Just Plain Bill
Arrogance, the 8th Deadly
Sin
Once in a while, I’m reminded of
the seven deadly sins – wrath, greed,
sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony – when considering the news of the
day. The seven
deadly sins, according to Wikepedia, “is a grouping and classification of vices…”
Arrogance is what I’d consider the 8th deadly sin.
Now some might associate arrogance with one of the
existing sins, greed, (silent, but
deadly, in my opinion), but I feel arrogance can often be masked by bombastic
expressions of “bragging” and persistent expressions of superiority.
What gives rise to this interest is the example of
arrogance found in the leadership of one of the world’s largest financial
institutions – Wells Fargo. In a recent conference on
Good Corporate Governance, Wells’ CEO praised his board as “exceptional”, and the
San Francisco Chronicle reporter Thomas Lee opened his column with the
following: "Give this to Wells Fargo CEO Timothy
Sloan: It takes a lot of guts to speak at a conference dedicated to good
corporate governance when the bank you lead has confessed to employees creating
up to two million fraudulent accounts in customers’ names. What takes even
more guts is openly gushing about said company’s board of directors, the very
people who failed to prevent that massive fraud. It’s a strange kind of
courage, but not the type Wells Fargo requires right now." (6/28/17, S.F. Chronicle, page C1.)
I hesitate to paint the whole organization with a
broad brush, as I personally know several Wells professionals who are
outstanding leaders with unquestionable integrity, but as a whole, too many of
Wells’ top decision makers demonstrated either a lack of awareness or
disinterest as the Wells’ culture fostered an acute sense of poor
judgment.
Some may say that’s an extreme viewpoint, and that I
shouldn’t be focusing on just one organization, but I used to work at Wells. I
experienced a healthy environment in my business line, while knowing several
friends who did, and still do good work at Wells. But there’s one critical and
relatively overlooked area that’s been victimized by Wells’ arrogance: the
Wells’ employees who refused, or were not able to the meet the unreasonable and
unethical standards of sales performance goals and were not only fired, but
were labeled or branded as unfit for working in financial services. This made
it difficult, if not impossible for these branch employees to gain further
employment in their chosen profession. What a crime!
I could provide other unfortunate examples of the
victims who have suffered through no fault of their own, due to this arrogance,
the “8th deadly sin”, but…
Enough said!
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