Russell Bell: True leadership required to put an end to workplace bullying

Bullying is encountered in the workplace as much as in everyday life. Photo / File

OPINION:
From time to time find myself auditing things like expenditure and my son's spending of leisure time on the Playstation, for example.

On that theme, I recently audited my Facebook page just to see if there were trends in my postings. It appears that there are a few. Firstly, I post a lot about our eccentric cat Max whose life mission appears to be asserting dominance over our family (he makes "grumpy cat" look well adjusted). Secondly, I post about music and more specifically posts about our band Vinyl are commonplace. Thirdly I have tended to post frequently where I see fairness and equity being compromised.

Which leads me to something I posted a few weeks ago which stood out in the "audit" – I was speaking out against bullying, and the forms it takes.

Bullying has probably been around since the dawn of time but - in terms of value, relationships, and outcomes – it adds absolutely nothing to any relationship. It is not without irony that, as I write this, Facebook themselves have been engaging in some over the Tasman relating to a policy decision around media.

You might find bullying in the workplace as much as in everyday life. No one has put an economic price on bullying but, if it were to be calculated, it would probably be in the billions of dollars. At some point we will all have experienced it in one form or another from good natured ribbing which comes with "office banter" through to full on threatening situations. The office/workplace bully employs many tactics to get satisfaction and feed their destructive personal agenda(s).

And therein lies the game – it is individualism, rather than team-based and, frankly, there is no place for it in organisations which are trying to achieve goals effectively.

I am not a psychologist so my analysis of causation will stop here, but if you are aware of such behaviours or even just have a "gut feel" it is important that you find an expert to assist your management of these situations. Rather than diving into "culture" or "team building" workshops – where invariably your bully types will "play the game" and go straight back to their destructive behaviours once the consultant has left the building - I would suggest exploring "restorative" practices or working with peers who have successfully managed these situations before.

Of course, at a governance level, the tone at the top is crucial. This is where true leadership is required. It is becoming more evident that organisations need to further balance skillsets and experience with balanced people. Interviews at the senior level need to be much more about what type of person you are putting into a leadership role as well as experience and ability.

So, what should you be looking out for? Outright overt bullying is easier to spot than the more destructive "wolf in sheep's clothing" passive aggressive type. But also listen to what staff tell you about behaviours and have an open and unbiased line of communication so destructive behaviour can be identified and dealt with – and protect the whistle-blower. Recently I have been writing whistle-blower policies for organisations to enable negative behaviours to be more easily detected and effectively managed.

Bullies are out there – we need to do our best not to enable them. In that way we are more likely to have productive and happy teams and businesses.