The Somebody Else Syndrome

I’ve been working with someone who is out of control and ego based and has no idea that 1) he is, 2) it is a problem.  This person is a victim and most excellent example of the “Somebody Else Syndrome”.  No one wants to deal with the potential fall out of telling the king he has no clothes.

What a disaster we create when we decide to go down the path of ‘someone else will do it’.  Look around it is everywhere, at work, in politics, government, etc.  We all know it isn’t working well, this ‘I don’t want to be the one’ risk aversion.  And avoiding only exacerbates the problem.  In the case noted above, everyone is suffering, the organization is suffering and the individual is unknowingly suffering because everyone is vocal behind his back about the problem, but not to his face.

Whether you want to admit it or not, the truth is, failure to act and/or address a problem is the equivalent of allowing and/or approving of the behavior.  In the case of the one I work with passive behavior will lead to loss of numerous jobs, negative impact on a much larger than the organization itself and ultimately mass humiliation for the individual.

Sometimes we justify our inaction with the ‘what goes around comes around’ mentality.  This is a weak idea and disaster of a plan.  Bottom line, your unwillingness to address a problem makes you a problem too.  None of us are an island.  Sticking with the ‘somebody else will do it’ pattern means you are not only hurting yourself and your future you are hurting all those that come in contact with you.