There was no brandishing of firearms, police bullhorns or requests for a getaway helicopter, but you knew this staff person was holding you hostage. 
            Regardless of this person’s title or pay rank, your staff has the potential to intimidate you with passive-aggressive power.
            It works like this.
            First, the hostage-taker is usually someone who has visibility in your organization and is perceived as an expert.  The rest of your staff does everything but genuflect when he/she passes by in the hallway. Why the adoration?  The hostage taker has publicly saved your organizational bacon on more than one occasion with his/her expertise.
            Second, these gifted people are silently regarded as indispensable.  You hear euphoric statements like, “Boss, I just don’t know what we would do without….”
            Third, let’s add a crisis.
            You have been evaluating a particular business initiative lately and are convinced your organization is spending too much money on something that is not adding to your bottom line.  You mandate changes that remove areas of responsibility for the hostage-taker.   
            The hostage-taker is angry.  The hostage-taker starts plotting.  The hostage-taker begins to collect weapons.
            Then, one day the bottom falls out of your organizational ability to meet the needs of your customers.  The phone lines are lit up like the landing lights at O’Hare winking bad news to you and your colleagues.
            You grab the phone and call your “go-to expert” who has always done a Superman number for you and he says, “It will be a while before I can get to that.”  You stammer, “Maybe you do not realize how serious this is…I am expecting immediate help…this is what we are paying you to do!”
            You hear, “Sure, sure, I’ll see what I can do.”
            Can you see the gun to your head?
            If that scenario looks familiar, you could have taken three preemptive steps. 
            First, in an appropriate manner, you can educate your staff about the choice of passive-aggressive behavior.  Notice it is a choice.  When we have aggressive feelings and think we cannot talk about them, we will act those strong emotions out in passive ways (i.e. delaying a response to a workplace crisis).
            Second, teach your staff the verbal skills to represent what is going on between their ears.  There is precision to this step.  For instance, using “I” instead of “you” will make a big difference in getting cooperation for each other.  “You probably have not thought through my response to threats…I can make your life very difficult here.”
            Third, let your staff know your response to the practice of hostage-taking. 
            If you are in management, you have two choices when your I.Q.-blessed staff person pulls out some organizational weapon and puts it to your head for the entire workplace to see.  There are losses either way.
            You can say nothing.  That’s right, nothing.  The crisis will spin out of control and the hostage-taker shows up late again, grins and silently lets you know he/she is pulling the strings here.
            The “loss” to you is everyone else in your workplace has just learned that this game can be won through subterfuge and intimidation.  Expect other people on your staff to try what works.
            Second, you can establish accountability with the hostage-taker by letting the person know, in spite of their organizational expertise, no one in this place can withhold knowledge and skills to send a message.  In other words, if the behavior is repeated again, termination will follow.
            The “loss,” obviously, is you will have a yawning, competency hole in your organization…for a short period of time.  You will find other people who have been intimidated by the hostage-taker over the years will come forward and show you what they can do.
            So, the choice is yours.
            Becoming a hostage in your own organization is always a choice.