Destruction Via Gossip

Leaders, how many times have you had someone approach you to complain about something someone else has done?

How many times have you engaged in that conversation? You may even be the one who instigated it.

The fact is, gossip and backbiting are destructive.

So, if you want a surefire recipe for disaster, simply create and foster an atmosphere of discontentment and negativity. They’ll do the job without any further effort from you, the leader.

Businesses, organizations and relationships are all made up of people, therefore discontentment and discord will certainly arise. In these situations, a good rule of thumb is this:

If it’s worth saying, it’s worth saying to the right person.

If you are in a leadership position and an employee is not meeting your standards, be mature enough to approach that person and have a frank conversation about the shortcoming.

Give them specifics on what needs improvement and give solutions on how to fix it. Talking about that person behind their back to others will certainly not fix the problem and will only sour others toward that person, creating even more unrest.

Remember, the leader sets the tone for the organization.

When those in your organization see that you’re more interested in helping them become better than you are running them down to others, they’ll typically strive to be better themselves.

Now, this is not to say that you can always “encourage” someone out of bad habits and poor performance. Sometimes, certain situations and/or repeated failures may require harsher consequences.

But, before you complain and gossip to other people, ask yourself, “will my conversation with THIS person do anything to make the situation or the individual that’s the subject of the conversation, better?”

Because, if it’s worth saying, it’s worth saying to RIGHT person.