Five years ago, I had to fire someone for poor performance.
It was my first time laying someone off.
I was anxious for a week and didn’t sleep the night before (I was preparing bullets).
Ultimately, I tried to do it as professionally as I could.
I apologized to him even though HR explicitly told me not to.
He wasn’t happy, but he understood (I think). And that was that.
Later that week, I ran into an old colleague — an incredibly talented copywriter I worked with at one of those early 2000s hotshop/sweatshop/founded-initialed agencies.
Seeking some reference point (and therapy), I told her about my angst and she shared what happened when she finally decided to resign (after having a similarly sleepless night).
She walked into her creative director’s office, calmly explained the situation and her decision to leave with two weeks notice. She’ll never forget what her creative director replied:
“This [resignation] may be a really big deal for you, but I can tell you, this will be the least important thing that happens to me this morning. You can leave today.”
My friend walked out, returned her devices to IT as quickly as possible and cried in her car for an hour.
“Yea,” my friend sighed. “She was a psychopath.”
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“Garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage.” (As an ECD ripping ideas off a wall during a creative review that everyone pulled an all-nighter preparing for).
“You’ve actually managed to make the idea worse.” (A senior client’s opening feedback to a global ECD after he was asked to rework a script in 2 hours).
“I’m not an asshole but I don’t get it and this is all crap. Fix it now.” (Agency C-suite to me when I shared an presentation outline using boxes and arrows instead of bullet points).
“We can tackle this. Nobody goes home tonight.” (Agency C-suite to the entire agency after finding out a medium-sized account was being put up for review. It was 5 PM, Friday).
“You don’t like it? He’s gone.” (Agency C-suite after exactly three seconds of client silence for a concept that took 3 months of preparation. The ECD sat five feet away).
“Why is everyone so stupid? I could this all myself in a day.” (Senior client to her team during after poor quarterly results while the agency was in the room.).
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According to Fortune, corporate leaders are twelve times more likely to be psychopaths.
I am not a clinical psychologist, but my experience is that psychopathic leaders thrive in advertising. Or, at least, psychopathic attitudes and behaviors do.
In a business where all “good” ideas are subjective, clients/bosses are always unhappy and insufficient time/money is status quo, psychopaths’ innate ambition, charisma, manipulativeness and grandiosity are all superpowers.
Being able to dismiss others, make bold decisions quickly and remain totally committed to one’s “vision” regardless of consequence or what it takes and sleep soundly at night must be an incredible advantage in this knife fight of a business.
Being able to holler unreasonable demands of others without hesitation, psychopathic leaders are celebrated for their fearlessness and imperviousness to the criticism and setback.
When weighing the cost of losing a client, making the numbers, winning a Lion, squeezing more productivity or inflicting more pain to others, the answer is always easy.
While these decisions would take the rest of us days to evaluate (and avoid), it takes them seconds to do with total conviction.
And I can’t help but wonder if, to advance and succeed and make a real difference, I need to be more psychopathic myself.
I struggle to find a clear answer.
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