暴君老板进化史

    与艾伦个性不同的员工们在面对类似压力时，可能表现更好。沃尔特•伊萨克森在《史蒂夫•乔布斯》传记中指出，这位已故的苹果（Apple）共同创始人著名的火爆脾气往往收到了好结果。“那些没有被压垮的人们最终变得更强大，”他写到。“出于恐惧和取悦心态，他们的工作做得更好了。”就像盖茨，乔布斯不一定在意反击的员工，只要他们的意见有道理。(盖茨和他长期的副手、未来的接班人史蒂夫•巴尔默在激烈的讨论中总是针锋相对；许多内部人士表示，这种争论对于公司的成功至关重要。)

    说到甲骨文(Oracle) CEO拉里•埃里森，他大喊大叫的时间可能比其他科技大鳄们更长，有些员工称，他有时发脾气的时间可能长达近1个小时，但他的叫骂在性质上惊人的相似。若论修辞手法，那就是夸张。如果埃里森不喜欢一位甲骨文高管组织销售会议的方式，他会插话，“这是美国最糟的销售组织展示，哦，我要纠正自己，是世界最糟。”

    管理专家们表示，如果处理得当，这种严酷的管理风格事实上没有表面看上去那么可怕。不过，他们警告称，如果过度依赖发脾气，可能造就有害的工作环境。当员工们感觉到老板发脾气完全是为了取得发脾气的效果，他们很少会积极应对。但这不是超级成功的当代科技界CEO们的做法。有一点总是显而易见，他们强烈的反应与他们的情绪极限直接相关。【伊萨克森写的书披露，史蒂夫•乔布斯不喜欢全食超市（Whole Foods）一位员工为他准备Smoothied的做法时，他也会不冷静。】

    类似地，员工们也需要看到CEO人格的其他方面。如果他们只将他或她与暴脾气联系起来，他们可能会非常消极或叛逆。“除非发脾气能与其他什么相平衡，这位CEO会失去所有的道德权威，”工作场所咨询公司Boswell Group的主管凯利•夏可维茨说。“表现出一些脆弱往往会有帮助。”这是拉里•埃里森始终铭记的一个深刻观点。埃里森最近雇佣了旧金山亚洲艺术博物馆（Asian Art Museum）前总监来管理自己庞大的个人收藏。埃里森在解释他对日本艺术的热爱时表示，日本文化是“地球上最好斗，也是最有礼的文化。令人惊异的傲慢与谦卑的融合；极佳的平衡。”或许只有埃里森一个人相信他在甲骨文创造了同样的50/50平衡，但他的确做到了谦卑。20世纪90年代初，雷•莱恩帮助公司扭转颓势后，埃里森写了一份情真意切的信，热情洋溢地称赞莱恩让“因怀疑和疲劳而痛苦的团队眼中重新充满了期待。”但总的来说，埃里森很少说出这么动情的话。（财富中文网）

    本文作者是《美式痴迷：美国的建国原动力》一书的作者。

    译者：早稻米          

    Workers with a different constitution from Allen sometimes thrive in the face of similar stresses. In his biography Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson pointed out that the late Apple (AAPL) co-founder's legendary rage attacks often had an upside. "People who were not crushed ended up being stronger," he wrote. "They did better work, out of both fear and an eagerness to please." Like Gates, Jobs didn't necessarily mind employees who fought back, as long as their opinions were thoughtfully formulated. (Gates and his longtime deputy and future successor, Steve Ballmer, often went toe-to-toe in vicious debates; many insiders say this sparring was critical to the company's success.)

    And for his part, while Larry Ellison may well be prone to yelling longer than the other tech luminaries -- according to co-workers, some of the Oracle's (ORCL) CEO tirades have clocked in at nearly an hour -- his invective is astonishingly similar in nature. Hyperbole is the trope of choice. When Ellison does not like how an Oracle executive is conducting a sales meeting, he tends to interject, "This is the worst display of sales organization in the U.S. -- no, correct me, in the world."

    Management experts say that this harsh management style is actually not as terrible as it seems -- if handled correctly. They warn that an excessive reliance on the temper-tantrum can create a toxic workplace. Employees also rarely respond positively when they sense that the boss' outbursts are staged purely for effect. But that's not something the super-successful contemporary techies have ever done. It's always been clear that their intense reactions have been directly related to their emotional wiring. (According to Isaacson's book, Steve Jobs would also fly off the handle when he did not like the way a clerk at Whole Foods (WFM) was preparing his smoothie.)

    Likewise, employees also need to see other sides of the CEO's personality. If they begin to associate him or her solely with rages, they are likely to become either overly passive or rebellious. "Unless the tantrums are balanced with something else, the CEO loses all moral authority," says Kerry Sulkowicz, head of the workplace consulting firm the Boswell Group. "Showing some vulnerability often helps." This is an insight that Larry Ellison has taken to heart. In explaining his love of Japanese art, Ellison, who recently hired the former director of San Francisco's Asian Art Museum to curate his massive personal collection, has described the Japanese as both "the most aggressive culture on Earth and the most polite. There is this incredible arrogance combined with unbelievable humility; a magnificent balance." While Ellison might be alone in believing that he has created that same 50/50 balance in the corridors of Oracle, he is capable of humility. After Ray Lane helped turn around the company in the early 1990s, Ellison wrote a heartfelt letter, effusively praising his new hire for putting "the eagerness back into the eyes of a team turned miserable by cynicism and exhaustion." But by all indications, Ellison doesn't give voice to such tender sentiments all that often.

    Joshua Kendall is the author of America's Obsessives: The Compulsive Energy That Built a Nation.