What a great title for my first post, but hey its the first conversation I feel like talking about.
Today in a meeting I came accross a very very negative person. It was like someone had passed him crib sheets of all the ideas I was going to come up in the meeting so he could counter them. Tom Peters says you should try and avoid these people like the plauge or read them the riot act, I agree with him as you just have to stay positive and want to win. One thing I can be certain about is that every company has these people so we all have to deal with it some way or another. Whats more is that in these tough times they seem to convert the good times fence sitters to the dark side, so dealing with them is more important in testing times.
My question is how do these people affect the organisation? Its obviously negativly but how bad can it get, could a group of dark siders sink an organisation? Furthermore who is likely to leave for greener pastures the negative or the positive? And lastly how does senior management ensure an idea / growth orientated environment when negative employees are on the rise?
Anyway don't join the dark side and stay positive, remember business is suppose to be challenging and fun.....ok its more of a goal but something we should all be working towards.
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Wow, sounds like a fun meeting!
ReplyDeleteI believe negative people come from two places:
First are the beaten-down optimists -- people who are really positive about change and new ideas but because they've been beaten down so often, they become cynical. If these people are shown another path, they can become your best allies.
The second type are people who are done, finished with growing (at least at their current company), and need to be helped out the door. The trick is to know which is which.
As leaders its our responsibility to create a positive vision of the future, an environment where people want to thrive and push themselves. Unfortunately too often, companies are "led" by people looking to find fault with those below them in the org...and in fact breed the negative people they say aren't wanted! Great stuff Marc!
(Bet you thought I wouldn't post anything!)
Thanks Geoff
ReplyDeleteGreat feedback and advice...as usual