By | Adil Malia | www.adilmalia.com
Have you ever met the IKEA man (could be an IKEA woman too !) ? Ofcourse, you have. There is an instant connect which helps you identify – the moment you transact with one.
Scattered across the entire spectrum of human transactions, IKEA men come in different shapes, sizes and ages without any discrimination of age, colour, caste , creed, race or sex and they are Universal as they transgress all geographic boundaries.
I KNOW EVERYTHING ALWAYS, the corporate malaise of leadership, the IKEA leader is a victim of wrong behavioural scripts written for him earlier in his nurturing days. Thus it makes that person wrongly believe and at times even make these loud 10 averments :
– that his knowledge is all that there is to any subject
– that his experiences and exposures have taught him/ her all that needs to be learnt on all the subjects
– that others have incomplete and always wrong knowledge
– that there is no scope for experiences to learn from beyond the ones that he has experienced
– that what he believes is the only right way to bloom. Other paths lead to doom.
– that what he believes in an issue is the one around which there is total follower consensus
– that ‘Decibels’ determine the depth of knowledge
– that expulsion of those who disagree is the only right way forward.
– that future is only an extension of the past and therefore his past experiences and knowledge are evergreen … thus he always knows all, forever.
– that everyone believes him, admires him, loves him, adores him !
Thus you see the IKEA man everywhere destroying confidence of other people, blocking potential power from finding its path to realisation, shouting down arguments, bullying his way thru and stopping teams from arriving at correct decisions. Ikea leadership is toxic.
Whilst there are multiple ways to effectively tackle a IKEA bully (and some day later I will make another post on handling the IKEA man for you. But it is necessary for you to realise that the only time that the IKEA man is unrecognizable is when he is wearing your clothes !!! People in their own sweet way may try and show you the mirror. But it will work only if you do not turn a blind eye to it. Remember Mirrors do not have use in the world of the blind.
Republished with permission and originally published at www.adilmalia.com
