Page 128 - Becoming a Successful Manager

Eliminating Weeds from Your Departmental Garden 119

close-mindedness, and making excuses; such actions sabotage
the problem-solving process. When people are defensive, they
act irresponsibly and emotionally. As a consequence, projects
or tasks get stalled or not completed to your level of satisfaction.
Defensiveness derails productivity.

• Negativism. Negativism, a byproduct of defensiveness, feeds
on itself. It quickly demoralizes and deteriorates the culture if
it’s allowed to flourish. By example, if you say to an employee,

or one employee says to another, “This won’t work!” or “That’s
a bad idea!” or “This task/job/meeting is stupid!” the ball starts
rolling. Once it starts, people take the opportunity to jump
in and vent their issues too. That’s when negativity starts to
grow. It has the power to cloud employees’ positive outlooks,
inhibit creativity, discourage collaboration, and stifl e produc-
tive exchange.

• Labeling. Any time someone uses general statements to
describe a person or a work product, they are labeling. For
example, an employee complains that a co-worker is ineffec-
tive, or irresponsible, or sloppy, or rude. These negative labels
don’t say anything meaningful about the person or situation in
question. And they don’t identify the specifi c problem. They are
just unproductive expressions of their anger and frustration.
With the increase of a diverse and global workforce and differ-
ences in approach, people resort to labeling in lieu of learning,
understanding, and adapting.

• Distrust. Distrust dissolves your departmental foundation.
Whether your employees do not trust you, you do not trust
them, or they do not trust each other, lack of trust is very dam-
aging to your success as a manager.