Stop the Broad Street Bullies...
Start With Yourself
I thought I’d dealt with my last bully the day I walked out of the schoolyard. Years later, I realized some of them had followed me into adulthood. You can find adult bullies just about anywhere – on the freeway, at sporting events, in the parents’ association, and yes, in the workplace. Workplace bullies are nothing but bad news for people, organizations and even results.
According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, workplace bullying is “the repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators that takes one or more of the following forms:
- verbal abuse;
- threatening, humiliating or offensive behavior/actions;
- work interference – sabotage – which prevents work from getting done.”
Fortunately, not all unwritten rules are negative. Some create positive effects:
- Everyone pitches in to get a project completed on time.
- We cover for each other when one us has a “life” situation.
Workplace bullying isn’t new. It’s been going on as long as there have been employers and employees, bosses and workers. But in today’s service economy, bullying has a much greater negative impact. Work gets done, but the fear created in compliance-based environments produces short-term results at best. Over time, organizations will pay the price. Bullied employees are rarely in the right frame of mind to provide basic let alone exceptional customer service. In the end, it’s the customer who must deal with the byproducts of this dysfunctional approach to employee relations, and that can’t be good for the bottom line.
Which brings us to the question, why are workplace bullies allowed to continue their ways in an otherwise enlightened twenty-first century, in organizations that clearly state their interest in and respect for employees?
First, bullied employees are often too embarrassed or intimidated to report the harassment. A just-released survey by the American Management Association reports that 21 percent of workers have personally observed abusive or intimidating behaviors towards employees. But I suspect there is far more bullying going on than is being reported.
Second, all too often, employees who do have the guts to report bullying frequently get no relief.
Finally, bullying often continues in organizations because front-line and mid-level managers believe that senior leadership condone or even approve of it.
How You Doin’?
There are two questions each of us must answer when it comes to workplace bullies:
- Do we tolerate them?
- Are we one of them?
StreetSavvy Techniques
Work diligently to put a stop to any bullies on your team.
Evaluate the leaders who report to you, if any, to determine if they use intimidating or harassing techniques. If they do and you do nothing to stop it, employees will believe that you not only allow, but actually encourage, this approach. You become the bully’s accomplice.
If any of your co-workers or your leader is a bully, look for opportunities to gently give them constructive feedback. Consider the possibility that they may not be aware of their behaviors and their effect on people. Early in my career, I worked for a CEO who was a bully. One day he called me in and asked me point-blank why everyone was afraid of him. When someone opens the door like that, have the courage to walk through it. Give him or her honest and constructive feedback.
Even if bullies don’t invite feedback, you can still get your point across. Identify the business result that is most important to that person – such as customer service or quality or profit. Then, without suggesting they might be a bully, bring to their attention how their behaviors and actions negatively impact the result they most care about. Look for opportunities when they are frustrated about results and use it to broach the subject.
Excerpt from The StreetSavvy Leader: Get Real. Get Results. Want more StreetSavvy Leadership tips and techniques for resolving your most pressing leadership challenges? Click here.
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