老闆的迷戀綜合症 The boss crush phenomenon random brutal and outrageous
X is an impressive, slightly scary CEO. You will have heard of him. Y is a smartish, youngish man who works for his company. You won’t have heard of him, unless you work there too — in which case the very sound of his name will have you grinding your teeth.
甲是一位令人印象深刻、不怒而威的首席執行官，你肯定聽過他的大名。乙是個聰明的年輕人，效力於甲的公司。你應該沒聽說過乙，除非你也在這間公司就職，若果真如此，你一聽到乙的名字，一定會恨得咬牙切齒。
When Y was hired about three years ago, X took to him at once, decided he was a man of extraordinary talent and in no time at all, Y was given a big department to run. Because Y has neither the experience nor the personality for the job, he is screwing it up.
乙大約是三年前被招進來的，甲當時一眼就相中了他。甲認爲這個年輕人有着過人的才能，當即就讓乙負責一個大部門。由於乙既缺乏經驗，也不是那塊料，他幹得一塌糊塗。
Various senior colleagues have protested, but they have been silenced. The CEO cannot and will not see that his protégé is a dog. He is too smitten.
許多資深員工都提出過異議，但他們被禁止多說。這位首席執行官既不能、也不願承認他的愛將是個窩囊廢。他太看好乙了。
This story, which I’ve had to doctor a little to avoid getting myself into trouble, is a common one, yet it isn’t an issue that leadership experts ever talk about. Instead they obsess over unconscious bias — the latest fashionable way in which all managers take bad decisions about people — and pack executives off on training courses to try to conquer their subtle, buried prejudices. But no one seems to worry about what happens when a boss’s bias is neither subtle nor buried but outrageous, and there for everyone to see — apart from the boss himself, who is blind to his own bias and instead congratulates himself on his prescience in spotting someone extraordinary.
這類故事我們耳熟能詳（爲避免惹麻煩，我做了些許改動），但領導力專家們卻從未談論過這個問題，反而熱衷於談論“無意識偏見”——這是最近的新潮流，意思是所有經理都識人不準。他們還讓高管們參加培訓課程，讓他們努力克服自己那些輕微的、隱蔽的偏見。但似乎沒人擔心這種情況會導致什麼後果，即老闆的偏見非但不輕微，反而可謂喪心病狂；非但不隱蔽，反而是人人皆知，只除了老闆自己——他非但看不見自己的偏見，反而慶幸自己慧眼識英。
The syndrome, which is a major character flaw of some of the world’s finest managers, needs a name and so I’m calling it boss crush. It is when an executive falls for someone, loses all judgment, refuses to listen and ensures that disaster will follow.
這種綜合徵是一種性格缺陷，在全世界最優秀的一些經理人身上也很嚴重。如果要爲這一症狀起個名字的話，我打算稱之爲“老闆迷戀症”(boss crush)。當一個高管迷上某個員工時，他會失去所有判斷力，拒絕聽取旁人意見，然後災難肯定隨之而來。
A version of this was played out recently between David Cameron and Camila Batmanghelidjh. The prime minister developed a crush on the mesmerising, rainbow-turbaned head of Kids Company; large quantities of cash were shovelled into her charity; civil servants asked questions, but nothing happened — until things went so spectacularly wrong the plug had to be pulled.
最近戴維慍蕓倫(David Cameron)與卡米拉巴特曼海利迪(Camila Batmanghelidjh)之間就上演了這麼一出“老闆迷戀症”。我們的英國首相迷上了這位魅力四射、包着五彩頭巾的Kids Company負責人，爲她的慈善機構提供了大量政府撥款。公務員們對此提出質疑，但一點兒都不管用，直到這家慈善機構問題嚴重到不可收拾的境地，政府才停止對其撥款。
I first became aware of the boss crush phenomenon more than 30 years ago, when I was the love object myself. I was singled out by a cantankerous manager who got it into his head that I was all-round wonderful. I was given a job which I had no idea how to do, yet despite my manifestly indifferent performance, I was repeatedly told I was doing brilliantly.
我第一次意識到老闆迷戀現象是在三十多年前，當時那個被迷戀的對象就是我自己。一位壞脾氣的經理獨獨認定了我，他滿心覺得我是個全方位人才。他給了我一份工作，可我完全不知該怎麼做，儘管我的表現明明很平庸，他卻不斷對我說我有多出色。
In some ways I found this nice as I’m a sucker for being told I’m a genius. What was less nice was the feeling of being over-promoted, and what was even less nice was how little my colleagues seemed to like me. I have no idea how it would have ended: the man in question got fired for assorted misdemeanours and shortly afterwards I quit myself.
在某些方面，我覺得這樣挺好的，因爲我喜歡有人說我是個天才。不過感覺自己被過度提拔了就沒那麼好了，更糟糕的是我的同事似乎很不喜歡我。我不知道這一切會如何結束：那個人後來因各種各樣的不當行爲被解僱了，不久之後我自己也辭職了。
Since then I’ve taken a keen interest in the boss crush phenomenon, and tried to draw some conclusions.
此後，我就對“老闆迷戀症”產生了濃厚興趣，試圖得出一些結論。
First, it has little to do with sex, and everything to do with power. The objects of the crush of a powerful man are as often men as women. Second, it is as random as real love. Sometimes the older boss falls for someone who reminds him of himself — but sometimes the object of the love is quite different. Sometimes the loved one is brilliant. Other times they are a liability. Most often they are a mixture of both.
首先，這種現象和性別沒有什麼關係，卻與權力有很大關係。位高權重的人迷戀的對象可能是男性，但也同樣有可能是女性。第二，這種迷戀和真正的愛情一樣具有隨機性。有時年紀較大的老闆會迷上某個“年輕版”的自己——但有時老闆迷戀的對象和他本人截然不同。有時候，被迷戀的人才華卓著。另一些情況下，他們也可能是個扶不起來的窩囊廢。通常，他們是兩者的混合體。
In many cases the object has brought the crush upon themselves following a brilliant campaign of sucking up. (Anyone who doesn’t believe that sucking up works, should read a blog post written by Marshall Goldsmith about the love we feel for our dogs, who are the most successful suckers-up ever invented.)
在很多情況下，這種迷戀是員工依靠成功的奉承巴結自己獲得的。（任何不相信拍馬屁有效果的人，都應該讀一讀馬歇爾戈德史密斯(Marshall Goldsmith)撰寫的一篇博客文章，這篇文章討論了我們對自家狗的愛，而狗是有史以來最成功的奉承者。）
But some crush objects have never invited such attention. I can think of one who I used to know, who was grumpy, taciturn and viewed all power with great suspicion — and yet was revered by his doting manager.
但一些被迷戀對象從未主動尋求關注。我能想到我過去認識的一個人，他脾氣暴躁、沉默寡言，對一切權力都抱懷疑態度——然而他的經理很喜歡他，對他推崇備至。
Like real love, the boss crush is blind. Worse than that, once the boss has publicly singled out the love-object as worthy of promotion, his pride is on the line. The crush object simply has to be good; nothing else will do. All warning signs are ignored, the truth only outs when it is too late. Then the after-effects of the crush are brutal — the former loved one is treated to rage and disdain and usually in the end is fired.
像真正的愛一樣，老闆的迷戀也是盲目的。更糟糕的是，一旦老闆公開對自己喜愛的對象另眼相待，聲稱其值得提拔，他就搭上了自己的自尊。他喜愛的對象必須優秀；否則就不行。一切預警信號都被無視，真相只有在爲時已晚的時候纔會暴露出來。之後，這種迷戀的後續影響十分殘酷——此前被迷戀的人會領教暴怒和蔑視，通常最終還會被炒魷魚。
The most troubling thing about this phenomenon is that there isn’t an answer. You can’t ban executives from crushes any more than you can ban teenagers. All you can do is notice the sorts of people who are prone to them, and be warned.
這種現象最麻煩的地方是它無解。你無法禁止高管們陷入迷戀，就像你無法禁止早戀一樣。你唯一能做的就是注意到有這種傾向的人，並保持警惕。
In the absence of any studies and based only on my own observation, I’d say those most prone to crushes are sublimely confident of their own judgment, are somewhat isolated and inclined to be strong and charismatic. Which turns out not to be very helpful at all — they are just the sort of people most likely to rise to the very top.
沒有任何相關研究，僅僅是根據我自己的觀察，我得說，那些對自己的判斷極度自信、某種程度上有點孤僻、喜歡顯得強勢而有魅力的人，最容易陷入這種迷戀。這個結論似乎根本沒多大幫助——這些人正是最有可能爬上最高位的人。
