We have gorillas in our midst everyday. You know some. You feel their overbearing breath bearing down on you whenever you are in there presence. You feel their demanding control whenever you enter the arena held tightly in their big gnarly, hairy hands. These individuals make their wishes known with stern looks, sharp terse comments and disapproving style. The amazing thing; they do all of this while smiling, talking with soft dripping voices and pretending that they actually care about employees and customers. Meanwhile, you feel creeped out and slimed without understanding why.

Gorillas are driven by an all too familiar short-list of self-interested values. They focus on production goals, marketing reports with a high close rate, controlling costs at the expense of customer service, a high degree of personal control over all decisions and the all-mighty bottom line. They are the ultimate definition of micromanaging.

A business with a gorilla in the midst displays a glaring characteristic. When the gorilla is lurking, the staff is dysfunctional. The staff usually scatters into the brush. They might even disappear into the woodwork. The air is filled with a sense of us against them. Everyone hides until the beast leaves the premises. You might even notice a few of the timid employees noticeably shaking in their boots. The whole operation is run with the pervasiveness of intimidation.

The gorilla often is the owner of a business. The gorilla may be a capital venture type who wishes to buy out the business at 30 cents on the dollar. He/she may also be a member of the management team. No level of management is immune to the invasion of gorillas. This type of manager only sees people as tools to accomplish the task. Some might say that they have lost touch with their humanity, if they ever had it. This syndrome is found in all sorts of businesses of every size and kind. You might suspect that gorillas are the exclusive problem of the corporate world, but not so. The gorilla can be an entrepreneur who starts a business with a primary vision for all of the money they will make. Dollar signs in the eyes are not good. A mentor of mine warned, “If your customers start looking like you’re a steak, you have a serious problem”. Gorillas dehumanize and objectify the people who work for them and the people who buy their products and services.

A trend in the corporate world is to drive people as hard and fast as possible for as long as the people can stand it. Then, when the cracks are surfacing, the gorillas bring in the consultant with the soft voice and uplifting message. This eases the staff back into a positive frame of mind for another round of the drive to success. The gorilla is comfortable with this process as long as the ratio of critical illness and heart attacks are not too high for the population of the company. This cycle takes about 18 months or until an individual becomes exhausted and resigns.

A final note on the patterns of behavior exhibited by gorillas in our midst has to do with accountability. You can be guaranteed that the gorilla will never take accountability for anything that goes wrong. The gorilla will always find a way to cast blame up or down the food chain. Usually, the manager immediately below the gorilla will take the fall for mistakes, especially the ones made by the gorilla. The gorilla may over time be exposed and removed but this process usually takes far too long for the survival of subordinate staff.

The consequence of gorillas in the midst is blood in the street. Word to the wise, avoid gorillas at any cost even if they promise the moon and a block of green cheese. The trip is not worth the ride.