Opinion – Rodrigo Zeidan: Shouting leadership is a thing of the past, but it’s only up to us to change

“To make the community aware, we announce that George Perez has advanced pancreatic cancer and has decided he will let nature take its course.”

For those who don’t know him, Perez is one of the most important superhero comic book artists in history. And it’s an idol to me and many others. I’m not inspired by him just because he’s good at what he does and because I love comics. Digression: At heart, I’m a professor at New York University because of comic books; it was to translate the stories of the Justice League, whose magazines I had bought in the original language at great cost, that I learned English – I didn’t take a prep course or an exchange program.

George Perez is much more than an artist. He’s a good person. And if you look around, few things are more important than being around decent people, whether in your personal or professional life.

Unfortunately, we live in a competitive society where success has little to do with character quality. It is common to see leaders who manage their companies through fear and whose way of communicating with subordinates is screaming (you can even reach the presidency like that).

Work environments are full of colleagues who spend all day complaining or criticizing others. Verbal abuse is still part of everyday life. And this is true even in non-enterprise environments. It is common to see professors who only criticize students and who just want to suck the mentees, using them as unpaid employees in their research projects and discarding them as soon as they are no longer useful.

“Don’t worry, Perez won’t stop signing autographs and drawing for fans until the last one is answered,” his agent told me at a comic book convention after I saw the huge line of people waiting for the artist. “But it will take time, as George pays attention to every fan; he won’t just sign his name and call the next one,” he added.

In addition to treating each of his fans with respect, in any art auction to help any organization, it is clear that he will donate one of his drawings. He supports several artists who are starting, always with a precious word or tip about their career. His peers have only good things to say about him. Just like the fans.

At NYU, where there are five Nobel Prizes in economics in the finance and business department, the first thing one of them said to me was, “If you meet an arrogant colleague who can only complain and make the work environment bad, run away and don’t even think about writing with him or her. It’s boring.”

I got it right away. The reason? I was one of those terrible colleagues once. I learned the lesson as painfully as possible. I worked at a teaching institution in Rio that needed a master’s degree because of regulation. I was the professor who published the most, by far, and the only one who did so in international journals. But I got fired.

However, I cannot criticize the institution. I was a pain in the ass, pointing out problems with everything from outdated computers to a lack of basic research software. Any failure of the institution was reason to criticize it, because, after all, I wanted the university to magically become a leading organization.

And in your company? Is it worth wasting time with colleagues who never want to build anything? Life is too short to surround yourself with boring and destructive people. Screaming leadership is a thing of the past. But it’s only up to us to change.