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Intimidation at work is not beneficial for companies and even less so for employees. Quite the opposite, it can harm people, projects and result in the failure of the institution's objectives.
Some leaders make this mistake because of their inability to lead a team. Often they have many skills, but need to improve their leadership. To avoid compromising the work of the entire corporation.
Companies must be vigilant if they don't want to be harmed by an inability to lead. In this article we will understand why this happens, how to avoid it and how to proceed if it does.
What are the differences between leading and bullying?
First and foremost, leadership means leading a team to achieve a goal. A leader must be able to motivate employees and engage people to achieve results. To do this, you need to know how to good working environment.
You don't have to intimidate to lead. Intimidating means abusing power to frighten, humiliate and oppress people. By doing this, the leader ends up causing demotivation and discourages engagement, having the opposite effect to what the company needs.
In this way, leaders can charge their subordinates using people management strategies without resorting to this type of intimidating pressure, which does not generate positive results.
What damage does bullying do to the company
Given that intimidation at work leads to demotivation, the main consequence will be poor performance. Thus, projects will have lower-than-expected results, which will result in low income for the institution.
Another consequence is high employee turnover. Dissatisfied people tend to resign. As a result, the company may find it difficult to fill vacancies due to its low reputation in the market.
In addition, workers who suffer bullying can have their mental health damaged and go to court to recover damages. There are laws that protect workers and the company may be obliged to indemnify workers.
How to avoid intimidating leaders in your company
Companies can use certain procedures to detect the actions of an intimidating leader and avoid the harmful effects. Let's list some of them:
- Monitoring the results of work processes: projects must have planning, objectives and analysis of results, and the whole process must be monitored by the leader. The company must not fail to act if it perceives a problem related to abuse of power.
- Invest in leadership development: there are many people management courses for the corporate market. By monitoring work processes, it is possible to see or hear the leader's needs for improvement.
- Conduct employee satisfaction surveys, which can be anonymous: Monitoring the process with the leader can also include listening to the workers. Listening to their feedback is important for understanding how the system is progressing. Anonymous surveys can be more effective in this case, as intimidation causes fear of exposure.
- Be aware of conflicts and take action if they occur: As soon as you notice a conflict with the leader, you need to call the parties together. This can be done separately or together, depending on the type of disagreement.
- Have open communication channels to resolve conflicts and dissatisfaction: it is important to make it clear to employees that if they are dissatisfied, they can seek help. There needs to be a channel for dealing with conflicts, such as a psychologist or human resources professional.
What to do in cases of bullying at work
By following the above procedures, it is more difficult for intimidation to occur. If intimidation does occur, it will probably be discovered at some stage, for example through workers' testimonies. In this case, it is necessary to investigate and find out what's wrong with the work.
If there is evidence of any kind of abuse of power or bullying, it is necessary to intervene in the work process in order to resolve the problem. It's important to talk to the leader and report the problem in a friendly way, listening to their point of view.
This way, if the leader is open to accepting their mistake and resolving the issue, it's a good start and everything can be resolved with follow-up and conversation. If not, you may need to be reassigned or even dismissed.
Everything must be done ethically and responsibly, with dialog and the opportunity for change. The consequences for the professionals and the good outcome of the work must always be taken into account.
Tools to prevent bullying at work
First, apply the Integrity Test is essential for identifying inappropriate, toxic, unethical behavior that creates risks for the company and its employees.
The test has several benefits, such as
- More precise strategic, tactical, managerial and operational decisions
- Reduces turnover and keeps employees aligned with ethical conduct
- Builds an ethical organizational culture and improves the integrity of professionals
- Prevents harassment, corruption, fraud, discrimination and other risks
- A more assertive, efficient and ethical selection process
- Healthier, safer, friendlier and more inclusive working environment
In addition, the test can be applied in various essential situations, such as:
- Selection process: preventing behavioral risks as soon as they are hired;
- Periodically: to measure the organizational culture and understand the points of behavioral sensitivity that need to be developed;
- Job changes: to understand whether the new leadership, management, diligence or trust positions are prepared for the change.
