Toxic Leadership Behaviour
With ever-increasing pressure on leaders to “perform” these days, the temptation to indulge in what some might see as “toxic “strategies can be very powerful.
I recently read a fascinating article by Jeroen Kraaijenbrink on some of the typical toxic behaviours one might encounter.
Kraaijenbrink identifies seven key behaviours. He starts with micromanagement: a behaviour that stifles innovation and trust as workers feel undervalued and demotivated, meaning lack of job satisfaction due to seeing their work continuously undermined.
The next is withholding information. If someone does this deliberately to keep their people in the dark, the result is a culture of secrecy and mistrust – the “information is power” syndrome. The team may also not be able to make effective decisions. To this I would add the opposite: deluging workers with information, emails, memos and such like whether they’re relevant to them or not. This causes “information overload” and stress as people try to work out and prioritise what’s important. A good leader acts as an “information funnel”, reviewing inbound messages and deciding which are relevant for which worker.
Many of us will have heard the maxim that leadership is a position offering an opportunity to build others. Thinking of one’s position in “hierarchical terms” is likely to mean the leader believes in command-and-control style.
“Divide and conquer” tactics result in cohesiveness and trust amongst team members being destroyed and a toxic working environment. Additionally, they undermine collaboration and encourage destructive competition.
How often have we heard of “the leader who’s never there”? Employees and workers will feel they’re not supported as well as experiencing uncertainty in direction. Additionally, personal development and addressing issues promptly may result in lower job satisfaction.
Another toxic behaviour in terms of managing people comes in the form of seeing team members as resources rather than human beings (think of the ghastly “Human Resources” description for the department charged with workers’ well-being). In such cases, burn-out, lack of engagement and high turnover can result.
Finally, the all-too common fault of playing favourites can destroy team morale and result in divisions and resentment when merit is overlooked, discouraging effort and loyalty.
Personally, I know I’ve been guilty of several of these sins at one time or another. The key is to learn from them and avoid repeating them.
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Teamwork
My Hotmail Conundrum
I’m a proud and happy Mac user! After working on a PC for 25 yeas of my professional life, for whatever reason I decided 11 years ago to switch to a Mac.
To paraphrase the slogan “someone” used, “Once you use a Mac, you won’t look back!” I love my Mac. I’ve learnt how to use my Mac (mostly through trial and error). If there’s something I can’t do, I Google it and find an abundance of articles, helpdesks and videos on how to resolve my problem. I once received the ultimate compliment that people should refer to me for any Apple related issues (mind you this was within my own family).
One of the services I use with Apple is the mail app. I run several email accounts on this: personal, business and two public domain emails (one of which I use for online shopping).
One of those public domain emails is a Hotmail address and is the first email address I ever had that was my own and could be “carried around with me” as I moved from country to country.
This year, Microsoft updated their sign-in protocols for Hotmail and I started receiving emails that I would no longer be able to access my Hotmail account without taking certain action. Microsoft did provide guidance on what action to take, but unfortunately it was written for the operating systems used on iPhones and iPads. It didn’t apply to people using Apple Mail on their desktop Mac. Things came to a head, when I received what seemed to be the final warning that I would no longer be able to access my Hotmail address from my desktop. I’d already taken the action needed to be able to access it on my iPhone and iPad so it was not going to be a “dealbreaker” if I couldn’t access it from my desktop. However as I advance in age, I find that I prefer accessing email from a larger screen rather than that on an iPhone (even the new “plus “size phones). An iPad 11” is OK.
I finally “Googled” something like Can’t access Hotmail on my Mac desktop” and there in the top five suggestions, was the answer to my problem. It was simple! Within a minute, I’d successfully reconfigured my Mac to access Hotmail once more.
The individual who provided it commented that Microsoft instructions were only for the operating systems on iPhones and iPads but not Apple MacBooks or desktops…
It made me wonder, DID Microsoft or whoever the employee was that wrote the original instructions for iPads and phones simply not realise that iOS is different to OSX?
It certainly seems to be the case. After all, is it reasonable to expect a Microsoft employee working on one particular product to understand the intricacies of Apple’s operating systems? This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this problem either. Are we in our organisations just as guilty of not “seeing the bigger picture”?
Those of us Mac users who use MS Office on our Macs will also have encountered similar predicaments when using the Mac versions of Office.
In the end I realise this was nothing more than a simple case of awareness. Our world is growing faster, more complicated and more diverse every year. What holds through this year may well be obsolete next year.
How can we as business leaders, manage this rate of change in such a way as to keep our business is going (and our employees sane!)
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity
Teamwork Comes from TRUST
Stephen Covey, author of “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” once commented that “without trust we don’t truly collaborate; we merely coordinate or, at best, cooperate. It is trust that transforms a group of people into a team.”
The art or science (or both) of teamwork has been the subject of many studies. The US Navy SEALS generally won’t put someone on the team if they can’t trust them. So what is it that creates this “trust” that seems to be so important?
From what I’ve seen, there are several factors at play:
First and foremost, team members must feel safe. This means that not only must they feel safe to make mistakes, but they must also feel safe to admit them, ask for help and that people won’t try to “stab them in the back”. There are countless stories of certain industry sectors where people claw their way to the top over the backs of others, where admitting to weakness or mistakes is a “career limiting move”.
Another factor is communication. Team members must have open and frank communication and be able to feel safe in saying things. This has already been mentioned in the first paragraph dealing with safety. However, it’s just as important to be able to voice concerns, complaints, criticisms about what’s going on. Of course, when it comes to one’s teammates, things need to be done in a more diplomatic way, but if someone isn’t, say, pulling their weight or is causing trouble one way or another, then an “intervention” is needed and fast before team morale and productivity suffer irreparably.
Understanding one’s own strengths and weaknesses as a team member is also vital. Some people are “naturals” at sales. Others may not be so gifted in this area, but turn out to be brilliant organisers, administrators and checkers. Yet others are able to keep the team “together” when tiredness sets in or morale starts to flag.
Understanding the interplay of all these factors (and more) is vital in managing team dynamics. Once the team truly trusts each other to “have their back” it’s amazing what they can accomplish!
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.
Labels: Leadership, Productivity, Teamwork
