Mark Lyon

2) Competent Assholes (Remediate or Separate)
Competent assholes are high-performers, but exhibit behavioral tendencies that are incongruent with your company values. Given that “asshole” is not a clinical term, I will define it here as someone who lacks empathic behavior to the point that it causes interpersonal issues (I will explain the three types in Part 2, Anatomy of an Asshole and share three stories in Part 3, Breaking Bad: Why Good People Become Evil Bosses). The biggest mistake that I see companies make is that they will retain competent assholes because they are seen as critical to the company or difficult to replace. However, by doing so, they not only passively reinforce the competent asshole’s behavior by tolerating and promoting them, but they implicitly send the message to the rest of the company that you can basically get away with murder so long as leadership believes you to be indispensable. You can imagine what kind of culture this creates over time. In contrast, using the Performance-Values Matrix, an employee who’s competent but a complete asshole can only earn 50 percent of the maximum employee evaluation score, given that the other 50 percent of their evaluation is based on their values-congruent behavior.

There’s a reason that Professor Sutton called it the “No Asshole Rule,” and that is because exceptions shouldn’t be made, otherwise it shows your values are merely aspirational. The solution for competent assholes is what I call “remediate or separate”. Despite the fact that these folks are strong performers, it should be made clear that value-incongruent behavior is not tolerated and they will need to remediate their behavior in a measurable way within a limited time.

Thus, competent assholes should be put on what I call a “Values Improvement Plan” (VIP). 360° reviews, from an employee’s manager, peers and direct reports, are a great way to assess improvement, or else be separated from the company. The reason I like giving these folks a chance is that sometimes employees that are not too inflexible (or pathological) to change can improve when they realize that their job depends on it. Often times, this requires entering therapy or executive coaching with a skilled psychologist, which is worth its weight in gold if the employee is willing to change.

 

The above is amazing. The author fails to reason what we are supposed to do with incompetent assholes. Lyon was incompetent and inflexible. He saw no reason to change therefore he NEVER accepted feedback from his managers or peers. Instead he retaliated and made veiled threats and mounted negative back room campaigns against anyone who suggested there might be a better way to lead. Thankfully, he is gone.

 

100% accurate.

 

100% bullshit

 

Agreed .... Here's another ...

And ultimately, this misalignment drives people away–not just from individual leaders, but also from treating each other as neighbors. Even if they can’t fully articulate the source of their discomfort, followers of hypocritical leaders steadily become engaged and grow more likely to look out for themselves than for the overall good of the group. In the business world, organizations with hypocritical leaders tend to see higher turnover than those whose leaders’ actions match their words.

How many DM's left as a direct result of ML?
Even more reps left- even though they didn't directly work for him.

 

Also - ML was never a high performer. His contributions to any type of success were minimal - if anything they were a detriment. He was never qualified to be at any level of leadership. His only "performance" was that he played the "game" right and was in the right place at the right time - Any sales performance was a result of reps /managers that had to work harder (through his 80's micromanagement ) to succeed. I guess if you call activity and dinner programs performance he was great at getting that from his teams.

 

Nice try Mark. Unfortunately everything they say about you here is true!

 

All I know is this. Two weeks without a Mark Lyon email beat down about his expectations and I could not be happier. The Central POA in September is going to be a group celebration.

 

It will be like a New Years Eve party!!

 

Highest number of programs. Highest percentage of cancellations. Best call plan performance. Worst portfolio performance. Central was last in 4/5 products. Highest turnover. Poorest ranking. Mark was awesome.

 

Six weeks without a shitty conference call with this do nothing prick. Life at Salix post Lyon could not be any sweeter.

 

Holy shit we get your not a fan. Leave the guy alone already. It's a good job asshole. Sometimes you have to put up with certain people's bs

 

Clearly you never worked under this incredible douchebag. I think I speak for about 100 others in the central region when I say ML was a monster. He fucked with reps behind their backs and sabotaged anyone who attempted to move up. If you are defending him you are probably some asshole manager who sat still and let him mess with your reps.

And no, I'm obviously not a fan. Then again Mark had no fans.

 

i was a rep just like u asshole. Grow up. Oh my he is so bad. I'm going to cry. U little baby

 

I can tell you are a Magnifica dipshit who has no clue. Working in your little bubble as your first pharma job, you probably do think you have it made. But for those of us who came to this company when it was once a respected specialty company can fully appreciate how wonderful it is to be free of ML. When many of us have been in the industry for many years and worked hard to get here, only to return to the days of micromanaging and bullshit you expect to be free from, it can be extremely draining.

 

My response: .... What this person said!!!

 

Lyon was a sadistic prick who took great pleasure in messing with the people under him. Just to remind everyone he was the boss. Good riddance.

 

I launched xifaxan and worked under him. Yeah he was pretty bad...but you are being a huge pussy about it. Let it go.

 

This whole thread is bullcrap!!! Too many tough guys behind the Internet and not enough producers or hard workers. We accomplished a lot at Salix, please let's all move on. I read all the crap about how Mark is dying or how he was fired all incorrect! You won't find a harder worker than Mark and the Central Region will miss him in 6 months! I pray for your demented souls...

 

Nice try "real ML." You were not a hard worker. You were fired. And you accomplished nothing at Salix. Now you move on.