As an HR professional, when do you step back and focus on the organisational culture and what needs to shift? If you just rolled your eyes as you read this, then I know how you feel!
I’ve done the job myself. So I know how reactive it can be, especially in a smaller business where everyone is already wearing multiple hats. Signs of a toxic culture start early and should addressed at and early stage. Juggling priorities makes it difficult to address situations before they become problematic. Often we can’t do much about it until the problems have become big. We tend to focus when it affects productivity, or people are so unhappy they’re leave, or you end up in a tribunal.
Once things get to this point, it can start to feel like a hopeless case. This is particularly true for managers who get stuck in the day-to-day and lack confidence in tackling issues early on.
Ignoring conflict when it happens
One sign of a toxic culture or the early stages of one developing, is when conflict arises in the team and managers ignore it.
I’ve worked with clients where team members were undermining each other and critical behind others’ backs. Everyone knew about it. The manager took the approach of “if I don’t see it or hear it, it’s not happening, so it’s not a problem.” They then turned their backs on the poor behaviour and ignored it.
In this situation we need to provide managers with training and support to build their confidence. We then need to hold the manager to account for not addressing issues.
However, if senior leaders are not calling out and dealing with bad behaviour in their teams your middle managers will not be motivated to have the difficult conversation.
How to empower managers to manage conflict
It can seem like a hopeless situation. Especially for individual managers who are trying to lead their teams well, when there’s conflict, difficult conversations and resistance at every turn.
Your managers need training and support on how to manage the people side as well as the task elements of the role. Managers are often promoted because they’re good at the technical part of their job. We need to be clearer on what’s expected of them for the people side of the role.
To start with, we need to make the job description for a manager much clearer. Just telling them to ‘manage the team to achieve objectives’ isn’t enough. We need to ensure they see people management as more than just an ‘add on’ to their day job!
We need to make it clear to our managers that if there’s conflict in the team or ‘bad behaviour’ then it’s their job to set boundaries, tackle behaviours that are detrimental to the team/organisation and find ways to resolve the conflict.
We also need to help our managers become more confident to have ‘difficult’ conversations. One-to-one meetings with team members are important and managers should be using them to build a relationship with each team member. In a one-to-one the manager should be:
- Checking-in on the person’s wellbeing, both in and outside work
- Talking about their performance (feedback on both what’s going well and what could be better)
- Understanding what motivates an individual
- Finding out more about their strengths and what interests them
- Discussing areas for development and skills building
This requires building trust and having the confidence to have an open conversation, rather than avoiding more sensitive issues.
One of the reasons people avoid conflict is a fear of the other person getting angry or upset. Having emotions is a normal part of being human. The more comfortable a manager can get with possible emotional responses from their people, the easier it becomes to manage their people well.
When we de-personalise others’ responses we can stay curious about what’s behind the behaviour. Then we can choose our response. Choosing to understand someone’s emotional response rather than become defensive allows us to manage well. Especially if work is creating negative emotions, seeking to understand helps us help others to perform at their best. This allows us to be more effective as a manager.
Note: this does not mean any behaviour is okay! No one, including managers, should have to deal with behaviour that threatens their physical safety. This includes any kind of abuse (including verbal abuse or bullying).
Where’s the best way to start in your organisation?
Once things have become toxic, the senior leadership team often look for a quick fix or a sticking plaster which won’t resolve the toxicity.
If you could do with a sounding board for finding a better solution, I can help – I’m always happy to talk. Call me on 07880 776756 or email me on jacqui@yourpeoplepotential.co.uk
I also offer training to support your managers to become effective and confident, which will have a big positive effect on organisational culture and productivity, see here for more information about my 12-month development programme for managers.
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