Fear-Instilling Behavior in the Workplace
What Do You Do When a Manager’s Actions Become a Corporate Liability?
Many managers engage in behaviors that instill fear in the workplace, whether they know it or not. Fear-instilling behaviors deplete the employees’ pride and undermine high quality, productivity, motivation, and innovation. Fear also generates negativity, anger, and frustration. More importantly, productive manager-employee relationships are based on trust, respect, and mutual credibility. Unless managers understand the powerful hidden and unexplored aspects of fear in the workplace, they will not be fully prepared to provide effective leadership.
The following are twelve fear-instilling behaviors that managers knowingly or unknowingly use that cause people to be afraid of them.
- Silence
- Glaring eye contact/”the look”
- Brevity and abruptness
- Ignoring people
- Insults and put-downs
- Blaming/discrediting/discounting
- Aggressive, controlling manner
- Yelling and shouting
- Threats about the job
- Angry outbursts/loss of control
- Physical threats
- Unethical conduct
Fear-instilling behaviors can be reduced when managers become educated and aware of their actions. The process begins when managers agree on the kind of relationship they want to have and maintain with their employees.
Without overly emphasizing negative conduct, develop some kind of ground rules or norms for future behavior. For example, two questions a division head might ask the managers who report to him/her: “What are the characteristics we would most like to achieve in our relationships with those we supervise?” or “What do you need to do differently to avoid implicating our company and yourself in a hostile work environment lawsuit?”
The following are a few guidelines that should become managerial norms:
Spend time with your employees. A concern that frequently frustrates employees is the lack of accessibility or approachability to their supervisor. There are many reasons why employees feel a supervisor lacks accessibility or approachability. Some of the specific concerns include: (1) the manager is not receptive to negative feedback; (2) the manager spends an excessive amount of time in his/her office with the door closed; (3) the manager spends a large portion of his/her time in meetings; (4) the manager provides more negative feedback than positive recognition; (5) the manager does not have the time to spend with employees because he/she is always too busy putting out fires or working on important projects; (6) the manager travels a lot and slows down the decision making of people who need answers from the manager.
Listen to employees; take time to hear their concerns. Finding time in your busy schedule to listen, really listen, to your employees, is a huge challenge. The benefits in making time to listen to the people who work for you, however, are enormous. Employees who know their boss will listen will share problems while they are in the early stage and not wait until problems have reached a crisis level. Employees, when they feel valued and supported, will often provide their bosses with valuable input leading to effective and creative problem solving. Employees working in an environment where their concerns are listened to and their input considered will contribute more to the organization. Further, employees who are listened to become better listeners themselves, leading to improved communication within the organization.
Eliminate prejudice and sarcastic or negative remarks. Sarcastic or negative remarks hurt personally and do little to change employee behavior. Further, their presence in the workplace tends to contribute to a downward communication spiral, encouraging people to search for reasons to complain and pass judgment on others. When people are hurt personally, they cannot focus on the particular behavior that has been identified as needing improvement. Instead, they often react defensively and further coaching or counseling intervention is met with hostility. As a leader, model and support positive communication. As a rule, praise employees in public and meet individually with employees when corrective intervention is needed.Praising publicly and correcting privately will do much to increase your employees’ level of trust in your leadership.
Follow through on agreements. Possibly no one other area of management is as critical as this one in building trust and respect in your employees. Do what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it. Failure to follow through on commitments you have made erodes employee trust and confidence in your ability to lead. Employees who have been disappointed in the past begin to doubt your ability to deliver what you’ve promised in the future. Consistently delivering what you have promised, when you promised it, however, builds you a strong reputation as a respected leader, one who can be counted on to follow through.
Stick to the “aim frame.” When problems occur, stick to aim frame thinking. “Aim framers” ask two questions: “Where do we want to be?” and “How do we get there?” “Aim framers” focus on finding solutions leading to positive outcomes. “Blame framers,” on the other hand, also ask two questions: “Who can we blame?” and “What can we do to them?” Unfortunately, no matter how long “blame framers” spend finding fault, no positive outcome is ever reached. “Aim framers,” however, are well on their way to successfully tackling their organizational challenges.
It is important that both managers and employees commit to helping one another follow these norms. Managerial Norms can become a measurement tool, allowing people to notice behavior and take action if it strays from the agreement. In addition to generating a positive picture, the group needs to answer such questions as: “What barriers do we foresee in meeting them and how will we overcome them?” and “How will we measure progress?”
Establish positive norms and standards, educate managers and employees on alternative behaviors, and give daily feedback. These steps will overturn negative practices and feelings and will directly address the behaviors that are most likely to cause fear in the workplace. The manager-employee relationship can be an affirming experience for both parties!
You may also like:
- Building Trust with Your Supervisor and Your Employees
- Self Esteem – The Leadership Edge
- Great Leaders are Great Learners
Filed Under: Leadership, Peter's Blog on October 2nd, 2009
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