The best managers bring out the good in negative employees
Most of us know someone in the workplace who always is complaining.
They don’t like their boss, their co-workers, their work schedule, the temperature in the office, or even the free food at the team lunch. Some of their gripes might be legitimate, but their constant negativity is draining.
There are many terms to describe people who exhibit these behaviors, but in one of my favorite business books, “First, Break All the Rules,” Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman describe these “Negative Nellies” as CAVE dwellers. CAVE, as in Consistently Against Virtually Everything.
While this book was published back in 1999 by The Gallup Organization, its messages still resonate. My favorite quote from the book applies to this very topic. “People don’t change that much. Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out. Try to draw out what was left in. That is hard enough.”
I’ve probably repeated or paraphrased this quote thousands of times over the past quarter century while coaching leaders and managers on improving employee performance and boosting engagement. I remember how groundbreaking the concept of focusing on strengths instead of weaknesses seemed to many people when I first suggested it.
Aren’t performance reviews supposed to shine a light on where employees aren’t meeting standards and the behaviors you want to see changed in the year ahead? Ideally, NO. Those discussions should happen immediately after an issue is uncovered so it can be discussed and remedied well before the eventual annual performance review.
Instead, performance discussions should be primarily geared toward harnessing employee strengths and finding opportunities to focus their energy and spend more of their working hours doing what they’re naturally good at.
While some might argue this is unrealistic given today’s workload and business demands, organizations who have embraced a strengths-based approach consistently garner improved productivity, higher retention, and happier employees.
So, back to those “Debbie Downers” in the workplace. Will focusing on their strengths improve their attitudes? Can we minimize their negative impact on others? Is there any hope?
Maybe, maybe, and ALWAYS!
Concentrating your time and effort on the job at hand, as opposed to the peripheral complaints and snarky remarks, is a good place to start. Asking open-ended questions might reveal the underlying causes of dissatisfaction and provide an opportunity to recommend alternative approaches that could reengage a checked-out employee.
The impact on others is more difficult to gauge and control. When an HR Source Employee Engagement Survey reveals disengaged employees, we don’t often recommend trying to change them. Sure, sometimes employees are in the wrong role or reporting to the wrong boss, but more often, their poor attitude doesn’t miraculously turn around when reassigned to a different job or department. Helping them to exit the organization is frequently the best way to avoid any long-term impact on their co-workers.
In terms of hope, a forthcoming book by Stanford University psychology professor Jamil Zaki, “Hope for Cynics,” suggests that it’s possible for even the most jaded employees to change. His research indicates that if people are willing to examine their assumptions and experiment with placing trust in others, they can improve their attitudes and change their behaviors.
A patient manager paired with self-awareness and a commitment to improve by the employee will exponentially improve the chances of a successful turnaround.
If you’re up for the challenge, there’s no time like the present to help a member of your team get out of a rut. But if your business needs don’t allow it, you’ll never go wrong by focusing your resources on engaged, positive employees.
• Mary Lynn Fayoumi is president and CEO of HR Source in Downers Grove.