We apologize for our company’s email outage last week. If you sent an email to us and did not receive a reply, please resend it to my address at cwendel@ficinc.com and I will personally see that it is taken care of.

This past weekend I saw “Bully”, a documentary that captures the experience of several children who are being bullied by their peers in schools around the U.S. Before filming began, two other children highlighted in the firm had committed suicide as a result of bullying. It is a great and powerful movie that rips at your heart and causes you to demand that the bullies be disciplined (as well as those school officials who fail to act on bullying). Take your family, but warn them beforehand that it is not a popcorn movie.

Watching the movie, I realized that I had met a number of banking bullies, both years ago when I was a banker and even recently as a consultant. While their actions may not have resulted in any suicides, they did certainly ruin some lives and perhaps even some banks. I know several banks where bullies operate today; some are in banks that most consider great companies. But a great company would stop people who intimidate others, wouldn’t it?

The bully I remember when I was a young banker was a senior executive and two levels above me. He would come into the office each morning and never say hello or acknowledge his staff on the way to his private space. In memory, meetings with him were always tense, and he made many far more experienced bankers uncomfortable about whether they would have a job. After I resigned and met with him years later, he turned out to be a nice guy. In that case, his bullying may have been because of the pressures he was under from those above him and his inability to deal with them. However, victims of bullying could not care in the least why it is occurring

In recent years, I came across a bully at the top level of a bank. His style was almost literally “in your face.” He seemed to like confrontation in the same way that some people like ice cream. He had a tough voice, salty language, and had a style that might have been developed from watching too many old Jimmy Cagney mobster films. I think in that case his act was supported by very top bank management who could then play the “good guy” to his “bad guy.”

This banker largely stayed away from customers (a good idea), but focused instead on managing, intimidating, and embarrassing oftentimes senior managers in front of their colleagues. Group meetings to review actions taken could be bloodbaths if the actions promised had in fact not occurred. On the good side, bankers did get things done at that bank, more so than at most others we have worked with. On the bad side, it may have helped to strengthen internal silos as managers focused on their own worlds and had limited time for or interest in working across the bank.

What makes a banking bully? Usually, he (all the ones I have known are masculine although in today’s world I am sure woman have caught up in this area) is physically bigger that most others, not necessarily taller but brawnier. Physical presence denotes strength and power. But, of course, it is the personality that creates the bullying. In both the business examples above, no physical concerns existed; both focused on verbal manipulation and intimidation.

Kids put up with bullies because they are scared and do not know that they have any other choice; they either do not have or fail to reach out to a support network such as their school or family. Business people put up with bullies because they also believe that they have no choice; they are scared, they have families to feed, they cannot walk away, particularly today in the current tough economic environment. Many 55+ bankers are holding on because of retirement worries, so too are those who may have a boss as a bully but no other job options.

While the example above feature senior managers, conversations suggest that there are many other bullies serving in lower levels of the organization as mid and low level managers. In particular, I have heard stories about operations and technology areas, but no stories about accounting or finance bullies, so far.

There is only one appropriate response by Boards or senior management to bullies within banks: Identify the bullies, counsel them, and, if necessary, fire them. Instead, banks, like the school administrators in the film, usually ignore what is happening. Firing bad employees is one of the best ways to increase the energy and improve the culture of an organization. It is a win/win for everyone. It may even help the bad employee, if he learns from the experience.