Hi everyone - I have within my team a person who is competent - at times very good - at her actual work, but also brilliant at poisoning the work environment.
I have provided consistent feedback (O3s are long-rolled-out), starting with what was a negative attitude (outward and impacting the team), which she has changed.
However her more insidious actions are done in private - lunches with the team (without me), quiet conversations with team members, body language; she uses "we" as if representing the team when providing me with feedback, etc. Some members of the team are slowly adopting the bad apple's negativity and skewed reality, however I don't feel I can provide the bad apple with all the feedback she needs on things that I have not directly observed, but instead can only suspect with a high degree of certainty.
While I now try to hire team members who would likely not be affected by this bad apple, and also have amplified my own positivity (and look to disarm negativity when it arises), wondering if there are some tried and true methods some of you might have for this type of situation.
You dont have to witness bad behavior to provide feedback
Hi Max Digital,
There was a MT podcast not long ago that touched on this. Essentially, if you hear about negative behavior from another employee you can provide feedback to the bad apple. This is not a court of law, you can admit hear say. Just be careful who and how you receive the information. If you believe the information is credible - then it happened. End of story.
As with all feedback you will need to make sure you are commenting on specific behaviors. I might brush up on the feedback models. Also, document as persistent team destructive behavior is grounds for termination. You will want to make the bad apple aware that behavior destructive to the team can lead to termination.
Lastly, continue to lead and not get caught up in the drama. People want to follow a positive leader. I would bet most, if not all, of the other employees do not like the drama and find it distracting. Bad Apples have a way of self-destructing. I bet in time this one either shapes up or self destructs.
Allow your plans to conform to your enemy's plans...
... and you have already lost. Can't believe you are hiring based on her poisoning weakness.
Why can't you give her TONS of feedback based on stuff you hear of? We have a cast called third party feedback, and we talk specifically about this. The standard for giving feedback to someone on their behavior is NOT that you have seen or heard the behavior first hand, but rather that you believe that they engaged in the behavior. (Obviously, when you see it or hear it, you do usually believe it).
If someone else tells you something that you find credible (think about the other person, think about motives, etc.) then deliver AS IF you did see it, because you do believe it. If they push back and argue you're wrong, use the shot across the bow podcast, and walk away. When you do give feedback, don't tell them where you heard of it. Don't mention others. If she asks you who told you, say, "what's important is I'm telling you."
More feedback to her. Direct, polite, and regular.
Keep us posted.
Mark
MT and support from my boss helped resolve a similar issue.
This is a long post but hopefully helpful. I had a similar situation that I resolved with the following.
1. I prepared for a 1-2-1 with my direct.
2. I pre-wired with my boss.
3. Held the 1-2-1 and gave feedback.
4. Reviewed and updated my directs goals.
I had a direct who was a solid performer but was tearing down the team with negative behaviours. This included rudeness to other staff, poor attendance of 1-2-1's, and dismissing leadership direction to the rest of the team when I wasn't there.
Even after listening to the podcasts I struggled with this situation. The poor behaviours all happened while I wasn't around and the reason from my direct for poor attendance at 1-2-1's was always "I had to help a customer with a critical issue".
Using the MT podcasts I had the plan of what needed to be done but delayed carrying it out because I was unsure of how this approach would be supported by the company. I also had a boss who did not like surprises and would not have appreciated a phone call from HR stating that a complaint had been made about me (The Mark & Mike told me to do it defence was not an option :-).
I resolved the situation with the following actions.
I prepared my 1-2-1 notes for meeting with my direct which included giving feedback on the most recent behaviour that had been brought to me by others in the team.
I then gave my boss a heads up about what I wanted to do. My boss not only supported the approach but provided great insight into how to improve the situation.
I then verbally reconfirmed the 1-2-1 slot with my direct and made it clear that unless it was a production stopping issue (very rare and always logged) that the meeting was mandatory.
At the 1-2-1 I gave the following feedback, "After last weeks meeting you approached individuals in the team and told them that the new direction was stupid, that the leadership team didn't know what they were doing and you were just going to ignore it all. You were then rude to staff who gave you feedback. Your behaviours are reducing the teams performance. If you continue with these behaviours I will fire you. What can you do differently to stop this from happening".
My direct was very upset so I offered to leave the room for a few minutes which the direct accepted. After 5 minutes I went back in and repeated the above statement. My direct responded that they had been mis-heard and that this was unfair. I asked the direct how they could avoid being mis-heard in the future. After some discussion we agreed that gossiping about decisions was not the best thing to do and if the direct did not agree with a decision in the future then we could discuss it in the next 1-2-1. I also arranged some time to take the direct through the peer feedback model to help with communications with the rest of the team.
At the next 1-2-1 my direct and I reviewed the goals we had agreed and I asked if they felt these goals were challenging enough to support their longer term career goals in the timescale they wanted to achieve them in. This conversation added some new goals which I coached them on each week as well as on the original goals. Over the next few weeks the direct went from a liability to a highly productive, positive member of the team. It is my feeling that connecting my directs behaviours to the very real risk of being fired and demonstrating that I wanted to help them towards their longer term aims is what turned them around.
My lessons learnt from this were nothing new to manager tools
The most surprising lesson was my boss did not perceive me escalating as a sign I did not know what I was doing but asked if I would mind sharing the experience with my peers at our next team meeting. At a subsequent review I received positive feedback that I was willing to have the difficult conversations rather than risk things getting worse.
I hope that sharing this experience I had and how I overcame it using advice from manager tools is helpful.
Stephensan