'A Christmas Carol' - A Journey of Bosshole® Transformation and Redemption

Hope and redemption are possible for all managers who are stuck in The Bosshole® Zone, and Charles Dickens gave us a perfect example of it back in 1843.  We can learn from Ebeneezer Scrooge that a change of heart is a decision made every day.

Related TBC episodes:

• Sara and John - Head, Heart, and Briefcase

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Transcript

John Broer: 0:04

Well, it is the Tuesday after Christmas 2023, and for all of our listeners out there in the Bosshole Transformation Nation that celebrate Christmas, we hope you had an amazing and blessed Christmas celebration with friends and family. For all of our listeners that don't celebrate Christmas, we hope that all of the holidays and all of the celebrations are just fulfilling and wonderful to you, and you're getting ready for a New Year's celebration to usher in 2024. Well, I can't believe it's taken me three years to talk about this, but one of the most beloved holiday stories is that of Ebenezer Scrooge, of course, a Christmas Carol, which was written by Charles Dickens back in 1843. First published then, and there have been dozens and dozens of adaptations and interpretations of the story in theater and film and I thought, oh my gosh, Dickens gave us a perfect example of a Bosshole back in the mid 1800s and I wonder if it was based on any personal experience. So I thought you know what? Let's go back and look at Ebenezer Scrooge and his circumstances through the lens of the world of Bosshole Transformation. So, a little lighthearted, since it's the day after Christmas and a lot of our listeners are probably taking a well-deserved break, let's just settle in, have a little chat about this and talk a little bit more about Old Ebenezer. The Bosshole Chronicles are brought to you by Real Good Ventures, a talent optimization firm helping organizations diagnose their most critical people and execution issues with world-class analytics. Make sure to check out all the resources in the show notes and be sure to follow us and share your feedback. Enjoy today's episode. So it's the day after Christmas and hopefully you are all slowing down just a little bit this week, hopefully being very intentional about spending time with friends and family, focusing on the wonderful blessings of the previous year and getting ready for the new year. But this oftentimes is a week where everybody kind of slows down, takes account for what's going on in their world and hopefully just really immersing themselves in all of the wonderful things that the holidays offer up.

John Broer: 2:33

I oftentimes like to find out from people, what are your go-to movies and shows when it comes to the holiday? What do you love to watch, and some of the ones that we always watch? What I would consider to be a more modern classic now and believe it or not I think it's like 20 years old is "Elf with Will Ferrell. John Favreau directed it. Elf is just an amazing and fun movie and has become part of a regular repertoire when it comes to watching shows during the holidays. Miracle on 34th Street. Now there have been a couple of adaptations of that one. The one that we prefer is the one with Natalie Wood. She is absolutely amazing in it and that is the best one. I think other ones like the Christmas Chronicles, Arthur Christmas, a Christmas Story.

John Broer: 3:21

I know years ago I think they ran "A Christmas Story 24 hours a day, for I don't know, it must have been a couple of weeks and I think maybe I got a bit oversaturated on it, but that's an amazing story. Christmas Vacation. For those of you that love the Griswolds and one of my personal favorites that is an absolute must is, It's a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart. Whether it's black and white or the colorized version, it doesn't really matter. It is such an amazingly sweet and powerful story of redemption and love and finding your purpose in life. If you will also love White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kay. But what I'm here to talk to you about today is A Christmas Carol.

John Broer: 4:03

Now, "A Christmas Carol. I don't think there is a story, and this was published again by Charles Dickens in 1843. I don't think there has been a story about Christmas in the holiday season that has more adaptations than a Christmas Carol, with the exception, probably, of the story of the birth of Jesus. But let's focus on a Christmas Carol. There are dozens and dozens of adaptations and different variations of this. I know that the one that I really enjoy the most Now Scrooge is with Bill Murray. Awesome, that's fun. Very different and very unique take on it the one that Disney did in 2009 with what's called Motion Capture Animation with Jim Carrey and actually he is the he and Gary Oldman are some of the characters, but Jim Carrey actually voiced over a lot of the characters. That version of a Christmas Carol is great. I love that.

John Broer: 4:59

There's actually something that came out last year with again Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, called "Spirited. I think Apple actually put this one on. Apple TV actually produced this one. It is. I think it's actually a really clever adaptation of the story.

John Broer: 5:15

But the bottom line is this we've been doing the Boss hole Chronicles for three years and, of course, we are always focused on how do we help managers and supervisors stay out of the Boss hole Zone, and it just sort of hit me how have I missed this in the previous years that Ebenezer Scrooge was like the ultimate Boss hole in literature. And I wonder, did Charles Dickens have a really horrible boss at some point, thinking, "I'm going to write a story about this person and I'm going to let the world know about it? So I have no, I have no context on that. I have no idea. However, knowing the story as I do, I thought, oh my gosh, what a great way to segue into 2024 by having a conversation and unpacking a little bit about Scrooge's story.

John Broer: 6:05

And what was it like for him the day after Christmas? So, in other words, Christmas Eve, he has his encounter with the three ghosts- the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present, the ghost of Christmas yet to come. We are familiar with that story. And then the next morning he wakes up, throws open the window, looks down, sees that young boy pulling a sled or at least that's how it's depicted and he said "oh, you know what day is it? And he said today is Christmas day and I didn't miss it. You know, the spirits did it all in one night. Okay, so he has him run off, buy the biggest turkey in the window or goose, depending on the adaptation and sends it to Bob Cratchett's house and then he goes to his nephew Fred's house for dinner that night and, by the way, there are other aspects in the book that are not depicted in a number of the movies. You know the cinematic adaptations.

John Broer: 6:58

However, the very next day, what happens? Okay, he has this transformation and he goes to the office and Bob Cratchett shows up and, at least in the Disney Jim Carrey adaptation, Bob Cratchett's a little bit late. Scrooge is messing with him a little bit and saying you know, you know, 12 minutes later, whatever. And Bob Cratchett says, "well, I was making rather merry over Christmas. And then Scrooge says I'm going to raise your salary. And come on, Bob, we have was sailing to do and go buy some coal, whatever. He was a transformed person, all right.

John Broer: 7:37

So when we think about transformation and here at the Bosshole Chronicles and the work that we do at Real Good Ventures, we are very consistent in saying that people don't change when it comes to their behavioral wiring. And, as many of our listeners know, we use the Predictive Index as- because it is by far the most scalable validated psychometric tool out there. It's very simple to use and the results are incredibly accurate. What it measures are your natural behavioral drives that you have had in place from a very young age. You can't measure it until somebody is in their late teens or in their early 20s, but these are behavioral drives that are well established at a very young age, which makes them predictive. So what we say is that people don't change. Circumstances change and people adapt to those circumstances. Well, oh my gosh, I mean, what better example of adaptation than Ebenezer Scrooge?

John Broer: 8:37

Now, think about this. All right, and I know you're thinking, "wow, john, you're really taking this interpretation and this story to a whole new level. Yes, I am, because I thought it'd be kind of fun and it's just sort of a lighthearted way to reflect on the holiday and talk about this amazing story that is gone from generation to generation. So if you remember when Scrooge went home and he was visited by his former partner, jacob Marley, all right, so Marley appears to him. Actually, marley's face appears in the door knocker. That's how it's depicted in the door knocker on the front door of Scrooge's mansion, and it startles him. He goes in, he hears the dragging of the chains and the money boxes and then, all of a sudden, marley appears.

John Broer: 9:26

They have this conversation where Scrooge says to him speak comfort to me. He says I have none to give. That comes from other places, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is given by other messengers to other kinds of people. Nor can I tell you what I would like to say. My spirit never traveled beyond the narrow limits of our money-c hanging hole and weary journeys lie before me. And then Scrooge says a lot of people remember this, but you are always a good man of business, Jacob. And then you know, Marley's ghost cries out business. And this is the line that always gets me: "Mankind ought to have been my business. The common welfare should have been my business. Charity, mercy, forgiveness and kindness were all to have been my business. The dealings of our company were but a drop of water in the larger ocean of my business. So that's it right there. If there is a bosshole transformation takeaway, it's that line from the story when Marley says mankind should have been my business, and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, right there, that could be another bosshole Chronicles t-shirt. Mankind should have been my business. Person kind should have been my business. So then of course we know the story that he goes through his visits with the three spirits and then he wakes up a transformed person. Now let's think about this In our world, at Real Good Ventures.

John Broer: 10:56

When we are working with people, we oftentimes frame a discussion around people, human beings, in three ways. We talk about the head, the heart and the briefcase, and, by the way, there's an episode on head, heart and briefcase. It'll be in the show notes. Go listen to it as well. But you can look at every person in these three ways and you have to look at the whole person, though. But the head, the heart and the briefcase.

John Broer: 11:20

Now, the briefcase is a person's resume. It's their credentials, it's their knowledge, skills, abilities and the work that they've done in the past. It's the stuff that people put on a resume. Now, what did Ebenezer Scrooge have? He had a lifetime of work in the financial world, in the world of accounting and lending. His briefcase and expertise was clearly in the exchanges of currency. So now the heart. That has to do with a person's core values, their interests and their passions.

John Broer: 11:53

All right, now that's really critical, and this is a hard thing to uncover unless you have a good behavioral- based interview process, unless you know somebody for a long period of time. And clearly, up until that night, Ebenezer Scrooge had contempt for other people that celebrated the holidays and made merry at Christmas, and especially the two businessmen that came to visit and asking for a charitable donation for people that could not care for themselves at the holidays. And, of course, are there no prisons? Is the union workhouse not functioning? Of course they all were, and he said that's where they need to go. Well, that's a hard issue, okay, and we learn about how hardened his heart was through the story. Now, as far as the head is concerned, with Ebenezer Scrooge, of course this was back in 1843. PI wasn't actually developed until 1955.

John Broer: 12:52

And aside from the fact that Ebenezer Scrooge is a fictional character, but let's just think about it, this is probably somebody who had a fairly high dominance drive, I would say a low, maybe a low extraversion drive. And let's just for the sake of argument, say it was more situational. Because, remember, in his upbringing he was left at school during the holidays by himself. He was abandoned by his family until one year they brought him back home. We don't know, from a nurturing standpoint, if he really loved to be around people or he preferred his isolation because he was forced into isolation as a young boy. Now, my guess on the patience drive, which has to do with pace, I don't think he was a methodical, more intentional person of higher patience, maybe not with other humans, but in terms of his work process, very methodical, very intentional. And then, when it comes to formality, I think his formality would have been much higher, probably somebody who is not comfortable with the risk, who is very cautious with risk. So just on the way he is depicted and in our world of behavioral analytics we're always looking at it through this lens I'm thinking he was probably in the producing group of reference profiles, which includes a controller, analyzer, strategist and scholar somewhere in there, a competitive, demanding, driving. This is just my way of looking at a character from literature and trying to assign certain attributes and characteristics or behavioral characteristics based on how this character is portrayed in the story.

John Broer: 14:36

But here's the thing he went through a transformation. It started with Marley admonishing him to realize that mankind should be your business. All right, charity, mercy, forgiveness, kindness, those are the things that should be at the forefront of what you do. It was too late for Marley, but not too late for Scrooge. He went through this and so his transformation wasn't through the briefcase. Okay, so he still had the same skills, you know, knowledge, skills, abilities. It wouldn't have altered his behavioral wiring. What it altered was his heart, and we see that played out in many, many different stories around the holidays, where the heart, it is a change of heart.

John Broer: 15:22

And in his case I'd like to think that there was this revelation of how his life would not be squandered behind the desk of his business, but in actually giving back and caring for the people around him, his family, his employee, his community. And it made me think about a number of conversations I've had with retired business executives who oftentimes will reflect and say, if I could do it again, I would spend less time at the office and more time with my family. And that tone of regret always makes me very sad because, let's just face it, nobody is born to be a Bosshole. The circumstances you know, bad examples oftentimes move us into the Bosshole Zone. So, whatever we could speculate on, perhaps, what were the influences around the character of Ebenezer Scrooge?

John Broer: 16:19

However, I love the story because it's such a powerful way to reflect on what's important for all of us, especially those of us that are in positions of responsibility for other human beings, so as managers and supervisors. I mean. I remember when I was put into a management role and again, our listeners know that I was an individual contributor, had a lot of success as an individual contributor and got promoted into management with absolutely no training. Okay, so I didn't know what I didn't know, but I'll tell you what. After I sought out the training, after I sought out input from mentors and coaches to help me understand how to be a better manager, a better supervisor, I really enjoyed it. But it is work and it takes a transformation. It takes a change of heart in understanding my real role is to develop other people.

John Broer: 17:15

Now, okay, are you thinking, "cash, almighty John, you're really taking this interpretation of a Christmas Carol to a pretty extreme level. Yeah, I probably am. But again, what an amazing storyline for anybody that is responsible for other human beings that in no way would we ever want to be responsible for making them miserable or diminishing them. And let's face it, that's pretty much what Scrooge did to Bob Cratchit and how he treated everybody around him. Until that night, until that transformation, until that change of heart, was he given the gift of facing his own mortality and a potential future? Yes, that's obviously woven into the story, but it's still an opportunity for us to reflect and say, "oh my gosh, am I looking at my work and my people in the right way, because the role that the manager plays, the role that the business owner plays in the lives of so many people is exponential. And again, I mean that right there. That's the storyline behind George Bailey in it's a Wonderful Life Until Clarence created the situation where George never existed. He had no idea About the lives that he had touched in a very positive way.

John Broer: 18:38

So, listen, I really appreciate you indulging me in the opportunity to go in and look at the messages from A Christmas Carol and whatever your most favorite holiday movie or show is. You know that one theme of redemption and renewal and salvation is pretty powerful and I just hope that during this holiday season, that you've experienced all those things and that it's been a very, very special time for you. All I know is that, since this is the last episode of 2023, we are all exceedingly appreciative of all of you out there that are listening in and telling your friends and colleagues and family about the boss hole chronicles as we enter our fourth year production. It truly is. You have all been such a blessing to us. This is a lot of fun to do and it is our plan to offer more in the way of great guests and subject matter experts and stories and round tables.

John Broer: 19:44

We're gonna be kicking off 2024 with a great one next week. Again, the best to all of you, your family, your friends. It is our hope that joy and peace surround you and you are ready to move into a new year and make a difference, a very positive difference, in the lives of the people around you, even if it means experiencing some of those very tough lessons, like Ebenezer did. So until we talk next time, have a wonderful holiday season. God bless you all and we'll see you next time on the Bossh ole Chronicles. We'd like to thank our guests today on the Bossh ole Chronicles and if you have a Bossh ole Chronicles story of your own, please email us at mystory@thebossholechroniclescom. Once again, mystory@thebossholechroniclescom. We'll see you again soon.