Rotten apples – negative, destructive, self-absorbed, unethical employees – pollute organizations.
Passive leaders – those who tolerate rotten apples – create rotten environments by default.
Leaders who tolerate rotten apples are rotten themselves.
Spotting:
You don’t need a study to determine if your culture sucks.
- People use blind copies in email.
- Gossips win.
- Territorial managers stake out and protect turf.
- Leaders live in ivory towers.
- Competition is about winners and losers not performance.
- Getting by is the goal.
- Smiles and laughs are rare.
Your culture sucks if people don’t love working in it.
Solving:
Organizational culture is simply the way you do things – how people treat each other. Yesterday, a Leadership Freak contributor suggested social contracts as a tool to create and protect organizational culture.
Social contracts say you’re serious about the way you do things.
Social contract:
We will:
- Address issues in the smallest context possible. Dirty laundry is kept in the laundry room.
- Expect you to connect with colleagues and teammates.
- Take responsibility to improve things we don’t like.
- Pursue the best interests of all parties, always.
- Call you out if you let others down.
- Speak candidly with compassion.
- Forgive offenses that are acknowledged and addressed.
We won’t:
- Say one thing to your face and another behind your back.
- Tolerate posturing and puffing behaviors.
- Lie, ever.
- Blow up.
- Hold grudges.
- Have secret agendas.
- Complain without bringing solutions.
Consequences:
Violating our social contract is grounds for warnings, corrective action, and dismissal, if necessary. You might be sent to our, “Be Nice,” class for social delinquents.
Enforcement:
Everyone is authorized to point out violations of social contracts, regardless of position or tenure.
What would you include in an organizational social contract?