5 Steps to Address a Bad Attitude

Each Individual On Your Team Is A Force of Nature. It’s human nature to have good days and bad, but the prevailing mindset of an employee on an everyday basis can have a dramatic influence on the well-being of the entire team and the overall success of the company.

An employee who comes to work motivated, prepared, and willing to collaborate is a constructive force of nature. Their influence on those around them results in more harmonious relationships and greater productivity. These are the employees who produce a positive ROI (Return On Investment) for their employers. Nurturing these constructive forces within your company creates profitability.

Another employee (or perhaps even the same one, under a different set of circumstances) may act as a destructive force, resulting in conflict, resentment and low productivity. While there are many causes for this attitude, it must be addressed! Otherwise, team morale and productivity will swiftly decline. It is amazing how much time, energy and money this costs companies.

When companies bring me in to address team issues, I often hear clients say, “Mary, please help us with this person’s bad attitude.” This is when I know that an employee is acting as a destructive force. One of the reasons this complaint is so hard to address is because a “bad attitude” can’t be measured… yet we know it when it’s occurring… and we know what is left in its wake.

To bring about a change, the first step is to identify the specific behaviors associated with attitude.

Attitude is defined as “a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior.”
If you are struggling to address an attitude issue with someone on your team, start with these steps to turn a destructive force of nature into a constructive one:

1. Clearly identify in objective terms what behavior has led to the label of “bad attitude”—is it a scowl? Short temper? Lack of communication? No teamwork? Sharp tongue? Repeated audible sighs? The list of behaviors may be long and varied but choose to focus on the main two or three.
2. Identify the results the “bad attitude” creates. For example, when an employee’s temper flares, teammates tend to keep their distance and tend to avoid working with that individual. Productivity plummets because people are either putting higher demands on other employees instead of working with this person, or they are simply putting off tasks that require interacting with this employee.
3. Address the “bad attitude” by saying: “Mary, I’ve noticed that you’ve had several angry outbursts with your teammates today.” Pay close attention to the response you receive.
4. Once this individual has had an opportunity to respond, it is important to discuss the results the outbursts are creating: teammates are taking their questions elsewhere; they need to do the job they were hired to do; as well as be willing to work with the team in an amenable manner.
5. Seek Commitment by asking: “Are you willing to do this?”

One Individual Is A Force of Nature. By addressing the behaviors associated with attitude, your employees will have objective feedback about what actions detract from and what promotes productivity. As a result, employers will have better profitability.

Turning Your Workforce Into A Force of Nature!!

Related Tools

HR etc!! offers several tools that can help you identify and correct bad attitudes. Our iWAM assessment helps you understand the core factors underlying motivation and attitude.

Find out more about the iWAM assessment and view a sample report

About Mary

Mary D. Kausch is the Chief Insight Officer of 20-year old HR etc!! Her belief is that to know people, one must know human nature. The key to Mary’s powerful insight is her ability to recognize that every employee is, first and foremost, a person — a multi-dimensional human being. Mary’s expertise is figuring out what it takes for all the human beings at your company to thrive simultaneously!!

Read Mary Kausch's Biography

Read More Articles by Mary Kausch