By Oluwole Dada
Many years ago, I watched a department head spend almost an hour in a management meeting arguing about desk arrangements. The point of conflict was not for strategic planning, not for productivity optimization but for who sits where. The entire leadership team sat there, trapped in this tedious theater while critical decisions waited. This is what pettiness does. It shrinks the leader’s world until a seat arrangement becomes more important than the market share. Here’s the absolute truth: petty leaders make petty organizations, and that leads to divisions and conflicts over petty issues. It’s not only annoying but also destructive.
Being petty as a leader makes you fret over insignificant issues. You become upset over matters that are inconsequential. Great leaders see the big picture, and that influences their perspective. They don’t react to every issue, thereby promoting harmony. Satya Nadella took over Microsoft in 2014 when the company was drowning in internal politics. Teams were siloed. Executives were more focused on protecting their territories than building products customers loved. Nadella could have gotten caught up in that pettiness, playing favorites, settling scores, and micromanaging who got credit for what. Instead, he lifted everyone’s eyes to a bigger vision. He empowered everyone and transformed the organization into a trillion-dollar company.
Petty actions could mean doing something in an attempt to hurt someone but ending up looking stupid. True leaders are to be above board in relating with their team members. There’s no gain in purposefully hurting your team members. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he had every reason to be petty. He had been pushed out years earlier, and humiliated. He could have spent his energy settling old scores, reminding people who was right all along, making life miserable for those who had doubted him. Instead, he focused on one thing: making insanely great products. He even partnered with Microsoft, Apple’s longtime rival, because it was the right move for the company. No pettiness. Just purpose.
Vices such as lies, jealousy, bitterness, and throwing team members under the bus are indicative of a petty environment. It leads to a toxic atmosphere. Leaders need to be deliberate about creating a supportive system that will lead to a healthy environment. Petty organizations can easily be spotted. If you listen to how people talk in the hallway and what happens in meetings when someone makes a mistake, it can give you an indication of how petty an organization is. Notice whether people celebrate each other’s wins or find ways to diminish them.
At Enron, before the spectacular collapse, the culture was brutally petty. Leaders pitted teams against each other. Performance reviews were designed to humiliate the bottom performers. People hoarded information because knowledge was power, and sharing was weakness. Backstabbing wasn’t just tolerated but was practically required. That pettiness rotted the company from the inside long before the accounting fraud brought it down. Compare this with how Alan Mulally turned around Ford when he joined the company in 2006. The previous situation saw executives hiding problems from one another and the company was losing money. In his weekly meetings, Mulally demanded openness and was always interested in a collaborative approach to solving problems.
Alan’s approach changed the culture and suddenly, it was safe to tell the truth. People stopped protecting themselves and started protecting the company. Rooting out pettiness deliberately creates space for people to be honest, to be vulnerable, and to focus on solving problems instead of covering their backs. Great leaders, who truly make impact, possess an uncanny ability to see the bigger picture. This panoramic vision shapes their perspective, allowing them to distinguish between a genuine crisis and a minor hiccup. Consequently, they don’t overreact to every minor protocol breach or every small perceived slight. Instead, they foster an environment where harmony can flourish, where energy is directed towards growth, and not grievances.
Other examples of petty actions in an organization could be a departmental head who consistently “forgets” to include a key team member in important meetings, or who publicly downplays his contributions during a review, all because of a personal dislike or a perceived threat to his own standing. This isn’t strategy but sabotage. A unit head who becomes upset over matters that are inconsequential in the larger scheme of things. A junior staff makes a small mistake in a presentation and you punish them for weeks. Someone forgets to greet you properly in the corridor and you mark him down in your mind. A colleague gets recognition from senior management, and instead of being happy for them, you start looking for ways to bring them down a notch.
In closing, to avoid pettiness in a unit or department, you must be deliberate about focusing on the big picture. Focus more on productivity, customer satisfaction, innovation, and execution rather than side dramas and emotional quarrels. Model generosity with credit and stinginess with blame. Show your team that honesty and openness is rewarded, and not punished. Lastly, make it clear that protecting the work matters more than protecting anyone’s ego.
Oluwole Dada is the General Manager at SecureID Limited, Africa’s largest smart card manufacturing plant in Lagos, Nigeria.
