I’ve talked about negativity here before. I’m a firm believer that surrounding yourself with people who aren’t happy will lead you to being unhappy. I mean happy in a bigger sense – successful, productive, and comfortable all fill in there. Just like your body you need to check your team for cancers with a vigilant eye.
On a team of any size from 2 to 200 you will run the chance of having someone whose sole purpose in life seems to be to be the resident Debbie Downer. They may not do it in a way that is obviously negative at first – the ones who just bitch and moan are easy to spot. But like cancer the worst ones are the least obvious to find – they fester and spread until it’s much harder to save your team.
Early detection is the key, treatment should be swift and with the intent of saving as much as possible. If your cancer can’t be cured you need to cut it right out as quickly as possible. Nothing will take a team down faster than rotting from the inside.
See also the Zombie Theory of HR from James at Forty.
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Well said. I’d add that I’ve never seen incredibly negative people turn around…even if it looks like folks are positive outwardly, the negativity manifests itself in other ways and continues to be destructive. It all starts with the hiring process…spend the time needed to determine the cultural fit…if the gut says there’s a problem, it’s 100% sure that problem will play out!