Can you turn those frowns upside down?

Negativity can be toxic to your team culture and productivity. Aditi Sharma Kalra identifies ways to bring a smile to the resident Negative Nancy.

We’ve all had that kind of day – it starts raining when you step out of home in the morning, you miss the bus while evading all those puddles, and your desktop refuses to start when you finally make it to work.

Starting the day off on the wrong foot can ensure my grumpiness meter is at its peak for the rest of the day, cooled down only if chocolate comes into play.

But in some cases, what looks like a one-off case may be a deeper sign of a disengaged employee, and if not addressed, the negativity they generate could be toxic to the entire team’s culture and productivity.

Recent research by the Association of Accounting Technicians in Britain found 23 signs of what makes an unhappy employee in the workplace.

Gestures that may otherwise seem innocuous made it to the list – constantly looking at the clock, regularly making up excuses to not attend work-related events or even no longer worrying about turning up looking smart.

While these could be taken with a pinch of salt, there are other more verbal cues for managers to identify discontentment – such as someone who tends to complain about why something can’t be done before trying it, or an inclination to place blame on external factors all too frequently.

So what can managers do to help ease the feelings of negativity from their teams?

The dependable dialogue

In managing people, I have come to realise there is no such thing as over-communication. Much of what you share will be retained, while some of it will go in one ear and right out the other.

But the point is, it’s good to keep your employees informed, whether you have good or bad news. Two-way dialogue helps teams build a stronger relationship by the simple discussing of ideas and solutions.

Often, timely communication can serve as an early warning system, providing feedback that can help you go back and plug loopholes in a new policy rollout, for example.

Many organisations have internal newsletters, e-bulletin boards or internal social networks to push out information that employees can read and comment on at their own convenience.

The more informal way to do it would be over lunches or company events. In our organisation, the Friday beer o’clock is a good place to chat with colleagues across teams and get their views.

However, when communicating informally, it may be a good idea to ensure that one person is singled out as a point of contact for those who want more information.

Rumours are an inevitable part of working life, but at least employees will know who to get information from before the grapevine sets in.

How we speak, what we speak

Despite all the communication, as managers, there are some ways we can tweak the way we speak to convey a more optimistic message.

Often, we’re guilty of saying things such as, “this is impossible” or “I don’t think it can be done” – but that does no good for those working with you. For us, calling something “impossible” is a figure of speech, but to someone listening it can make a world of difference to the effort they put in.

Replacing phrases such as that with a “Let’s give this our best shot” or “It needs hard work, but I think we can do this” completely changes the outlook you portray to your employees.

Agreed, the task at hand may be tough, but it will never help to start off claiming that you can’t achieve it! My team and I have scaled some pretty uphill tasks, most of them successfully, and we never once said (or believed) we couldn’t do them in the first place.

Despite all our efforts, and hard as it sounds, it would be wise to acknowledge that we cannot banish all frowns away forever, much as we would like to.

What’s most important is to identify the “why” behind it – have a sit down, try some coaching, and more importantly, let the employee know that you are committed to helping solve the issues they raise.

Our time spent in erasing those frowns can be well worth the effort – not only does a smiling workforce get much more done, but is also a big part of building an organisation culture you can be proud of.

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