Part II: Bad apples don’t have to spoil the bunch
Last month, I wrote about how a manager’s attitude has a profound impact on employees. Just as important is the attitude of employees. At AltairStrickland, we believe hiring men and women with the right attitude is integral to the success of our teams. We know when an employee with a negative attitude joins a team, his behavior can harm the team from the inside. And while that may seem relatively trivial at first, the reality is this: it’s a huge problem if it’s allowed to continue.
How many of us in management positions think about this on a regular basis? How many of us actually put the idea of hiring for attitude as well as aptitude into practice? And once you know you have a problem, how many take steps toward corrective action? And what steps do you take to fix it?
Research studies have shown the human cognitive system is more sensitive to stimuli that carry negative rather than positive connotations. This means when a team member starts exhibiting negative attitudes, judgments and comments, other team members will most likely respond strongly in some way, such as with emotional distress, withdrawal and even anger. And we all know angry, emotional teams don’t usually perform to the level we’d like them to.
But here’s the kicker — and this is part of what makes hiring a cohesive team difficult — attitudes change. Attitudes aren’t like house foundations; they’re not cemented in place in the beginning and fixed over time. And that means someone hired with a good attitude could suddenly, or over time, develop a bad attitude — which is exactly what most organizations are trying to avoid in the first place. So what do we do then? What do we do to buffer our teams against the bad attitudes that will surely arise?
According to one study conducted by researchers at Tilburg University, there are three things teams can do to minimize the effect of team members exhibiting negative attitudes. These ideas may seem simple and intuitive, but perhaps more important is taking the step of actually putting them into action. At AltairStrickland, we’ve found their suggestions to be extremely helpful. We like to think of it as team protection.
- Have a high level of “communication density.” Communication density is the degree to which team members are in communication with each other. When all the members of a team are in frequent conversations — whether it’s about the specific task at hand or planning for a future project — the team is better positioned to manage negative interpersonal relationships if they arise. Essentially, since each member of the team has communicated regularly, they’ve built up enough positivity with each other that they can fend off or deal intelligently with any negative behavior should it surface.
- Have a high level of “task interdependence.” “Task interdependence” is an elaborate way of saying team members have to depend on each other to succeed. When task interdependence is high, each member of the team depends on each of the other members to complete their collective task. Because team members are “in it together,” they tend to monitor each other closely, which helps eliminate any factors that could interfere with the completion of the task.
- Focus on the quality of social exchange. Team member exchange, or social exchange, is loosely defined as the way a team member contributes ideas, feedback and assistance to the team, and, in turn, how the team member receives information, help and recognition from other team members. Focusing on the quality of exchange of team members with the team as a whole rather than individually helps people feel more part of a cohesive group. And the more they feel as if they’re a part of the group, the more they feel vested in it, and the less likely they are to let negative behaviors sabotage the team effort.
While having a team member develop a negative attitude is a pretty common problem in today’s workplace, it is a problem you can manage when you understand the dynamics of team interaction such as those as described above. Building safeguards like high levels of communication density and task interdependence into teams and organization can help insulate workers from the proverbial bad apple in the bunch.
For more information, call Jeffrey Webber at (281) 478-6200 or email him at jwebber@altairstrickland.com.