I’m an idealist. I love inventions, great quotes, human triumphs and rooting for the underdog. I have watched Auburn’s Chris Davis return Alabama’s missed field goal at least two dozen times and I still get goose bumps (and I’m a Gator!). Here it is below. Definitely worth watching one more time.
That Auburn/Alabama game had something that the cubicles of today’s offices don’t have – people who have been winners and losers at one time or another in their life. The cubicles and many of the corner offices of today’s corporations are filled with the generation of kids whose parents felt keeping score would diminish their self-esteem and that just participating was enough to win a medal. Many of today’s mid- to top managers have no idea how to process a great idea from one colleague, but I’ve seen them fawn 
over a mediocre suggestion from a subordinate, an exercise in managing the masses. I’m pretty sure Ray Bradbury or George Orwell wrote about the equalizers, albeit by another name, but the title of the book escapes me.
The equalizers are supported by America’s corporations; they can hide in the ranks and often appear as excellent managers. Winners with the big ideas eventually move on, start their own company, join other start-ups and get gobbled up by a big corporation, only to be fed into the equalizers’ web once more. Equalizers were taught not only to ignore the talents of others and they learned to despise them. As they grew up and the game changed, they couldn’t make the cut. It’s the lesson they learned. If you’re looking for the equalizer in your office, and you already know who it is don’t you, look for the one who spreads the, “I didn’t want to mention this, but…” kind of gossip. The equalizer’s best tool is his/her “concern.”
Within a few months, concern for the employee has made him/her an outsider. The “star” typically quits and the balance is maintained. If you have an equalizer, your business is doomed. Your competitors are taking over your space right now. Consider yourself warned.
PS. Equalizers also go by the name Workplace Bullies see: Seth Godin: Bully is Theft
