Good guy Syndrome

The Plight of the Corporate Martyr

CASE - Eric was a brilliant technical architect who was participating on a proposal team for a huge deal. Prior to "The Big Presentation", he came up with a brilliant idea. He would print out a giant diagram of the system design, which could then be proudly displayed during the presentation and left as a prominent artifact for the prospect. To do so, Eric ran down to the local Kinko's to print out the drawing on their large format printer. Upon arriving, he found that the printer was broken. They recommended that he could drive 10 miles to the next Kinko's to use their functioning printer. Not Eric. As a self-admitted overly nice guy, he ended up working through the night at Kinko's to help them fix their printer. While he succeeded in repairing the printer, he was completely spent for the presentation the following morning and for several days thereafter. Corporate Martyr; yes or no?

Actions like Eric's are not uncommon in the business world, as workers aim to please their managers, co-workers, customers, suppliers and peers. However, when these efforts become so self-sacrificing, a real cost emerges as the overly nice guys kill themselves in the pursuit of making others happy. 

Personal opinion

The above example clearly describes the meaning of Good guy syndrome. In the above example, in order to maintain good relation in future Eric sacrificed his presentation for repairing the printer. It would have been more comfortable for him to go to another Kinko's, and get the print of the giant diagram of the system design, get a good night's sleep, and then participate in the presentation in a meaningful way. If he still felt it appropriate to help Kinko's, he could do so after the presentation was over. In this way he would have not harmed himself as well as his organisation. Actions like Eric's are not uncommon in the business world, in order to have good relations in future, people make legally dangerous statements to make themselves as well as receiver fell better.

Question

1) Do you feel good guy syndrome is beneficial for business in long term?

Citation

Russ Edelman: Nice Guy Syndrome: The Plight of the Corporate Martyr. (n.d.). Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-edelman/nice-guy-syndrome-the-pli_b_116117.html