Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

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  1

  charlesmold

  05/07/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Really. Try again.

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  2

  ap3dan

  05/07/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Interesting.... Could work.

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  3

  Servos1

  05/07/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Asking real questions is often considered being a negative employee. The normal reaction by management is to eliminate or dismiss the individual or individuals. I wonder how many "negative" employees were eliminated in the automobile, banking or real estate market before the current financial meltdown? Could they have made a difference? Maybe.

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  WHOFIXWHARRIS

  05/07/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  It seems that every negative situation begins with 1). Blame yourself, look in the mirror. 2). Check your environment. 3). Are you ignoring the behaviors, therefore allowing this disruption to exist and hurt production and morale? 4). Document the behaviors and provide constructive feedback.
  
  How about using effective interviewing techniques, for the selection of team members, for critical jobs and projects.
  
  Once a member is selected, solicit other team members for participation and input, when interviewing and selecting additional team members (based on objective not subjective criteria).
  
  Next, dismiss these people, who feel that playing the devils advocate (is their role), who disrupts the process ("blame the process, not the people!" Sometimes the problem is "People, with the Wrong Skill Sets, with destructive personalities, who disrupt process). Too much time is devoted to babysitting destructive employees behaviors, which damages, inhibits and stops positive progress and success in companies!
  
  This also frustrates positive contributing employees, who finally seek opportunities elsewhere.
  

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  5

  mifheili@...

  05/08/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  We should come to a point where we must admit that certain employees can not be managed because they inject great deal of negativity into the workplace, and such a behavior can not be managed, reversed, nor treated. I think there is nothing wrong with that. That is why employees get terminated; it should not always be because of theft, downsizing, etc. . . .
  Employee disengagement can be initiated by the employee or by the organization and each side has his/her reasons.
  I feel what is being proposed in this piece is very theoretical, and I am confident that many "effective" and "successful" coaches (Not Bosses) have tried this in dealing with negativity in the workplace, and their efforts have been rendered of little consequences, but they keep on trying.
  Coming to the realization that an employee must be terminated because of his/her ongoing negativity should not be considered as a sign of failure on the part of the manager, nor hostility on the part of the organizations. Managers need encouragement to take the decision to terminate one's employment in cases of persistently bad performance, or bad influence on the workplace.
  Thanks for letting me share my thoughts with your readers.
  
  Mohammad I. Fheili
  Organizational Planning & Development Specialiist
  mifheili@terra.net.lb
  Moile +9613337175

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  rictownsend

  05/08/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  We used to call these individuals "company lemons".
  
  Firstly don't look at yourself, if you have to, this and Leila's
  advice won't work anyway.
  
  Remember the 20/80 rule... 20% of the staff will do 80% of
  the work and the other 80/20 rule the bottom 20% of your
  performers will take up 80% of your time if you let them.
  Usually lemons are sackable. So don't waste your time 80%
  of your time trying to mange lemons. Spend 80% of your
  time encouraging and supporting your top 20% of
  performers.
  
  Perhaps I was an over assertive manager however as a last
  resort I used ridicule to publicly berate naysayers. You have
  to have your wits about you though and be able to substantiate your attack with facts and proven out comes. If
  your not sure of your facts, go and do your research re-
  introduce the topic that caused the negativity next time
  arround and the whammy.
  
  Remember being the delegated leader with 'legitimate
  delegated authority' doesn't automatically make you the
  'chosen leader', so you will always have to win the team
  away from the "lemons".
  
  Ric (http://www.orglearn.org)

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  7

  Bhanumurty

  05/08/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Eric Berne suggests in his famous book on "Games People Play" about different games played by individuals at various levels. In fact each person , as per Eric had three personalities , A child, an adult and a parent. In fact the basics of the transactional analysis still holds good in any environment. Negativity? it is the production of transaction betwen Adult- Child-Parent in each person. Eric suggested many ideas to overcome any situation through transactional analysis. One must go through the book before suggesting anything.

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  MarkGreasley

  05/08/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Often these people are negative because they have some grievance with the company - maybe something happened to them years ago and they have not got over it (e.g. they were passed over for promotion). More often than not they have not had an opportunity to discuss the issue and their manager has been too afraid to confront them about their negativity. A constructive manager should sit down with them and find out what the real problem is. They should discuss it with the person. They should then explain the impact that their negativity is having, including how it is effecting everyone else's perception of them. The manger should then encourage them to withhold their negative behaviours. If this fails then the issue should be treated as a performance problem and treated accordingly i.e. final outcome is they change or they leave.

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  Meridian65

  05/08/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Mark,
  you make an excellent point. As managers we usually inherit staff, and they come to the table, as we do, with baggage or history. Trying to understand what motivates (or not) an employee is part of our job, as is communication.
  
  If only life were so easy as to simply terminate the difficult or challenging staff members - in this current environment the message from above is often "departing staff are not to be replaced". So do we prefer to spend our time a) working with them on the problem, or b) taking on their workload once we terminate them?

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  yvette.maynardgreenidge

  05/08/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  A number of the comments make complete sense therefore to me it implies that we have to deal a little less with the theory and focus more on the situation at hand and deal with people, bearing in mind the culture of the organisation. These things do not happen in a vacuum and the people who you manage are not removed from the rest of the organisation. I do not believe in the one size fit all and as a Manager /Coach one must posses the ability to discern and teams members must be clear as to what is acceptable and what is absoutely not.
  YMG

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  KMehegan

  05/08/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  I really believe negative employees force us to look at the project, topic, what-have-you in a different light. To "quiet" a negative employee could cause you to miss something important. I would coach the employee on expressing their opposing viewpoint in a way that doesn't bring the team down but gets the point across.

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  Rick669

  05/08/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Leila started off well by stating managers need to evaluate themselves and their contribution to the negativity. In a environment where management constantly "puts out fires" management is frequently setting the "fires".
  
  So managers need to recognize their own assumptions and contributions to group negativity. Leila presented negativity as an isolated issue attributable to a single person, which is rare. If one person in the group is expressing these feelings then other are suppressing theirs.
  
  The concept that one negative person drains a team's energy is laughable. Teams are groups of functioning people. Group think is several people asserting their view points over any descentive voices. They speak the loudest and degrade anyone who doesn't look like them or thinks like them. Business has concluded that a bunch of bobble heads is a team.
  
  KMehegan got it right. The person who views issues "in a different light" possesses a perspective that needs to be heard. Silencing these people prevents "teams" from functioning and weakens organizations.

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  13

  Quench

  05/08/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Many managers inherit their teams and depending on the frequency of management turnover some (many) employees lose faith in the system and become frustrated. Some are frustrated because they've been passed over, others because they lose focus or the focus has changed on what is really important.
  
  Most people want to make a difference, unfortunately they seldom get the recognition they deserve for the work they perform. A great book called "The Offsite" presents a very real business fable that deals with some very unique circumstances that we can all relate to. One of the characters (Joe), is a perfect example of the negativity being discussed. It's a great story and a relatively quick read. Joe's transformation is remarkable and the circumstances that brought this change about are closer to reality than most would want to acknowledge.
  
  As a change agent and transformation consultant, I am constantly facing opportunities to bring the "team" together. Following a recent challenge, one of the vice presidents observed that we managed to make significant improvements and "we didn't have to change any of the players."
  
  People are tired of commiting to something that too quickly becomes yesterday's news. The typical "program of the day" syndrome plagues many a company and the attitudes follow suit. If you want positive attitudes to prevail, set people up for success. Commit to your vision and your goals. Eventually, it will "stick".
  
  You can't demand participation - you earn the respect of the team and demonstrate your commitment through actions, not words. If the horse won't drink, make him thirsty.

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  cjschnee

  05/09/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Time to read and review Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats. The black hat is worn by few in a brainstorming session but necessary. If you only see the good, the fabulous, the groupthink attitude you may just miss why the project the team is working on may fail.
  
  Naysayers serve a purpose, reminding others everything in life is not perfect. Would a company honestly believe that some of their customers do not posess the same attitude of the naysayer? Will that faction of possible customer base be eliminated because the team's attitude is to only sell to those with positive attitudes? In these economic times, that may be quite a small group.
  
  The only person that can drag you down is you. It is your job as a team member and fellow employee to empathize with the negative co-worker to get to the root cause the negativity exists in the first place, not hand them a laundry list of grievances and finger-point. Those specific instances may just illustrate how many times you were not listening, or your lack of understanding of the root cause. Perhaps another good read at that juncture might be The Emperor's New Clothes...
  
  
  

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  15

  Sam Parker

  05/09/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Good idea cjschnee. To download a copy of The Emperor's New Clothes... http://www.GiveMore.com/truth
  
  Regarding the continually negative employee... A commitment to solid and ongoing reinforcement is the leadership key (along with a high trust environment). Unfortunately, I'm guessing the likelihood of a "constant naysayer" being coachable is very low.
  
  I wonder how one might be able to pick up this tendency during the hiring process.
  
  Here's 3-minutes to encourage someone to Smile & Move (to be positive and take action)...
  
  http://www.SmileAndMove.com/video
  
  

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  16

  dkg50

  05/10/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  I believe that someone can voice their opinion without being necessarily negative. If someone has a different opinion they just need to learn how to voice that opinion in an objective way instead of always being a naysayer. The ability of being objective is also a great attribute of a manager in getting this across to their employees. KMehegan I agree that coaching the employee to express their viewpoint in a way that will not bring the team down is a very constructive way to approach the problem.

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  LeilaBT

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Leila here. Thanks everyone for the comments.
  
  Some thoughts & responses for today.
  
  re: Servos1. The employees I speak to in this video are extreme examples of negative people. I agree that sometimes hard questions that need to be asked are misinterpreted as someone pushing back. There is a difference between pushing back and just plain saying no all the time.
  
  re: WHOFIXWHARRIS. I agree re: behavioral interviewing techniques. If managers and organizations spent more time upfront, understanding what the role is and what the candidate has done in the past (not what he/she *could* do), the chances they would be looking in the mirror and asking, "What did I do to allow this to happen?" would decrease.
  
  re: mifheili@... I think the manager who manages this kind of behavior doesn't get slapped in the face by the organization or penalized. Lots of "depends" but it is OK and good practice to ask questions like, "From what I've observed, you don't appear happy in your role here. What do you think? Do you want to be here?"
  
  re: rictownsend. Hmm, was it because I've been operating in California, besides work trips around the US and world, for my entire career that I cringed at "company lemons"? Assertive doesn't equal OK to publically berate.
  
  re: markgreasley. Great points. Start a dialogue. Ask what is going on. Tell them what you've observed.
  
  re: Meridian65. I know that some managers choose not to manage this issue because a poor employee is better than no employee. I don't agree with that. It speaks to the manager and his/her intelligence, to the organization, to what it means to the clients and the customers.
  
  re: yvette.maynardgreenidge. And as the manager--with the help of a great HR team--you do explain what is acceptable and what is not. That is OK and necessary.
  
  Will respond to some more thoughts tomorrow, Wednesday, May 13.
  
  Regards,
  
  Leila
  http://www.thebullingtownegroup.com/

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  steven.alker

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Dear Leila
  
  
  I spend most of my web-time on MarketingProfs where I'm one of the top 10 "experts" so this is new ground for me. I thought your video to be excellent advice - but:!
  
  A study by Jing Zhou and Jennifer George, published in Academy of Management Science Journal, Vol. 44 p 628, that naysayer?s and gripers are usually the most creative and potentially valuable members of an organisation.
  
  Their paper appears to me to be academically rigorous and from 20 years in management, highly applicable. The key is of course ?How do you acknowledge them and use them?
  
  Working in sales, I never humiliated, belittled, bullied or scared whiners into better performance and to desist from screwing up the rest of the team ? I worked with them to get the best out of them and if they didn?t like tough love, they left. I had to sack 3 people in 15 years of being a sales and marketing director out of about 60 in total.
  
  I must have been useless as a sales manager though ? once, when it was my turn to get the boot, I accidentally met up with the old team at an exhibition ? moaners and salary men alike and rather than exact revenge with a bit of well timed schadenfreude, they warmly greeted me and took me out for a drink.
  
  One extreme solution to a very bright winger was, at a sales meeting to ask him what he would do different, how he would do it, what it would cost and how long it would take and that we?d return to his proposals at the next meeting. A month later I had some interesting but unworkable ideas, so I said, OK. you?ve got a project and I?m giving you the authority to get on with it. You will be responsible for the P&L and for this exercise, everyone will report to you, myself included. You will temporarily report to the chairman.
  
  It took him 4 days to admit defeat to the chairman who congratulated him for his endeavour. The good ideas which came out of the exercise provided 3 new products and two new marketing ideas which benefited the company for the next 6 years. He stayed, got paid more and had a position created for someone who could think as well as sell. He?d also discovered that he couldn?t manage a fire in a phosphorus factory, so happiness ruled. Never stopped moaning though!
  
  Steve
  
  

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  LeilaBT

  05/20/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Dear steven.alter,
  
  Thanks for the good thoughts.
  
  We are talking about different people.
  
  Quite a few comments center on this idea: people who express differing ideas are productive, create necessary discussion, offer outlets to explore and confirm, etc. I absolutely agree.
  
  Those folks aren't the ones I want managers to think about after watching this video. I'm thinking of employees who regularly, consistently, basically ALWAYS push back. They sigh before and after each sentence, they drag their feet coming into meetings, they react to every request with a "come on, do I have to?" attitude.
  
  Too many managers sit back and allow the latter kind of behavior to be acceptable. "That's just how he is." "She's a little tough to handle." "Don't worry. Don't let his grumpiness get you down." Hmm, anyone out there have enough headcount to allow this behavior to be rewarded with a paycheck every two weeks?
  
  Regards,
  
  Leila
  
  
  

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  20

  shabbarsuterwala

  05/26/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  I feel more of personal coaching and counselling is one of the solutions for such negativity. Its more of an attention seeking behaviour - so give them positive attention.

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  scribbler60

  05/27/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  Leila wrote: Those folks aren't the ones I want managers to think about after watching this video. I'm thinking of employees who regularly, consistently, basically ALWAYS push back.
  ------------------
  But what if it's the manager who's naysaying, pushing back and belittling others?
  
  A short, and true, story to illustrate:
  
  Manager asks employee to review some documents and provide input to present to the group. Employee does so and keeps her criticisms and edits clear, focused and non-personal.
  
  Manager reviews documents after employee's input. Manager then calls out employee in the group and, very abruptly (even rudely) says that her input was not valuable. "You should think better before making suggestions like these."
  
  Employee shrinks in her chair. The lesson is not lost; that's the last time she'll provide input.
  
  Suggestions?

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  22

  LeilaBT

  05/27/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  shabbarsuterwala,
  
  Yes, maybe it is someone trying to get attention. And if he/she is worthy of recognition, then, yes, give it!
  
  More on recognition in an upcoming video. Stay tuned.
  
  I feel individuals do need to understand how consistent negative behavior (I mean consistent!) distracts people from the productive work they can do. I can be a great engineer, but if I spend most of my face time pushing back, sighing, saying "That won't work," etc., people will stop seeing the good work I do.
  
  Regards,
  
  Leila
  

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  23

  shekharkashyap

  06/04/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managing Negativity |Leila's House of Corrections

  "Negative" person (Colin Powell et al) who does not go along
  should not be confused with a "jerk". Dissenters modify
  behaviour for better as seen in court judgments.
  Recommended read on these twin issues-
  "No Ass Hole Rule" and "Sway"