Image by Danil Rudenko
Stop bad employee attitudes and keep them from hurting your culture.
Have you ever noticed the number of employees who always seem to be grouchy? They’re relentlessly complaining or judging.
They might listen to instructions and do their work as required, so they’re not insubordinate. True, it’s not a firing offense, but their incessant kvetching is demoralizing and annoying.
Compare this, as a non-termination offense, to an actual justification to fire somebody. A negative employee seeking to undermine the boss or refusing to follow instructions is certainly eligible for discipline.
For maximum teamwork and employee morale, it behooves bosses to think and manage like coaches who have a helpful spirit. In other words, do your best to coach employees so you don’t have to resort to imposing a formal personal improvement plan.
In other words, do your best to coach employees so you don’t have to resort to imposing a formal personal improvement plan.
Negative employees can harm an organization in another way: Magnified stress in people leads to physical illness. That’s what we term a psychosomatic illness because it results from damaging thought patterns.
For maximum teamwork and employee morale, it behooves bosses to think and manage like coaches who have a helpful spirit. A coach knows how to inspire employees to fix their negative attitudes.
How employers can legally coach negative employees
Note: Maintain a legally defensible process. Show how negative behavior violates company policies and document the infractions.
Note: Maintain a legally defensible process. Show how negative behavior violates company policies and document the infractions.
Focus on observable, job-related behaviors and how they adversely affect the organization. Don’t focus on the employees’ personality traits.
You must act quickly. Document the behavior, find the root cause by meeting privately with the employee, set rules for improvement, and isolate the negativity to keep it from spreading.
Successful companies bring in an outside participant as a coach in optional workshops:
Inspiring team members to self-analyze their thought processes
If it’s their nature to continually cajole, complain or be judgmental, the employees can ask themselves questions, such as:
- Is what I’m doing right now helping me to responsibly reach my career goals?
- If my goal is to do a good job, is my attitude contagious – is it worth catching?
- How do I respond if anyone ever asks me to criticize others?
- Am I helping the organization with my criticizing?
- Does my judging help my coworkers or boss?
- Do I recognize when I’m stressed?
A person can easily tell when they’re stressed by taking both hands and touching their neck. If the person’s hands feel cold on their neck, then the person is indeed stressed.
There are other signs of stress: Rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, tense muscles, and upset stomach. Most employees will readily admit their negativity is unproductive. It doesn’t help the organization or coworkers.
The negative employees can be motivated to change their behavior by changing their attitudes. Teach them this concept: “No matter what, there are no big deals; no matter what.”
So, it’s OK for an employee to disagree with managerial moves or deadlines, but to constantly voice complaints at work over matters beyond their control is unproductive.
To change employees’ tendencies to kvetch unnecessarily, share a helpful technique
To change continual negative thoughts, here’s a tool emotionally healthy people use: The Principle of Contrary Action.
To change continual negative thoughts, here’s a tool emotionally healthy people use: The Principle of Contrary Action.
The Principle of Contrary Action promotes clear thinking and open-mindedness. How?
Suggest employees keep a mental record of every activity. Then, change their routines – their approach to each activity – to do it differently each time they do it. Most employees will welcome the opportunity to be flexible in their work assignments.
And suggest to them this process should include toxicity. In other words, if they know someone is toxic, suggest they limit their interactions with that person. If possible, avoid that person altogether.
Suggest employees can be optimistic — with the power of thought
Teach them to focus on what’s going well. A negative person will focus on the 10 percent that’s going badly in their lives instead of the 90 percent that’s going well.
The switch to an optimistic demeanor starts with a “gratitude list.” That’s when a person writes all the things she or he can be grateful.
Show employees to speak more positively. For example, for the employee who complains about traffic in the morning commute, explain:
“Well, you are able to afford your own car and be in charge of the route you take or where you park your car.”
Then ask:
“What about the people who don’t own a car, and must take the bus? They have to get up much earlier, wait in line and must follow the routines dictated by the transit company.”
Conclusion
In using the strategies, you will enhance your workplance and stop bad employee attitudes from spreading. It is advantageous to address issues early. Hold private talks, explain your clear expectations, and practice using root-cause listening instead of ignoring toxic behavior.
Good luck!
From the Coach’s Corner, here are related topics:
7 Management Tips – Communication with Difficult Employees – Multiple problems including loss of profit result from ineffectively dealing with difficult employees.
Management – How to Improve Accountability in Your Company – If business and tepid growth have affected your outlook, take a look at your human resources and consider a couple of questions. If you don’t like your answer, here are eight solutions.
Management: 5 Most Common Reasons to Fire Employees – With difficult or underperforming employees, you have two obvious problems – the impacts on your organization and the behavior of the individual. Here’s what to do.
Management: Coach Your Employees to Better Performance – In talent management, coaching, counseling and giving feedback is of utmost importance. But it’s a difficult challenge if you don’t have a coaching culture.
“Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.”
-John Rockefeller
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