I went on a trip to San Francisco over the holidays and listened to a lot of Gary Vee podcasts I had downloaded, but never listened to during my plane rides. Out of all the good stuff he says, I really identify and want to support the company culture that he’s promoting that doesn’t tolerate mean or negative people. I have some friends now and have certainly worked with people in the past who did not properly value human connections, support, and overall positivity in the workplace. There is nothing worse than working with someone who is negative.
I realized that there have been times where I have been or let others in the office be negative, and I’m going to try really hard to change that dynamic in 2019. There’s quite simply not enough space for it while we’re in this growth period. How am I going to do this without getting pushback? Here are my ideas.
Communicate your expectations
You trust your employees to do a great job… otherwise you wouldn’t have hired them. But to do a great job, they need to know exactly what you expect from them. Hold a company-wide meeting to talk about supportive behavior, less complaining, and productivity strategies. Everyone should be an active part of this conversation. If people don’t buy in or scoff, I might just tell them to take the rest of the day off.
Keep work tasks interesting
Make sure that people have diverse, exciting tasks each week. Sometimes people get negative when they feel like their doing unimportant or irrelevant work. There has to be at least one thing a week that everyone does that they really dig.
Publicly shame negative behavior
That’s right. I’m going to become flamboyant and call all the attention I can to the shitty attitude and make them feel embarrassed for complaining. Then I’ll compliment their good work and name their top three qualities.
What are some ways that you plan to keep up the positive energy in your office this year? I’m curious to know what else has worked for people!
Xoxo,
M