How to Find Out if Chronic Bad Behavior is Poisoning Your Workplace
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“It’s not sweat or revenue that makes companies tick; it’s trust,” says John Hall writing for Forbes.com. “Trust touches every area of business. Research published by Harvard Business Review bears this out: Workers at companies where trust is high report 106% greater energy in the office, 74% lower stress levels, 76% greater engagement, and 50% more productivity than their peers at low-trust businesses.”
Trust is a foundational principle of the work we do with teams at Resologics, which is why we study interpersonal relationship factors in the workplace that either increase trust or erode trust.
My work with teams and leaders has convinced me that it's a worthy effort to assess individual styles and behaviors and their impact on the level of trust that bring the outcomes you see in the stats above.
While I see behavioral patterns in teams such as “conflict hooks” that can cause misunderstandings and challenge trust, I also see the situation of the abrasive coworker or leader — an individual who shows a chronic pattern of disruptive behavior.
I have seen how a persistent pattern of disrespectful, aggressive, even bullying behavior drives people away from that individual and the goals they're trying to accomplish. It erodes trust in the individuals at the receiving end of this behavior, and also in the perception that management isn’t doing anything to address the problem.
Chronic unacceptable conduct can do irreparable damage to an organization, not to mention the individuals who have been so cruelly targeted. The cost to a leadership team that ignores or accepts abrasive behaviors is high.
What’s the first step in changing this situation? The Tool
The first step is to diagnose the problem. Awareness that there is abrasive behavior going on can come from one or several sources — the boss, employee, coworker, the target or targets, HR department. Or, it may show up more subtly (as statistics have shown) in targeted employees showing reduced work quality, higher absenteeism, request to shift out of the department, or even quitting.
How do you figure out if there is a problem, and the extent to which it’s occurring?
Our team has developed a way to diagnose abrasive behavior with our "Abrasive Leader Diagnostic," and it is available free to you via this direct link. It's an online survey designed for anyone to take, confidentially and anonymously — especially useful for HR pros, managers, leaders, coworkers, and even for individuals who might believe THEY could be exhibiting abrasive behaviors.
The Abrasive Leader Diagnostic identifies problematic behaviors through factors such as the types of behaviors to consider, a range of symptoms that have been noticed or reported, and behavioral history (to establish if it was a one-time or a chronic situation).
For leaders committed to having an organizational culture that ensures an environment of safety and builds trust among workers, the Abrasive Leader Diagnostic can be a useful tool. The identifying factors and symptoms outlined in the questionnaire can be built into your company policies to help you discern any chronic abrasive behavior before it becomes disruptive and destructive.
Next steps to addressing the issue
You need to intervene. Employers have a responsibility to manage both performance and conduct, assuring the physical and psychological safety of their workforce. The longer bad behavior goes on, the more emotional damage and erosion of trust are incurred.
Once you've noticed or received a complaint about someone's behavior based on the guidelines of the Diagnostic, keep notes of the behaviors and symptoms to identify a thread. At best, you'll find a personality conflict that can be remedied between the two parties.
Concerning behavior is that which is "chronic" — either against everyone or targeting an individual — and needs immediate attention, no matter what position the individual holds in the organization. Engaging an outside professional will be helpful to intervene especially in the delicate situation of an otherwise valued leader.
Happily, what we find often is that the "offender" doesn't realize the effect they're having on others. Research done by The Boss Whispering Institute finds that abrasive leaders don't intentionally set out to harm employees; they just lack important social skills in communicating empathetically, influencing in a supportive way, and reading others' emotions.
Through individualized coaching, they can reach awareness of what the behavior is, how it is being perceived by others, and ways to shift their style in a positive direction.
Wondering if an individual in your workplace — or you — could be exhibiting chronic abrasive behavior? Take the confidential ALD survey, or schedule a call with us here.
When we join a company, partnership or team, our expectation is that everyone involved will exhibit professional behavior toward us and each other. Instead, it’s highly possible that we may become one of the more than 60 million adults in the United States who are affected in some way by bullying behavior at work.
What kind of behaviors are we talking about? Our definition is any interpersonal behavior that causes emotional distress in others sufficient enough to impede their productivity or disrupt organizational functioning. It isn’t just a personality conflict — it’s a chronic pattern of disrespectful behavior.