You Need to Listen to Your “Creepy Alarm.”

Have you ever been in a meeting with the goal of getting a project done or a goal set, and as you go around the table asking questions your Spidey Sense pings when you hear Jason’s answer?

It sounds soooooo good.

But something about his response hits your internal radar that makes you pause. I mean you actually pause and pretend to look over your notes as you glance between your notes and Jason.

There was a ping, yes?

“Yes, there was.”

And what exactly “pinged” inside your internal radar?

Go ahead. Tell me your first immediate answer.

“Jason has a counter-intention to this project.”

A what?

“A counter-intention.”

Ummmm...you mean Jason is saying all the right things and he’s a go-getter, but in truth he doesn’t have the true intention to get this project done as planned? He has a intention counter to yours and the group?

(Pause)

“Yes...yes he does.”

Okay, so you know this how? Are you clairvoyant or something?

“I just know. I can perceive that he has unvoiced disagreements or something with the timeline and the sales targets. He says he and his team are “going to give it their best,” and that last line made my creepy alarm go off.”

Your what?

“My creepy alarm. You know, when you hear something from someone who is looking you right in the eye and telling you one thing and actually intending another. Creepy.”

Ahhhhhhhh. Yes, I am very familiar with that alarm system. Quite honestly, most people don’t pay enough attention to it. They hear something that makes them feel like the person in front of them is paying them a compliment, while at the same time getting this distinct feeling this person is quietly and covertly inserting a knife into their third vertebrae.

It’s very disconcerting because the DNA Team in your third vertebrae are silently screaming at you because fuck! that knife is razor-blade sharp and sliding in slowly like a bad nightmare.

Every individual strand of DNA has been cut before they finish their scream.

This is why you paused earlier.

In that moment of pause you were not truly looking at your notes. You were trying to figure out in a billionth of a second if that was in fact a knife blade being slid into your back and were those actual screams you heard?

It’s also why you looked back up at Jason. 

Because he’s smiling and telling you everything you want to hear and he doesn’t miss a beat.

Creepy.

As in the hair-on-your-neck standing straight-up like they’d all been electrocuted, creepy.

Now what, Kojak?

You aren’t quite sure, are you? 

You continue to look at Jason as your mind races to figure out what questions you can ask him to net out what your radar is pinging on.

The thing is, his knife and smile has already done what it was intended to do.

Confuse you.

Disturb you.

Spray mental mace in your face such that you cannot fucking believe you just got sprayed.

Your mind is quickly trying to reconcile the effects of the mental mace.

Your attention has been introverted and dispersed.

What you are seeing in front of you and what is registering on your internal creepy alarm makes you think you and your alarm might have been too quick to judge.

That no one has the balls to tell you they’re “all in,” when in fact you get this feeling in the pit of your stomach that he’s going to sabotage this project and timeline.

Sabotage?

Is that what you’re thinking?!

The DNA in your stomach are all dressed in their black SWAT team gear with black grease painted below their eyes. They have gone on DEFCON alert.

I mean, that’s how you feel, isn’t it?

That’s exactly how you feel.

Any CEO, business owner, executive or anyone who leads are usually in those positions because they decided to take responsibility and full ownership for the entire company, staff, and its goals.

And when your creepy alarm goes off, and thoughts that possibly all of your long hours, and blood, sweat, and tears may be sabotaged or undermined by some Joe, yes, you begin to pay attention to your DNA Gut Team in SWAT gear.

I’m quite sure Kojak needed that lollipop to send a message to his entire DNA team that he just spotted the sniper and to hold your fire.

Just savor that lollipop for a minute.

Let that sugar rush hit your lizard brain because you have someone on your team who you are quite sure, will wittingly or unwittingly throw a grenade right into middle of your mission statement.

Jason turns and looks at his laptop with a confident smile. Like there is nothing wrong. 

Internally his DNA Team are doing fist pumps because he just got one over you.

He doesn’t have any intention on making those ridiculously outrageous sales targets.

But mind you, he and his team are “going to give it their best.”

You got this, right?

(Pause)

Fuck.

Freeze Frame.

While you ponder whether you’re going to pull the trigger and get to the bottom of what’s really going on with Jason, there is one other layer you have to take into account.

There are a few other executives in the room who also had their creepy alarms go off. Not all of them, but a few.

See, they’re in this conference room because they’re your best. But even the best can get fooled and hoodwinked by those who are chameleons right in their midst.

So, their DNA is pinging too. Jason is really good because he’s the one that they don’t dare go up against. They know he’s good at what he does but they also know he fucks off or doesn’t always follow policy.

He uses the same tactics with them that he’s using with you.

So, now a few of your best have their creepy alarms going off and they also know you know. 

They sense that Jason’s bullshit has pinged off your bullshit meter and they are beginning to squirm.

They look at you with the hopes that that lollipop has given you enough of a Kojak adrenaline rush to turn back around and bust Jason on his bullshit.

As you look back at Jason and then around the table with all your sensory perceptions firing, you know this is true.

You also know this is where you have sometimes faltered as an executive.

You are standing there with your Spidey Sense on full alert and your DNA Gut Team with their safety’s off.

Because down deep in the core of your own DNA, you know that this brand of counter-intention has got to be rooted out.

“Jason...I have a few more questions for you…”

You can feel the collective DNA of every person in that room go fucking still.

All eyes are on you as you finish your sentence.

And then their eyes and attention shift to Jason.

Jason knows down deep that the sun must have momentarily reflected off the nuzzle of his sniper rifle because he’s been spotted.

He feels every set of eyes in the conference room including yours riveted on him. 

He knows that you’re about to uncover his camouflage.

And because Jason has a history of covertly making other people think that there is nothing wrong with him, but a whole lot wrong with you, he looks up at you with that quirky, smarmy smile.

He has his best DNA Sniper Team ready to throw ninja-star zingers right past your questions and into your jugular, to embarrass and discredit you in front of the entire team.

You got this?

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