The Invisible Force Ruining Your Culture
Anthony Iannarino
Sales Leader, Writer, Author, Speaker — I teach sales professionals how to win in an evolving B2B landscape.
There is a force that causes businesses to produce results that are far less than the those they are capable of creating. It causes them to lose the talented employees they need, and it causes them to treat their clients and customers poorly—and in some cases, to treat them as adversaries. Like all of the most potent forces on Earth, it is invisible to the naked eye. This force is negativity.
The Only Cancer That Spreads by Contact
Negativity is the only cancer that spreads by contact. Negativity passes from Patient Zero, the carrier, to the people with whom they come into contact. It starts with Patient Zero complaining about “the way things are” and “the way things should be,” even though the person infected with negativity never does anything to make things better. To do something about things that might be better, you have to be a positive, optimistic, future-oriented individual with the ability to see things as better than they are and work towards that vision.
Patient Zero’s complaints start to infect susceptible Future Hosts with a seductive idea, the idea that none of the challenges or problems are the fault of Patient Zero or the Future Host. Instead, the issues are external forces working on Patient Zero and their prospective Host.
The problems come from their unreasonable, demanding clients, the ones that no one could serve because they are so needy, always asking for help producing the results they need. Other problems are the result of Patient Zero's inept leadership team who is nowhere near as smart as Patient Zero. Then there are the other employees, the ones who believe that they do good work and make a difference for their clients. Over time, because Patient Zero continues to whisper in the ears of those who are keen to believe that nothing is their fault, there are new Hosts. The new Hosts carry the infection and infect others. At some point, because the disease presses on unopposed, it runs rampant.
Fighting the Infection
The advice provided to boxers before a fight is good advice: “Protect yourself at all times.” If you are a leader, protect your culture at all times.
If you don’t know who Patient Zero is, it’s likely they are right now reshaping your culture to one that is negative. If you know who Patient Zero is and have done nothing to protect yourself, your team, and your culture, their infection is likely already be spreading throughout your company, making your culture something that repels the right people instead of attracting them.
To create a positive, optimistic, future-oriented and empowered culture, you have to remove people who work against those ends before they destroy your culture. You have to work twice as hard on shaping a culture around beliefs and values that bring out the best in people, that provide them with a sense of agency, and that allows to do meaningful work.
Empowering People and Organizations to Grow
6 年So true.? I was on a jetway waiting to board a plane and listened to a pilot, stewardess, and baggage handler complain about how bad the company was and their management and their benefits, etc. (yep all of that in a minute or two!)? I had a moment of fearing for my life as I considered that I was literally entrusting my life to this company and these people.? I am not anxious to fly with that airline again.
Head of Media Partnerships at @Deeper sonars | Influencer Marketing | Digital Marketing | E-commerce
6 年Even one negative person can make a considerable toxic influence on the atmosphere in the company. Day by day, this person "infects" other workers. Motivation decreases, the results go down. So I totally agree with the point in this article - that toxic people should not stay in the company.
Author of Why Winners Win.
6 年Well put Anthony. Whether employees, friends, family, customers or strangers, toxic people are best cut loose.
B2B Sales Coach
6 年There is no question that negative people are harmful to a company culture and that good leadership will work protect against from these “cancers” as you describe them. That said, the ideas in the article of “complaining about ‘the way things are’ and ‘the way things should be,’” are also the seeds of innovation and positive change. You pointed out in the article that a big part of the problem is that these employees never do anything about what they are complaining about. A higher management challenge and a truly healthy culture would be one in which employees feel empowered to point out problems with confidence, knowing that they will be heard and that change might take place as a result. Sometimes it is the employee that is the problem, and sometimes that problem can impact the culture. But sometimes, it is the culture itself that is the problem.