We all have blindspots. Those habits, behaviours and assumptions that we quickly use to get through our extremely long to-do lists. But because they are below conscious awareness, we literally don’t see what is right under our nose. And if you are a business leader this can be disastrous.
Just last week, I was delivering a workshop to a law firm. The senior partner was keen for me to address problems with internal communication. In particular, two people were not pulling their weight and the rest of the team were getting a tad irate. Morale was low.
I wanted the session to be as interactive as possible, so I gave everyone a lot of space for discussion. It transpired that one of the two people had been unwell, very unwell. They had recovered physically, but emotionally they had lost confidence. Rather than admit a problem, they had become brash and awkward to deflect sensitive questions. They also managed to get the other person on their ‘side’ with their negativity and toxic behaviour (they did this to help alleviate their isolation).
They had set up a ‘them’ and ‘us’ and it was creating much unrest that was only getting worse.
The blindspot on this occasion was the assumption that a clean bill of physical health meant the person was fully fit for work.
Assumptions are easily made when everyone is so busy. But the effect was costing efficiency, and relationships both internally and with clients were suffering.
Of course, the first thing is to speak to the person who needed their confidence boosting and perhaps find out if they needed psychological support. This person was clearly struggling under the surface.
Generally however, we can also look at this through the lens of organisational neuroscience.
Research in organisational neuroscience shows that toxic behaviour spreads through teams via emotional contagion, threat signalling, and social modelling (Barsade, 2002; Lieberman, 2013). If not addressed, it can lead to the whole team underperforming at the very least.
The goal of leadership in this context is to interrupt the toxic loop while restoring clarity, safety, and accountability.
Here are five things leaders need to consider to handle this. If you want to know more, just get in touch.
Step One: Understand the neuropsychology of toxic behaviour which comes from perceived threats e.g. loss of control, fear of failure, interpersonal rivalry.
Defensive behaviours will be triggered such as blame, aggression, disengagement.
The dynamic reinforces a negative loop.
Step Two: Recognise that negative emotions spread like wildfire (see emotional contagion research such as Hatfield et al).
Why? Because morale is undermined, performance is compromised and ugly cynicism is rife.
Your job as a leader is to interrupt this contagion.
Step Three: What are the common behaviour patterns? Learned helplessness or perceived low control leads to chronic negativity. Do you recognise this?
Are they playing the ‘blame game’ and in a state of conflict? This may be due to them feeling they are competing for status.
Are they trying to dominate. This is a form of manipulation.
And if their performance is quietly low, it may be a sign of low intrinsic motivation.
Knowing this enables the business leader to create a plan of precise intervention.
Step Four: Do not address the personalities, that will ignite things further because you will turn this into an emotional exercise. You want to remain working in the prefrontal cortex. So address specific behaviours instead.
Do NOT say “you are toxic”. Instead say something like “here are the behaviours that are harming the team and preventing progress”. This keeps the conversation rational, that is your goal.
Step five: Be explicit with goals and expectations. Ambiguous or weak messages will just fuel conflict even more. Help everyone feel in ‘safe’ hands.
Go over what each role in the team requires, explain what is happening (without shaming anyone) and highlight what needs to change and why. Ask for input to get everyone taking ownership over those changes. Explain how things will change for the better. And discuss the support that’s available.
Clarity activates goal-directed neural networks in the prefrontal cortex, this will get everyone feeling more energetic and hopeful.
Please don’t let those blindspots become toxic. If you are still unsure, call me.