I recently conducted a training on how to improve the hiring process, and one participant blurted out,
“What do you do about a brown-noser? We have this guy who doesn’t perform until the manager walks
through the door. Then, this guy sucks up to the manager and the manager doesn’t even see it! It is SO
frustrating!”
“What do you do about it now?” I asked him.
He said, “We call him Rudolph behind his back. Rudolph the brown-nosed reindeer, and we laugh about
it. We have to let off steam somehow!”
There are several things about this reindeer farm that are alarming: First, the company has a bunch of
reindeer that are getting paid to talk about someone behind their back. This is NOT good for reindeer
culture. When your reindeer are focused on the behavior of another, it disrupts the flow of business,
and it inhibits teams from performing well- meaning getting the gifts to the people.
Second, this makes the manager, Santa Claus, look inept. All of the other reindeer, who laugh and call
him names, are secretly wondering why Rudolph hasn’t been fired. They think Santa is too busy eating
cookies to get work done.
And finally, there will be reindeer who quit working, because Rudolph doesn’t do his job. Why should I
do mine?
A brown-noser is ultimately bad for business, and the last thing we want in our reindeer culture is a
reindeer who doesn’t do his job and hides that fact. We have gifts to get out, people! Fire the brown-
noser and get back to business.
POWER THOUGHT: When employees laugh about anyone behind their back, you have a culture ruin-er.
Brown-nosed reindeers must go.