Negativity is a common trait of the lazy. I mean why work hard to solve the problem when you can just complain and raise the white flag? It actually get’s worse than that. The negativity doesn’t just impact the person themselves but it transfers to everyone around them. And that’s exactly where businesses start to fail.
Your business is built by people and it’s your job to take care of them and motivate them to keep moving no matter how many detours come their way.
Here are 5 ways to get rid of negativity in the workplace:
1. Create a Positive Policy
Your entire company culture must be built on positivity. That means that holding people accountable for negativity should be within your policy. It must be written in stone that every single employee will be required to maintain a positive attitude and look to all situations.
It’s all about the way you look at it. Nothing is impossible. No matter how bad a situation is there is always a way out of it. Always! So, the first thing you need to do is create a policy that encourages positivity and eliminates negativity.
“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” – Willie Nelson
2. Write Positive Quotes On the Walls
A nicely designed workplace will always give a positive effect on people. The same effect a nicely designed house has on us. But, that’s not enough. What you can do is hang positive quotes on the walls. Carefully select the ones that can cheer employees up when a common difficulty that could cause negativity arises. There’s a high chance that at least one of those quotes will hit them straight at the moment and lift them up to keep them moving positively.
3. Talk With Them
Whenever a problem arises or sense any negativity you should talk with the employee. Look for ways to cheer them up and solve the problem. Talking is such a stupidly simple way of solving 98% of negativity problems, yet most employers ignore it… maybe because they’re too busy to speak to each employee one by one.
4. Help Better Their Family Relationships
Many times employees will bring all the anger they have in their relationships and transfer that negative energy to the workplace.
There are ways to identify a negative relationship, the employee will usually have the following characteristics:
- Low self esteem
- People pleaser
- Excessive anxiousness
- Need to be in control
No matter what the problem is, it needs to be solved through therapy. Don’t be stingy to hire a therapist to find out if your employees are having problems with their families.
“Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.” –Michael J. Fox
5. Hire Right Next Time
Solving the current problem is important but make sure that in the future you take all precautions to prevent negativity from the start. This starts by not hiring negative people in the first place. One way to test whether someone is naturally a positive person is by giving them a negative scenario and see if they deal with it positively or negatively.
