American View: Want to Stand Out at Work? Convince Everyone You’re an Insider Threat!

Management

Ever wondered how to make a huge splash in your first week at a new job? Forget all that “sound advice” from “experienced professionals” … Instead, convince everyone that you’re a brash, tone-deaf, and dangerous security risk! Ensure that everyone knows your name before you’ve had a chance to set up your desk. All publicity is good publicity, right?

That’s the tactic that a new supervisor brought to a logistics business last week. I was chatting with a line supervisor about his work Friday evening and had the following conversation:

“We have a new safety manager,” my mate groused. “I’ve taken an immediate dislike to him.”

“Why so?” I asked.

“Okay. This dude’s first day was this Monday. We’re busy this week prepping for next week’s vendor demo day: cleaning up, creating space for the vendor tables, stuff like that. Management had told us what they wanted and how they wanted it, so we’ve been cleaning the warehouse to their specs whenever there’s a break in our regular work.

“Dude showed up while we were taking delivery of new freight and told us to stop what we’re doing and instead clear out all the product stacked in the bulk lane. He said he wanted it placed on the racks so that the floor is clear.”

“Why is that an issue?” I asked.

“Because the site manager already told us that he wants that bulk lane kept intact for the vendors’ visit. He wants to give visitors an accurate impression of our site: show that we’re a ‘working warehouse.’”

As opposed to a stock photo warehouse where everything is perfectly straight and the floors are clean enough to eat off of.

“If that’s what the big boss wants …” I said. “Does the new dude know that was the bosss’s intent?”
“No idea,” my mate groused. “I don’t see how he could know the plan. He’d only been here a day and a half when he told me to change everything. I told him that me and my team weren’t doing anything that contradicted the big boss’s explicit orders. Then I advised the new jerk to talk to the big boss and find out what his expectations are.”

“How’d he take that?”

My mate shrugged. “He said he would, then changed course and started telling us to make other unnecessary changes. I’m ready to slug him.”

I’ve seen this sort of counterproductive behaviour too many times. More in the corporate sector than in the military. Young army officers are taught to be cautious when first arriving at a new base or joining a new unit. You don’t know why things are done the way they are, we were told. Don’t make changes for change’s sake. Learn context from the soldiers who’ve been there. Understand first, then consider making improvements. It was great advice when I was a subaltern and it’s still great advice now.

Most of new managers I’ve seen making arbitrary, capricious, and disruptive changes immediately on arrival could be attributed to insecurity. These folks knew (or at least suspected) that they were coming in sans experience and competence. They mistakenly believed that they could earn their new workers’ respect by appearing competent from the off. It’s the old “fake it ‘til you make it” tactic. Pretend that you know what you’re doing, and people will believe you … then quietly grow into the role.

Chill, dude. We know.

As a leadership trainer, I don’t endorse this approach. Not only is it disruptive – change for its own sake is likely to be wasteful and counterproductive – it’s corrosive to trust and morale. Nobody likes having their time wasted. To learn that your new boss has been jerking you around for no good reason is an effective way to tank your credibility for all time.

From my perspective as a security professional, though, this sort of behaviour should mark the new hire as a probable insider threat. Not a malicious one, necessarily; their disruptive ideas might not be intended to cause harm. Their flawed misuse of their delegated authority is, however, going to cause harm and foment discontent. They’re going to create just as much harm as if they intended to for sinister motives.

By squandering workers’ trust, an insecure leader is encouraging their workers to withhold vital information (because your people can’t trust you to act responsibly once informed), to bypass security controls (to get work done faster before you can disrupt it), and to ignore your advice (even when you’re repeating good info). You become more of an impediment to good order and discipline than you’re worth. The organisation would be better off with an unfilled req.

I’ve seen this awful behaviour mostly at the new manager level, but that doesn’t mean it should be considered something unique to low-level supervisor. I’ve seen it manifest in new senior managers, directors, and even department heads. A new bloke arrives and confidently orders large-scale changes before they’ve had an opportunity to learn about their company’s culture, history, unique circumstances, or priorities. These wannabe “change agents” typically cause massive disruption and engender seething discontent early on, making their name a synonym for “excrement” before they’ve had time to find the break room.

Starting a new gig is overwhelming. There’s more to learn than a person can take in at once. That’s normal. No sense in making it worse for everyone by sowing chaos in your wake.

The good news is that this behaviour can be pre-emptively blunted in a couple of ways. First, upper management can clarify that they don’t want to see the new hire making any arbitrary major changes in their first 30-, 60- or even 90-days. Counsel them to get the lay of the land first. To encourage compliance, prepare briefings from their peers and key stakeholders to help the new hire wrap their head around the organisation. Push the critical info up front.

Second, key subordinates under the new hire can do something similar: have them prepare briefings for their new supervisor that explain not only what their people do, but why they do it that way. Explain what changes the current crew wants to make and why those changes haven’t been possible to-date. Give the new leader a roadmap of ideas to explore to help get them started. That is to say, give the new boss some necessary and appropriate changes to pursue that will help rather than hurt. This will allow the new boss to start making a name without accidentally stepping in it.

I explained this all to my mate and he nodded along. He agreed – vehemently. My mate has already learned to never act like his new safety manager. Strive to learn about the outfit and its people first. Use your authority sparingly until you have your feet under you. Make it clear that you have sound judgment and will act in the team’s best interests, not just your own. Build trust, and only attempt to restructure processes once you know what can and should be changed.

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