Emotional Contagion Can Take Down Your Whole Team

We had hired a new senior executive. Soon after settling in, he began to share his concerns with me. He was doing so, he assured me, only because he loved working for us, and he was looking out for the wellbeing of the company. He reported to me, and at first, I appreciated his input.

Early on, he focused on small things, such as pointing out that he thought someone had spent more money than was warranted on a particular project. Then, he remarked on a couple of people who weren’t arriving at work on time. Later, he questioned whether we needed such a senior person in a given job, and couldn’t we get someone at a lower level to do the same job and save money?

Over time, he let me know he felt people were taking advantage of me. They didn’t appreciate how good they had it. I needed to be tougher.

I began to feel more anxious and suspicious, and others on our team seemed more tense. The buoyant, productive atmosphere that had characterized our culture for years, even in tough times, began to seep away.

Finally, another employee came to me and said that this executive had been complaining relentlessly to her, and that what he was saying didn’t seem warranted. Very quickly, I discovered he had rained these complaints on nearly everyone, treating each of his colleagues as a confidant and an exception to his otherwise withering assessments. (read more…)