This past Sunday, The
New York Times published a thought provoking article regarding a perennial source of workplace conflict:
the mean boss. In her article, “No Time to be Nice at Work,” Professor
Christine Porath paints an all too familiar picture: the harried management
official who either cannot find the time to treat her colleagues with respect,
or worries that being seen as “nice” will undermine her effectiveness in the
workplace, and instead chooses to establish her authority by exercising what her
colleagues perceive as rude behavior. But as the research repeatedly points out,
failing to take the time to acknowledge other people in the workplace with
basic respect leads to the conflicts that prevent an organization from
functioning, much less flourishing.
As Porath eloquently states, “How we treat one another at work matters. Insensitive interactions
have a way of whittling away at people’s health, performance and souls.”
Unless you are dealing with a fundamentally bad person
(which is rarely the case), the mean
boss can be redeemed. Simple behavior modifications, starting
with the awareness of ineffective “mean boss” behaviors and deciding to change
them, can make huge differences in the workplace, leading to significantly less
conflict, higher employee engagement and increased productivity and effectiveness.
Porath’s article reminded me of a busy executive I worked
with. Although the team she led
routinely met her organization’s goals, her staff reported high levels of
dissatisfaction and her team faced high turnover rates. One of the key problems, it turned out, was
this executive’s inadvertent “mean boss” behaviors.
Like all busy professionals, this executive was addicted to
multi-tasking. This meant that she would
routinely call in subordinates for meetings, but instead of focusing on what
they had to report, she would often keep her back towards them, responding to
emails and typing away at her computer while only half listening, and half
responding, to what her staff had to say.
She would routinely interrupt her staff to make quick calls to her
secretary, or attend to something else she felt was suddenly more
pressing. In her mind, she was doing it
all, and she thought by demonstrating how busy she was at all times, her staff
would understand and appreciate more what attention she could spare them.
Of course, her behaviors were having the exact opposite
effect. A simple audit of her staff
revealed that her method of conducting meetings left employees feeling frustrated,
disrespected and unheard. Just as Porath’s
article predicts, this eventually led to employees shutting down, or worse,
leaving the organization.
Luckily, this was a problem that could be addressed. Upon realizing how this behavior was
affecting her team, this executive could choose to conduct face to face
meetings in a focused manner, without multitasking or performing in ways to
demonstrate her busyness and authority.
By choosing instead to focus entirely on her employees during these
meetings, her employees could now feel heard and respected, which increases
their workplace engagement. The
additional benefit is that the added focused attention in meetings ensures that
all relevant information was transferred between the manager and employees,
leading to more thoughtful and effective decision making.
Improved communication could put this team back on track. All it takes is simple tweaks to fix “mean
boss” behavior.
If you find yourself
in a challenging work environment, or you are a busy manager who cannot
understand why your employees appear to be routinely frustrated in the
workplace, consider bringing in a workplace conflict resolution
consultant. After conducting a simple
workplace audit to highlight areas of concerns and identify problem behaviors,
you can then focus on making simple modifications to take your workplace from
dysfunctional to flourishing.
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