The Hindu Business Line : The perpetual victim

A perpetual victim thinks that everybody is out to get him! No matter what his boss says, he is reading between the lines. It’s not surprising therefore that he’s highly stressed.

V. K. Madhav Mohan

Annual budget meetings are just around the corner. It’s an exciting but stressful time! As part of his preparation Tanmay is garnering every bit of information to ward off the inevitable pressure from the “management”. As vice-president of a division that generates a Rs 400 crore per annum topline with a reasonable EBIDTA, Tanmay is on the frontlines of the corporate battleground.

He’s arrived at the top by virtue of his ability to achieve targets consistently under all circumstances. Sales management has been his karmabhoomi after he got out of business school some 20 years ago. For the last 15 years he’s been in his present company. Year after year target achievement has seen him rise steadily in compensation and rank. If Tanmay accepts a target you can go to sleep and wake up on April 1 to find that he’s achieved the number, right down to the decimals!

The rub

Therein lies the rub: getting Tanmay to accept a target, any target. He comes to the meetings cloaked in armour plate! Share any argument, possibility and idea with him and he’ll tell you why it won’t work. More than that, he’ll let you know that it’s terribly unjust that you could even think of it!

“Don’t you think that after all these years I would have explored all these angles and tried out every single possibility?” And then he’ll hit you with the bottom line: “Haven’t I performed all these years; so when I say it can’t be done why don’t you believe me?”

Tanmay has a visceral fear of missing his numbers. He simply can’t face the prospect of not achieving his targets. His entire self-esteem is inextricably embedded in meeting his budget. He’s equated the target with the large performance bonus that goes with it, promotion and acceptance in the higher echelons of management. So he perceives any attempt to help him move to a higher level of achievement (higher sales targets) as an attempt to rob him of the bonus, promotion and respect.

He’s convinced that everyone around him is conspiring to making him fail and cheat him out of his rightful dues. So he’s guarding his position, his division and his targets like a fierce German Shepherd with a bone!

Stressed out

Tanmay is what I call a perpetual victim. He thinks that everybody is out to get him! No matter what his boss the CEO says, Tanmay is reading between the lines. It’s not surprising therefore that he’s highly stressed. To cope with his insecurity and stress he eats like a glutton and drinks like a fish. Obese, out of shape and tense. He’s a walking, talking time bomb; an explosion is imminent! Anybody can see that cardiac arrest or stroke is a heart beat away.

Tanmay’s victim mentality has not only put his life in danger; it has also placed the organisation in grave danger. Instead of balancing target attainment with organisation building he’s always looking over his shoulder and fighting unseen enemies. He’s not built a second line of leadership and neither has he built strong processes in his division.

He has no understanding of the strategic direction of the business and the emerging needs of customers. If something were to happen to him, the company can kiss the entire Rs 400 crore sales (and related profits) goodbye.

Knowing the difference

Tanmays are waiting to collapse in every business so it’s incumbent on every CEO to look closely within their organisations. The minute they face resistance to higher sales targets, leaders must listen carefully; is there a perpetual victim lurking in the shadows here or is it a structural weakness of the markets?

Understanding the difference is often, literally, a matter of life and death. If you spot a perpetual victim, speedy action to de-stress and revive is required. Training, mentoring, lateral movement into another assignment and organisational restructuring are all critically important actions. That’s the only way to transform a perpetual victim into a proactive leader.

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