What’s at the root of so-called “poor performance”? We tend to look at an employee’s – or friend’s, family member’s, customer’s, a stranger’s – behavior as a “thing,” an entity unto itself. But is it really? We look at an employee’s behavior, whether “good” or “bad,” and call it “performance.” But performance doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s always based …
Got cats? Let’s herd ’em!
Once upon a time, I had ten cats. Yes, it was a lot. Yes, it was very furry. Yes, I went through a lot of kitty litter! Maybe I’m stretching a metaphor to the breaking point, but in my experience, trying to get all stakeholders in a change initiative heading in the right direction can be a whole lot like …
Why won’t they change?
I know it’s hard to believe, but there are people in this world who refuse to change. (Yes, that was me being Captain Obvious.) They know they’re stuck in ways of thinking and acting that don’t support their career or their life, but they say things like, “I’m too old to change” (which I’ve heard from people in their 40s), …
Are you the company doormat?
My clients are nice people. That’s not a bad thing. As long as they’re not too nice. I was talking with one client recently who wanted help learning how to manage what seemed to them like an abundance of toxic situations in the different jobs they’d had over the years. What could be done to avoid, or at least deal with, …
When Bonnie caught the groundhog (no blood, I promise)
We have a groundhog problem. It’s a big, fat groundhog that has figured out how to go under the low fence around the bean patch. We just got a hav-a-hart trap on loan from a friend. But I haven’t had time yet to set it up. So when I saw the groundhog squeezing under the fence this afternoon, I let …
Do you have “toxic” managers? Three ways to find out.
Last week, I wrote a post on LinkedIn about a report I’d seen stating that 30% of managers are toxic. That post got a ton of discussion, with wide-ranging opinions from “that’s too high” to “that’s too low” to “what the heck is ‘toxic,’ anyway?” What fun! I don’t know if that 30% is valid or not. The article I read …
5 tips for handling gaslighting employees
Gaslighting: to manipulate someone by psychological means into questioning their own sanity. (Google definition) How does this show up at work? “Oh, sorry, I never got that email. Are you sure you sent it?” “I wasn’t supposed to take care of that – we never discussed it.” “You said you were going to ask {other team member} to do it.” …
You don’t have to like your team
It’s not a requirement to like your team. But you do have to respect them. They’re on your team for a reason. Whether you hired them, or someone else did and you inherited them, they’ve been considered appropriate for the job. If that’s not the case – if they’re not meeting expectations for the role they need to fill and …
How to manage a toxic employee
Short answer: don’t. Try to manage them, that is. Toxic co-workers are toxic – poisonous, virulent, noxious – those are just a few of the synonyms offered by a Google search. They damage morale, delay projects, reduce productivity, cause colleagues and managers to dread coming to work, and increase costly employee turnover. All too often, their behavior is overlooked. Whether it’s …
How to manage negative employees
Do you have a doom-and-gloom employee on your team? Someone who always points out the worst outcome, why ideas won’t work, and generally seems to have a little gray cloud following them around all the time? They might do great work, but they’re also a drag on everyone’s energy. Even if you don’t work directly with them, you can feel …