Focus on Your “Little Foxes”
Do you have employees who spread negative influence within the organization? Are you experiencing employee behaviors that do not encourage others, but plant seeds of discouragement instead? You may have “little foxes” in your midst. These are folks who may say they’re on board with servant leadership, but in reality, they work to undermine the culture changes you’re trying to implement.
As Art Barter and his leadership team changed the culture of Datron World Communications from a power model of leadership to a servant-led model, they found a number of these little foxes within the organization. For the most part, these folks aren’t even aware of their negative behavior; they’re just used to operating in a power-driven environment.
As a result of Datron’s experiences, the Servant Leadership Institute created a workshop built around this situation. Our goal is to help leaders identify the little foxes and provide tools and tips that can be used to address their behavior.
Here are some questions to consider as you determine your best course of action to deal with your little foxes:
Is this just a bad day or is the unacceptable behavior commonplace? Is this a one-time event or a continuous problem?
Are you getting the same consistent feedback from people who are affected by this behavior?
Does it seem to be a competency issue or a character issue?
Do you believe the person has the capacity to change?
We always want to give the person the opportunity to change, so our workshop outlines the steps necessary to confront the behavior and give constructive feedback.