While Working with Fortune 100 companies as a trusted advisor, I have witnessed the ways in which a toxic, egocentric, executive parades around the conference room attempting to lead while ignoring the cost of self-absorbed outbursts and intentional rudeness. I have sat through meetings where the “big boss” storms into the room,staring down perceived rivals and mistakenly imagines that they are respected and securely in charge. Wrong!

 

These are bullies, not leaders.

 

The Workplace Bullying Institute 2014 National Survey defined workplace bullying as repeated mistreatment, work sabotage, verbal abuse, or conduct that is threatening, humiliating, or intimidating.

 

People Who are treated poorly do not fully show up at work which significantly impacts profit.

 

The mistreated or humiliated try to protect themselves with the armor of a mediocre performance – days packed with incessant meetings, busyness, reorganizations and skirting the negative culture to just get by and avoid harm. As a matter of fact, a study conducted on workplace absenteeism in Italy stated that abusive work environments cost companies money through absentia. It demonstrated that workers exposed to bullying reported higher absenteeism from illness as compared to those not exposed to bullies when both groups experienced a highly stressful work situation.

 

Bullying And rudeness inevitably lead people to choose to be somewhere else either mentally or physically, which impacts their ability to further your company’s goals – not only because they play hooky, but because navigating a highly stressful environment increases the probability of severe illness. Forbes reported in 2013 that 77%of people who missed work that year did so due to illness. This cost the businesses they worked for a total of $84 billion in lost productivity.

 

At VAST, we refer to the ethical treatment of human capital as Conscious Commerce.This enlightened business strategy requires trust, respect and mutual benefit in conducting all transactions. When people are treated with respect, they are more likely to deliver the last 5% of ingenuity with a dedication that money cannot buy. If you are ready to encourage that last 5%, then join us to practice Conscious Commerce and please subscribe to the VAST newsletter to enjoy more insights on this topic.

 

Trustworthiness Pays. People who do not trust each other play a very different game than the professionals who do. Trust creates the soil for synergy, amplifying your results. It also taps into a different portion of your brain, the one capable of expanded problem solving. For this reason, how you treat people changes the quality of work delivered and subsequent profits. Doing your job as a leader, manager and teammate includes ethical and emotionally intelligent treatment of the people in your circle. This demands a new type of leadership for all of us, one that includes awareness, maturity and kindness.We call it socially intelligent leadership. In the long run, it pays to have a reputation for treating people well.