Sound advice!  Thanks so much for the thoughtful posting.

 

Of course the workplace rarely is one big happy family.  So, I ask you and other other managers out there about one of the biggest challenges:  handling the people who stir up trouble behind the scenes but who don't do things that necessarily warrants "adverse action."  I'm not thinking of differences in personality types, any group is going to have some of that, but of people who actually make it harder for peers to do their work or cause workplace misery..

 

You don't take credit for others' work and give credit where it's due.  Excellent!  But how do you handle people who steal others' ideas, play zero sum games, intimidate colleagues or otherwise show competitive streaks, not in a healthy way, but in a corrosive manner?  Some of these people might be brown-nosing or too slick to spot readily.  Are their actions visible to you?  Or are these the "undiscussables" that everyone whispers about but never talks about with the boss?  That can be very corrosive longterm.

 

Are you successful in getting subordinates to confide in you? (Building that high trust workplace that Ryan and Oestreich discuss.)  That often seems to be one of the biggest challenges from the managerial viewpoint -- the withholding by employees of information you should know about. If you feel able to discuss any of this, in a general sense and without mentioning indentifiable individuals or specific cases related to your current workplace, do share your thoughts.  I'm not dealing with these types of problem myself but in a philosophical sense I'm interested in strategies for dealing with behaviors that undermine workplace morale. 

 

REPLIES OFF LIST would be welcome, natch.

 

Maarja