From the mid-80s through the 90s, I owned and operated a technology services company. We employed approximately 85 people, and the one thing I had very limited patience for were people that chose to have poor attitudes bringing others down around them.
According to my way of thinking, everyone on any team has a responsibility to bring a minimum of two things to work each and every day, regardless of their position or skill set. Every team member must bring a good, if not great attitude to work, and they must treat the people they work with in a highly respectful manner. Yes, this is an obvious statement, and no, it is not always adhered to.
What I discovered over time was that some people will follow the path of least resistance when things aren’t perfect in their work or personal lives. It’s easy for them to let their emotions get the best of them. Exhibiting poor attitudes and a lack of respect towards others is often a byproduct.
Performance evaluation criteria
As mentioned in last month’s article, the following are a few of the performance evaluation criteria that you may want to consider using when evaluating both managers and non-managers within your organization. Are they:
• Increasing the organization’s performance by initiating and carrying out “win/win” work arrangements with other departments/people?
• Maintaining a positive attitude and encourages others?
• Contributing to group efforts, and establishing positive working relationships with others?
• Effective in providing others with meaningful feedback, resources and encouragement to improve their performance in preparation for more significant future contributions?
The above performance evaluation criterion addresses both attitude and the respectful treatment of others. If those characteristics are missing in someone’s performance, they are likely to receive a lower and possibly a poor performance evaluation.
While owning and operating my company, I had some great managers on the team, but as in any company, over time we temporarily employed a couple of managers who struggled with their attitude and their people skills. Their behaviors were not in alignment with the core values of our organization. Their technical skills were tremendous. However, their ability to treat their employee team respectfully and in a fashion that motivated them was sub par.
In fact, when I terminated one manager, I tried to help him understand that going forward, based on his technical abilities, he was close to maxing out his income. However, if he was able to improve his people and team building skills, he would likely be able to double if not triple his personal income in time, but because he was not open to constructive feedback and was not willing to change, he had to be terminated.
Over time, our entire team (managers and non managers) became very protective of our corporate culture and the people we let in. They did a fantastic job of screening candidates out and selecting just the right people that fit our corporate culture from an attitude perspective.
Nothing good comes from having a poor attitude, or by treating people poorly. Pot stirrers, complainers, and people that just can’t seem to bring a positive attitude to the office don’t typically contribute to a highly productive work environment.
