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Organizational Results: Extrude Net-Negative People

Jan 17, 2010
Organizational Results

Kendall L. Stewart, M.D.

You know exactly who these people are. They are miserable and they make everyone around them miserable. They complain and whine. They stir the pot and deflate morale. Their colleagues hate to see their names on the schedule. They are poisonous. You only keep these people around because you need warm bodies and because you are hesitant to deal them. You just keep hoping they will straighten up or leave on their own. They never do.

1. Describe your net-negative colleagues in specific behavioral terms. This is not an issue of whether you like someone or whether they are popular. It’s about how they behave. It’s about repeated patterns of disruptive behavior or poor performance that have rendered the work environment toxic and limited the results you might have achieved without them.

2. Give them fair warning. These malcontents deserve a fair chance to turn themselves around. Meet with them. Tell them exactly what they are doing wrong and what they must change. Follow this up with a letter documenting your conversation and laying out the consequences of their failure to comply.

3. Do not set a deadline. Almost everyone can act better for 90 days or so. Make it clear that their negative behavior must change immediately. Emphasize that their behavior changes must be permanent. Any future regression into negativity may result in summary discharge without further notice. This is not a progressive corrective action. This is a line. They must tow it or leave.

How do you remove net-negative colleagues from your organization?

6 Comments
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6 Comments

  1. Vicki Noel  •  Jan 18, 2010 @9:29 am

    Clarity, consistency, and follow-up. I am clear about the behaviors I expect and document the conversations when calrification occurs. I utilize the Net-Negative process that is now built into the performance appraisal process at SOMC and make sure to follow-up regular on expectations. If the employee has not sustained improvement we have a critical conversation about the options. Most often the employee chooses an option to move on rather than be terminated. Sounds easy…but very, very difficult and emotionally draining.

  2. StewartH  •  Jan 18, 2010 @10:02 am

    I agree with Vicki. It is difficult to entirely separate emotions from the process. (I find that I accept criticism better than I dispense it.) I find that it sometimes helps to involve a management colleague to go over the process with me and compare their independent conclusions with my possibly, (almost certainly) emotionally biased ones.

  3. Kendall L. Stewart  •  Jan 18, 2010 @4:21 pm

    Howard, you make an important point.
    No colleague should be judged net-negative lightly.
    All involved leaders should agree–over time–that, knowing what they now know, they would not hire this person again.

  4. Kendall L. Stewart  •  Jan 18, 2010 @4:23 pm

    Vicki, your comment reminds me that some folk may not be a good fit for one organizational culture and be effective in another.
    Context and culture do matter.

  5. Leeann Sammons  •  Jan 20, 2010 @2:36 pm

    The devil is in the detail and documentation. Using the 360 Feedback process is a tool that I have used to confirm or refute my perceptions. If my perceptions are validated, I prepare for the conversation by listing the specific behaviors that are unacceptable and examples of when these behaviors were observed. I then list the desired behaviors along with my expectations. Like Vicki mentioned, consistent feedback and follow-up is crucial whether the employee sustains improvements or leaves the organization.

  6. Kendall L. Stewart  •  Jan 22, 2010 @5:43 pm

    Leeann, your comment reminds me that the 360-degree evaluation may demonstrate that the individual in question is clearly net-positive.
    We must always remind ourselves that our own intolerance, sensitivity or need to control others may be the real problem.

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