The Tall Poppy Syndrome and Crabs in Buckets

Tall Poppy Syndrome

Tall poppy syndrome is an organisational culture trait that leads to the undermining, attacking or otherwise cutting down of successful individuals. The phrase comes from the fact that tall poppies stick up above others in their field and are thus easy to spot and cut down.

In the world of work, tall poppy syndrome manifests through resentment and underhand behaviors directed towards successful people. For example, if one member of a group starts to be highly recognized and celebrated, then others in that group may attack them to cut them back down to size.

Tall poppy syndrome is unhelpful in work cultures as it prevents success and, to some extent, acts as a disincentive for achievement. It’s also, unfortunately, a common side effect of certain performance management and incentive structures.

If you have a performance management approach that forces the distribution of ratings for your population into a normal distribution, then you have created a “zero-sum” performance game. In these environments the better my peers do, the worse I do. And the converse is true. Under these rules, everyone has an incentive to undermine their higher flying peers.

Crabs in a Bucket

Similar cultural traits are sometimes described with the phrase “crabs in a bucket”. This rather less appealing image is apt.

Crabs in a bucket basically never manage to climb to the top of the bucket to escape. Whenever one crab makes progress and nears the top, another crab will grab onto it and try to climb up it. The result is inevitably that both crabs fall back into the bottom of the bucket.

The same outcomes can been seen to happen in teams where individuals pull each other down as opposed to helping each other up.

Learning More

We’ve also written briefly on the Denison culture survey and our simple cultural assessment tool. We also have posts on the organisational culture triangle, fearless feedback, crabs in buckets and different types of organisational cultures.

Most organisations seek to improve their cultures through organisational Development Programs. They do this because they know that good cultures lead to good employee experience, and to good employee engagement. Unfortunately some organisations opt for culture washing as opposed to actually improving their cultures.

The cultures and behavioral traits that exist in organisations hugely shape their ability to perform and attract and retain individuals. The tall poppy syndrome and crabs in a bucket traits reduces the ability and performance of organisations. They are also deeply unappealing for the types of employees that most organisations wish to employ.

If you find that you’re in a culture that’s like this, it’s probably worth looking to change it, or failing that, looking to leave. It’s particularly worth looking to change the culture or leave if you wish to be a tall poppy yourself, but it’s also worth doing so if you’re not.

Being in an environment that normalizes undermining others is draining and unhealthy. In the long run spending too much time in an environment like this will damage your wellbeing and confidence.

If you’re a leader, it’s worth knowing that cultures like this make it hard for people to be their best in the workplace. Those that thrive in this type of culture are not often the type of people who you generally want to have many of in your place of work.