What’s your workplace gripe? Lousy morale, outdated equipment, inefficiency, lack of work-life balance? Or maybe your uncaring boss or lazy team mates?
We all have reasons to complain, but managers and co-workers don’t really want to hear about them. According to a recent study by LinkedIn, employees’ top pet peeves are people who complain too much and people who don’t take responsibility.
This presents a golden opportunity to resolve that in 2012, you’ll be the one who stops moaning and instead becomes part of the solution, says John Izzo, whose latest book, Stepping Up: How Taking Responsibility Changes Everything, is being released next week. (Click here to read an excerpt.)
“Whenever you find yourself saying, ‘Somebody should do something about this,’ turn that around and ask yourself, ‘What could I do about this?’” said Dr. Izzo, a Vancouver-based leadership consultant with nearly 20 years experience in a wide variety of industries.
It’s amazing how few people do this, he added.
“We’re kind of herd animals at heart,” explained Dr. Izzo, who has a doctorate in organizational communication. “From our early evolutionary history, our instincts tell us it’s safest to stay in the pack. … Somehow we feel safer doing what everyone else is doing and not sticking our necks out and taking initiative.”
Find solutions, not excuses
In a challenging economy, the protective instinct gets exaggerated because people worry about their security and back away from challenging assignments, figuring they should just keep quiet and not make waves. “But that’s exactly the wrong thing to do. When times are tough and employers are looking for ways to save money, the last thing you want people to say is, ‘I hardly noticed you were here,’” he said.
“Bosses know it’s a tough economy and they want to see people willing to do what they can in spite of that.”
He cites the example of a telephone company he works with in the United States that has a number of cellphone stores with long-term leases in dying shopping malls. “Managers of those stores have a tough assignment because there’s not much walk-by traffic and they come in with a lot of excuses for why they don’t meet their sales goals. They all say, ‘You know what it’s like out there. Sorry we can’t do it.’”
But this year one manager told his team, “Look, we know this is a tough situation and we’re going to do something about it.” He sent his staff into the community and to lobbies of office towers to hand out business cards. “They ended up having the second-highest results in the company, even though they had more constraints than most had,” Dr. Izzo said.
Turn gossip into group action
You may think you’re gaining credibility with colleagues by being a complainer, but he said the LinkedIn survey shows that complainers actually lose status with co-workers. “[They] may back you up in the break room but later tell people, ‘He’s always complaining and I’m sick of it.’ Meanwhile, you’ll bug your bosses and reduce your brand within the organization.”
Instead, look at what you personally can do to start to make a change. When colleagues say that someone should do something about a problem or issue, make that the start of a dialogue into what all of you can do together to make the situation better. For example, if the problem is being on call after work hours, the first step could be to get co-workers to agree to stop e-mailing each other on weekends, or to not hold meetings outside normal work hours.
Building allies is a process of going to others, taking about your idea and telling them you would appreciate their support. “Once you’ve found a few allies who want change, you can keep that number growing and turn the complaints into a dialogue on solutions,” Dr. Izzo said.
