How often have you made excuses for stubborn, uncompromising, unyielding, and unrelenting mid-level managers? Better yet, why have you continually explained away their behavior?
If you're a business owner who constantly makes excuses for employees who bully others, then this is a must-read.
Office bullying is a profit killer, and it doesn't matter where it comes from. If you don't do something to stop it, you'll lose. Period. I've worked with various consulting firms and direct customers and met these bullies face-to-face. I can spot them instantaneously.
These are the individuals who always take the opposite opinion. They put themselves and their own selfish needs ahead of others. They are contrarians.
They are angry and don't deserve special treatment, no matter how long they've been with your business or what they accomplished years ago.
Don't confuse their longevity for loyalty. Often, these individuals wouldn't have the same position elsewhere.
Perhaps you're not entirely convinced that bullying is a problem in business. To help, here are several ways office bullies cost you money.
Pursuing the Wrong Course of Action at All Costs
How bad can it get? Well, it's not uncommon for bullies to pursue the wrong course of action – convinced their ideas, approaches, and strategies are infinitely better than everyone around them.
They do this regardless of what others think. They do this because they're set in their ways. They force others to capitulate to their needs, wants, likes, and dislikes because that's what they're comfortable with.
Blaming Others and Shifting Responsibility
Bullies love to force you to do things their way rather than exceeding expectations by doing things a better, simpler, and far more effective way. Why? Well, they can always tell you what you've done wrong when you do things their way. It's a power play. However, if you do it your way and achieve greater success, you'll pay a price – guaranteed.
No Corrective Actions
Why does it keep happening? Why is it that these issues are never resolved? Why do you keep making the same mistakes over and over again? The answer is simple: Corrective actions can't work when one person continually strong-arms others. Why even have a corrective action process if this bully ignores them entirely?
The next time a problem arises from one of these bullies, do yourself a favor and dollarize the impact of their intransigence. Make it a value that speaks about the impact of your problem employee or manager. Then, go back and provide a total cost based on how often it happened over a given period.
Unmotivated Co-Workers, Stale Ideas, and Declining Value Assertion
Office bullies are afraid of change. This comes from the fact that they don't understand what change means, what it will entail, and how it will impact them personally. So, they stick to what they know. They squash dissension to keep things the way they've always been. It's about maintaining their comfort zone.
Your market and customers are always changing. What they need today is often completely different from what they needed yesterday. If management intransigence is a problem, then you'll lose business. It's just that simple.
Time Killers
Wasting time is a direct by-product of being managed by a bully, one who insists on micromanaging every aspect of work and one who is always available to play Monday morning quarterback. Bullies waste time because they force others to abandon their pursuit.
Whether abandoning a customer, giving up on a new idea, or just doing away with a continuous improvement that could reduce costs, your employees will avoid the bully at all costs. Over time, they'll refuse to come forward with cost-cutting ideas if they feel the relationship is too one-sided.
Don't make the all-too-common mistake of assuming that one-time high performers should be allowed to do as they please at the expense of others. Ultimately, these individuals may have helped at one time. However, when they start taking immovable stances - and are entirely unwilling to accommodate others - you have to question if the best ideas are being pushed forward.
Office bullying is a common problem. It comes from employees who are afraid of change, afraid of new approaches, and afraid to be challenged. As a business owner, you can't allow that to happen, or it will affect your bottom line.