There always seems to be one on the team, the person who says, “we can’t do that” or “that isn’t my job,” bringing an attitude of negativity to your group. Negativity in the workplace is like a cancer. One person’s bad attitude can spread throughout the organization, severely hurting your business. You need to confront this individual about their negative behavior by giving them feedback.
A negative reaction is not a personality trait, it’s bad behavior, and bad behavior often becomes a habit. Many “negative” people don’t even realize that they are being negative. Once you point out to them what they are saying, and how it affects you, they can begin to break the bad habit. Work with the person to come up with ideas for a new way to respond to requests. They probably need help with this because they are stuck in their current behavior and really can’t see any other way to act. Praise them when you see a change in the negative behavior – this will help to reinforce the change by providing feedback that the change is working.
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