Not all who have professional titles live up to the characteristics of the “ideal” professional. We can invite professionals to engage, encourage them to align themselves with the needs of the organization and support them as colleagues along the way. But each professional must make that choice themselves. In every organization, over time you will meet folks who I refer to as the cynics, apathetics, and naysayers. So, who are these folks?
The cynics are folks who distrust those around them, particularly the leaders. They are critical of any change that must take place, and focus their attention on what might go wrong, on speculations of why things are the way they are, and on criticism of those in leadership. Their power is that, often, their speculations have some truth to them. They have had bad experiences in the past, and use these experiences to justify their lack of trust and engagement. They do not accept any responsibility for their behavior. Cynicism is contagious and disruptive. The cynic’s theme might be, “There they go again—another stupid initiative that nobody cares about!”
The apathetics are those who decide survival means just getting by. Apathetics have a “why try?” attitude and do the bare minimum required to receive their paycheck. Like the cynics, something occurred in their past that convinced them that putting out more effort is a waste of time and energy. Their power is in challenging any initiative that might require speed and tight deadlines for completion. These are not people who can be trusted to take on more responsibility. These folks are not motivated to go the extra mile, and if you ask, you’ll be disappointed.
The naysayers are those who dismiss any opportunity as unrealistic or even impossible. Their power is in asking countless questions and demanding proof and rationale for any change required, unnecessarily impeding important changes. You will hear the naysayers say things like, “We’ve tried that before!” or “It can’t be done,” or “The resources aren’t there to do this!” These people are likely to aim at nothing and achieve it with incredible accuracy.
These people are toxic
Obviously, the cynics, apathetics, and naysayers are not helping their organizations provide a high level of service. Their presence is discouraging, even toxic, to those around them. When you surround yourself with toxic people, your capabilities are poisoned. This behavior is contagious, disruptive to those who are operating at a much higher level of professionalism, and taking us nowhere good.
These folks create all kinds of excuses for poor customer service, defective products, budget overages, and any number of other failures. Most of those excuses are accompanied by a sibling behavior: blame. “It must be someone else’s fault, certainly not mine!”
As leaders, we must either help the cynics, apathetics, and naysayers change what they are doing or remove them from the organization. To deal with these folks, leaders must set a new mantra: “No excuses and no blame” and expect people to take responsibility for their results.
Negative behaviors are choices
Cynics, apathetics, and naysayers are making choices. The power of choice is at the foundation of our humanity. Yes, we get to make choices. We choose when to get up in the morning, what to wear, what to eat, what to work at, and what to do for play. We choose our friends and lovers, and we choose at times to end relationships that no longer feed our spirits. We choose between good and evil, love and hate. Choice is an amazing power, but it needs exercise, and a true professional knows that their choices must be aligned with the needs of the organization. We can choose to be more professional than the cynics, apathetics, and naysayers.
How to address the cynics, apathetics, and naysayers
There are steps leaders can take to initiate change in the lives and work of professionals who are demonstrating these counterproductive behaviors.
Acknowledge that change is required. If someone seems unhappy about something in their life or work, say so. Name it. Once you do, then you can begin helping the professional address it. Get specific about what behaviors are not working, and what can be done about it. The more specific you can be, the more you can surface possible remedies.
Make sure that they understand the importance of their role. People need to know where they fit in, and how their behavior affects others, as well as the work itself.
Urge the professional to change their behaviors now. Nothing happens until someone acts—nothing. It is important that, with your help, the professional identifies one or two small steps they can take to move forward more productively. They do not have to be big steps. What you are doing here is creating momentum and energy focused on success. You are also creating an opportunity for the professional to prove their ability to accomplish it.
Make sure the professional is prepared for resistance to the changes they are making. They are creating a new self when they act on changing themselves, and people will often tell them to stay just as they are. The status quo is what people know, and any change in it will feel unsettling. This is normal.
If these steps are taken, the likelihood of a positive change increases significantly. However, it will require tenacity and resolve, as there will be challenges and barriers at every step. (I said that the steps are straightforward, but I did not say that they are easy.) These are some of the challenges:
- When confronted with change, people naturally revert to what they are most comfortable with.
- Sometimes, the damage that has been done in the past is too difficult to overcome in the eyes of colleagues and coworkers.
- Sometimes, breakthrough fails altogether.
Helping professionals change these behaviors is challenging, and not always a successful endeavor. When the attempt to help is dismissed, avoided, or otherwise ignored, it may be time to invite the professional to be successful somewhere else. Leaders need to be cautious about investing a lot of time in people who are not engaged, at the expense of those who are. This is never a comfortable process, but it is necessary. Failure of leaders to do this just encourages more cynicism, naysaying, and apathy. No organization is compelled to keep professionals who are not doing the job they are there to do, or are creating a toxic work environment with their behavior.
This article is a condensed section of Lead with Purpose: Reignite Passion and Engagement for Professionals in Crisis by Roger A. Gerard PhD and is reprinted with permission.