How does your organization deal with bad behavior?
Our reader poll today asks: How does your organization deal with “bad behavior”?
– We immediately take action and correct/eliminate it: 25.4%
– We deal with egregious cases but tolerate it otherwise: 41.01%
– We avoid dealing with it and hope it goes away: 21.16%
– We have a culture that promotes and rewards it: 12.43%
Fix Bad Behavior Fast. There appears to be way too much tolerance of bad behavior with 75% of you fessing up to varying levels of tolerance. The cost of such behavior in terms of productivity, morale, and turnover can be staggering. People don’t like working in organizations where bad behavior is condoned – much less encouraged. I know you can’t change the entire culture on your own but you can start the movement in your own department. Stamp out bad behavior as soon as you see it. That’s the only way things change for the better.
Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!
– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 200,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.
Mike, I couldn’t agree more with not tolerating bad behavior!
Sometimes, that behavior is linked to conflicting goals in different parts of an organization. Here is an example:
You have two groups with a company: one is involved in selling the project, and the other is supporting the product.
The sales group is focused on only one goal; to sell as much product as possible. To do that, they rely heavily on a bonus program for each salesperson.
The service group is focused on the installation and support of the product. Their revenues derive largely from billable support activities and installation revenue when a product is sold.
In order to make the sale, a salesperson makes promises to the customer that they may (or may not) know that they cannot keep. The person makes the sale, pockets the money, and his or her boss is happy.
Meanwhile, the service organization is very unhappy at being left holding the bag for commitments they cannot deliver on. They wind up taking the blame from the customer for all the problems.
In this scenario, neither side wins. Sales are hurt because of the negative press of poor support, and service is hurt because they don’t work more with sales. What is takes is someone doing just what you suggest: not tolerating the bad behavior and doing something constructive about it!
I have seen in my own career just how being involved across group boundaries can help align policies and drive better results. And it all starts with an attitude of not tolerating the bad behavior.
Thanks for the timely reminder!
Great thoughts and example Duane! Glad you found it helpful. Hope all is well.