THE SIX PROBLEM

BEHAVIORS AT WORK
BY JAMES WALDROOP AND TIMOTHY BUTLER
Context
Psychologists James Waldroop and Timothy Butler
identified a number of behaviors that commonly hurt
people’s careers, and they described them in their
Harvard Business Review article, “Managing Away
Bad Habits” (2000). They later drew out six of the
most troublesome traits, and assigned each an easy-
to recognize “character.
1. THE HERO
Characteristics:
- Driven by personal success
- Driven by organizational success
- Constantly push themselves and others
to finish projects on time.
- They aim for top results.
Problems with the Hero:
- They push themselves and others too far.
- And, as managers, they can have trouble
retaining staff, because only some people can
tolerate the heavy workloads that Heroes
expect.
- Create unnecessary problems which did not
exist in the first place.
- First to arrive and last to leave.
- They try to win single handed.
- They may show indifference towards other’s
concerns
- Lacks humility and consideration.
2. THE MERITOCRAT
Characteristics:
- High integrity and ideals
- Hardworking and resilient
- They believe in fair system and merit
based recognition.
- They don’t like influence, negotiations
or explaining their ideas to anyone.
Problems with the Meritocrat:
- They don’t believe in consulting others.
- Since they hate diplomacy, they often avoid
negotiations.
- They fail to get necessary buy-ins and
approvals.
- They may also be unwilling to sell their ideas
to key stakeholders, restricting their
visibility within their organization..
- They work hard but fail to project their work.
-
3. THE BULLDOZER
Characteristics:
- Accomplish their goals at any cost.
- They are aggressive most of the time.
- They try to establish their authority
either by loud talks or by creating
unnecessary drama.
-
Problems with the Bulldozer:
- They distrust others and others distrust
them.
- They can intimidate and alienate others in
pursuit of their goals.
- Their behaviour lowers team morals and
decreases everyone’s effectiveness.
-
4. THE PESSIMIST
Characteristics:
- They oppose any change.
- They urge caution on even the smallest
decisions.
- They tend to see the failures or
challenges much more than success and
achievement.
- They are largely driven by fear.
Problems with the Pessimist:
- They create negativity in the team.
- They work to avoid mistakes and failures.
- They are not ambitious and lack the
achievement drive in them.
- Their excessive anxiety leads to internal
conflict in team and thus a low morale.
- They tend to micromanage things as they
lack trust.
5. THE REBEL
Characteristics:
- They thrive on provocation.
- They love to complain and criticize.
- They are effective in influencing people
- They are largely drawn by their hatred
toward some policies or practices.
Problems with the Rebel:
- They create mutiny in the team.
- They can drive the team away from the
organizational goals and objective.
- Rebels defy authority at every turn.
- They have a lot of points for others to
change but they refuse to change.
6. THE HOME RUN HITTER
Characteristics: Problems with the Rebel:
- They work for the approvals of their - They are typically ‘Yes men’.
bosses.
- They can lot of favouritism.
- they may land the biggest clients or
make huge sales, but unlike these - Over commit without having the capacity
characters, Home Run Hitters are to perform.
motivated by a need for approval, rather
than by personal or organizational - They are driven by short-term gains.
goals.-
- They crave for personal success and may
- They are successful but they often bite use the team’s work to take credit.
more than they can chew.
- Put their success first before the team’s
success.
 The MERITOCRAT The BULLDOZER
The HERO

The HOME RUN HITTER

The PESSIMIST The REBEL