their chairs and make them work standing up, and would slam the “2x4 of motivation” on their desks and table tops to get their attention. Prosper Inc. senior management was aware of Christopherson’s behavior and encouraged it because, according to them, it encouraged higher performance. 

On May 29, 2007, Christopherson was inspired to try a new tactic to motivate his employees. Without telling anyone what his plan was, he began asking his team for volunteers. When that didn’t work, he began challenging their loyalty to the company. Chad Hudgens, a 10 month Prosper employee, responded to the challenge and volunteered to be a part of the activity. Christopherson led Hudgens and the team up a hill and asked Hudgens to lie down, face up, with his head pointing downhill. He then asked two other employees to hold him down by his arms and legs, and began slowly pouring a gallon jug of water over Hudgens’ mouth and nose. Christopherson told the team that they should fight for sales just as hard as Hudgens fought for air. 

Hudgens filed a complaint with Human Resources who initially suspended Christopherson for 2 weeks however after further investigation it was determined that since Hudgens volunteered for the activity that was “supposed to be fun”, Christopherson was reinstated. According to his complaint filed with the Utah Supreme Court, Hudgens quit working for Prosper because “the waterboarding incident caused him to suffer sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, and to feel sick to his stomach at work.” As a result, Hudgens underwent psychological counseling and has suffered physical and emotional harm. Prosper Inc. has denied any wrongdoing and has fought Chad Hudgens every step of the way. 

Sometimes being right trumps doing right even if you are a company that provides leadership advice to aspiring leaders and entrepreneurs. There are thousands of ways to get the most out of your team, using fear, humiliation, and pain do not top the list. Sitting down and doing a little research will provide a great starting place. A simple google search on March 28, 2020 of “the best method of encouraging your team” yields 429,000,000 results mostly from journalists, leaders, psychologists, and celebrities. I did not take the time to open each of the 429 million links, however, the ones I did open revealed similar guidance. I’ll share themes with you that have worked for me.

1. Create a healthy environment for your employees. Eliminate bad actions and bad actors. The goal is a culture where people can come to work each day and focus on being their best. The culture and tone of the company is set by leadership. 

2. Share your vision and their role in it. What are we trying to accomplish? What is expected of me? Be clear with people and let them contribute to the vision they are building, a great vision requires teamwork.

3. Communicate with your employees. Are they safe to share bad news with their leader? They need to be able to challenge the leader, examine the vision, and let their leader know when things are going wrong. 

4. Encourage your employees. Give them space to think,work, take chances, and try new things. Leaders report that their teams come up with more innovative ideas that are more efficient, cost effective and customer friendly when they are given an opportunity. 

5. Remove barriers to their success. Find out what is gettin in the way and eliminate it. A workday goes a lot smoother when problems are solved and resources are easily accessed. Do whatever it takes to make life easier for employees to be successful. 

I am not informed on all of the practices employed by Prosper Inc. or Mr. Christopherson but if these themes replaced marker mustaches, chair removal, swinging a 2x4 and waterboarding a very embarrassing and expensive lawsuit could have been avoided. 

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Learn from the mistakes of others, you can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” Your research can be a powerful tool to help you apply the lesson without making the mistake yourself. It's obvious, don’t waterboard your employees, but there are many other, more subtle, insults, and offensive behaviors that are just as destructive to your team that should be avoided. When in doubt, take a breath, think about what it would feel like to be a member of the team, gauge your team and let that guide your behavior. Leadership positions all come with authority and power, your people recognize that, it does not have to be thrown in their faces. Instead, demonstrate kind and supportive encouragement and your team will SOAR!

 

William A. Brown

March 29, 2020

 

https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2377553/hudgens-v-prosper-inc/ 

https://hr.blr.com/HR-SBT/Workplace-Waterboarding-Case-Goes-to-CourtFinally

https://www.wired.com/2008/02/motivational-ma/