反復(fù)無常的老板最可怕

By far the most difficult boss I’ve ever had was aninspiring, morally upstanding man. I respectedhim and learnt a lot from him. The problem was thatI could never predict how he would respond toanything.

迄今為止，我遇到過的最難相處的老板是一位能夠啟發(fā)他人、為人正直的男士。我很尊敬他，也從他那里學(xué)到了很多。問題在于我永遠(yuǎn)沒有辦法預(yù)測(cè)他對(duì)任何事情的反應(yīng)。

Sometimes he would sidle past and say somethingsarcastic about a piece I’d written. At other timeshe would bound up, full of praise. Occasionally he would perch on the edge of my desk and talkas if he valued my opinion. The following day he would revert to glowering and ignore meentirely.

有時(shí)候他會(huì)悄悄經(jīng)過，對(duì)我寫的某篇文章挖苦幾句。有時(shí)候他會(huì)跳起來，對(duì)我贊不絕口。偶爾他會(huì)坐在我的辦公桌沿和我聊天，話里話外好像很看重我的觀點(diǎn)似的。第二天他又回到怒目而視的狀態(tài)，完全無視我的存在。

The very sight of him advancing down the corridor was enough to make me feel anxious. Whenhe was being nice, his face looked the same as when he was horrid and so I started to wonder ifhis praise was ironic. It was most disconcerting.

僅僅看到他從走廊上走過來我就會(huì)緊張。他友好的時(shí)候和兇惡的時(shí)候臉上的表情是一模一樣的，這讓我開始懷疑他的稱贊其實(shí)是諷刺。這是最讓人難堪的。

I thought of him the other day when I read a piece of research from the University of Michigansuggesting we would far rather have a manager who was horrible all of the time, than one whowas horrible only some of it. When it comes to our bosses, it seems we can cope with more orless anything — save unpredictability.

不久前，當(dāng)我讀到密歇根大學(xué)(University of Michigan)的一篇研究論文時(shí)，我又想起了他。這篇論文認(rèn)為，比起一個(gè)在某些時(shí)候很可怕的管理者，我們寧愿要一個(gè)總是很可怕的管理者。對(duì)于老板，不論什么事情我們似乎多多少少總能應(yīng)付——除了反復(fù)無常。

The researchers conducted a series of experiments in which they divided students into threegroups and gave them all a job to do. The first group was subjected to constant compliments;the second to constant abuse and the third to a mix of the two. The first group wasn’tstressed at all; the second was mildly so, while the third — the group that didn’t know if theywere going to get sticks or carrots — was by far the most stressed and least happy.

研究人員進(jìn)行了一系列實(shí)驗(yàn)，他們將學(xué)生分成三組并指派所有人做一項(xiàng)工作。第一組不斷地受到表?yè)P(yáng);第二組不斷地受到責(zé)罵;第三組表?yè)P(yáng)和責(zé)罵兼而有之。第一組完全沒有壓力;第二組感到一點(diǎn)壓力;不知道自己接下來得到的是大棒還是胡蘿卜的第三組則是壓力最大、最不快樂的一組。

This experiment, written up in the American Academy of Management, reminds me of an earlierstudy in which rats were given electric shocks. One group heard a bell ring to herald each shock;a second group had shocks with no warning. The first group of rats fared more or less fine. Thesecond group, who could not predict the timing of the shocks, developed stomach ulcers.Workers and rats have a lot in common.

這篇由美國(guó)管理學(xué)會(huì)(American Academy of Management)發(fā)表的實(shí)驗(yàn)報(bào)告讓我想起了一個(gè)更早的實(shí)驗(yàn)，那是一個(gè)大鼠受到電擊的實(shí)驗(yàn)。第一組大鼠每次受到電擊前都會(huì)聽到一聲鈴響;第二組受到電擊前則沒有任何警示。第一組大鼠的狀況總的來講還好。而那些無法預(yù)測(cè)電擊時(shí)機(jī)的第二組大鼠則患上了胃潰瘍。員工與大鼠有很多相似之處。

Yet this idea that consistency is important is nowhere in the leadership literature.Predictability is considered boring and unglamorous, in a world that reveres creativity anddisruption.

但在有關(guān)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力的文獻(xiàn)中，有關(guān)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者行為一致性很重要的觀點(diǎn)無處可尋。在這個(gè)崇尚創(chuàng)造力和顛覆的世界，可預(yù)測(cè)性被視為一種無趣和缺乏魅力的特質(zhì)。

A couple of weeks ago the Harvard Business Review published a blog about the most importanttraits of leaders, as reported by 195 global leaders themselves. These turned out to be a moreor less soppy list of “competencies” including “strong ethics”, “nurtures growth”, “has theflexibility to change opinions” and “is committed to ongoing training”. And so on.Predictability was nowhere on the list.

幾周前，《哈佛商業(yè)評(píng)論》(Harvard Business Review)發(fā)布了一篇博文，內(nèi)容是195名全球領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者自己提出的最重要的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者特質(zhì)。這是一張多少有點(diǎn)乏味的“素質(zhì)”列表，包括“道德觀念強(qiáng)”、“注重增長(zhǎng)”、“能夠靈活改變觀點(diǎn)”和“致力于持續(xù)培訓(xùn)”等等?？深A(yù)測(cè)性并不在這份列表上。

The only company I can find that explicitly values this is Google. Because it delights incollecting data and measures all leaders constantly, it has found that consistency is one ofthe most important qualities there is. When the boss isn’t consistent, people can’t do theirbest.

我能找到的唯一一家公開看重這一特質(zhì)的公司是谷歌(Google)。由于谷歌喜歡收集數(shù)據(jù)并對(duì)所有領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者持續(xù)做出評(píng)估，該公司發(fā)現(xiàn)一致性是最重要的特質(zhì)之一。如果老板前后不一致，員工就無法盡其所能。

Predictability matters at work not just in relation to your boss — but to almost everything.People claim they love jobs in which every day is different, but there is little evidence to backthis up. Instead, studies in the US have shown that workers with unpredictable hours aremore stressed and less happy than those who keep a regular timetable.

在工作中，可預(yù)測(cè)性的重要性不僅僅是與你的老板有關(guān)——而是幾乎與一切有關(guān)。人們聲稱他們喜歡每一天都不一樣的工作，但沒有多少證據(jù)能夠支持這種說法。相反，美國(guó)的多項(xiàng)研究表明，比起那些工作時(shí)間規(guī)律的員工，工作時(shí)間無法預(yù)測(cè)的員工壓力更大，幸福度更低。

If I think of my peers, I would probably tell you that I love working with people who surpriseme. But that isn’t true. I like working with people who interest me, but who do not surprise meat all. One close colleague is dependably always late. Even though I am obsessively punctual,I’ve become so used to his lateness that when last week he turned up early, I wasn’t delighted;I was slightly put out.

說到同事，我很可能會(huì)告訴你，我喜歡和能讓我驚訝的人共事。但這不是事實(shí)。我喜歡的是與讓我感興趣的人共事，根本不是讓我驚訝的人。有一位和我關(guān)系很近的同事總是遲到。即使我非?？粗販?zhǔn)時(shí)，我也已經(jīng)非常習(xí)慣他遲到，以至于上周他很早就露面的時(shí)候我不是很開心;我稍微有點(diǎn)惱火。

And it is not as if consistency is easy. Being consistent is very hard indeed. I know this fromhaving spent a quarter of a century at the coalface of motherhood. When bringing up my fourchildren I have tried to stick to some pretty basic principles that I consider important. Forinstance, that all family members must sit around a table once a day with no computer screens,eating the same thing at the same time. Some evenings I am unyielding in my adherence tothis principle. Yet there I was last week sprawled on the sofa with my son who was eating asupermarket pizza and watching something unsuitable on his iPad, while I both ate andwatched something else.

而且這并不是說保持一致是件容易的事。保持一致實(shí)際上非常困難。在做媽媽的“一線”度過25年后，我明白了這一點(diǎn)。在撫養(yǎng)我的4個(gè)孩子的時(shí)候，我嘗試堅(jiān)持一些我認(rèn)為很重要的相當(dāng)基本的原則。比如，所有家庭成員必須每天有一次圍著桌子坐下，在同一時(shí)間吃著同樣的東西，沒人盯著電腦屏幕。有一些夜晚我毫不妥協(xié)地堅(jiān)持這一原則。然而上周，我四仰八叉地和我的兒子坐在沙發(fā)上，他在吃一塊超市里買的披薩，在他的iPad上看一些不適宜的內(nèi)容，而我吃著別的食物，看著別的東西。

Predictability is the advanced class: unpredictability seems to be the default human condition.

可預(yù)測(cè)性是高級(jí)狀態(tài)：不可預(yù)測(cè)性似乎是人類的默認(rèn)設(shè)置。

I’ve just read an article in Psychology Today arguing that we became that way because it madeit harder for other hunter gatherers to take advantage of us in the jungle.

我剛剛讀到了《今日心理學(xué)》(Psychology Today)的一篇文章，這篇文章主張，我們之所以會(huì)變成這樣是因?yàn)檫@會(huì)讓叢林之中的其他狩獵采集者更難以占到我們的便宜。

Maybe, although I suspect we are unpredictable at work because managing is unnatural andwe are weak and capricious. And self-control is not only difficult, it is sadly out of fashion.

可能是這樣，不過我懷疑我們?cè)诠ぷ髦胁豢深A(yù)測(cè)是因?yàn)楣芾肀旧砭褪遣蛔匀坏?，我們本身則既軟弱又善變。而且自控不僅很難，還非常可悲地不時(shí)髦。