DON’T!
My husband and I were traveling and stayed in a bed & breakfast in California. We were struck by an abundance of small notes taped all over the common rooms. Don’t change the radio station. Don’t touch. Don’t enter – private room. Don’t use this door. You get the picture. There weren’t any positive messages to be found. We met our hostess the next morning and felt uncomfortable at first, not knowing what to expect. She turned out to be very nice. She had run the bed & breakfast for over 20 years. Apparently, past guests had done things she didn’t like and therefore the notes went up.
What she didn’t realize was the DON’T messages created an atmosphere of negativity. Are you creating the same in your workplace? Negative people, places and cultures hurt productivity. Use the following checklist to ensure you haven’t accidentally created a negative work environment. (Use the following checklist to ensure you have created a positive work environment.)
Check 1: When you drive into and walk into your workplace, look at any signage or words. It may be subtle, “RESERVED PARKING” “DON’T PARK HERE – FIRE LANE” “DON’T LEAVE THE DOOR OPEN”. Change the signs to positive ones – get creative. “PARK HERE IF YOU WORK HERE” “BE OUR GUEST TODAY AND PARK AWAY” “FIRE TRUCKS USE THIS SPACE” “IS THE DOOR CLOSED?”
Check 2: Listen to those around you. Pay attention if people are complaining, using the word can’t and focusing on problems. Whenever you have an audience, adjust your dialogue – talk about problems with a solution, emphasize what employees can do, replace the complaint zone with the solution zone.
Check 3: Clarify. Examine the root of problems, complaints and can’ts. Do people need additional training, resources, power? Are your systems too bureaucratic needing many levels of approval before a decision is made? Layers can happen over time. What can you simplify and make easier for your employees?
Check 4: Look around. Do your employees smile, greet others, hold their head up and walk proudly? Are they enjoying their work? Happy employees start with the hiring process – ensure one criterion of all new hires includes a positive attitude and good disposition, no matter how talented they are. Find out what you can change in the environment to encourage positive employees.
Check 5: Look around some more. How do your offices look – old and shabby or upbeat and bright. De-clutter the environment. Bring in an outside organizer to help with individual work flow. Paint the walls, replace old furniture, get a new coffee machine. Caring about the environment that you spend so much time in shows you care about your employees.
Check 6: Self-talk. Concentrate on what you are saying to yourself. Many times we say horrible things to ourself that we would never say to others. Build that awareness and practice flipping any negative self talk to the positive. You’ll come across much more upbeat to others.
What other areas should you check in on? What methods have you used to flip a negative environment to a positive one? Leave your comments below.
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Holly, Thank you for the great post! It’s so timely, too. I just watched last evening a TV episode of “Hotel Hell” in which the innkeeper had posted “Don’t” messages in several places and targeted at his employees. The morale was terrible as a result. One employee even used the name “spirit sucker” to describe him.
When I got to “Check 6: Self-talk.”, I saw it in a second way: “Check your self-talk.” This reminded me of the value of a good coach. What my wife and I had the privilege of enjoying from a good personal trainer is the checking of our negative self-talk. She always focused on the positive and our progress, instead of on the negative and how far away we were from our goals. She would not let us talk negatively for more than a few minutes at the beginning of a session before she would turn that negative self-talk into positive encouragement.
Kirk –
Thanks so much for your comments. Right on with the coach – you had a good one!
Holly
Excellent post, Holly! Whenever I visit a prospective client’s workplace I always look around to see what signs are posted and how visitors (and employees) are greeted. These are subtle clues about the organization’s culture and how they communicate — and collaborate — with each other.
Susan
PS – I shared this post on my company’s Facebook page. Hope it brings you some new readers!
Susan –
Great information – it does pay off to be alert to those clues about the culture. Thanks for posting on you company’s Facebook page – I welcome all readers.
Thanks for the comments. Holly