Leadership Series – Eliminating Gossip

One of the surefire ways to damage your reputation as a leader, or damage the success of your company, is to not get a handle on gossip.  As a leader, you are responsible for developing healthy relationships with your direct reports, your colleagues, and your clients, but unfortunately, gossip can often undermine your credibility as a person and as a leader, giving way to mistrust and a lack of respect.

The truth is that if your workplace is filled with gossip, you can almost guarantee that it’s also underperforming, for one very important reason – how gossip affects your brain.  When you practice gossip you train your brain to focus on other people’s shortcomings, which then creates the filter through which you experience life, affecting your ability to stay focused, productive and efficient.

Since gossip is often done out of fear or frustration when someone isn’t managing their emotions properly, it’s important that you are able to spot this in yourself as a leader, but also in the people you lead.  This is where the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership is key (also see Leadership Series – Feeling All Feelings)

The truth is that as a leader, it’s not your job to solve other people’s problems with each other.  Instead your role is to be able to guide them in order to help resolve their issues with others quickly and successfully.  If you’re the one participating in gossip, catch it and stop it as quickly as you can.

Gossip is like a virus that can spread throughout an organization and can do more damage than you realize.  By making the commitment to eliminate gossip, both professionally and personally, you can increase the likelihood of a more collaborative, supportive environment both at work and at home.   

Building people up, instead of knocking them down, and being an example of someone who doesn’t participate in gossip, is what good leadership is all about.  While it might be tempting to gossip with others as a way of connecting with them, it’s not worth the price you pay personally or professionally.

Great leaders teach by example – make sure you like the example you’re setting.

Let’s be honest – the world needs better leaders at work and at home.  Are you ready to become a better leader?

Source – “The 15 Commitments Of Conscious Leadership”