Cynicism in the workplace is rampant nowadays. Leaders and organizations of all kinds have demonstrated that their "success" was no more than an illusory house of cards, and that there was a huge gap between rhetoric and reality. Managers and workers all across the country have lost faith in their organizations' party line.
So what do you do if you take over an organization or team that is plagued by cynicism, perhaps even justifiable cynicism?
Here are a few suggestions, excerpted from an interview I did on the topic on NPR's Morning Edition:
- Do your homework. Learn about the historical and contextual reasons why the members of your team are cynical in the first place. It's hard to combat cynicism if you don't understand where it comes from and why it has grown.
- Encourage members of your team to speak up. One of the major causes of cynicism is when people feel like there is a gap between rhetoric and reality and when they don't feel like they have an opportunity to share their concerns or to have their concerns addressed.
- Watch what you say. Don't convey cynicism or pessimism yourself. Leaders of teams can have a strong positive or negative influence on team morale.
- Look ahead. Try to paint a picture of what the future might look like if the team's cynicism and pessimism continue. Then, describe a brighter future that could result if everyone pulls together and tries to make things better.
- Discourage complaining and venting. Ask team members to present potential solutions to problems.
- Communicate clearly. Tell them that, regardless of how frustrating things might be, you are confident and optimistic that if everyone works together the team can overcome its challenges.
- Build confidence. Give the team progressively more challenging things to work on together, in order to build the team's confidence and sense that it can control its own destiny.
I look forward to hearing your answers to these questions:
- Have you seen an increase in cynicism in your workplace?
- What have you observed that makes cynicism worse?
- What have you seen effectively combat cynicism?
