When Do People Grow Horns at Work?

To a Buffalo, horns are an essential tool in life. They must grow in size and strength for their encounters are a matter of life and death. But humans too have them albeit figuratively. Horns grow when assertiveness grows into aggressiveness. It could be subtle or pretty obvious. Assertiveness is a positive thing as it helps others around you to understand your position around any subject. Aggressiveness is a negative thing as cuts out others from partaking in proceedings. Assertiveness is often confused with aggression, hence, many get mentored into the wrong behaviour. The toad and the frog are both amphibians but they cannot interbreed because they are not the same thing. Many become toads instead of frogs. Others become chimpanzees instead of humans—notwithstanding the 96% genetic match across the two apes. The 4% difference carries the intelligence, fur coding, and tail. So near, yet so far. That is what "aggressive" and "assertive" are. Aggression comes in when someone's interests are endangered or when they are creating space or when taking over a scarce resource. When new employees join an organization, they deploy safe mode. Initially, nothing that may disrupt the peace gets exposed. The learning curve is pretty steep and for a good reason. The knowledge needed to succeed on the job is liberating. For most people, once this phase is successfully passed, the true person gets unleashed on colleagues. The confidence gained can take the assertive route or the aggressive path. The former is a safer space to occupy. The latter is the horns route. These horns grow when one's consciousness on resources is heightened by the knowledge of such things that are worth fighting for. Ambition and safety needs can help nourish horn growth. Some people take the lone buffalo approach while many thrive in the herd's aggression. The lone buffalo is dangerous but is easier to isolate and contain. The herd aggressor—and mostly, union members find safety in numbers. For you the leader, it is important to know when horns grow so as to develop productive interventions. These include knowing what level of challenge to give a staffer graduating from one stage to another in the workplace, knowing what to do with more experienced newcomers as their knowledge levels can shut out older staffers. It is never a one-size-fits-all approach that manages horns. You must tailor-make everyone's situation. Dehorning is a messy affair. Handle it before too much keratin is evident. ReplyForward