Learning from bad Characters and Actors.
Patrick Bateman of American Psycho, played by Christian Bale.
I’m sat back comfortably in my lounge thinking over past times, well quite a few years in fact, and musing over what I learnt from a number of bad actors. And I think of Shakespeare’s lines from As You Like It (see footnote for full details).
“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,”
What I want to talk about are the bad characters as played or lived out by people I have met and worked with, reported to. We are all actors in our own lives as Shakespeare highlighted, but in business it is the characters we play that made me think as to my management style and what I learnt from bad characters as acted out by types of people I met, or actors in their own world.
This is about what I learnt in terms of management. Not taught in a classroom environment, but what I saw and heard on the job. It has stayed with me and I thought it useful to pass this on.
Why the pictures of the Joker and Patrick Bateman?
I’ve used examples from film to show how a consummate actor can play a very bad and flawed character - the Joker. It is a very black and white picture, and of how Phoenix can act out a part.
The other example is of how Christian Bale portrays the psychopath Bateman as a normal, successful New York businessman.
And from this I want to highlight how I’ve sadly come across people who portray bad characters and they think this correct. This is about how not to “act badly” and how to spot “bad actors”, “bad characters”.
Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker being our Hollywood example of how a man bent by circumstance becomes a monster. This is understandable when considering the stress someone may be under.
Then there is the more sinister Bateman as played by Bale. And I would argue one to watch out for. This is the actor Shakespeare speaks of, playing their wonderful, enigmatic, roles in life. But like Bateman this is a veneer to suit their ulterior means.
Peter’s Management Style
I think it important to realise that my management style, people style, was very much educated by p*ss poor managers and bosses in the advertising business I worked in, but I can also say it was honed as well by the conduct of colleagues.
By bad actors and the characters they play, I mean those individuals I invariably interacted with when working in advertising companies, and more so when in fellow Director roles, or they acted as bosses.
The good actors are the ones I learnt so much from and who sought to bring out the best in people. The characters they act in their role as Boss were authentic and genuine. The likes of Bill Osmond, Mehdi Salam, Carol Dukes, Phil Rooke for example. I learnt so much from these people and can never thank them enough.
The subtle but oh so important difference between the two I think can be distilled as follows.
Good actors act correctly. Their character in business is a mere extension of whom they really are.
Good actors care about people.
Good actors look at people and not the role the colleague or staff member occupies.
They have a strong ethic of growing peole emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and not just the person in the role.
Money is not their key driver.
They are honest, authentic people, who strive for truth.
They accept challenge and suggestion from subordinates or colleagues and act on such.
They are not driven by self will or ego.
These are some of the attributes you need to excel as a boss or colleague who is remembered.
The bad actors for me were driven people who could only see their self Aggrandizement at the cost of others hard work, ideas, and loyalty. But they can be hard to spot, easy to spot. Let me explain.
Let’s take the Joker. The actor acts out a flawed broken character angry with all. And you can see this in some colleagues and bosses where they lash out, are perpetually angry, and wear their badness on a sleeve. But such characters as played by the actor are understandable especially where we can see people struggle with management. After all some people are not natural managers. We can forgive the Joker for what he has become and we can forgive others.
Let’s take Patrick Bateman. There is a character veneer of success, kindness, largesse and goodwill. But this is a sham and normally hides a person hell bent on achieving what they want at any cost, any life. Normally such people (as does Bateman) believes their narrative and cannot see they act outside of norms. They have become (or possibly always were) vain self centred people, those who lied to and bullied people, or did hurt to people for status and money, or plain gratification.
As a comic aside let us not forget the wonderfully acerbic Office Space, and if you have seen the filM here’s a reminder of some of its characters. When reading this post you’ll be horrified as to how many you may be working with presently. If you’ve not seen the film? Then watch it!
So you get (for example) some people out of their depth and who merely lash out through fear and an overwhelming sense of being not in control. For example Harvey Sarjant who I worked with at Carlton TV/ITV.
Others were terrible people managers, non-natural in my opinion. For example Nick Jones at Yahoo! UK & Ireland and I Spy Marketing, where he would vacillate between moods (there are reasons for this).
As we shift from the Joker to Patrick Bateman we come across those who lie, connive to get what they want, are morally bankrupt. Warren Burket at Yahoo! UK & Ireland springs to mind. A quite odious figure who still remains at Yahoo! (I would add into this mix Phil Macauley who I again worked with at Yahoo! who’s management style lacked complete empathy or ethics.)
The worse I think is the American Psycho character in the form of Patrick Bateman as played by Christian Bale who positions self as a caring person, whilst behind the scenes using people for their own ends and fulfilment, leading people on, and not delivering on promised rewards, acting in a solo role yet leveraging a wolf pack mentality, and singularly throwing others under a bus at their own failures.
These are what I call the non-authentic people. They frighteningly believe what they think, say, and act by; immune to any form of constructive criticism or suggestion. Believing their own narrative over and above the truth, and courting public recognition at the cost of everything.
The worse encounter of this type for me being Jim Brigden. (I must admit I have to thank him for learning what not to do when dealing with human beings. Not to mention covering one’s tracks and creating a persona that is far removed from the truth in hand. I learnt to be plain honest after my experience with him.)
Joaquin Phoenix playing the Joker.
To not be a bad actor/character one simple needs to read the bullet points above and be aware that all can be distilled into a mantra of: putting others before yourself.
Remember that people work to live and do not live to work. The bullies that I describe above, and they are bullies, drive others to suit their game plan, needs and wants. My time spent at I Spy Marketing out of all the companies I worked for was tantamount to slave labour or serfdom while Emperor CEO and his cohorts held sway portraying a nice picture and reaping rewards not distributed; all daring not to challenge the Emperor’s New Clothes.
We can learn to be authentic and loving with others in business. The bad actors and characters are not authentic, far from it. They appear to be, and the trick is to identify them.
What is authenticity? It is about being genuine. What you say is true. What you do is true. And you lead by example. One person I felt excelled in this that I did not work for but observed him from outside his business is Mick Style, formerly Director at Wavemaker. Mick excelled in his personal life as a cyclist and as a business leader. The team behind him testimony to his role as leader. Kind hearted and always conscious of growing people.
Great, thanks for the theory, but what do I do?
It is very easy for me to talk about bad colleagues and bosses. But what did I do?
Being honest, I did not handle it well. I can say this with hindsight aged 53 years old.
Here are two examples.
When I came across Warren Burke at Yahoo! I should have weighed up on a balance of probabilities my success rate and realised I was on a hiding to nothing, and have left for pastures new.
The same applies to I Spy Marketing. When Jim Bridget became CEO and a “cult of the personality” developed, unworldly targets placed on Manchester, and a number of let downs occurred via London, I should have left the business.
Why not in both examples?
Because being an honest, diligent, hard working chap I wanted and tried to make things work. But I was yet to learn about the concept of people, places, and things being out of my control.
I’d yet to learn that surrender can be victory.
So my learned advice is don’t put up with the Warren Burke’s and Jim Brigden’s of this world. They are people who only believe in self and their measurement of success in life is “title” and their Altar of Mamon.
Leave their presence and build dreams with people who genuinely care for your and others dreams. Work with like minded people, they do exist.
As to management style? In one sense it it very simple. Just observe the Golden Rule - treat others as you would want to be treated yourself.
(This article is again written with love and thanks to Bill Osmand, Mehdi Salam, Carol Dukes, Phil Rooke.)
Footnote:
"All the world's a stage" is the phrase that begins a monologue from William Shakespeare's pastoral comedy As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques in Act II Scene VII Line 139. The speech compares the world to a stage and life to a play and catalogues the seven stages of a man's life, sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man.