Unhealthy work environments....

Unhealthy work environments....

Most people are comfortable following a leader... team members become good friends and get along... and teams like their leaders and take on their personalities. Organizations see this general characteristic in the most pronounced manner, given the sheer amount of time and interaction that the people involved have within a closed space... all working on various aspects of the same mission/ projects.

In this landscape, one would hope for a joyous atmosphere with the entire organization rowing in one direction, together... like one big happy family.

Unfortunately however, few organizations enjoy such a culture!

People are people.... what gets them going... what gets them gossiping... what makes them work together... what causes petty fights... It is about the same, no matter what the industry and the geography.

Managers have the responsibility of harmonizing the heterogeneous teams that they are given to derive the business outcomes that they are charged with. Developing a healthy work environment is key and leading becomes a fairly easy task for the managers that are committed to their organizations and are genuinely interested in the people that they are responsible for.

Almost every manager would love to think of himself as a leader. This however, is not the case and therein lies the problem. Most managers assume a mistaken identity of being a charismatic leader owing to a few sycophants.

This causes them to start leading through criticism and self-admiration.

The immediate result of this is a divided organization with

- a few that are the manager's pets...

- those that are the adversaries...

- and the ones that are irrelevant....

This dynamic has little to do with the skill level of the people in question... It has more to do with their interpersonal relationships.

The result is an unhealthy work place smitten with sectarian attitudes, group politics, back-biting, larger focus placed on pleasing specific individuals even if that were at the cost of others....

People's conception of what someone brings to the table then is a factor of which sect that person belongs to rather than the soundness of his recommendation.

This leads to decisions being taken that are based on misplaced emotions seethed in farce logic.

The result.... a complete loss of team spirit, steady decline in employee loyalty, reduced productivity, attrition, guarded contributions, focus on what people would like to hear as opposed to what they should.... An unhealthy work environment!!!

Such an environment has a a major impact on any organization... it can completely cripple a smaller organization to a point of a slow tapering demise!

Such issues cannot be fixed by Friday lunches or short-term rewards programs. It requires a top-down restructure which on occasion might necessitate replacing senior management with more grounded leaders that can help flow new energy into the organization.

Bad organizational health is both a disease and a disorder. Just like with the human system, diseases have to be cured and disorders controlled. It cannot be either-or...

Drastic situations require drastic measures.... And it is important first, that such situations be recognized as such.

In the end, it is the organizations that are blessed with sound leadership that will thrive.