Every one of your employees, like any human being in any profession, has bad days at work. But it is the small number of chronically toxic individuals who generate the overwhelming majority of stress and frustration for co-workers and supervisors. An organization’s toxic employees can often be such a distraction from the organization's mission that supervisors seem to spend more time dealing with the internal issues generated by toxic employees than they spend focused on moving the organization forward.
If not confronted, toxic behavior can prove extremely deflating to the morale of co-workers in light of their leaders’ apparent inability to hold them accountable for their actions. This is made all the more frustrating when toxic employees are widely known to be seriously problematic but are never adequately confronted by leaders in the organization.
Leaders need to confront this extremely damaging presence in the workforce in a way that both protects the integrity of the organization and is legally defensible. Ensuring that these management techniques are legally defensible is particularly important because, in many cases, toxic employees tend to be perpetual plaintiffs who file baseless grievances, complaints and lawsuits throughout their careers as they refuse to accept responsibility for their actions.
(1) What did you know? (2) When did you know it? (3) What did you do?
The way in which leaders answer these three basic questions when things go bad on their watch will determine how legally and ethically defensible their leadership strategies have proven to be. Whether these questions are asked by an attorney, a co-worker or a supervisor, the answers go the the very heart of leadership obligations.
It is the obligation of a leader to know what is going on--particularly the things that they don't particularly want to know about but need to know about. It is also the obligation of a leader to avoid being the last one to know it--even when countless action items divert their attention from supervisory obligations. And it is lastly the obligation of a leader to take immediate action when things are beginning to go sideways--especially when it is tempting to "kick the can down the road" and hope that someone else will take this problem on down the road.
The 18th Century author Samuel Johnson asserted that “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” And there is never a bad time to remind leaders of the ethical obligations that they have to the people that work for them and the people that they work for.
Costly and embarrassing lawsuits, public relations disasters, and much else could be avoided by first asking the commonsense ethical questions that leaders should be able to answer long before an attorney is deposing them or a news outlet's van is parked outside their office. All too often, leaders only return to basic questions of leadership ethics after one of these disasters have struck.
By reminding leaders of the most common ethical pitfalls--from the bystander effect to the rationalization slope to the diffusion of responsibility--they can also be reminded of the tremendous benefits of meeting ethical challenges, even when it seems that no one is looking.
Matt Dolan is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as Confronting the Toxic Employee, The 3 Most Important Questions in Leadership and Liability and The Principles of Ethical Leadership. The estimated speaking fee range to book Matt Dolan for your event is $5,000 - $10,000. Matt Dolan generally travels from Durham, NC, USA and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Adrian Gostick, Antoni Lacinai, Dr. Michael Time, Kris Boesch and Cheryl Cran. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Matt Dolan for an upcoming live or virtual event.
This website is a resource for event professionals and strives to provide the most comprehensive catalog of thought leaders and industry experts to consider for speaking engagements. A listing or profile on this website does not imply an agency affiliation or endorsement by the talent.
All American Entertainment (AAE) exclusively represents the interests of talent buyers, and does not claim to be the agency or management for any speaker or artist on this site. AAE is a talent booking agency for paid events only. We do not handle requests for donation of time or media requests for interviews, and cannot provide celebrity contact information.
If you are the talent and wish to request a profile update or removal from our online directory, please submit a profile request form.