Managing Toxic & Other Employees Who Have Attitude Issues

• Chaos & unnecessary complexity
• Overt damage
• Covert damage
• Strife, stress & emotional damage
• Productivity, quality & financial losses

The A, B, C’s Related to Toxic Employees

• Employee attitudes
• Employee behaviors
• Consequences that managers can exert

The Psyche of a Toxic Employee

• Frequently seen toxic behaviors
• Utilize ‘star status’ & technical expertise to intimidate & manipulate
• Chameleon who knows who to flatter & who he/she can abuse Turn their toxicity on & off depending on the impression they want to make
• Three common forms of toxic behavior

Common Reactions to Toxic Employees That Frequently Don’t Work

• Restructuring his/her job to accommodate the toxic employee
• Tolerating toxic employees who bring rare expertise or experience
• Not assertively seeking feedback from employees as to whether there is toxic behavior in the workplace
• Not communicating to all employees the specific behaviors that will not be tolerated – with associated consequences

Effective Approaches for Addressing & Preventing Toxicity

Organization-wide strategies:

• Making positive interpersonal behavior an organizational value
• Evaluating interpersonal behavior as a part of the performance appraisal system
• Training leaders in how to address toxic behavior.
• Using behavioral-based interview questions to screen toxic applicants Exit interviewing to identify any toxic behavior in the workplace.

Departmental & team strategies:

• Defining appropriate interpersonal interactions with behavior-specific descriptions & standards
• Using team discussions & role plays to clarify the application of the behavioral descriptions & standards
• Utilizing a 360-degree feedback process to assess the work environment

One-on-one strategies:

• Stating explicitly that the behavior is not acceptable & why
• Describing both the unacceptable & acceptable behavior
• Asking the employee to commit to & describe how he/she will change his/her behavior
• Frequent, targeted counseling feedback
• Executive coaches
• Progressive discipline
• Termination

But even terminations are not a cure-all because the:

• Toxic-enabling people & organizational culture tendencies may remain
• Employees may still be resentful of the way they were treated by the employee & the time it took the organization to react
• Expertise & experience of the toxic employee are lost.

Who Should Attend?

• Managers
• Directors
• Presidents
• Human Resource Professionals
• Owners
• Anyone with managerial or leadership responsibility.