Following the previous entry about psychopaths in senior positions, word reaches me of the behaviour of a former boss of a British bank who allegedly threatened catering staff with disciplinary action because of their failure on one occasion to provide him with his preferred biscuit.

And on another occasion, allegedly, this man’s staff went into massive panic mode because of an accident in his office (a window cleaner fell from his ladder) which resulted in a broken model aeroplane on the CEO’s desk.

These tales have emerged in a new book by Matthew Hancock and Nadhim Zahawi called ‘Masters of Nothing: How the crash will happen again unless we understand human nature’.

The book argues that failure to understand how certain figures rise to senior levels (the bullish bring promoted, particularly during a boom, while the more cautious are overlooked—and all that usual corporate ladder bull) will mean that a similar global financial meltdown could happen again.

But back to our banker.

Apparently, as his bank ran up huge losses he wasted money indulging his own tastes and lifestyle—all the usual stuff with unnecessarily and expensively decorated offices, fruit flown in from Paris and stand-by chauffeurs.

This company stood by while a culture of fear was established and where challenge wasn’t tolerated. Don’t let it happen in yours.

Tags: banker biscuit boom boss ceo chauffeurs corporate ladder crash culture of fear disciplinary action failure financial meltdown human nature losses masters matthew hancock model aeroplane panic mode psychopathic psychopathic banker psychopaths tastes usual stuff