Note from Art: I’m on the soapbox. Great cultures and great performance comes from building teams with strong shared values and a hunger to learn and grow. Too often, we let toxic people linger and the result is….well, it’s toxic.
I spend a great deal of my professional time working with various groups in different settings,ranging from MBA classrooms to workshops, keynotes and executive meetings. Every group and every setting takes on its own personality, however, I’ve noticed that as the faces change, a few of the core characters remain the same across all of the meetings.
Active Learners Fuel Teams and High Performance:
There are those that are eager to learn, inquisitive, participative and genuinely excited to hear something that challenges their pre-conceived ideas or that expands their thinking. These Active Learners bring energy to the situation and they raise the quality of the engagement for everyone involved. It is those active knowledge seekers that every good leader and instructor seeks out and thrives upon in their work.
Give me a management team or a classroom filled with these characters, and I guarantee vigorous, healthy debate, good ideas and meaningful outcomes. Everytime!
The Rest: Aggressive Resisters and Apathetic Loafers:
Unfortunately, it’s common in many settings to meet the alter egos of the Active Learner. They come in several shapes and sizes, ranging from Aggressive Resisters to Apathetic Loafers.
The Aggressive Resisters know it all and find anything that contradicts their self-anointed “correct” view of the world or situation to be a personal affront to their existence. You get the impression that their sole reason for being present in the situation is to identify and dispose of heretics that dare to contradict their obviously perfect perspectives.
Apathetic Loafers on the other hand, are just there. They provide little to no value and they consume valuable resources, including space, air and snacks. They are present because someone told them to be there or worse yet, because they perceived that to not be there would create a political black mark on their permanent corporate record.
What’s a Manager or Educator to Do?
The vexing dilemma is that every educator, every good leader/teacher is passionate about serving Active Learners, and every good leader or educator struggles with what to do about the rest.
The behaviors of the Active Learners…their curiosity, thirst for knowledge, creativity to propose alternatives and their willingness to build upon the ideas of others is rocket fuel for ideation, innovation and the pursuit of excellence.
The other characters suck the life out of groups, classrooms and organizations.
Internal Settings:
In corporate settings, Aggressive Resisters are the toxic employees. Those that are closed to new ideas and those that guard the status quo through power and politics are best disposed of quickly, cleanly and fairly. Obviously, you’ve got to follow procedures and always deal fairly with people. And I don’t mean to over simplify the issue, but the solution is pretty simple. Get rid of toxic people.
While you might not have the organizational heft to resolve this problem universally, you do control the make-up of your team. And if you’re the big boss, what are you waiting for? I’ve watched organizations with high potential be systematically destroyed by these toxic, value-less characters.
Apathetic Loafers often merit some investment in coaching. I frequently find that there are some good people hiding behind a veil of apathy, mostly due to being burned by lousy leaders in the past. Give these people a shot, invest time in coaching and mentoring, provide some unique challenges, and some will shake off their leg irons and begin to move forward. For the rest…see my note above on quickly, cleanly and fairly.
External Settings:
In an external learning environments including classroom settings or workshops, dealing with the dysfunctional and nonfunctional characters is a bit more challenging. While I like fast executions (hire slow/fire fast), it’s darned hard to do this with workshop participants or students.
Find opportunities to get Apathetic Loafers involved and engaged with groups. Mix groups up to keep the people fresh, and blend activities that include solo work to ensure that everyone gets a metaphorical voice.
The Aggressive Resister can destroy an external event if you let him/her. As a facilitator or educator, it’s critical to maintain control and to avoid being intimidated by these characters. Treat them with respect, but don’t patronize them.
Ensure that you draw upon others and provide them a safe haven to express their opinions. Cry foul on any reprisal comments from the Aggressive Resister and if necessary, marginalize the individual…still while being respectful. “John, we’ve heard your opinion. We’re here to find ideas to move forward not reasons to run in place. What do the rest of you think?”
If all else fails, at a break, feel free to have a robust discussion with the Aggressive Resister and encourage him/her to pursue other opportunities if this one is failing to stimulate some new thoughts. And then shut-up and use silence as your exclamation point.
I’ve never failed to either facilitate an attitude adjustment or, to the relief of everyone in the room, to have the person take his very big brain and even bigger bag of opinions the hell elsewhere.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
I’ve yet to meet a successful professional or leader that didn’t have a strong thirst for knowledge and a commitment backed by discipline for learning. Alternatively, I’ve met plenty of marginal performers that used brawn and bullying to assert their false sense of superiority.
You make the choice everyday to be an Active Learner, an Apathetic Traveler or an Active Resister. Which one are you?
As a leader, you have the obligation to form and frame an environment that fuels high performance. My high performance environments include people hungry to learn, grow, challenge and engage. They can disagree and they can challenge each other and me, but they cannot lead with toxic tactics. Chances are, you’ve got work to do here. Get on with it!
It’s often difficult to gauge whether your leadership practices are helping improve your team’s situation. I encourage leaders to look for these signs as evidence that things are heading in the proper direction:
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