TOXIC COLLEAGUES ARE NOT THE ONLY INTERNAL CHALLENGE LEADERS FACE
Last week I wrote about the deleterious impact just one team member can have on an entire workplace: on teammates’ morale on effectiveness, on productivity and on the entire office culture. Sometimes the best thing a leader can do is letting go of that employee or, if there is an effective HR Department, working with HR to develop a personal improvement plan and hold the team member accountable for living up to it.
Toxic teammates are not the only challenge facing good leaders. What happens when you report to a negative, challenging, obstreperous or poor manager? Reporting up the chain to a person like that can make us dread going to work every day, whether in person or virtually.
I was reminded of that situation this week while reading my favorite leadership newsletter, “SmartBrief on Leadership.” The Thursday edition included a piece titled “It’s Likely You Have a Toxic Workplace. Now What?” by Kathryn Mayer. In the article, Jane Harvey, the CEO of invite Change, talks about the dangers of toxic workplaces.
“Toxic workplaces aren’t always loud with conflict—they can be quiet, insidious, and corrosive,” Harvey explained in the article. “High turnover, absenteeism, and disengaged employees who “do the job” but avoid creativity and risk-taking are all symptoms of toxic workplaces.”
“Heavy workloads, constant workplace changes (such as new rules or priorities, reorganizations, and leadership and team shifts), and workers feeling underappreciated are also part of the problem.”
“The incessant push for more and more and more and more and more—no matter what it costs—is costing employers in invisible ways,” Harvey commented. “The things that affect the workforce, productivity, and therefore profitability, are not captured on a profit and loss statement, and they have to do with incivility. There’s a scarcity’ mindset at work of, ‘We’re not enough. No matter how well we perform, we’re not enough.’ That can be really triggering.”
At the bottom of Thursday’s newsletter, Candace Chellew, the SmartBrief on Leadership editor, added this story, talking about her own experiences. See if you can identify with Candace’s anecdote:
“I have yet to meet anyone who has not worked in a toxic workplace environment at some point in their career. At one of the radio stations I worked at, almost all of my colleagues attended the wedding of one of our co-workers and at the reception, we all gathered in a circle and aired our complaints against the station manager. To a person, we recounted at least half a dozen awful encounters with this man. I called it our “survivor group.” All but one of those in the circle that day eventually left the station. That one man is still there today, some 30 years later, as is the station manager.”
“In another job, many of my colleagues began to jump ship so often that HR called us all in one by one to ask what was going on. We all told the same horror stories about one manager. We all thought that, finally, management would correct the situation. Nothing changed. Eventually, everyone (except that manager’s favorites) found new jobs.”
As I have written here before, these two things are true:
-Frequently people do not leave bad jobs – they leave bad managers.
-We spend too many hours of our lives at work to be unhappy at our jobs.
So what can we do when we realize we are reporting to or working with a negative, difficult and sometimes toxic manager besides quit on the spot? (Admittedly, I once did that many years ago. When I realized I could not stand opening the door to the office each day, I marched into the boss’s office and announced I was resigning. It was the right decision because I was able to regain my mental and physical health).
What can we do? We can consider taking the following steps, as outlined by Mayer and Harvey:
-Ask HR to assess the situation by determining what employees think, then acknowledging the situation
-Help leadership see their own blind spots, to notice what they are not noticing
-Talk to trusted confidantes to check your own perceptions
-Encourage higher-ups to take active steps to engage you and other teammates in authentic conversations,
-Ask HR to collect teammate opinions in a variety of ways, including one-on-one meetings, anonymous tip lines, or anonymous upward feedback surveys with guarantees of no negative repercussions
-Encourage the executives or HR to act on the information received, including disciplining bad actors, including poor managers
-If constant negative feedback points to one manager, those higher up or in HR must provide coaching for that manager or, if coaching fails and the behavior continues, fire that person. Firing a negative or toxic manager can send a heartening message throughout a department or an entire organization.
-If multiple toxic managers exist within the organization, it might be time for the company to hire consultants tasked with promoting positive culture change.
At the end of the day, we must take care of ourselves.
We cannot truly succeed at our jobs unless we engage in meaningful self-care:
-mentally,
-physically,
-socially-emotionally, and
-spiritually.
Our work is just one part of our overall lives. We all deserve to enjoy and find meaning in the workplace!
If you believe this content would resonate with a friend or colleague, please feel free to forward it along!
-Larry