Are your colleagues trying to take advantage of others without giving anything in return? Steal other people’s ideas, take credit for the team, hide information and always pull the blanket over themselves? Here’s how to deal with such «consumers».
It is generally accepted that difficult to communicate, aggressive and self-serving people are an integral part of life. Inevitable, like, say, rain or snow. But such employees have a toxic effect on the team. They use others to achieve their own goals and as a result create an atmosphere of wariness, fear and even paranoia in the team.
The good news is that most of the team is made up of «correlators» — those who strive for a «mutually beneficial exchange»: there are about 56% of them in the offices. In addition to them, there are «donors». They generously support colleagues and offer help without demanding anything in return. Such employees are approximately 25%.
“Consumers” are only 19%, but one of them may be on your team, and their negative impact on corporate culture will be 2-3 times stronger than the positive impact of correlators and donors. A single consumer in a team can destroy the atmosphere of trust.
Successful consumers are good pretenders. They portray consent, show warmth, politeness and friendliness.
People begin to behave like consumers because they doubt the good intentions of colleagues, become suspicious and do not trust anyone. But the trouble is that this attitude is contagious and can affect the entire team. Even generous donors stop helping others if they feel they are working among the «wolves». Nobody wants to be constantly used.
When looking for employees, you spend a lot of time choosing the right people, but it is much more important to learn how to get rid of the wrong people in time before they cause serious harm to the company.
At the same time, consumers are not so easy to recognize: they skillfully pretend that they act from the best of intentions. Successful consumers are good pretenders. They portray consent, demonstrate warmth, politeness and friendliness. When they try to trick them into getting things done, we may even mistake them for donors.
Here are some strategies to help you deal with toxic consumer attitudes before you go to the extreme and fire them.
1. Look for the positives. People are rarely XNUMX% consumers. Perhaps their consumer attitude extends only to work: once upon a time they decided that this was the only way to win in the competition.
Watch them. In what situations are they less selfish and willing to share? Colleague enthusiastically talks about computers? Surely he will not refuse to help understand the new program or connect the printer.
2. Hint to the employee that he has a reputation as a consumer. Perhaps this will force a colleague to reconsider their behavior. If you are the boss, you can openly talk to him about his toxic behavior and take the time to change.
3. Be objective. You should not encourage selfish behavior, but you should not expect selflessness from all colleagues either. Correlators can also be unbearable, demanding immediate «retribution» for their services, information, or help. And even donors are far from perfect: they often consider their behavior to be the only right one and want everyone around them to meet their high standards. This makes them too rigid and critical.
Yes, there are no perfect employees. But a strong leader is able to rally a team consisting of a variety of people.
About the Author: Adam Grant is a professor at the Wharton Business School and bestselling author of Give and Take.