Is Toxic Workplace Behaviours Undermining Your Projects?

Picture this: You are working on a project and you are immensely stressed. Your team feels like you are constantly breathing down their throat. Your goal is to deliver your project on time, so you do multiple check in with your team in a day wanting immediate responses, constant updates, and having no tolerance for mistakes. Does this sound like you? Then you maybe sabotaging your own projects. This kind of toxic workplace behaviours are not only detrimental to your team, but also to yourself.

In today’s environment, where many of us lead projects remotely, navigating the intricacies of teamwork and collaboration has become essential for success. Among the long list of goals and deadlines, toxic behaviours can creep into our workplace dynamics, hindering project progress and damaging morale. Let’s look into three particularly detrimental traits in a project environment:

Micromanagement Madness

In the realm of project management, micromanagers can be good for short-term activities, such as training new team members or controlling high-risk issues in the projects. However, if you continue this toxic workplace behaviours in the long run like Miranda Priestly in The Devil wears Prada, very soon it will wreak havoc on productivity and team morale. Various studies in Leadership & Organizational Studies found that employees who were micromanage d reported higher levels of job dissatisfaction and the micromanagers themselves suffered burnouts. Constant micromanaging on both local and remote project teams puts pressure on both you and your team. The incessant need to control every minute detail not only hampers progress but also breeds resentment among team members. Instead of fostering a collaborative environment and planning for the bigger picture, i.e., delivering a project, project managers who micromanage create an atmosphere of tension and micromanagement madness, where team members feel suffocated and undervalued.

One solution that works best is to empower your team members and nurture their trust to effectively counteract micromanagement. A study by Harvard Business Revie w suggested that empowering employees leads to increased job satisfaction and higher productivity levels. Start by defining the end goal of the project to your team, i.e., what does a successful outcome look like, what are the agreed deliverables? Create a clear picture for them to understand what their roles are in the project. Delegate tasks and clarify who the owners are for every project activity.

Delegating tasks with clear expectations and providing autonomy enables your team members to take ownership of their work. Regular check-ins should focus on progress updates and support, rather than control.

Communication Breakdown

Effective communication lies at the heart of successful project management. Yet, all too often toxic workplace behaviours lead to communication breakdowns, derailing even the most well-laid plans. Whether it is unclear instructions, lack of transparency, or poor feedback mechanisms, these communication pitfalls can lead to misunderstandings, delays, and ultimately project failure.

From my experience, establishing clear communication channels is paramount in mitigating these risks. Identifying stakeholders to understand their communication needs, and having a clear communication plan at the start of a project establishes both formal and informal communication techniques as well as sets expectations. Encouraging regular team meetings, providing clear guidelines, and leveraging collaboration tools like MS Teams, Zooms, or Slack can help bridge the gap and keep everyone aligned towards common goals. This includes setting expectations for response times and establishing regular check-in meetings. The basic idea behind this is to create an environment where team members feel comfortable using these tools, to ask questions and seek clarifications to promote transparency and reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings.

Blame Game Blues

In the high-stakes world of project management, mistakes are inevitable. However, what sets successful teams apart is their ability to own up to failures, learn from their mistakes, and move forward. Unfortunately, in a toxic work environment, one of the most common behaviours we see is finger-pointing and blame game. This often takes precedence over accountability and problem-solving. When team members are more concerned with assigning blame than finding solutions, the entire project suffers. Instead of fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement, the blame game creates a toxic cycle of negativity and defensiveness.

As project management professionals, it’s crucial that you cultivate a blame-free culture where mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities rather than personal failures. And the leadership in creating this kind of atmosphere lies with you. As a project manager, you are the lead of a project or phase that has been assigned to you. You need to take extreme accountability, which means it is not about you, but about the results and your commitment to achieving them because others are depending on you.

You need to foster a culture of accountability and collaboration, so everyone is clear. Encouraging open dialogue, constructive feedback, and collective problem-solving shifts the focus from assigning blame to finding solutions. Celebrating successes as a team and acknowledging individual contributions promotes a sense of ownership and collective responsibility for project outcomes.

In conclusion, toxic workplace behaviours such as micromanagement, communication breakdowns, and the blame game can have detrimental effects on workplace dynamics and project outcomes. Make sure you recognise these behaviours and implement proactive solutions early on to ensure you foster healthier, more productive work environments where teams can thrive and you deliver successful project outcomes.

Is Toxic Workplace Behaviours Undermining Your Projects?