Creatista | Dreamstime.com
The dysfunctional workplace is a killer. Untreated, the dysfunction will kill off your customer base, your profits, and your joy for living as surely as anything.
So you’ve got to kill it first. Here are the Top Ten dysfunctions—and the cure for each:
No. 1: People being at odds with each other with no desire to fix it.
Have the most direct supervisor meet with those involved to learn what it will take to resolve it and to secure a firm commitment to do so. Spell out immediate consequences in the event of failure.
No. 2: Saying one thing and meaning another.
If you have an employee with a pattern of saying, “But what I meant was…”, call them on it. Requiring the offender to have all communications checked for clarity for a period of time usually nips this in the bud.
No. 3: Giving lip service to new ideas, then undercutting them in private.
You’ll want to enlist everyone’s help in keeping this one out. Make it clear that dissenting opinions are welcomed during decisionmaking, but that once a decision is made, undercutting will not be tolerated.
No. 4: Defensiveness at reasonable suggestions.
Let your people know that you consider a willingness to improve to be one of the hallmarks of a person with a bright future in the company. Defensiveness should be viewed as what it is—an unwillingness to improve one’s self.
No. 5: Attraction to chaos.
Pot stirring is a violation of principles both written and unwritten and a threat to productivity. Counterbalance the pleasure they get from drama with a greater measure of negative consequences.
No. 6: Not following through on commitments.
Let people know that they are expected to acknowledge errors and make a commitment to clean up every last bit of the resulting mess.
No. 7: Deflecting blame.
Deflecting blame equals deflecting responsibility. Make it clear that the only acceptable behavior is acceptance of responsibility and (as above) quick work to clean up the mess.
No. 8: People pretending like they “never got the memo.”
If there was no breakdown in the actual system, make it clear that the employee is responsible for consistently accessing internal communications—memos, email, and so on—so that he is never again “out of the loop.”
No. 9: Refusing to deal with conflict directly.
Conflict resolution is an essential part of a manager’s job. Performance reviews can and should count disruptive interpersonal conflicts against managers on whose watch they occur.
No. 10. Gossiping and backstabbing.
Once you establish a zero-tolerance policy for talking behind another person’s back, give your people permission to address conflict head-on, out loud, courageously and honestly. And make it clear that giving or receiving gossip is not acceptable.
You may have noticed a refrain coming back again and again in this advice: Make it clear. Once you’ve made the determination to purge your workplace of dysfunctional behavior, your greatest ally and most powerful tool will be clarity.