Allowing or tolerating toxic behaviour in the workplace kills:
- productivity
- talent
- customers
- innovation
Those four points are crucial components of an organisation’s purpose, capability and sustainability.
Harvard Business School calculates that to replace a toxic worker costs $12489, compared to the $5303 benefit from hiring a top performer.
A competent yet toxic employee does more damage than they are worth.
When the leadership is toxic the cost is higher and more difficult to measure and resolve.
In the public sector, where there may be a culture of ‘never firing anyone, just move them around’ the cost is borne by the tax payer and hidden in the depths of bureaucracy.
In the private sector, the cost shows up clearly in the four points above.
We can hire to avoid toxicity in the first place. We know how to do that.
Also, we can identify ‘hotspots’ in business units where toxicity is currently impacting.
We can then investigate carefully and respectfully those hotspots and take effective action.
The action is to work directly with the toxic behaviour to identify quickly, that which can be remedied and that which can’t.
People exhibiting toxic behaviour fall in to two distinct groups:
- Those who wish to change
- Those who don’t want to change
The former can be helped and the latter can be removed, rapidly, ethically and legally.
What is required is the courage and values of the leadership to act.
When it is the leadership who is toxic, that too can be addressed, though it requires courage from the other stakeholders, and that can be facilitated effectively.
This is a sensitive topic and requires very careful and evidence-based treatment.
It is a topic that if ignored will impact negatively on the crucial four points mentioned above.
We can no longer afford to tolerate toxic behaviour, particularly when the remedies are straightforward and the benefits are abundant.
What do you think?
