How Negative People Destroy Your Career, Team, and Company

Your success depends on loyal people

Negative people will suck the life out of your team.

Leaders work to make their teams happy. Experienced leaders know that they can do nothing without happy people. They laser focus on their team’s happiness because they know that people do all the work. They invest every ounce of their being into improving the lives of their teams.

Corporate America reeks of deception and betrayal, so your success hinges on you building a following. It’s a war zone where negative attitudes take the shape of landmines. You need a ride-or-die team to combat negative people. If you leave negative people unchecked, they’ll eat you alive and spit out the bones.

Leadership is a lonely existence. You wake up in the middle of the night wondering what someone said about you. You spring out of bed to check email, expecting impending doom. You chase conversations hoping to get insight on what will happen next.

Colleagues talk behind your back and out of two sides of their mouths.

The truth is, if this is you, negative people are winning. It’s easier said than done, but negative people must go.

In an already high-stress environment, you need help. You need a team loyal to the cause — a team of believers.

Experienced leaders depend on loyalty not only to them but to the vision of the business. No matter your position, you can’t win alone.

Success requires good people who you can trust, but how can you tell the fakers from the trustworthy? How do you root out the negative people who poison your culture?

Here’s my two cents.

Negative People Destroy Your Reputation

“A hater gon’ hate.”

I’ve seen so-called trusted confidants destroy cultures with their words. They share your secrets with others. They take jabs at your leadership decisions through innuendo. Like a moth to a light, they can’t help but spread negativity. On the surface, they seem like nice people, but they’re haters whose smiles disguise dissent.

Naysayers slither around the company spreading half-truths for their own gain. They pretend they’re on your side, all the while hiding their true intentions. Their forked tongues compromise not only you, but your team.

Negative people pick and poke at minor things, making mountains molehills. When they don’t know, they guess. When you have success, they say “yes, but.”

Combatting negative people is a group effort.

As a leader, your reputation depends on your disciples, helping you promote positivity. Your flock must defend the culture and put haters in their place. Together you must dispel myths because negative people will make shit up. They’ll misinform others pretending to be in your corner. Their goal is to have others join their misery.

Your success depends on the attitudes and behaviors of your team. How people behave has a lot to do with how they feel.

To succeed, your team must lock arms and support each other. They must be loyal and drive towards a common goal. Whether they know it or not, negative people bring the entire team down. People don’t want to be around them and aren’t willing to feel vulnerable in their presence. No one wants to be around a hater who sucks the life out of everyone’s hard work.

To protect your culture, the hatin’ must stop. There’s a big and thriving job market. Let the haters exit your company and go somewhere else.

Focusing on people who are loyal to you and the vision makes the most sense. Studies show that you want to find people that are already aligned. Once you find them, pour into them and make sure they’re happy. In return, you will get loyal people capable of taking your team to the next level.

Gossipers Talk Behind Your Back

“Watch out for the joy-stealers: gossip, criticism, complaining, fault finding, and a negative, judgmental attitude.” ~ Joyce Meyer

“Gossip is when you have a malice of intent or mindless, third-party conversation to someone about someone, something you haven’t said to that someone.” ~ Iyanla Vanzant

Gossip can take down the mightiest of company cultures. Pessimistic, apathetic outlooks demoralize the people who are trying to do their best. Your hard workers and believers want to enjoy their work and make a difference. If you let gossip spread, your loyal team members can start to doubt the mission and vision before long.

Loyal people will help you look out for the gossipers. They’ll hear the disgruntled whispers and tell you. They’ll help you battle the complaining because they know whiners will never be happy.

Your faithful employees will help you plan and combat poisonous rhetoric. They know that simple words can sew the seeds of doubt and stifle progress. Your close confidants will help you root out negativity at the stem. They will not only share what they hear about you, but they’ll act as a counterbalance.

Being a leader is hard, and you need all the help you can get. I’ve learned to focus on the people who want a better existence — those trying to make a difference.

Here’s the thing: You must spend time making sure that negative words don’t infect your dedicated team members.

“Words have no wings but they can fly a thousand miles. “~ Korean Proverb

Negative People Don’t Value The People Around Them

Your worst nightmare as a leader is someone who doesn’t understand the value of loyalty. These are the people that start every sentence with “I.” They flat-out don’t care about their team.

As a leader, your culture is your company air — it’s everything. Disloyal negative people don’t care. They fail to understand that they hurt the people around them.

Disloyal people put themselves first. They justify betrayals to protect their own interests. They find faults in everything and are never happy. They are loyal to what you give them and nothing else.

To build your squad of loyalists, it pays to be diligent and find people who believe. You have to pour your heart and soul into to people who get it. Spend time advancing their careers. Know what’s going on in their lives.

The most precious investment you can make is in other people. Spending time with disloyal people is fruitless. The more time you spend on them, the less time you have for those putting their hearts into the company.

Genuine effort toward others is your best bet. If you are in leadership, your role is to provide for those that work for you. Your obligation is to make them better through inspiration.

Beware Of Pretenders

One of the hardest things to do is work with nice people who aren’t down for the cause. These pretenders look you in the face and tell you what you want to hear. They buy time and collect a check.

Pretenders play the game. They are mercenaries hanging around until they find their next gig. It may seem these types aren’t hurting you, but they aren’t helping.

The way I see it is they’re occupying a space of a productive, positive person. It’s tempting to fall for the Okie Doke and try and convert them, but such efforts waste business cycles. You can’t afford to focus your energy on negative energy. Not only does your company suffer, but these charlatans have a way of slowing everyone down.

While this may sound bleak, good leaders have to focus on creating something to be loyal to. Simon Sinek maintains that people buy the why and not the what: part of leadership is explaining the why.

Negative people suck, but you must give people something to be positive about in the final analysis. This means you must inspire. It also means that you have to pay attention when hiring. And when you find the secret sauce in a person, dive in, invest, and make them happy.