Late last year, Marshall Goldsmith reported on a study that found a majority of employees spend 10 or more hours each month complaining — or listening to others complain. Furthermore, the study finds that almost 30% of your employees will engage in the practice of complaining for around 20 hours per month. That’s half a week each month.
So, say your company has 1000 employees, then at the rates described in the study, your business will have absorbed around 72,000 hours of unproductive time each year. Even at a conservative rate of $100 per hour, that leaves your business with a $7 million deficit each and every year. What can you do about this?
Marshall Goldsmith suggests working with your direct reports, colleagues and peers and encouraging them to ask four simple questions before publicly making comment:
- Will this comment help our company?
- Will this comment help our customers?
- Will this comment help the person that I am talking to?
- Will this comment help the person that I am talking about?
And while this is a great starting point, I would go further. I would suggest that the person who is making the complaint needs to make a mental pivot and begin to redefine the problem that is at the heart of the situation. After all, no-one wants to live in comfortable misery.
However, leaders can also address this situation and have a clear impact on the productivity (and the bottom line) of their business unit. The secret (which is no secret), is to encourage a combination of listening and action. Complaints, when not addressed, tend to fester in your organization — sometimes even a simple acknowledgment of a problem can see it disappear altogether. Take hold of the issue by the horns — run through the four questions above; if warranted ask the hard questions, deal with the answers and move on. Encourage your executives to do the same. But if you take no action, you certainly will have something to complain about!
Nina Nets It Out: Most organizations mask a culture of complaint that has a real cost to your business. Leaders need to set an agenda that can focus their teams, colleagues and peers around delivering value. Start with a “mental pivot.”
Nina
Straight away in going through what you have outlined two statements come to mind:
1. Misery loves company.
2. In a team what doesnt get said usually gets worse.
Nina:
very interesting facts and stats shared by you in this post. Bill has also pointed out 2 great points. The organization that i am associated with is actually scheduled to do a free talk show with Dr. Marshall Goldsmith. Any one can ask questions. Telecon will be live and any one can register Free of cost at http://www.learnfrommylife.com/MarshallGoldsmith . Please do not consider this as spam. Commenting is one way we can promote this event and hope your Blog readers get a great opportunity to interact with Dr. Marshall directly.
Every one is Invited!!!!
Bill,
Thanks for your comments. How true they are. And while misery may love company, no misery is loved by all!! Regarding your second point, as I like to say, if one person is thinking it, it’s highly likely that others are too….so put it out there and deal with it for the overall good of the company! In fact, there is a communication concept called “foreground-background communication” that I will write about in a future entry which deals a bit with that dynamic.
Meetu,
I appreciate you making readers of my blog aware of Marshall Goldsmith’s appearance on your show. I for one greatly benefit from his writings on the Harvard discussion blogs and encourage readers to listen in!
Nina,
Same with me and many of my colleagues have been benefited from teachings of Dr. Marshall. The fact that these are experiential sets it apart. Another source just in case many do not know, almost all of Dr. Marshall’s material is available on his website absolutely free of cost for people to download. check here http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/html/marshall/resources.html
Meetu,
Thanks for this link. I encourage those interested in leadership writing to check it out.
Fine commentary, Nina. Exerting responsibility for self is essential to leadership. And thanks for your kind comments.
Thanks Nina. I look forward to your insight to foreground-background communication.
I think one of the key concepts to effective teamwork is the quality of the communication.
If everyone in the team realises that team members are saying things for the benefit of the team as opposed to vested self interest then there is a greater level of preparedness to pusue difficult topics and to openly discuss them.
Hey Bill,
I have just posted the background-foreground piece here:
http://ninasimosko.com/blog/2008/07/18/background-foreground-communication/
I personally find this concept/approach quite useful and hope you enjoy it as well.
Hey John,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. If leaders can’t own up to their responsibility, how can they expect those around them to do so?