The Bully-Free Workplace: Stop Jerks, Weasels, and Snakes From Killing Your Organization

Leader Task 2: Trust Reports from the Trenches

Empathic leaders, once referred to as social-emotional leaders, function and make decisions as if they remember what it was like to be in the lower ranks. They intuitively know how much workers want to be believed and how much they want to contribute to make the workplace better. Good leaders trust employees. Good employees can be counted on for internal intelligence and fact gathering. They are compensated for their work and double their worth when giving you information that consultants discover at a much higher cost. Executives who ignore in-the-trenches information from concerned employees jeopardize their organizations' success.

One of the most important ways you can show trust to employees is to believe reports of bullying when they bubble up to your level. Do not immediately discount them as frivolous or untruthful. It takes courage for targets to dare to tell higher-ups about bullying tactics in their units. They are providing much-needed intelligence for you. Do not shoot the messenger simply because you learn that Bob has a dark side. Just because he never showed that destructive side to you doesn't mean Bob is not cruel to subordinates. It makes sense. Bob has both sides. So do you; we all do. Contrast how you address shareholders in formal settings with how you communicate daily with peers and those who report to you. Depending on who is describing you, you, too, could be perceived as two completely different people. The ...