No Assholes Allowed! My Review of The No Asshole Rule
The No Asshole Rule is based on a simple hiring question: "This job candidate seems smart, but would this hire violate our no asshole rule?" The book covers ways to identify assholes, judge the cost of assholes, and enforce the no asshole rule. The author, Dr. Robert Sutton, first wrote about the no asshole rule in the Harvard Business Review (see idea number 7 in this article). This book is the result of the author fleshing out that article.
How do you determine whether someone is an asshole? Dr. Sutton recommends using two tests:
Test One: After talking to the alleged asshole, does the "target" feel oppressed, humiliated, de-energized, or belittled by the person? In particular, does the target feel worse about him- or herself?
Test Two: Does the alleged asshole aim his or her venom at people who are less powerful rather than at those people who are more powerful?
I like these tests and think they capture the important points of facing an asshole.
Like Making Work Work (the last book I reviewed), Dr. Sutton discusses how much impact assholes can have on a business. One company had a salesperson that was rude to his coworkers and abusive to his assistants. They decided to calculate an "estimated total cost of asshole for one year". It turned out the company was spending an extra $160,000 a year as a result of this salesman's asshole tendencies!
The book has a heavy focus on practical advice and research. Here are some of my favorite tips for keeping assholes out:
Manage moments. The true test of the no asshole rule comes in the day-to-day moments when asshole behaviors come up. It's not as simple as adding a rule to a handbook somewhere.
Teach people how to fight. Just because you have a no asshole rule doesn't mean that you can't have conflict or disagreements. Teach workers "constructive confrontation" to attack problems and not people.
Treat being an asshole as a performance issue. If someone is routinely rude and demeaning you should consider them incompetent. It doesn't matter how well they perform at the rest of their job.
Here is one of my favorite passages from the book. "Treating people with respect rather than contempt makes good business sense - although it won't always be enough to help save a troubled company. We can never know what the future will bring to our organizations and our lives. But if you work with other people, you know with 100% certainty that your days will be filled with face-to-face and phone conversations, email exchanges, meetings, and other kinds of human interactions - and that your moments, hours, and days at work will be more meaningful, peaceful, and fun if you work in a place where the no asshole rule reigns supreme."
Will the "No Asshole Rule" instantly turn around a business? No. But it will make your workplace more meaningful, peaceful, and fun. Wouldn't you rather work somewhere like that?