Old Yeller

I recently met a leader in the manufacturing industry that apparently likes to yell at his employees.  I witnessed it during my visit and chat with him. The funniest part of that exchange was the question he had for me.  He asked, "Is there something wrong with my work culture if the leaders of my organization yell at their direct reports on a regular basis?"  That was an incredible question.  Is there something wrong with that culture?

At first I chuckled, and then I gave it some thought.  Can yelling be part of a "good" culture? Could the culture be sound in the right setting?  I immediately thought of that popular Donald Trump show, the reviews of former employees from Apple and Facebook, as well as the Iron Chef/Cooking Network shows I enjoy watching.  No matter how I rationalized the scenarios I just couldn't embrace this "yelling leadership" style.  In general people do not enjoy being yelled at and are usually not motivated or inspired by yelling.  Putting military boot camps aside, the average employee will not respond positively to yelling.

In a yelling exchange there is the risk/reality that the communication will come to a halt or it will not be effective in any way.  Yelling creates emotional reactions from the recepients as well as the person yelling. Fight or flight actions are readily demonstrated, so the yelling really doesn't pay off.  With that aside there is also an increased litigation risk due to commonly known harassment issues that can arise from such a working environment.  The yelling could be associated to a hostile work environment which is unacceptable and also illegal.

Then of course there are the tongue in cheek solutions to embracing a work culture that condones yelling.  If yelling were the norm your recruiting would have to be strategic to find the best fit for your culture.  Behavioral interview questions would be a must in addition to your other interview qualifying questions...."Please share what you did the last time you were yelled at due to an error or a misunderstanding."  You wouldn't want to hire someone that didn't thrive in a yelling environment.

Long story short, I would have to disclose that if there is yelling -the culture of the company must need a tune-up or its leaders must need communication training.  Yelling can become a habitual form of communication, which we should not embrace.   He didn't agree with me, but that's okay...as long as he didn't feel the need to yell at me.

Thank you for reading my blog.