Have you ever worked with a bad apple?
Here’s what I mean: A bad apple is someone who…
- Undermines the positive culture that you are trying to create.
- Spoils the moral, engagement, and productivity of the team.
- Is emotionally exhausting.
In my experience over the years, I have worked with three people who fall into this category. One person never accepted responsibility. Another could never find the positive in anything. And the third always had to be right.
Bad apples poison the team
Research shows that one such person can reduce team performance by 30-40%. What’s more, the power of the negative outweighs the power of the positive. So a leader or a few team members who try to balance out the negative individual will fail.
We need meetings, for example. And bad apples tend to create open conflict or disagreement in extroverts, and quiet nonparticipation from introverts. Meetings should be forums to reach the best decision, but there is no collaborative sentiment in toxic environments.
We need a culture of knowledge sharing. And teams with a bad apple feel threatened. They ask fewer questions to one another, and also participate less frequently in open communication. Conversations tend to be short, perfunctory, and end up in DMs rather than open channels. Because everyone works independently, there rarely is a shared knowledge base.
We need a culture of support. And teams don’t cooperate with one another if they feel threatened by a bad apple.
A bad apple even poisons a team which works remotely, so there’s no escape offsite.
Pro point!: Review your leadership style!
Prevention starts with understanding whats, hows, and whys. Seek feedback to identify your blindspots and weaknesses.
How to handle bad apples
- To start, you should work towards understanding the reason behind the bad behavior. There might be personal issues outside of work. Or it’s possible the person is stressed, frustrated, or unhappy in their professional life, which they cannot handle in a mature or professional manner. Remember to engage in supportive communication.
- You might need to provide feedback and ongoing coaching for the person to change. Rarely will you see a transformation after only one or two talks. 1:1s serve as a great place to provide ongoing support and guidance. (Grab Your Complete Guide to Better 1:1s, if you haven’t already!)
- An honest discussion clarifies what you deem acceptable and unacceptable too. Consequences will need to be defined, with bad behavior called out when it occurs. When you say nothing, you unintentionally approve of the behavior.
- It’s important to document everything in the event that the person refuses to see themselves as a problem or cannot change. You might need to eventually dismissal the person.
- Focus on rebuilding the team dynamic after the problem person has been removed or the bad behavior resolved.
Promote collaboration, celebrate achievement and wins, and re-establish your commitment to a healthy, psychologically safe environment.
Wrapping Up
I’ll leave you with this: Of my three experiences with bad apples, one was fired, one quit, and one out-survived me for a period of time. However, in all three cases, team productivity, morale, and engagement all soared with their departure.
The consequences of a bad apple are too severe to ignore.
Until next week!