Managing Toxic & Other Employees Who Have Attitude Issues

Most organizations have employees who on occasion:

•  Complain & gossip excessively
•  Use inappropriate language
•  Are mildly insubordinate

But Toxic Employees have interpersonal styles that demonstrate a pattern of counter-productive work behaviors. While Emotionally Intelligent employees are aware of their feelings &those of others exhibit a pattern of appropriate self-management.The toxic employee problem is surprisingly prevalent with research showing:

•   95% of employees have &64% are currently working with a toxic employee

•   50% of employees have thought of quitting & 12% did because of a toxic employee

•   25% of employees have reduced their work effort due to a toxic employee

•   20% of employees feel they are a target weekly & 10% of employees see toxic behavior daily

Toxic employees cause significant overt, covert, people-related &financial damage with their visible behavior just being the tip of the iceberg. For example, in one organization the day a former employee leaves the organization is considered one of their annual holidays.

Session Highlights:

I. Human & Financial Costs Resulting from Toxic Employees

•   Toxic Employees Create:
•   Chaos & unnecessary complexity
•   Overt damage
•   Covert damage
•   Strife, stress & emotional damage
• Productivity, quality & financial losses

II. The A, B, and C’s Related to Toxic Employees

•  Employee attitudes
•  Employee behaviors
•  Consequences that managers can exert

III. The Psyche of a Toxic Employee

•  Frequently seen toxic behaviors
•  Utilize ‘star status’ & technical expertise to intimidate & manipulate
•  A chameleon who knows who to flatter & who he/she can abuse Turn their toxicity on & off  depending on the impression they want to make
•  Three common forms of toxic behavior

IV. Common Reactions to Toxic Employees that frequently Don’t Work

• Restructuring his/her job to accommodate the toxic employee
• Tolerating toxic employees who bring rare expertise or experience
• Not assertively seeking feedback from employees as to whether there is toxic behavior in the workplace
• Not communicating to all employees, the specific behaviors that will not be tolerated – with associated consequences

V. Effective Approaches for Addressing & Preventing Toxicity Organization-wide strategies:

• Making positive interpersonal behavior organizational value
• Evaluating interpersonal behavior as a part of the performance appraisal system
• Training leaders on how to address toxic behavior
• Using behavioral-based interview questions to screen toxic applicants
• Exit interviewing to identify any toxic behavior in the workplace

Departmental &team strategies:

• Defining appropriate interpersonal interactions with behavior-specific descriptions & standards
• Using team discussions & role play to clarify the application of the behavioral descriptions & standards
• Utilizing a 360-degree feedback process to assess the work environment

One-on-one strategies:

• Stating explicitly that the behavior is not acceptable& why
• Describing both the unacceptable & acceptable behavior
• Asking the employee to commit to & describe how he/she will change his/her behavior
• Frequent, targeted counselling feedback
• Executive coaches
• Progressive discipline
• Termination

But even terminations are not a cure-all because the:

• Toxic-enabling people & organizational culture tendencies may remain
• Employees may still be resentful of the way they were treated by the employee & the time it took the organization to react
• The expertise & experience of the toxic employee are lost

Why you should attend:

Clever toxic employees:

•  Utilize their technical expertise to intimidate & manipulate
•  Know who to flatter & who they can abuse
•  Turn their toxicity on & off depending on the impression they want to make

Unfortunately, organizations can work against themselves & even promote toxicity by:

• Restructuring his/her job to accommodate a toxic employee
• Tolerating toxic employees who have valued expertise
• Not assertively seeking employee feedback as to whether there is toxic behavior in the workplace
• Not communicating to all employees the specific interpersonal behaviors that will not be tolerated – with the associated consequences.

Managers sometimes attempt to fix this type of problem by addressing a toxic employee’s attitude. And while a toxic employee’s attitude certainly affects his/her behavior, managers usually find that controlling an employee’s attitude is next to impossible.

Managers can be much more effective by:

•  Discussing the specific behaviors that are negatively impacting other employees and the organization
•  Using positive & negative consequences to influence that behavior

Who should attend:

• Anyone with managerial or leadership responsibility