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O P I N I O N

Negative energy and your brand In the A/E/P and environmental consulting industry, troublemakers can do a lot of damage, especially if they are tolerated.

E very firm has these people to some degree. Th e naysayers, the skeptics, and the gossips. Th ese people are holding back firms, inhibiting performance, and are a toxin to the firms they work for just like a poison running through the veins of your body. Th e negative energy these people create can have a profound impact on any organization. No matter how big or how small their role is, they can be a very destructive force. Professional service organizations must be extra vigilant in the crusade against negative energy as it has a deeper impact on them than other industries. Th e reason is we are a people business. We sell people and client service. When we poison a team or an entire company, it dramatically a ff ects the product we are selling – our people. A few defeatists on your sta ff can do more damage to your brand than the positive e ff ect of all of your other sta ff combined.

Chad Clinehens

When you want to remediate a toxic environment, you need to understand that people have three basic psychosocial needs: the need for control, the need for security, and the need for recognition. Th e reality is that many employees do not feel like they have control in the workplace and that combines with the feeling of not receiving adequate attention, acknowledgment, and recognition. As a leader, you have the ability to create an environment that fosters all of those needs. You must first recognize that the company on the outside reflects what’s on the inside. Get serious today about fixing your people problems with these critical actions: z Get rid of negative people. Assuming you have had the appropriate discussions with them and tried

Th is is a big problem in the AEC industry. When you get behind the closed doors of firm leaders, you realize how much time is spent dealing with people problems. Th ey take valuable time away from executing strategies to grow and develop the firm. I am continuously impressed with how many high-level strategy sessions get derailed by conversations about bad apples. All that valuable time that could be used to discuss growth and new ideas is instead used to talk about one or a few troublemakers. “When you get behind the closed doors of firm leaders, you realize how much time is spent dealing with people problems.”

See BRAND BUILDING, page 8

THE ZWEIG LETTER March 7, 2016, ISSUE 1142

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