2021 - Managing Toxic & Other Employees Who Have Attitude Issues

OVERVIEW
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 left the organization is considered one of their annual holidays.
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/or the
organization
Using positive & negative consequences to influence that behavior
WHY SHOULD YOU ATTEND?
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 being 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
AREA COVERED
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, 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 an organizational value
Evaluating interpersonal behavior as a part of the performance appraisal system
Training leaders in 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-plays 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 unacceptable & acceptable behavior
Asking the employee to commit to & describe how he/she will change his/her behavior
Frequent, targeted counseling feedback
Executive coaches
Progressive discipline
Termination
But even terminations are not a cure-all because of 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
Expertise & experience of the toxic employee are lost
WHO WILL BENEFIT?
Anyone with managerial or leadership responsibility
SPEAKER PROFILE
Pete Tosh is Founder of The Focus Group, a management consulting and training firm that assists organizations in sustaining profitable growth through four core disciplines:
Implementing Strategic HR Initiatives: Executive Search, Conducting HR Department Audits, Enhancing Recruiting, Interviewing & Selection Processes, Installing Performance Management Programs, Conducting Training Needs Assessments, Installing HR Metrics, etc
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