Four Steps to Winning Over Negative Employees

If a department suffers from low morale and a poor work ethic, it must be the boss' fault, right? At least, that's what research about workplace dynamics would have you believe; most of it focuses on what the boss is doing wrong.

However, "Are Your Subordinates Setting You Up To Fail?", a new article from the MIT Sloan Management Review, finds that employees can be just as responsible for creating toxic work environments as their superiors.
"We have encountered many situations where subordinates individually or collectively placed their bosses in no-win situations," say authors Jean-François Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux, both of Switzerland's IMD Business School.

The research finds that subordinates develop negative impressions of bosses for a variety of reasons, ranging from perceived slights to poor treatment by former superiors. These negative impressions can lead to employees acting out in a variety of ways, some that may even jeopardize their manager's job.

So what can a boss do about it? The authors recommend four steps for avoiding negative labeling by employees.

• 1. Understand the situation: New bosses, who run the biggest risk of being negatively labeled, need to understand the situation they're stepping into. Depending on the exit circumstances of the previous supervisor, employees may be negatively predisposed. The authors recommend holding an air-clearing Q&A with subordinates to get rid of any preconceived notions.
• 2. Spend one-on-one time with subordinates: Besides allowing bosses to develop a rapport with their staff, time alone with individual employees lets managers understand them better and nip negative feelings in the bud.
• 3.Store goodwill: The authors advise taking time to help subordinates in their tasks and career goals, as well as showing openness to their input as ways to build positive feelings.
• 4. Engage early and often: If an employee's behavior is a cause for concern, supervisors need to find out what's going on as soon as possible. Calling an employee in for a meeting early on is a chance to clear the air; delaying it will allow the negative feelings to fester and continue to negatively impact the workplace.

Workplace fatality image courtesy of Flickr user Bill Dimmick, CC 2.0