Next Business Level

The only disability in business is a bad attitude.

Most business owners I know are results-driven – if the work gets done, who cares how the person doing it feels? It doesn’t matter how things get done as long as they get done. Productivity means profits, right?

But a dysfunctional workplace environment can cost you – according to this Harvard Business Review blog, reduced creativity, low morale, and increased turnover all result from workplace bullying. Which affects the bottom line. After all, unhappy employees are probably going to focus more of their energy (what’s left of it) on complaining or finding another job than performing to the best of their abilities.

Culture comes from the top down. If you don’t value your employees’ welfare and morale, how can you expect them to value your bottom line? As the business owner, you need to set the tone for your team. By being involved, you’ll be able to nip any symptoms of dysfunction in the bud before they become raging epidemics that affect your entire organization.

If someone on your team is unhappy, for whatever reason, you need to address the situation quickly. Doing so allows everyone to stay focused on your organization’s bottom line rather than getting distracted by interpersonal difficulties. While this may seem an easy enough task – anyone can identify a bully or a troublemaker, after all – it can be difficult when the “bad seed” is respected worker whose goals no longer align with yours.

Your employees deserve to be valued for the contributions they make to your business. But your business also deserves employees who value the work they do.

If you want to succeed, you have to be “all in.” And you need your team to be “all in” as well. And anything that disrupts your employees’ ability to be all in is something that disrupts your bottom line.