While shopping recently I witnessed an extremely "type A" business owner berating an employee with no regard to the fact that there were customers well within earshot.
It wasn't anything in particular that the employee had done wrong, this manager was simply going over instructions on how to do something in a loud and condescending tone backed by the force of her own hyperactive, impatient personality.
When I went up to pay for something, the employee was nearly in tears and told me softly that this person does this all the time to her staff and makes them feel very small. I felt extremely bad for her. And she was not a 20-something kid just learning the job, she was a middle-aged woman with obviously years of sales experience.
Unfortunately this sort of behavior within companies is not an isolated incident. Not only do people treat each other without respect, but gossip, back stabbing, ego ploys, and fear can run rampant in a business, creating so much personal instability that employees spend all of their time worrying how to avoid the dysfunction instead of actually doing their jobs!
I have a friend in a huge, national company who is at the mercy of such a boss, who alternates between temperamental outbursts and firings to group hugs. The staff is terrified to tell her any bad news, so they spend all of time their trying to avoid her or placate her instead of focusing their energy on clients and staff.
There is a great book on this subject called "The Tragedy in the Workplace", by Bellevue consultant, Danna Beal. I met with her recently after a talk she gave to a Bellingham company. Her book is an inspiration for all business owners, large and small, to re-examine their company culture.
She says that crash of "Enron, WorldCom, Imclone and others are a symptom of a greater, unrecognized tragedy, a hidden, complex drama in the workplace."
Beal describes the fear that keeps individuals from speaking out when they see mismanagement, the power struggles that interfere with productivity and the greed and dishonesty that take hold is such an environment. These debacles are now being seen everywhere from big business to the Catholic Church, to the CIA & FBI.
Take a quick quiz and ask yourself if your behavior is adding to the problem in your company:
Am I making myself the star of a drama and gaining strokes from it?
Do I really need to be the star?
Am I expecting others to play a role in my drama?
Am I listening to what others say or do I have a script for them?
Am I meeting my ego needs at the expense of others?
Am I blaming others for my suffering?
The best part of this book though, is the quiz in the back . Great questions to ask your staff about how they view their workplace. The words used for an "energy depleting environment" include Paranoia, Insecurity, Blame, Secrecy, Gossip, Dishonesty and much more.
Give your staff the quiz, if you dare. A good manager welcomes honest input, just as we should all value customer complaints as a template for improving our service. If you find you need improvements and can't do it yourself, email Danna at: dbeal@dbconsulting.com
To order the book, go to Village Books