Attitudes are critical to the health or lack of health in any organization, board, team or workplace. I want to suggest that there are four attitudes or behaviors that will suck the life from any team and which should be illegal in the workplace. At least in any workplace that has a commitment to health.
One: Cynicism instead of optimism
There are among us professional skeptics who see most of life (apart from what they do) from a cynical or skeptical lens. They distrust leaders, often scoff at new ideas, have doubts about most things they are told, live with suspicion of those in authority and generally come at things from a place of negativity.
Cynicism is often hidden in sarcasm, subtle digs at others, attempts to criticize others and their efforts and an attitude that nothing you do is good enough for them. None of these attitudes are designed to build others up but to tear them down. In other words, they are organizational wreckers rather than organizational builders.
I remember a time when I was taking an organization through major change. There were those who said my proposals were simply the flavor of the month and therefore were to be ignored. Others said, "You can do what you want to do TJ but don't expect me to do anything different." Then there were those who took shots from the sidelines and saw all proposed changes through a lens of cynicism, suspicion and negativity.
In this process, I learned several things. First, such cynicism needed to be directly challenged. It is poison and destructive and kills the health of an organization or a team. The health of an organization is what you create or allow. Allowing these kinds of overt attitudes is to ignore their threat to the whole. Whenever I encountered it, I directly addressed it. Sometimes people got it and changed. Sometimes they didn't and needed to be sidelined so they didn't cause damage. Sometimes they had to be let go. Second, I learned that no leader in the organization could be a cynic and we had a number of those. They needed to be traded out because cynics are not leaders. They are destroyers.
Great teams and organizations are built on by optimists. Not blind optimists but those who see and call people to a higher level of commitment, innovation, civility and results. They utterly reject cynical attitudes for the poison that they are.
Two: Pessimism rather than optimism
Pessimism describes the state of mind of someone who always expects the worst. A pessimistic attitude isn't hopeful, shows little optimism, and can be a major downer for everyone else. To be pessimistic means that you believe evil outweighs the good and that bad things are more likely to happen. Someone has aptly said that pessimists find a problem for every solution.
Jesus was no pessimist. He believed that people could change, that heaven could be brought to earth (Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven), that the impossible could be accomplished through His power, that people could be healed and obstacles overcome by faith and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Never (ever) allow a pessimist to serve on your board or in leadership of your organization. They will kill the good that God wants to do because they fundamentally don't believe that it can be done at all.
Three: Authoritarianism instead of listening and coming to shared decisions
Authoritarianism has its roots in pride rather than in humility. It has a fundamental lack of concern for the wishes, ideas or opinions of others and as such lacks empathy, respect, kindness and the willingness to listen carefully. It is not about team but about me. It is not about dialogue but about telling.
If you have ever worked for an authoritarian leader, you know how frustrating it can be and how disrespectful it can feel. Authoritarian leaders don't build up or lead from a place of respect for others. In fact, they are quite sure they are right and that you need to comply with their wishes. In fact, leaders who are authoritarian invite cynicism. Their poor EQ solicits equally poor responses.
People who listen well and are willing to come to shared decisions earn great respect from their teams. Those who don't, don't! Relationship comes from dialogue, conversation and listening and relationship is the key to leadership success.
Four: Judging motives instead of assuming the best
Here is a fascinating truth. You and I always assume that our motives are good and pure and yet we often assume that the motives of others are not. That in itself ought to be enough to indicate that we live with fallen natures. Why do we do this? Essentially we choose to think more highly of ourselves and our motives than we do of others and their motives. Yet, my own experience is that when I judge the motive of others I am almost always wrong. Almost always!
Why is this so destructive? First, because when we judge the motives of others we see them from a lesser perspective. We have already come to the conclusion that they don't deserve our full respect or trust. Second, the moment that this happens, we communicate those attitudes about that individual to others. It may be unconscious but it happens. Thus we hurt them in our eyes and then we hurt them in the eyes of others. If your own motives have ever been judged wrongly you know exactly what I am saying. Judging motives destroys trust and trust is the coinage of good relationships.
Instead of judging motives or assuming a negative intent, what about having a conversation. Most of the time you will walk away with a better understanding and glad that you didn't simply make assumptions.
Be candid with your staff and board that these kinds of attitudes are off limits if you want to have a healthy staff, group or organization. Each of the toxic attitudes above has an alternative to it. If we move from the toxic to its healthy alternative we can move the dial in relationships and organizational health.
