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February 03, 2005
Dealing with Negative Team Members
"A negative employee can affect the whole team, bringing down other staff members and driving the whole project off track. When dealing with a negative team member, try to redirect his or her efforts towards one of their strengths. This may serve to diffuse the situation and re-motivate the individual," said Edward T. Reilly, president and CEO of American Management Association. Reilly offers the following tactics:
Encourage dialogue. This is a critical first step. Ask open-ended questions. Negative people like to be listened to and if you give them the impression that you are truly interested in what they are saying, they will become more positive. They may even share information that you may not have been aware of.
Identify the negative behavior in specific terms. Illustrate how their negative behavior is affecting others and the impact it is having on rest of the organization.
Focus on the behavior, not the personality of the individual. You cannot or should not attempt to change an individual's personality. It is much more reasonable to plan on changing unacceptable behaviors.
Ask what can be done. Negative people often list reasons why something will not work and won't respond beyond that. Ask them to give three reasons that concern them the most about the situation. Then narrow it down to two, and then to one reason. Then switch tables on them and ask for one possible action to address the problem, then two, and then three.
Avoid becoming defensive. If you overact, you may lose control and probably become emotional or negative yourself.
Don't take their words or actions personally. They are not really directing their actions towards you-it often is more of a reflection of how they feel about themselves.
Highlight their attributes. In order to boost the self-esteem and self-confidence of the negative person, point out or have them note their skills, accomplishments and strengths.
Suggest alternative positive behaviors. If possible, have the negative person come up with the action plan and how to implement it. He or she will "own" it and much more readily act upon it.
When all else fails, confront them head on. Their negativity may be
influencing their performance, the performance of others or impacting the
bottom line. If so, you may have no other options than to confront them
directly.
Establish monitoring procedures. Discuss with the negative person how you will know if there is a change in behavior. Will you observe or get feedback from others?
Follow up. Give the negative person positive reinforcement if the negative behavior improves. If there is no improvement, you may need to point out consequences for non-compliance.
Provide an encouraging environment. If you want to get the negative person to be more productive, give positive feedback, express your appreciation and have a positive attitude yourself. Be sure to treat everyone fairly. Set clear goals and expectations.
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