Most Organizations Are Filled With Negativity, The Best Leaders Don't Tolerate It

Does any of these sound familiar to things you hear in your workplace?

"This place is never going to change."

"Why bother filling out the survey, nothing ever gets implemented."

"We always get blamed when things go wrong, but never get praise when things go right." 

"It's just another pointless meeting, such a waste of time." 

"Our competition's product is just better than ours."

One small Slack message or comment can feel innocent, but it's actually proof that your organization has a 'negativity dopamine' problem. Each comment provides a fleeting hit of satisfaction to the brain that drives people to keep doing it. Before you know it, your team's negativity "bucket" starts to overflow, and when that happens, it's tough to get it back in the bucket. Author Jon Gordon wrote, "One negative person can create a miserable office environment for everyone else."

Take Sarah, a manager of a 10-person team, as an example. During one of her company's Accelerate Leadership workshops, she told the story of how one team member's chronic negativity and complaints seemed harmless until she began hearing others echoing the same lines. It didn't take long for productivity to dip, morale to drop, and the blame carousel to turn without much effort.

That's the cycle of negativity dopamine in action.

The Real Danger of Minimizing Negativity

Since leaders are in the people business, you'll inevitably confront negativity, whether in yourself or your team members. In fact, one of the most common questions I get asked coaching managers and Executives is, "How do I handle negative people in the organization?"

This challenge is so common because negativity escalates when people feel it's minimized.

Negativity escalates when people feel it's minimized

Negativity is ultimately a safety mechanism, where it becomes a shield where people intentionally or unintentionally project past experiences into the present. True, negative outcomes could have, but thinking that was from the start all but guarantees it.

The Power of Mindset: Positive, Negative, or Neutral Thinking

No one is positive or negative 100% of the time. We all wrestle with negativity at some point, but the best leaders refuse to let a temporary negative outlook change them permanently.

• Positivity is definitely better than negativity. A 22-year study of over 350,000 people found consistent patterns among the most successful—optimism and a willingness to learn until they figured it out.
• Positivity might also keep you alive. John Hopkins found that people with a positive outlook were ⅓ less likely to suffer a heart attack than those with a negative outlook.

Great leaders refuse to let temporary negativity change them permanently. 

Still, constant positivity can feel forced or unrealistic. That's where the late author Trevor Moawad's thinking comes in. He introduced the concept of Neutral thinking as an alternative to purely positive or negative mindsets. In his book, It Takes What It Takes, he discusses how constant positive thinking can feel forced or unrealistic, while negative thinking can be limiting and destructive. 

Neutral thinking sits in the middle in a space that objectively acknowledges a situation's reality without judgement so you can make constructive decisions about what to do next. 

How Great Leaders Deal With Negativity

Since you have gotten this far, it's safe to say you agree that positivity but not toxic positivity is essential. However, it doesn't change the fact that you are met with negativity often. 

You have three options when dealing with negative people: Tolerate, Tell, or Terminate Them.

Tolerate Them 

The most common response to negative people is to tolerate them. To choose to overlook their toxic virtue in lieu of other strengths they possess or outcomes they deliver. While this approach is the path of least resistance and might make sense on the surface, it is short-term thinking with potentially long-term consequences.  

If you believe that we become the five people you spend the most time with, the long-term consequences of their jadedness and pessimism can rub off on you and others in the team. Negativity on a team is like a weed; it spreads quickly and can be difficult to root out.  

Negativity on a team is like a weed; it spreads quickly and can be difficult to root out.  

Tell Them

The most uncommon option is to have a courageous conversation with negative people by telling them the truth. The reason it's so rare is that having a conversation like this is uncomfortable and doesn't guarantee the person will change or modify their attitude.  

However, this is an extremely effective strategy if you focus on changing the behavior and not the person. Map out the actions they take that make them negative. Ask them not to do those things and replace those behaviors with someone more positive. 

Terminate Them

The last option is to stop kicking the proverbial can down the road and terminate them to another team. Many managers eventually get to this point, but often months or even years too late. They tolerate; therefore, they encourage the negativity for so long until others on the team finally break, and terminating them is the only path forward. It reminds me of one of my favorite leadership principles: 

What leaders tolerate, they encourage. 

This is easy to write but difficult to act upon. Firing someone can be the most challenging thing for a leader, especially when it is based upon something a team member chooses to do, like being negative.  

Closing

You can't control what other people say, but you can control how you respond. Now is the time to root out negativity in your organization. Set a standard around positivity, and hold people accountable for meeting or exceeding it.

If you struggle with negativity yourself, I encourage you to check out the Optimistic Outlook, my free daily reminder to choose optimism over pessimism. A quick dose of uplifting content might be the precise trigger to neutralize those drips of negativity before they overflow.

Remember: The best leaders don't tolerate negativity. They address it directly, encourage more productive ways of thinking, and, if required, remove it from the team. That's how you build a culture of optimism and high performance.

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About the Author: John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft and The Sales Infrastructure. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.