Toxicity Losses or Kindness Dividends? You Choose! Part 1

GET A NEW ADDITION EACH WEEK - SUBSCRIBE HERE

Follow me on LinkedIn

Key Takeaways Up Front

• ? Appointing people who display toxic behaviors to leadership roles and leaving them there even when concerns have been raised, will always lead to multiple toxic losses and damaged reputation, creating a huge trust tax on the company.
• ? Allowing toxicity to fester and grow over time will lead to the loss of millions, possibly hundreds of millions of dollars, in turnover and lost business.
• ? High turnover with a damaged reputation makes it very difficult to attract and retain loyal, productive employees.

In today's environment, personal and professional reputation means everything. It will determine our level of success individually and as an organization.

Put simply, we are in charge of the choices and decisions that determine our reputation. We determine where we go, how we go, and where we arrive.

This is part one of a two-part series.

Part 1 discusses the toxic losses that come from a damaged reputation.

Part 2 discusses the how to avoid a damaged reputation and embrace the dividends that come from identifying and ingraining the kindness driven, trust building behaviors that lead to the positive relationships which enable success.

Toxicity Exemplified

Early in my career I worked for a defense contractor in a high-pressure environment as a network engineer. I and two of my colleagues were new to a team that was responsible for installing, configuring, and maintaining a network for a campus that covered nearly two million square feet. The safety and protection of many lives was dependent on the network and the information systems connected to it running well.

Knowing that my company had held the networking contract for over two decades, which obviously indicated that they were doing something right, and knowing the vital nature of the network, I came into my group with high expectations that I would find a cohesive, well-oiled team.

Those expectations were dashed within a few weeks' time.

• My supervisor, Tom (name changed) who had been working for the company since their contract started, was strong source of friction in the office.
• He was insecure and to cover for his insecurity, he hoarded information then belittled anyone who didn't know what they should have known had he shared the information.
• I and two of my colleagues were new to the environment and had only eight or nine years of networking experience between us. Tom would often ask questions that he know we didn't know the answer to in order to make us look stupid and polish his superiority.
• I learned quickly that outside our group our office was known as the office that "ate their young," meaning, they had a high turnover rate, especially on Tom's team. While there were some people who had been our office for the duration of the contract, they worked in other groups in the office.

Obviously, there is a lot more to the story. Tom wasn't the only source of friction. There were other sources, but he was the major contributor.

Toxic Losses

So why am I sharing this?

This story serves a prime example of toxic losses a company risks when fail to take charge of their culture and instead allow and enable a toxic environment to grow within their organization.

My company new about the friction in our office. Tom had worked there for the entire contract. During the time he was supervisor, his time had a higher turnover rate than all the other groups combined. Because he was a "get ur done" guy, they chose to ignore his behavior.

What are some of the toxic losses my company incurred over time?

• Stress and anxiety among team members which slowed everything down because people feared to make mistakes and suffer public ridicule. They spent many extra hours checking and rechecking everything out of paranoia.
• Total loss of respect for upper management for allowing someone like him to arrive at and remain in his position.
• Utter lack of loyalty to the company exemplified by the continual loss of good colleagues who left after short periods of time to escape the demeaning environment
• Millions of dollars lost in time and productivity over time as colleagues left and new ones came in having to be trained all over again.
• All of the above led to a damaged reputation which became publicly known which made it very difficult to hire new people when colleagues left.
• Over work and extra stress for remaining colleagues
• Contribution to the eventual loss of a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The list could go on for a long time, but you get the point. Because of decisions and choices made, and unmade, my company suffered some huge losses that could have been prevented had they chosen otherwise.

Key Takeaways Revisited.

• ? Appointing people who display toxic behaviors to leadership roles and leaving them there even when concerns have been raised, will always lead to multiple toxic losses and damaged reputation, creating a huge trust tax on the company.
• ? Allowing toxicity to fester and grow over time will lead to the loss of millions, possibly hundreds of millions of dollars, in turnover and lost business.
• ? High turnover with a damaged reputation makes it very difficult to attract and retain loyal, productive employees.

Stay tuned for part 2 coming next week.

Until then, remember to embrace kindness. It does everybody good!

Randall McNeely is a passionate advocate for kindness and the transformative power it can have in our lives.

He is the author of multiple books including The Kindness Givers' Formula 2.0: A 5-Step Guide to Reaching Hearts, Inspiring Change, and Healing the World Through Love , and The Kindness Library Volume 1: Inspiring True Stories of the Transformative Power of Kindness.

Randy speaks about and teaches how to lead with kindness to bring out the best in others and get fantastic results.

Reach out today to book Randy for your next event.

Kindness Worldwide has a mission and many initiatives that are focused on bringing a kindness to communities worldwide including Kindness Week, Champions of Kindness and Kindness CoTails.

Stop by their website to learn more about how you can help your city can establish World Kindness Week and become a City of Kindness.