Dr. Earl R. Smith II

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36 Responses to “When do you report self-sabotaging behavior?”
1.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:32 am e
Hans Dekker – In my opinon it’s allways the best stategy to reason a problem back to a the iduvidual level. No matter if we are talking about wars or grimpy old man, the best understanding of the underlying factors are to be found on an iduvidual level. This one is about induvidual but I wanted te point out my approach to most affairs.I stronly belief that all solutions are only to be found on that level
Selfsabotaging behavioir is no more or less then an internal conflict. I want the cookie but can;t have it cause it makes me fat so I won;t eat them. And the net result is that in 99% of the cases the person ends up eating 2 instead of one cookie… Its a push pull mostly way beyond the induviduals own scope of controll. There are interventions possible but always you stay stuck with the two or more conflicting wants. Surpress treat one and the otherone will show his face.
I don’r believe in the option of force. You can change a lot around a person but never what’s really inside. There might be cases that the behavior becomes so “disturbing” that you have to take measures.
I can’t change an alcoholic for example, but I am cacapble of recognizing him/her as a humanbeing. And if behaviour realy becomes a problem I can look inside what part of me is reacting. And if you or an organisation are getting problems achieving their goals …… WALK. and I really mean WALK. Fire the person or get away, otherwise it holds you back. One thinh though no matter how imposible a person behaves it still a guy or girl working with the tools she thinks are best Ie never allow yourself to see the other as “guithy” But respect yourself and or your comany and WALK

3.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:38 am e
Fred Newbrough – I draw the line at when a person’s behavior is going to cause them or others physical harm. If someone is doing something that reflects badly on the team or organization I think that is a judgment call that you have to weigh carefully. Also the degree of self-sabotage has to be considered.
Is it someone who has a problem with alcohol, gambling, or maybe just someone who has overextended themselves with debt? Is it someone who takes unnecessary risks and never has a contingency plan? There is a whole range from the personal to the professional that can overlap. I always try to be fair and careful in my assessments because the last thing I ever want to do is send someone over the edge when they really just needed a hand to help steady them.
I have reported things where I thought it was necessary. Once it involved flagrant waste of public funds and a manager who was a bully. Even then I waited and watched hoping I was wrong until I could not wait any longer then I anonymously reported the easily verifiable facts to those who could do something about it. It made me feel free of a great burden.
4.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:38 am e
Amanda Pepper – I was forced to go to HR when our department head’s self-sabatoging behavior became worrisome to me, in that it was going to have a direct effect on me. It had been having an effect on the department for a while, but everyone had just let it slide. Well, I ended up resigning from the job because even though this manager was causing harm to the department (and so also the company), I was just the “little guy” and they didn’t want anyone to point out the emperor had no clothes.
So anyway, I think it depends on the environment, and whether it’s open to that kind of scrutiny. And also it depends on your relationship to that person in the corporate hierarchy.
5.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:54 am e
John Carlisle – I don’t know that I have ever had to report this type of behavior. If the person is a friend and someone and / or someone I consider worth saving, I would go to that person directly and try to steer them in the right direction. If the person obviously does not belong with the company then I will let them hang themselves. Sound harsh? One employee I am reminded of was sent home for a day as a disciplinary action. The employee kept calling his boss to try to explain (argue) why he shouldn’t have been sent home. Eventually the employee got belligerent and even called while intoxicated. The manager had no choice but to let him go. If I could, should I have tried to stop the employee? Would I want to continue working with a belligerent drunk? How far should I have gone if I did try to help? Was it my place to suggest counseling for him? I think I made the right choice by letting him weed himself out of the company.
6.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:55 am e
Kurt Welte – It’s easy to tell someone that you do not have an emotional attachment to that they are really messing up. But when you are invested in a friendship or a relationship with someone it can be harder to tell them that they are trashing their life. If you find it difficult to get to that point, one strategy is to bring up some other person that is in the middle of a self-sabotaging melt-down and talk to your friend about it. Lord knows that there are enough celebrities to look at right now, odds are one with the same issue as your friend. Odds are they will agree that someone should have stepped-in and let them know. At that point that they see the value of a friend stepping up with the news, you can turn it by saying “That’s where I’m at now.” You should be inside their defensiveness just enough to start talking about it.
7.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:56 am e
Ian Fountain – If someone has become self sabotaging they do not always recognise this about themselves and the first connection should be to try to see if they are aware of what they are doing.
In my experience, the fact that someone noticed is sufficient to wake them up and to help direct them to the help they need, specific to why they are doing it.
The more difficult cases can and have lead to difficult situations.
I worked with someone who was a very good worker, but she had the ability to destroy everything she did when she would get annoyed about something. For a year I worked with her as a mentor and the unfortunate result was that she began to check everything with me and lost confidence in herself. This then lead to me talking to her about why she felt the need to check with me and the answer was obvious.
She felt that there were only two options in her business career, one distructive, the other dependant.
I arranged for her to see an occupational therapist and she helped her to face the reasons behind all of the issues.
Could I have helped her better? maybe! would she have accepted help earlier? Maybe? Is she better now? yes.
The problem as I see it is, recognise the behaviour, help like a guidance conselor, direct them to the best professional help, do everything with understanding, but whatever you do, do, do not get drawn in and become their support system
8.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:57 am e
Tyler Rorabaugh – Have you brought the issue up with the individual? In some cases I find that its either they are not challenged enough or they are no longer interested in the position they are in. Have you tried switching the person to another position?
9.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:58 am e
John Goodyear – I have for years tried very complicated and analytical means of dealing with “deviant” behavior and I have come to realize after many grooling experiences that my job is not to save those that are destroying themselves but to support those who are working hard to support themselves and our company. Supportive behavior is rewarded and attractive to all. Non-supportive behavior is not. Confrontations are out of the question; therefore, we developed an open communication process whereas employees can inquire about certain behaviors or processes in a non-emotional environment and it is DOCUMENTED… If a person drives drunk everyday on the way home but never exhibits behaviors against company policy and executes behavior that supports the company; you may want to consider this a sad personal problem but not in your realm of influence.
Our policy is that we submit and email requesting the reason for a behavior or process only if it passed the following test. This has really changed how we look at each toher and our task at hand.
“When the behavior breaks a company policy or work related conflicts such as a behavior that does not meet the company and clients’ goals. Or the lack of a behavior required meeting the goals of the company and clients.”
This provides for a simple and justified inquiry. All employees know that you must reply to this inquiry within 24 hours, for the President on down. If you do not reply a third person will be required to review the inquiry and make a decision. In 99% of the cases the issue is resolved amongst the original two parties. The policy must be followed with absolute adherence. This has created an environment that is very unattractive to employees of deviant behavior. We are all on the same team and those who are not are quickly isoIated and questioned…. I have more on the process if you need it but I wanted to give you what we use.
10.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:59 am e
Julio Quintana – in my opinion self sabotaging behavior internally erodes family and professional relationships. In other words if the behavior is self eroding it does get noticed by others at some point in time, and therefore it does affect other relationships whether professional or otherwise.
When to report? I would say when it affects others and his or hers physical and or mental health.
11.
September 6th, 2007 at 10:00 am e
Camin “Nancy” Keplinger – The problem as I see it is that you (as an observer of self-sabotaging behaviours) walk a fine line in allowing a person to work out their own issues and allowing the person to empower his or herself by finding a way to more appropriately express the concerns and ideas behind those issues…
and having those issues cause problems that can’t be resolved without third party intervention. It may be that a case by case examination has to happen here.
Would I report a person who was coming into work so tired that they might cause themselves or another person to be injured on the job? Yes. I would try talking to the individual first and suggesting that perhaps a few minutes away from their desk might help them to wake up but I would not hesitate to notify a supervisor that I had concerns if I saw this person with her/his head lolling.
That being just one example of a judgment call. One place where there is no discretion in my mind is when a person is impaired by medication, drugs, or alcohol. These people need to be off my work floor and taking care of themselves so they can return productively to my work floor.
12.
September 6th, 2007 at 10:01 am e
John F. Tummolo – When it places the business at risk. Period.
13.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:47 pm e
Roman Bratishchev – Prior to answering questions you stated, we need to understand the context.
What I mean is that such behvaior may not appear just on blank place, there should have been some background reasons and there might be plenty of them – very personal circumstances like sickness of relatives etc., some improper HR/internal policy within the organization, reaction of a co-worker on what an employee did yseterday etc. etc. etc.
Understanding the root cause of such behaviour drives to next actions. I do not believe that self-sabotaging behavior appear by itself because any employee passed the entrance interview, any employee was checked by multiple people for the core skill which is self-adequacy. And self-sabotaging employee could loose the adequacy without is significant cause in back ground.
With all that being said and if such a case happens, I’d just apply the standard risk management practice to this situation:
1. Identify the risk (self-sabotaging)
2. Analyze the risk (understand the root cause and the impact)
3. Pick up the strategy
avoid = make such steps that employee leave the team,
mitigate = make such steps to minimize the impact of such behviour,
accept = think that there is no signficant impact and no action needed,
transfer = delegate this problem to somebody else and move out responsibility for the consequences to others
4. Plan the risk (tasks or actions according to the strategy)
5. Do the planned actions
It may look formal enough, yet, it is just the framework for handling the situation. The actual implementation would vary on vast amount of personal and contextual factors.
P.S. Coming back to my practice in outsourcing companies, people are not exposing self-sabotage just beacuse they are willing to. In majority if cases, the root cause was always within the organization and the way the organization treated them. In some cases, it was technical motivation by the job the people did, and just switching the project helped to resolve the problem. And, in some cases, it was just personal contradictions within the team, the solution was simple as previous one.
14.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:49 pm e
Howard Halpern – To get a really good answer, you need to hire a both an organizational psychologist and a PR consultant, because It’s both psychological and political. It all depends on the psychosocial org chart of the organization in question: i.e., you need to have excellent insight into the personalities and character of all the players. You need to be able to predict how they will react to various events. You need to consider, in advance, all possible reactions and have a ready response for each one. Because there could be hundreds of players, this is extremely complex and impossible to solve in this forum, because it’s impossible for us to know all the idiosyncrasies of each individual involved. On the other hand, it’s good that you are thinking about this, and if you follow even one of my suggestions, I believe you will be able to get a better handle on it.
Furthermore, when people behave inappropriately, it’s important to document it, and when you sense a danger to the organization, it’s important to act, provided that acting does not put you at unreasonable risk. If you’re stuck in an unreasonable situation, where you’re at risk if you do and at risk if you don’t, find a better place to be, and get out. I did, and I couldn’t be happier. I was too creative for a large organization. I stuck out like a sore thumb. I became my own boss. I still stick out, but now, it works in my favor.
15.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:49 pm e
Jenna Papakalos – There is no “one size fits all” approach here. When people feel like caged animals, there is no telling what will happen. I look for behavior that just doesn’t seem right. It could be anything, moodiness, anxiety, withdrawn, etc.
In a work environment, my first instinct to out a ticking time bomb is to go straight to HR. They are trained to handle these situations diplomatically and confidentially. I’ve never been engaged in a scenario where someone was potentially dangerous in a work setting, so I would hope a cool head would prevail.
In personal situations, I have been faced with potential danger. At that point, survival instinct simply takes over.
16.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:51 pm e
Christopher Edmund F Davis – Hey, Earl that too is a series of very tricky issues, hinted at in the slippery slope questions.
There are many problems in society internationally,
however they mirror many delusions throughout the ages.
many of those of us, and let us start as a premise, all of us delude our selves some of the time,
if we do not learn from these mistakes, then the impending difficulty becomes even more difficult, if i can out it that way
say for example we have true beleiver who self deludes himself and all of those around him —
or one who needs to conquer the world for no reason,
or one who the puritans could feel it reasonable to burn witches,
or a self serving ideologue and i use the msot accurate definition of that term which one could attibute to most polticians ……..
the list could go on and on.
so for example today …..
I was amazed at a very angry response from a young male argentinian who is now a father,,,,,,,,,,,
he was angry at me for good ness knows what reason,,,,,,,,,,,
as in my experience it is this kind of individual,,,,,
who starts abusing his wife and children, …
so i will ensure that his wife is ok,,
and then make sure that she realises that he is really out of it,
so to speak….
the reason i wanted to re connect with hom was that i wished to offer him a part time job…..
so obviously this is one of those cases which can be described as self saboting, for him.
as his spouse might also be a candidate,, we will offer to her once i return from a business trip to panama city…..
i think what I am trying to say is life is one hundred per cent imperfect,,,,,,
and that there are no perfect solutions ..nor answers,, merely awkward questions.
17.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:51 pm e
Yvonne Michele Anderson – I think we all have self sabotaging behaviours. When I see them in myself, I note them and do my best to improve/change behaviours, but do not beat myself up. We are not perfect, and some things will never change –
When I note in others, I try to point it out nicely, and then let them decide how to proceed.
18.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:52 pm e
Jodi Blackley – I agree with many of the responses. If the self-sabotaging behavior is only damaging to the individual with such behaviors, then I’ll let it be. However, if the self-sabotaging behaviors begin to impede me from my job, or become physically damaging to self or others, then it’s tme to report.
I can remember working in an office where my supervisor was constantly engaging in such behaviors, including threats of suicide. Most of the time, I was able to ignore it; however, when other colleagues began coming to me because they couldn’t work under her anymore, or she began threatening suicide, I finally reported it to her supervisor. It was emotionally abusive to the department and her supervisees were becoming unglued. Productivity dropped as a result as no one knew how to deal with her.
It’s this kind of self-sabotaging that I will definitely report.
19.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:52 pm e
Alex Isidoro – Such behavior can be due to personal beliefs conflicting with the local business culture or depression (or worse.) Correcting personal beliefs has no place in the workplace. Depression requires professional treatment and that also does not belong in the workplace.
A local business culture can deal with all kind of bizarre behaviors as long as they fit local norms. Not fitting does not mean one is wrong. It means there is a mismatch. Such individual will consistently disagree with decisions on particular subjects and then impair the execution.
The conclusion is that separation is everyone’s best interest.
Let me extend it: I see self-sabotaging organizations all the time. That is maybe another interesting subject.
20.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:53 pm e
Jennifer McFarland – I tend to agree with the idea of taking either direct or indirect action instead of just walking away. If the person in question is not ready for such help, at least you tried. If you take action and the person just resents you for it and continues doing whatever it is that they’re doing, it’s their choice. People can only be helped when they choose to realize that there is a problem and are willing to take responsibility for it.
21.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:55 pm e
Brian Martin – As soon as you notice, report it up the chain. If it gets serious and nobody seems to be responding, report it up the chain louder and point out the bottom line impact. I’ve dealt with this specific issue myself. You’ve got plenty of additional valuable material in the other answers, but I believe that the importance of reporting it up the chain versus any other manner needs to be emphasized.
22.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:56 pm e
Layne Johnson – My immediate approach would be to discuss the problem with an HR generalist and ask for guidance from them. In almost all large companies, Employee Assistance Programs are available to deal with behavioral problems. My expertise is in leading people, programs, processes and managing resources and performance. When I need help from partners in the organization, I do not hesitate to reach out to them as soon as I identify a problem. These people are much better qualified to help in the kind of situation you describe. By working together, a quick solution can be developed to get an individual the help that they need. I would never look at this as ‘outing’ someone; I would view it as potentially saving a life.
23.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:57 pm e
Melissa Siverson – I think this depends on how tightly the individual is clinging to such behaviors. If they are reaching out for help or whether they are simply chasing the behavior at a hares pace, it differs. However, when the behavior is effecting those around you one tends to use HR much more effectively in those situations. I notice that behaviors like you have been discussing are more highly reported today than they were 20 years ago. This is because of a much more open minded society as well as a more empowered work force, which is healthy.
If a corporation is to be it’s own entity it is the responsibility of everyone to make sure that the squeeky wheel does get the grease. This is much more difficult in a familty environment because often times children do not work toward the same goals as their parents, and parents over look this in there children.
Walking away is never an option and from first hand experience I know that when my behaviors have cried out for a bit of a helping hand I’ve been the only one to pull myself out of it and would have appreciated very much the assistance of my peers and my family. Fortunately my support system today is just as strong and effective as the company I work with and I love the fact that people call me out when I get over zealous or sit me down when they think I take my job too seriously. I also have a loving support system at home comprised of friends and loved ones that encourage me to be ambitious yet let me know if I am becoming too much of a Workaholic again!
When approaching someone who is ticking as you say always come from a place of compassion or else risk the inevitable explosion of emotion.
24.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:57 pm e
Brent Alexander – The behavior in question depends on how serious the risk poses to all parties involved. Being a witness to someone sabotaging themselves pulls at the heart strings and causes great internal strife. Unfortunately, most people turn a blind-eye and offer up little assistance to those at great risk. For someone to report self destructive behavior is honorable and heroic. Honorable and Heroic are very powerful adjectives when describing an individual or group, but they are justified when an attempt is made to help a lost or uninformed soul.
25.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:59 pm e
Bèrto ‘d Sèra – It’s largely a matter of instinct + your own interest in the dynamics. You can write all the metrics/rules in the universe, and you’ll find yourself violating them most of the time, when it gets social behaviour (corporate behavior included).
What I mean is that diagrams are fine, but once you fill them with real people they get *very* complicated. What may be locally labelled as self-sabotage may be pretty much in the interest of greater internal powers, and you don’t want to have an argument with them.
Besides, labelling something as “negative” will bring you a very bad image (we are what we do). So if you decide to report you’ll still try and find a way to report a “possible improvement to already positive dynamics”, rather than filling in a ticket for KGB. Reporting is not easy, as it’s the case with all forms of explicit judgment on other people.
It’s much easier if and when you are external to the organization, because you don’t have many established interests of yours in the business. On the other hand, as an external source, your report is more likely to be labeled as a “misunderstanding”, and you may end up in loosing your connection because you get perceived as a troublemaker.
As the song goes “In’m not aware of too many things, I know what I know, if you know what I mean” I’d say you should take more time in identifying effective communication channels than you spend looking for trouble spots.
Both in politics and in business there is sometimes the idea that “you can change the world alone”. Well, you cannot. Unless you deal with a very small organization, the first question you should pose to yourself is: why such a thing keeps happening and apparently all are happy with it?
Corporate behavior is NOT made by insulated individuals. It is the absolute sum of a great number of individuals, all of which are pushing the organization to its current state (although most of them don’t even think about it in corporate-wide terms). So when you try and make social changes you must be aware that your change is going to affect everybody, and that most people like the present situation better (no matter what they say about it, it’s what they DO that counts). If the self-sabotaging behavior keeps going, it’s because this is what basically suits the corporation as a complex social being.
When you want to change one person’s desktop, you alter the whole company in the process, and in doing so you’ll be successful ONLY if you can find a way to obtain change without starting a power war (which is the most diffused suicidal trend in corporations). Change IS possible, if you keep this in mind and address the situation not in theory, but in real terms. And in real terms you cannot go alone against the masses, even if you are the Emperor Himself.
a small bibliography:
-Pragmatics of Human Communication,
-The Situation is Hopeless, but not Serious,
-Ultra-Solutions: How to Fail Most Successfully,
All of them written by Paul Watzlawick (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Watzlawick ). The first is more like theory, you might have an easier start with the 2nd and the 3rd.
26.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:00 pm e
Sayeed Cassim – normally people exhibiting self sabotaging behavior end up more homicidal than suicidal . they actually want to hurt someone else in the bargain.
normally when i find someone like this i would just inform them well in advance that this line of actions by them would lead to so and so mess up. i would advise them (in the presence of their team members or superiors) not to continue with such behaviour. it often solves the problem in that their team members are aware of the possible problem. the person himself/herself also knows that they have been found out. makes it diufficult for them to come later and say that so and so problem has occured.
then i would handle them with extreme care. wouldn’t want to get hurt in the bargain.
then i would try to observe them without their having to know that i am observing them. i have found that they behave more self destructive when they have an audience.
then depending on the given circumstances i would react by either reporting them to their superior or their family.
if the situation is more serious i would probably myself take whatever measures possible to protect the person as well as any one else who could get hurt.
finally i would try to ensure that i never got in their way in the future. they are welcome to destruct themselves, not me.
27.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:01 pm e
Francesco Bacchelli – The sooner the better!
Of course you have to decide HOW to report and TO WHOM. But usually self-sabotaging situations need the utmost care and sensitiveness.
Of course this is only what I would do and, as someone wrote, I would probably try to evaluate if the effort is worthwhile. But it turns out that in a working environment where most of us are somehow interconnected, helping others can be just as good to yourself, thus making it even more worthwhile.
28.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:02 pm e
Mario Crusizio -
a) Never walk away: Self sabotage is always a serious matter, you never “walk away” even at the stage it is not harmfuly serious, because the best treatment and results to revert such thing, is on it´s early stages.
b) Key indicators :The person exhibiting autosabotage behaviours obviously gets some APARENT short term benefit, either: Atracting Attention, Reject responsibilities, Situation control, self – justification, or distract attention from other priorities in his/her life. Look at cronic emotional conflict reports, lack of communication and delegation, demotivation and lack of team spirit, poor administration, repeated mistakes or accidents. Inside a group dinamic, having this “flew” needs automatic reporting to prevent spreding.
c) The moment to report it is when the self-sabotage behaviour of a person starts to contaminate colleagues as then there is a risk to have a “critical mass” to spread a self-sabotaging dynamic inside the company.
But again, never walk away when you detect self-sabotage.
29.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:04 pm e
Teresa Rocks – If you become aware of such behavior you should report it right away. I could become more of a problem if you let it go and thus putting others in harms way. Self destructive people sometimes want to bring others downs with them.
30.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:05 pm e
Steve Chastain – The big question is how to report self-sabotaging behavior on the part of the CEO in a big company. Many of them create plans that enhance the next quarter, but at the sacrifice of the long-term health of the company. Reporting a CEO just isn’t practical for average employee. I’ve seen several situations where a CEO created a plan to make his quarterly bonus, but by killing any hope of future product sales. Their plan is to maximize their salary and move on to a new company. Its very difficult to report such behavior to any company board, and most of those CEO’s carefully control communication with the board.
31.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:06 pm e
Rik de Jong – What was that Chinese proverb again about saving someones life and then being responsible for them forever? How much responsibility do we need? My answer to your question is that reporting self-sabotaging behaviour is passing-the-buck. If you are the one spotting the situation, you have to decide if the person is important enough to you to invest the required energy to correct, if the others around that person are important enough to you to invest the required energy to correct and if the organisation and or team is important enough to you to invest the required energy to correct. If you start the process you have to be committed to follow through. Alternatively, it might be more effective to remove the self sabotaging behaviour (e.g. the person) from where the damage can be done. How this is done is totally depending on the person and the situation. As usual, ignoring is mostly making the situation worse.
32.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:07 pm e
Emery Kohut – This is not an easy question, but here is what I have found. I have seen a few people with self-sbotaging behoviors. In particular they find ways to slow dow or not completely finish a job. It appears they just get it done, but usually late and often only partially completed. It is regular behavior and does not go away, so after about 2-3 projects or months it is time to report this behavior so it can be addressed. It does no good to over look this behavior to long. A good person to ask is the head of Rocky Mountain Way Writing. She is done work on work place issues and counseling. Just submit your question on the contact page.
33.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:08 pm e
Herman Lorenz – When you get a good answer to this one you might check with the friends of Michael Vick. A really good example of how friends and co-workers could have had an impact, but decided not to.
34.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:09 pm e
Michael Chernick – This is a difficult but important question to consider. I would hope that employees with these kind of thoughts would seek counseling. These days many companies have confidential psychological services for emplyees experience stress, anxiety or depression that could trigger destructive behavior to themselves and others. I have not personally run acriss a situation where I thought a coworker was in that sort of state but I have seen indirectly the harm that can come when the signs are ignored or just not seen. When I was a graduate student at Stanford a distraught PhD student in Mathematics came to his advisors office and beat him to death with a large piece of wood. As a teenager I recall a situation where a former employee where my father works at Brookhaven came into the office and went on a shooting spree that killed a few of the scientists there. My father was involved in convincing the shooter to give himself up and luckily was not hurt.
35.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:10 pm e
Ray Miller – WOW,
That’s a tough one. In my experiences with people who were self sabotaging it was mostly career sabotage and would not necessarily affect the organization or others around them.
But I have watched some managers in past roles who were self sabotaging, but for the most part it was a completely unconscious behavior and could be corrected when they were coached by their management.
If I saw some one who’s negative behavior was affected others or bringing harm to an organization or those around them I would approach their management AND HR at the same time and provide documentation, if available to communicate the issues.
36. Steve Says:
December 13th, 2007 at 10:36 pm e
My self-sabotaging behavior is an inability to spot and classify “users” early enough to extract myself from the situation. I turned 18 yo in SE Asia; courtesy of the military that I entered @ 16 yo (another story entirely), and I was “infected” with the teamwork virus. Users sense this and extract every pound of flesh (see Shakespeare) they can then abandon the team or person for another “hunt”. This has had a dramatic impact on my career and life since I am mission-focused and attempt to succeed “at all costs”.