Teamwork and Toxic Behavior
With today’s job landscape shifting furiously into a more collaborative and teamwork oriented environment, it is more crucial than ever to be able to control your behavior at the workplace. People with negative, damaging attitudes push others away, and that in turn affects performance on group projects or in team settings. Everyone exhibits poor behavior occasionally, but those that exhibit toxic behavior will poison the entire company. The six most common toxic behaviors displayed in the workplace are:
Taking everything personally
Great actors know the secret of act – react. Every action against you deserves an equal reaction of the same nature. In corporate America however, a good employee knows that an action against you does not necessarily warrant a reaction. Direct feedback on job performance aside, what somebody does or says to you in the workplace is not necessarily directed at you. It is most often a result of their own emotions and actions.
Obsessing about negative thoughts
Someone who may see the glass as half empty rather than half full would be considered a pessimist. But that does not automatically lock them into the category of being a negative person. Someone who is always trapped by past slights or wrong doings will never be able to see the positive. They will always operative from a place of negativity, and that attitude will dampen anyone’s ideas or progress.
Treating yourself like a victim
Whining and complaining are direct markers of someone who considers them to be a victim. Being a victim implies a loss of power, authority or influence. Employees who are constantly complaining, but do not have plans or solutions to their problems, continue to operate from this mentality. Once someone stops looking at their situation from that point of view can realize that they have more power than they think to change their situation.
Cruelty (lacking empathy)
When you do not care about others, you lack empathy. Without compassion, you see cruel and destructive behavior, because employees are only in it for themselves. Tearing someone else down doesn’t make him or her any better, it just makes you worse for not taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture. There’s usually more than meets the eye and if you can exhibit some empathy, you may discover something new.
Excessive reactivity
Going from zero to sixty and reacting instantly to something upsetting is incredibly reactive behavior to exhibit. To increase the toxicity of this behavior is the inability to control these outbursts. If you are always needed to be calmed down by a boss or manager, you may consider seeking an outside perspective to help you understand why you are exhibiting this behavior, and perhaps how to control it.
Needing constant validation
Being told you have done a good job on a task or project is rewarding to anyone. But needing constant validation from a superior is draining to them and your fellow coworkers. There is a difference in working hard and feeling the need to prove your worthy. Through working hard, the proof is in the pudding. You know you did a good job when your boss or client is happy. But constantly needing to ‘win’ no matter what costs is seriously detrimental to your success and happiness. Take the time to breathe and understand that not every participant needs to win a trophy.
The Culture Counts blog is a discussion of law firm culture and legal innovation, including topics such as effective leadership, employee engagement, workplace culture, ideal work environment, company core values, and workplace productivity.
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