INSTANT MBA: Negative Attitude Spreads Throughout A Company Fast

Today's advice comes from Steve Stoute, CEO of Translation LLC via The New York Times:

"You have to set a belief system in your organization. Once you do that, if you have people who have not bought into the philosophy, you need to identify them and move them out quickly. It’s to their benefit and your benefit. If you ask most executives, they know within the first 30 or 60 days if a person is going to work out, but it takes them seven months to a year to get them out of the organization. That’s a waste of time."

Stoute says you need to figure out from the get-go which employees fit in with your company's culture, and which ones don't. The longer you keep someone who isn't happy working at your company, the more problems you will face. Stoute says no matter how tough it may seem, it's better for you and the person involved to just let them go. If you don't, Stoute argues that their negative attitude will catch on like a cold and spread throughout the company.

"I think that it’s very important, no matter how big you get, to have checks and balances to know when somebody has not bought into the culture, because at some point in your organization, something is going to backfire and something’s not going to get done because somebody’s not paying attention... And here’s the biggest problem: Bad behavior is contagious. And once that starts hitting a company, no matter how big you are, no matter how small you are, that will start the demise of a great organization."

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