8 signs of infantilism in business
Today I want to talk about what infantilism is in business, how it manifests itself and what the consequences it leads to. This article is designed, first of all, to help all those who provide services to business (in the IT field and not only), I also think that this material will be useful to those who decided to get a job, so as to identify signs of an infantile leader at the stage Negotiations are very important at least in order to understand how the work in the company will be structured and what problems you may encounter in the future.
As usual, all my materials are based on practical experience, and I will speak not only about problems, but also about methods for solving them. In addition, I want to say at once that, in fact, there are much more than eight signs of infantilism, and I understand it perfectly. But still, for the article I chose those that, from my point of view, are the very critical factors that can negatively affect any cooperation. It is on them that I emphasize.
In addition to articles about software products and methods of their implementation, I am also interested in other aspects of business. As a consultant, I studied the work of a significant number of companies that operate in various fields. And on this issue, I also write articles. I studied the reasons for failures, and wrote the article “ How to lose a business, ” I studied methods of abuse in various companies, and also wrote an article to help businessmen “ 10 ways to abuse employees in their positions and how to deal with them using the accounting system, ” I have and articles devoted to the difficulties of cooperation between IT companies and businesses, for example, “ Mediators or why a performer is always“ guilty ”in Russia by the example of an IT project ”, as well as descriptions of the negative impact on business of the abuse of friendly and gender relations “ Relatives and friends in business ”.
')
And today I want, I repeat, to talk about the infantilism of managers and businessmen, how it can manifest itself, and why it is important to pay attention to this.
Because of my work as a business consultant in the field of small and medium-sized businesses, I regularly came across phenomena that were not completely clear to me in dealing with businessmen, and at times I was also surprised by their actions and I constantly rethink such situations.
I have been working in this field for 12 years already, and over the years many companies have taken advantage of my services. These were large projects, some small consultations, and negotiations, which for one reason or another did not end in full-fledged cooperation. Honestly, the exact figures are difficult to call, but over the years I managed to see about 600-700 companies as a business consultant. And, as a result, I managed to collect some statistics.
There have been a lot of calls to me in recent years, because thanks to my articles, for example, how to choose a CRM system, about who a business consultant is, how he should implement software implementation, various CRM system reviews and other business software and many others, very different people will find out about me, they write to me, call, ask questions, invite me as a business consultant.
And in the mass of these requests, as well as during negotiations with clients, I occasionally came across requests of a certain type. This could be a letter asking for clarification at some point in working with 1C or a particular CRM system, or asking for clarification on how best to implement CRM in a particular case, or please help with some minor modifications. And each time when I clarified whether people were ready to pay for help, it turned out that they were waiting for me to spend time and energy completely free to solve their problem.
Those. these people have read my article, a voluminous, very informative, have already received a lot of useful information from a finished article, and then they also write or call and ask for a free service. For a long time I could not understand how it could even occur to me - to try to get a free service from a professional.
After all, it is obvious that if a person is a professional, then he does not have extra time to provide targeted free help. Moreover, it is clear that any professional takes payment for his services, because this is his job, his “bread”.
Moreover, I personally have always argued like this. If I do something, I want to implement some project, some idea, but at the same time I need professional help, then I have to pay for this help. And if this idea and project also brings me a profit, then there is nothing even to think about - any help in this case should be paid. After all, it is clear that business has nothing to do with charity!
At the same time, I, as a specialist, constantly receive such requests for free help, and the clients with whom I negotiate or even start working sometimes make similar attempts to get something for free.
I believe that the development and implementation of software is a very demanding job, requiring responsibility, consistency, attentiveness and many other qualities inherent in an adult. And cooperation in this field is always a process in which both parties, the customer, and the performer (IT specialist, implementation specialist, consultant) must show all these qualities fully, otherwise cooperation may end in a sad way. And such requests or attempts to get something “in between” and “free of charge” for me have always been something extremely strange.
For a long time I could not understand the reasons for such strange phenomena, and after talking with one person, I finally found the right word - this is the most common infantilism.
It is very important not to confuse infantilism with such qualities as sloppiness, untidiness, and lack of constitution. An adult can be sloppy and inconsiderate, but at the same time be an adult. And it can be very pedantic and attentive, but at the same time preserve the infantile perception of reality.
When we talk about infantile, the image of such a good-natured small, large and somewhat naive "adult child" most often comes to mind. I do not want to talk about these people, but about infantile features, which, it would seem, for adults and even often successful people are prevented from living on their own, and bring problems to people with whom they cooperate and communicate. So what are the traits of these people?
When working with these people, any conflict, any problem or just their dissatisfaction with you, including exclusively on a personal level (the person does not like you and that's it!) Can end sadly. Unlike psychologically adults, infantils will not understand whether your fault is causing a problem, will not try to separate their emotions from the work process, it will simply be avenged. Moreover, such people take revenge as children - cruelly, stupidly, without any meaning.
We all remember the movie "Scarecrow", and in life we ​​are constantly confronted with child cruelty and vindictiveness, often even unreasonable. It is the same here, but when an adult and even a business leader behaves this way, he can deliver more troubles than a child, and somehow few people are ready for such an eventuality when dealing with adults.
What is it manifested in practice? For example, an employee who just didn’t like something will constantly face nagging, slashing, constantly feeling negative. There are also very unpleasant cases when an old employee leaves and a new one comes in his place. It is very difficult and to take matters from such a person, and to transfer. I, as an outsider, are a little easier on this issue, but there are also unpleasant situations related to the fact that such a person begins to see me as an enemy. And here, no logic and reasoning help. This enmity is purely emotional.
Infantile people perceive work as somewhat childish, they do not evaluate the result itself and its relevance for the task set, but at the level of emotions, i.e. Like or dislike It is very difficult to convince them that the work was done as he himself ordered, because in response you will most likely come across phrases from the series “I didn’t mean it.”
Why do I think this behavior is infantile? Remember how you usually negotiate something with the children. If the child likes your arrangement, he adheres to it. If tomorrow or the day after tomorrow he really wanted to break it, that's exactly what he does, violates everything you agreed on, and then says that he “forgot”, “did not understand” or in general “it was not fair all”. True, it seems?
As a result of communication with this type of executives, I personally took it as a rule to write everything down: to fix agreements on paper under a signature, to record telephone conversations, etc. An adult responsible person will not give up his words even without that, and managers of this type from time to time need confirmation that this is exactly what they said, exactly this option they ordered, etc.
Infantile people, when they do not like something, very often express emotions in a very sharp form, as they say, "go into the dressing." Angry tirades, threats and accusations can be directed against subordinates if the boss finds them guilty of the problem, or against outsiders if he is not satisfied with their services.
Instead of calmly explaining the problem and trying to find a solution together with employees or executors, the culprit is “appointed” (and it doesn't matter if he is really guilty), and tons of anger come down on him. Do not confuse this with the anger of an adult, who usually does not go beyond the generally accepted norms.
This behavior is also very often inherent in children. Failures, troubles, problems cause not a logical, but an emotional reaction. And we all know a lot about children's anger - shouting, foot stomping, hysterics - this is familiar to both parents and many others.
Here I’m not talking about being stingy, as a trait of character, when a person is ready to save on everything and forces them to do the same to their relatives and employees in order to collect the amount for some goals or even just for a rainy day. I'm talking about senseless, irrational greed.
For example, I will give a story from my own childhood. We often shared with the neighbors' children some delicacies that mom bought and cooked in abundance. Not because someone was deprived, and me and my friends did not live poorly. My mother just thought that sharing is right and taught me the same thing. Then one day we went out with my mother, and the neighbor boy came to meet us and was eating a peach. At the same time, he does this: he bit off - and immediately hides his hand behind his back, as if “he has nothing”. And when he saw us, he also quickly hid his hand. Of course, no one would ask him for this peach, even in response to the fact that they constantly shared something with him. And, most likely, he understood it himself. But - greed was stronger than reason.
So it is in business. For example, I had clients whose net profit reached 5 million rubles and above. And they knew that I was aware of their financial situation. But at the same time, they bargained with me for the last 10 thousand rubles (and sometimes for smaller amounts). For a long time I could not understand why they are doing this? After all, for them, this difference in the amount really means almost nothing. They are ready to pay the amount of 100 or 200 thousand for a mobile phone or any other pleasure. And in this case they will not suffer. But at the same time they can spend a lot of time to bargain for a discount of 10 or 20 thousand rubles.
And then I realized - this is the same childish greed, which makes no sense. This is not hoarding, not prudence, they just brought them up like this in their childhood - “not giving anything to anyone,” and they brought these children's habits into adulthood.
It is not a secret for anybody that in children conceit is always very high, even somewhat “bloated”. Children, if they grow up in a normal family, are up to a certain age completely confident that the world exists and even “revolves” around them. Yes, and then very often parents notice how, in response to an attempt to suggest something to a child, the offensively condescending phrase “I knew it myself” follows. Although you and the child understand that this is not true, it’s just that self-conceit doesn’t allow one to admit to being wrong.
Some people, the very infantils, manage to carry this childish conceit through life. This is by no means a "Napoleon complex" or other psychological deviations. The man is completely healthy. Simply, he really considers himself the most intelligent, special, thereby the "navel of the earth" to which everyone should and whom everyone should obey.
As a result, such a manager is confident that he knows better than professionals how to do it. For example, he hires IT specialists to implement programs or integrate them among themselves, after which he explains in detail to third-party specialists how they should do their work.
I also did not understand for a long time why to do this? After all, if you hire a specialist to do some work, then you need a result. And the specialist has the necessary qualifications for this work, almost always, this qualification is higher than yours, otherwise you would just do everything yourself.
And then I realized that these people are not trying in this way to increase their value or in any way diminish the importance and value of your work. They are just sure that they know that too. Here they always and everywhere know “the best.”
Adults, by virtue of their experience, are usually able to understand the consequences of certain decisions taken. They understand that you need to first get into all the nuances, consider the consequences, and only after that decide how best to act and whether they need it at all.
But it would seem that there are adults who did not receive any important experience in childhood and youth, and therefore decisions are often made by such people impulsively, without an understanding of how it all ends.
For example, if a decision is made to introduce some kind of software system, an adult responsible person understands that it is not enough just to buy and configure. A complex software system will continue to require some kind of investment, technical support, maintenance by specialists, etc. They clarify and think through all these nuances before making a decision.
For infantile people very often, it would seem, the obvious consequences are a surprise to which they are not ready. That, of course, causes a negative emotional reaction and a lot of problems and conflicts.
Plus, very often these people do not understand the difference between the purchase of a product and software systems. If a product is something that is already finished and substantial, although even the same car also needs maintenance, then software systems are much more complicated, and they require constant human participation in their configuration, maintenance, some modifications, etc.
The fact that children often change their decisions, they also know, I think, everything. I started, tried, didn’t work or didn’t like something, turned around 180 degrees and said that “I didn’t want it, I want something completely different”. But these are children, they try, learn, it is difficult for them to calculate the consequences of their decisions or even to understand, and whether they really want to do this until they try. Children do not have the experience and prudence inherent in adults.
An accomplished businessman, it would seem, should be able to build some kind of strategy, make informed decisions, and then act strictly within the framework of what was planned.
But if the manager turns out to be an infantile person, you may encounter at any time that the requirements for the project change, it may even be that the project that is already half finished collapses simply because the manager has changed his mind and now he wants to get something completely different.
I think that these are consequences of the very childhood whims and fickleness that they indulged in the family and continue to indulge even in adulthood. And these qualities a person also carries in a business that interferes, in fact, both to him and to the people who work with him.
Children, because of lack of experience, very often don’t appreciate someone else’s work, they need to be taught this. A small child can break an expensive laptop and not understand why parents were more upset at the same time than when he broke a cheap toy car. Or, immediately after the cleaning, which mom made in the room, she can chop up the cookies, and also wonder why mom swears, because once - and already swept again. All this should be explained to the children, and this should be done in a timely manner.
If a person has grown up and brought into the business of a lack of understanding of the value of the labor of others, he, like a child, will treat all actions of employees and the services rendered by specialists as due. For such people, the work done loses its value very quickly. And the attitude to the service performed also changes accordingly. Here you will not see any thanks in the future, nor an understanding of how major and serious work you have done. Only - claims and requirements, if suddenly something will be needed more.
I used to think that this way a person is trying to get free extra services or a discount on a new project. Some businessmen really use these methods quite consciously in order to save money. But most often this attitude is simply a lack of respect for the work of others in principle. They value their work and are very high; almost nothing is worthless to them.
Now in business, more and more young managers, who are about 30 years old or a little older, who have already grown up in a modern business system, have never seen the development of a business in the 90s. Many of these people grew up in wealthy families, in “greenhouse” conditions, when things got easy, parents spoiled, etc. These people have received minimal experience of problems and their independent solution. Many and in business came immediately to senior positions under the patronage of parents or into their business. Others also received start-up capital without effort. In many ways, the reason for such immaturity is probably the fact that life itself has allowed people to remain children for as long as possible.
The reality surrounding us also contributes to this - the very thing that marketers are trying to instill in all of us, modern priorities that young people absorb from childhood, in which “cool” cars or mobiles are much more important than achievements in sports or schooling. There are obviously a lot of reasons here, and professional sociologists will be better able to tell about them.
But how to deal with this phenomenon in practice, I can tell on the basis of my own experience:
And the best protection against infantile customers and the problems associated with them is simply not to work with such customers. Of course, I do not say “no” in case of any suspicion of immaturity, among people with some immaturity there are also a lot of very good customers with whom we worked very well. If I refused to everyone in a row and “shied away from every shadow,” I would simply not be able to work actively, as well as write articles based on my practical experience.
But if I see that some of the above qualities are present and pronounced, if the client at the negotiation stage shows unmotivated greed, constantly changes decisions, is emotional and aggressive, or any other qualities that I know already from experience , then develop into problems in the implementation of the project, I just refuse to cooperate. It saves me both time and nerves.
As usual, all my materials are based on practical experience, and I will speak not only about problems, but also about methods for solving them. In addition, I want to say at once that, in fact, there are much more than eight signs of infantilism, and I understand it perfectly. But still, for the article I chose those that, from my point of view, are the very critical factors that can negatively affect any cooperation. It is on them that I emphasize.
In addition to articles about software products and methods of their implementation, I am also interested in other aspects of business. As a consultant, I studied the work of a significant number of companies that operate in various fields. And on this issue, I also write articles. I studied the reasons for failures, and wrote the article “ How to lose a business, ” I studied methods of abuse in various companies, and also wrote an article to help businessmen “ 10 ways to abuse employees in their positions and how to deal with them using the accounting system, ” I have and articles devoted to the difficulties of cooperation between IT companies and businesses, for example, “ Mediators or why a performer is always“ guilty ”in Russia by the example of an IT project ”, as well as descriptions of the negative impact on business of the abuse of friendly and gender relations “ Relatives and friends in business ”.
')
And today I want, I repeat, to talk about the infantilism of managers and businessmen, how it can manifest itself, and why it is important to pay attention to this.
Why did I decide to write this article?
Because of my work as a business consultant in the field of small and medium-sized businesses, I regularly came across phenomena that were not completely clear to me in dealing with businessmen, and at times I was also surprised by their actions and I constantly rethink such situations.
I have been working in this field for 12 years already, and over the years many companies have taken advantage of my services. These were large projects, some small consultations, and negotiations, which for one reason or another did not end in full-fledged cooperation. Honestly, the exact figures are difficult to call, but over the years I managed to see about 600-700 companies as a business consultant. And, as a result, I managed to collect some statistics.
There have been a lot of calls to me in recent years, because thanks to my articles, for example, how to choose a CRM system, about who a business consultant is, how he should implement software implementation, various CRM system reviews and other business software and many others, very different people will find out about me, they write to me, call, ask questions, invite me as a business consultant.
And in the mass of these requests, as well as during negotiations with clients, I occasionally came across requests of a certain type. This could be a letter asking for clarification at some point in working with 1C or a particular CRM system, or asking for clarification on how best to implement CRM in a particular case, or please help with some minor modifications. And each time when I clarified whether people were ready to pay for help, it turned out that they were waiting for me to spend time and energy completely free to solve their problem.
Those. these people have read my article, a voluminous, very informative, have already received a lot of useful information from a finished article, and then they also write or call and ask for a free service. For a long time I could not understand how it could even occur to me - to try to get a free service from a professional.
After all, it is obvious that if a person is a professional, then he does not have extra time to provide targeted free help. Moreover, it is clear that any professional takes payment for his services, because this is his job, his “bread”.
Moreover, I personally have always argued like this. If I do something, I want to implement some project, some idea, but at the same time I need professional help, then I have to pay for this help. And if this idea and project also brings me a profit, then there is nothing even to think about - any help in this case should be paid. After all, it is clear that business has nothing to do with charity!
At the same time, I, as a specialist, constantly receive such requests for free help, and the clients with whom I negotiate or even start working sometimes make similar attempts to get something for free.
I believe that the development and implementation of software is a very demanding job, requiring responsibility, consistency, attentiveness and many other qualities inherent in an adult. And cooperation in this field is always a process in which both parties, the customer, and the performer (IT specialist, implementation specialist, consultant) must show all these qualities fully, otherwise cooperation may end in a sad way. And such requests or attempts to get something “in between” and “free of charge” for me have always been something extremely strange.
For a long time I could not understand the reasons for such strange phenomena, and after talking with one person, I finally found the right word - this is the most common infantilism.
Infantile people are, in fact, adult children, they, despite their age and even certain business success, do not want to grow up or cannot grow up due to some of their psychological characteristics.
It is very important not to confuse infantilism with such qualities as sloppiness, untidiness, and lack of constitution. An adult can be sloppy and inconsiderate, but at the same time be an adult. And it can be very pedantic and attentive, but at the same time preserve the infantile perception of reality.
Traits of an infantile person
When we talk about infantile, the image of such a good-natured small, large and somewhat naive "adult child" most often comes to mind. I do not want to talk about these people, but about infantile features, which, it would seem, for adults and even often successful people are prevented from living on their own, and bring problems to people with whom they cooperate and communicate. So what are the traits of these people?
Vengefulness
When working with these people, any conflict, any problem or just their dissatisfaction with you, including exclusively on a personal level (the person does not like you and that's it!) Can end sadly. Unlike psychologically adults, infantils will not understand whether your fault is causing a problem, will not try to separate their emotions from the work process, it will simply be avenged. Moreover, such people take revenge as children - cruelly, stupidly, without any meaning.
We all remember the movie "Scarecrow", and in life we ​​are constantly confronted with child cruelty and vindictiveness, often even unreasonable. It is the same here, but when an adult and even a business leader behaves this way, he can deliver more troubles than a child, and somehow few people are ready for such an eventuality when dealing with adults.
What is it manifested in practice? For example, an employee who just didn’t like something will constantly face nagging, slashing, constantly feeling negative. There are also very unpleasant cases when an old employee leaves and a new one comes in his place. It is very difficult and to take matters from such a person, and to transfer. I, as an outsider, are a little easier on this issue, but there are also unpleasant situations related to the fact that such a person begins to see me as an enemy. And here, no logic and reasoning help. This enmity is purely emotional.
The perception of work "Like / Dislike"
Infantile people perceive work as somewhat childish, they do not evaluate the result itself and its relevance for the task set, but at the level of emotions, i.e. Like or dislike It is very difficult to convince them that the work was done as he himself ordered, because in response you will most likely come across phrases from the series “I didn’t mean it.”
Why do I think this behavior is infantile? Remember how you usually negotiate something with the children. If the child likes your arrangement, he adheres to it. If tomorrow or the day after tomorrow he really wanted to break it, that's exactly what he does, violates everything you agreed on, and then says that he “forgot”, “did not understand” or in general “it was not fair all”. True, it seems?
As a result of communication with this type of executives, I personally took it as a rule to write everything down: to fix agreements on paper under a signature, to record telephone conversations, etc. An adult responsible person will not give up his words even without that, and managers of this type from time to time need confirmation that this is exactly what they said, exactly this option they ordered, etc.
Stormy emotions in case of discontent
Infantile people, when they do not like something, very often express emotions in a very sharp form, as they say, "go into the dressing." Angry tirades, threats and accusations can be directed against subordinates if the boss finds them guilty of the problem, or against outsiders if he is not satisfied with their services.
Instead of calmly explaining the problem and trying to find a solution together with employees or executors, the culprit is “appointed” (and it doesn't matter if he is really guilty), and tons of anger come down on him. Do not confuse this with the anger of an adult, who usually does not go beyond the generally accepted norms.
This behavior is also very often inherent in children. Failures, troubles, problems cause not a logical, but an emotional reaction. And we all know a lot about children's anger - shouting, foot stomping, hysterics - this is familiar to both parents and many others.
Greed
Here I’m not talking about being stingy, as a trait of character, when a person is ready to save on everything and forces them to do the same to their relatives and employees in order to collect the amount for some goals or even just for a rainy day. I'm talking about senseless, irrational greed.
For example, I will give a story from my own childhood. We often shared with the neighbors' children some delicacies that mom bought and cooked in abundance. Not because someone was deprived, and me and my friends did not live poorly. My mother just thought that sharing is right and taught me the same thing. Then one day we went out with my mother, and the neighbor boy came to meet us and was eating a peach. At the same time, he does this: he bit off - and immediately hides his hand behind his back, as if “he has nothing”. And when he saw us, he also quickly hid his hand. Of course, no one would ask him for this peach, even in response to the fact that they constantly shared something with him. And, most likely, he understood it himself. But - greed was stronger than reason.
So it is in business. For example, I had clients whose net profit reached 5 million rubles and above. And they knew that I was aware of their financial situation. But at the same time, they bargained with me for the last 10 thousand rubles (and sometimes for smaller amounts). For a long time I could not understand why they are doing this? After all, for them, this difference in the amount really means almost nothing. They are ready to pay the amount of 100 or 200 thousand for a mobile phone or any other pleasure. And in this case they will not suffer. But at the same time they can spend a lot of time to bargain for a discount of 10 or 20 thousand rubles.
And then I realized - this is the same childish greed, which makes no sense. This is not hoarding, not prudence, they just brought them up like this in their childhood - “not giving anything to anyone,” and they brought these children's habits into adulthood.
Conceit
It is not a secret for anybody that in children conceit is always very high, even somewhat “bloated”. Children, if they grow up in a normal family, are up to a certain age completely confident that the world exists and even “revolves” around them. Yes, and then very often parents notice how, in response to an attempt to suggest something to a child, the offensively condescending phrase “I knew it myself” follows. Although you and the child understand that this is not true, it’s just that self-conceit doesn’t allow one to admit to being wrong.
Some people, the very infantils, manage to carry this childish conceit through life. This is by no means a "Napoleon complex" or other psychological deviations. The man is completely healthy. Simply, he really considers himself the most intelligent, special, thereby the "navel of the earth" to which everyone should and whom everyone should obey.
As a result, such a manager is confident that he knows better than professionals how to do it. For example, he hires IT specialists to implement programs or integrate them among themselves, after which he explains in detail to third-party specialists how they should do their work.
I also did not understand for a long time why to do this? After all, if you hire a specialist to do some work, then you need a result. And the specialist has the necessary qualifications for this work, almost always, this qualification is higher than yours, otherwise you would just do everything yourself.
And then I realized that these people are not trying in this way to increase their value or in any way diminish the importance and value of your work. They are just sure that they know that too. Here they always and everywhere know “the best.”
Underestimation of consequences
Adults, by virtue of their experience, are usually able to understand the consequences of certain decisions taken. They understand that you need to first get into all the nuances, consider the consequences, and only after that decide how best to act and whether they need it at all.
But it would seem that there are adults who did not receive any important experience in childhood and youth, and therefore decisions are often made by such people impulsively, without an understanding of how it all ends.
For example, if a decision is made to introduce some kind of software system, an adult responsible person understands that it is not enough just to buy and configure. A complex software system will continue to require some kind of investment, technical support, maintenance by specialists, etc. They clarify and think through all these nuances before making a decision.
For infantile people very often, it would seem, the obvious consequences are a surprise to which they are not ready. That, of course, causes a negative emotional reaction and a lot of problems and conflicts.
Plus, very often these people do not understand the difference between the purchase of a product and software systems. If a product is something that is already finished and substantial, although even the same car also needs maintenance, then software systems are much more complicated, and they require constant human participation in their configuration, maintenance, some modifications, etc.
Variability of decisions
The fact that children often change their decisions, they also know, I think, everything. I started, tried, didn’t work or didn’t like something, turned around 180 degrees and said that “I didn’t want it, I want something completely different”. But these are children, they try, learn, it is difficult for them to calculate the consequences of their decisions or even to understand, and whether they really want to do this until they try. Children do not have the experience and prudence inherent in adults.
An accomplished businessman, it would seem, should be able to build some kind of strategy, make informed decisions, and then act strictly within the framework of what was planned.
But if the manager turns out to be an infantile person, you may encounter at any time that the requirements for the project change, it may even be that the project that is already half finished collapses simply because the manager has changed his mind and now he wants to get something completely different.
I think that these are consequences of the very childhood whims and fickleness that they indulged in the family and continue to indulge even in adulthood. And these qualities a person also carries in a business that interferes, in fact, both to him and to the people who work with him.
Lack of respect for the labor of others
Children, because of lack of experience, very often don’t appreciate someone else’s work, they need to be taught this. A small child can break an expensive laptop and not understand why parents were more upset at the same time than when he broke a cheap toy car. Or, immediately after the cleaning, which mom made in the room, she can chop up the cookies, and also wonder why mom swears, because once - and already swept again. All this should be explained to the children, and this should be done in a timely manner.
If a person has grown up and brought into the business of a lack of understanding of the value of the labor of others, he, like a child, will treat all actions of employees and the services rendered by specialists as due. For such people, the work done loses its value very quickly. And the attitude to the service performed also changes accordingly. Here you will not see any thanks in the future, nor an understanding of how major and serious work you have done. Only - claims and requirements, if suddenly something will be needed more.
I used to think that this way a person is trying to get free extra services or a discount on a new project. Some businessmen really use these methods quite consciously in order to save money. But most often this attitude is simply a lack of respect for the work of others in principle. They value their work and are very high; almost nothing is worthless to them.
Causes of infantilism in business and methods of dealing with them
Now in business, more and more young managers, who are about 30 years old or a little older, who have already grown up in a modern business system, have never seen the development of a business in the 90s. Many of these people grew up in wealthy families, in “greenhouse” conditions, when things got easy, parents spoiled, etc. These people have received minimal experience of problems and their independent solution. Many and in business came immediately to senior positions under the patronage of parents or into their business. Others also received start-up capital without effort. In many ways, the reason for such immaturity is probably the fact that life itself has allowed people to remain children for as long as possible.
The reality surrounding us also contributes to this - the very thing that marketers are trying to instill in all of us, modern priorities that young people absorb from childhood, in which “cool” cars or mobiles are much more important than achievements in sports or schooling. There are obviously a lot of reasons here, and professional sociologists will be better able to tell about them.
But how to deal with this phenomenon in practice, I can tell on the basis of my own experience:
- All arrangements are fixed. With no exceptions. No agreements "in words" in important matters.
- For telephone conversations with customers, I use working telephony, all conversations in which are recorded. The client hears an automatic notification about this before the conversation, and therefore always knows that I have a record of telephone communication.
- I excluded the smartphone from working contacts completely. For work, I use the simplest phone. So I got rid of messages from clients in Viber or in social networks without any questions. Even CMC communication with me has practically ceased, as with a simple phone it is not particularly convenient, and people understand such things. This ensures that important things customers will write to me in the mail or speak on the phone (under the record). Those. again, all negotiations will be recorded.
And the best protection against infantile customers and the problems associated with them is simply not to work with such customers. Of course, I do not say “no” in case of any suspicion of immaturity, among people with some immaturity there are also a lot of very good customers with whom we worked very well. If I refused to everyone in a row and “shied away from every shadow,” I would simply not be able to work actively, as well as write articles based on my practical experience.
But if I see that some of the above qualities are present and pronounced, if the client at the negotiation stage shows unmotivated greed, constantly changes decisions, is emotional and aggressive, or any other qualities that I know already from experience , then develop into problems in the implementation of the project, I just refuse to cooperate. It saves me both time and nerves.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/310198/
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