I think anyone who has ever seen The Expert unfortunately has either experienced working for or knows someone similar to the characters in this skit. This is one of my favorite skits because it illustrates some of the darker sides of leadership. Additionally, I can directly relate to Anderson. If you don’t understand why this clip is hilarious, you might be the problem.
Now that you are either done laughing or having an epiphany of sorts, let’s quickly discuss everything that is wrong with this scenario. Many of the theories discussed in this course have covered the importance of leaders having a vision, goal and/or conceptualizing. The first statement is of the customer lead articulating a vision for her company: “Our company has a new strategic initiative to increase market penetration, maximize brand loyalty and enhance intangible assets.” This appears to be a perfect example of leadership using an inspirational appeal but that is where the leadership ends and the comedy begins.
This clip is comical and sad because we all know ‘leaders’ just like the Boss and Walter as well as being exposed to ridiculous customers. Daily, I am reminded of this type of leadership in which those with position power accept tasks that are literally impossible and arrogantly dismiss any contention or concerns from those who are the experts. The leaders in this clip project the dark side of leadership personalities such as narcissism, impulsivity, insensitivity and argumentative nature. In addition, they use pressure and coalition tactics to persuade Anderson to complete the impossible. Their comical lack of analytic, practical and social intelligence leaves Anderson completely baffled.
Think about how many times you’ve tried to rationalize with someone who was simply incapable – how frustrating is that? One of my favorite parts of the clip is when the Boss says, “So what exactly is stopping us from doing this?” to which Anderson replies, “Geometry,” and then being told to “Just ignore it!” by the customer lead. That is the part where I almost exploded with laughter the first time I saw this clip because it’s so absurd. On the contrary, I cringed and became annoyed when Walter says, “Suggest a solution. Any fool can criticize – no offense – but you’re an expert, you should know better.” This seems to be the go-to response for an arrogant leader.
Anderson had the expert power because of his knowledge and skill set in drawing red lines. However, when his rational persuasion was quickly dismissed, he became more and more indifferent until he finally says, “Of course I can! I can do anything, I can do absolutely anything. I’m an ‘expert’!”
The leaders in this clip likely violate every trait, skill and theory we have discussed in the course thus far. Yet, sadly, we are all too familiar with this type of management.
I did find the clip amusing. It reminded me of similar working environment, more succinctly, the characters of Walter and Mr. Pubs resonated reminded me. The company I worked for contracted through a state agency to house people deemed a threat to themselves and other members of our community if left unsupervised. The state decided it would be cheaper to have a private company take on this role. Though the state still footed the expense for these clients’ care, our company contracted to do it for less than the cost the state was paying. Our company accepted many clients the state wanted removed. Cumulatively, it would save the state a considerable amount of money.
With our company’s success, other companies popped up and began to emulate our business model and siphon clients’ from the state. After a couple of years, the easier clients were no longer available. The state now wanted to export the exceptionally challenging and dangerous clients. Because of the added risk the clients presented, the state paid our company more, approximately twenty thousand monthly per client.
The Mr. Pubs for our company simply wanted to expand and continue to increase revenue. He never had contact with clients’; they were simply names on a ledger. The Walter of our company was very arrogant and a narcissist. The Walter of our company knew the difficulty the new clients’ presented but never admitted the new clients’ were beyond the company’s ability to supervise and control them. The results were disastrous.
When you wrote, “The leaders in this clip project the dark side of leadership personalities such as narcissism, (…) insensitivity and argumentative nature. In addition, they use pressure and coalition tactics to persuade Anderson to complete the impossible.” All these characterization were present in many of the meetings I attended. As a lower middle manager, my input was ignored, I could only, internally, shake my head. I essentially became a firefighter putting out fires within the program I ran, sometimes literally.
The most tuned in experts on the clients’ challenging behaviors were the line staff that spent the most time with the clients. The upper management ignored their input as well a mine. “Any fool can criticize” line form the clip was how the line staff was viewed.
The owner made millions and sold the company for millions. The new conglomerate was a major intranational company more removed from the challenging clients and revenue centric. The last I heard, the company is the company is on verge of having its license stripped by the state.