Photo by Barrett Ward on Unsplash
If you’ve ever wondered how a toxic office culture might originate, here’s a recent example.
Hopefully, you can’t relate.
While working late one evening, a young manager, trying to meet a deadline, overheard her boss (the company’s owner) talking to her Finance Manager.
The boss referred to “her” staff in very crude terms.
I won’t repeat the words the boss used (they were mightily offensive), but two of them rhyme with ducking and bats.
She thought the young manager sitting close by couldn’t hear because she was wearing EarPods.
That was a big mistake on the owner’s part because there was no music playing. Her manager had turned off the music to help her concentrate and so heard what was said very clearly.
The boss’s outburst was prompted by the need to pay staff’s travel expenses.
For the tenacity of travelling long distances and working weekends on behalf of this Scrooge-like character, the boss felt angry.
It was as if Bob Cratchit had asked Scrooge for more coal for the fire.
You can imagine the feelings when the owner’s words were relayed to other staff members.
Happy campers, they were not.
Having contempt for the people who work for you, as shown by this example, highlights the sad state of the boss’s character.
In that particular business, staff benefits of any kind are given grudgingly, and some established ones have been removed without discussion.
The above prompts a short extract from the Team Turnaround issue.
“If there is one ‘secret’ to know about building a loyal and motivated team, it’s this:
Any member of your team must believe that you will never say anything harmful or detrimental about them to anyone else, no matter how forthright you are with them on a one-to-one basis. Whatever happens, they believe that to you (and to the outside world), they are a highly valued member of your team or business.
Is it easy? No, especially when you have challenging or disillusioned people within a team. Is it worth it? It most certainly is.
A small group of highly committed people who believe in their capabilities will consistently outperform bigger and less motivated rivals.
And they will savour doing it too.”
I doubt the boss in question would agree, but even Scrooge changed his curmudgeonly ways.
If you’re interested in building a motivated, high-performing team, you’ll find this month’s newsletter very helpful.
You can order a copy on this page of our website.