The Enlightened Manager

Eight Steps for Workplace Confrontations

One of the challenging things about working in a team environment is that there are times when people behave in ways that we find unproductive, offensive, or hurtful.  When we ignore these feelings the relationship can suffer as our resentment festers.  Yet fear at confronting others can prevent us from taking positive action.  Today's post contains a checklist you can use to determine if a confrontation is appropriate, and if so, how to move forward.

Step One:  Ask yourself if the "problem" is a pattern or simply a one-time issue.  Sometimes we see the people around us behaving poorly in a repetitive way.   Sometimes the behavior is a surprise.  If the situation you wish to confront someone on is a one-time thing, not a pattern, ask yourself if a confrontation is really necessary.  We all have bad days.  Don't make a mountain out of a molehill.

Step Two:  If you have determined you want to move ahead, ask yourself what your reasoning is.  Are you confronting the person because your feelings are hurt?  Because you are concerned about them?  Because you are concerned about the customer?  Chances are you may have multiple motivations.  But take the time to get crystal clear about your own motives.  Sometimes we "say" that we are confronting someone because we are worried about the project, or the customer, but it is really about our own feelings.  Step up and own your own motives.

Step Three:  Take a good look at your own assumptions about WHY the person acted the way they did.  You may assume that the person behaved out of line because they were lazy, or didn't pay attention, or were not careful enough.  You may assume they were just clueless.   Whatever you assume, just take that judgment and set it to one side.  Your assumptions and judgments are not going to do anyone any good.  Suspend them.  Be prepared to enter the confrontation without assuming you knew the person's intentions or motives.  Be prepared to offer the benefit of the doubt - at first.

Step Four:  Determine if the confrontation is something you can do solo, or if you need the support of a manager or a trusted advisor.  If you're afraid you're going to flub it - talk it through with another person first.  Make sure that the person you are "talking it through" with is not the person's peer or subordinate. 

Step Five: Figure out what your goal is for the confrontation.  Do you want them to change their behavior?  Fix a problem?  Offer a solution?  Be clear about what you want.  Wanting "to be told that I am right and they are wrong" is not a valid reason to confront someone.

Step Six:   Script it out.  Before you have the conversation, make a few notes about what words you plan to use.  I recommend the following format.

NAME, I have something I want to talk to you about.

1) This is what I observed.

2) This is how it made me feel.

3) This is the outcome I would like.

4) What do you think?

For example: A coworker who has been not taking on a fair share of the work in a team.

"Janet, I have something I want to talk to you about.  I've noticed that over the last few weeks that I've been processing thirty accounts per day and you've been processing about ten.  I'm feeling a little stressed and overworked, and I am hoping that we can find a way to balance our work loads more evenly.  Do you have any suggestions?"

Notice, this is a lot better than a typical approach which might be:

"Janet, I'm tired of pulling all the weight around here.  If you're not going to do your fair share then I'm just going to to talk to our boss."

or even avoiding the issue like this:

"Mark, I am so mad at Janet.  She never does her share of the work.  She's always on the phone, and our boss doesn't do anything about it!  Janet is such a slacker?

Step Seven: Plan your timing.  Once you've scripted out your talk, find an appropriate time and place to talk to the person.  A private location during a non-busy time is a good rule of thumb.  Don't ambush someone in the middle of a project deadline or begin the conversation around witnesses. 

Step Eight:  Approach the issue as a "problem we can solve together."  By treating the confrontation as a request for help, you are not jumping to conclusions, putting people on the defensive, or causing harm to the relationship.  Even when you suspect that the problem is due to laziness or bad performance, suspending those inferences can help you move towards resolution.

Eight tips for a successful confrontation.  At first this may seem like a lot of work, but ultimately this kind of communication will build trust and enable issues to be resolved without unnecessary hurt or anger. 

Do you have any tips for confrontations in the office?  Leave a comment and share your wisdom with the rest of us.

A Blog Reader Challenge: Crazy Coworker Stories

I really enjoy reading the emails and comments I get from people around the world who read this blog.  And so I was thinking to myself, it might be fun to try out a blog challenge or contest.  So I'm extending this invitation to you.  It's the "Crazy Coworker Story" challenge.

Stories will be reviewed by myself and a small panel of HR/Business leaders, and the winners will receive a fun and funky prize delivered by US mail. There will be a winner for each of two categories: Best/Most Bizarre Story and Best Solution.

Here are the criteria for submitting your story:

* Submit your story by email by April 20, 2008
* 650 words or less
* The names of people and companies will be changed to maintain privacy. (You may also be anonymous if you choose.)
* Your story must describe a conflict.
* For the second category (optional), include a brief description of how you resolved the conflict.
* Winners will be notified by email.

I reserve the right to edit your story for length and anonymity. (A libel suit wouldn't be fun for anyone.) Winner(s) and honorable mentions will be posted on the Enlightened Manager Blog and in the April E-News.

The free toolkit in the March E-News will focus on Career Development discussions with employees.  If you haven't subscribed to the E-News yet and you'd like to, the form is on the sidebar.

Lessons from a Tyrant: Reframing the Value of Difficult People

If I asked you today to write a thank you card to the two or three people who have most significantly influenced your career or professional development, I bet that you'd think back to a beloved mentor or leader who made a difference in your life.  Certainly those people are deserving of our gratitude, but they probably are not the only ones.

As leaders, where are our greatest sources of learning?  For me, one of the biggest sources has been the difficult people I've worked with.  In fact (although this seems contrary) I could even go so far as to say I've learned more from the bad examples in my life than the good ones.

Difficult people provide us with gifts in disguise.  They give us examples of how *not* to behave certainly,  but they also teach us about our own responses to conflict, frustration, and roadblocks.  They force us to measure our words carefully, to choose our battles, and to learn to find areas of common ground with people that we don't agree with.  They teach us that staying true to our integrity and our values can sometimes come at a cost, and they force us to examine if we are willing to pay it.

These gifts can only benefit us if we unwrap them.  It's one thing to have a strong response to a difficult person, and another thing to ask yourself what that response has taught you.  By reflecting on our experiences, we can learn from them.

Writing this post has brought back a lot of memories for me, and I'll share just a few of them here.

I once worked with a woman who drove me "batsh*t crazy" (this is a technical term) on a regular basis.  She expected everyone else to jump at her smallest command but managed to evaporate like rain whenever teamwork was called for.  I couldn't afford to have a poor relationship with this person, and so I taught myself a neat trick that I'll share with you.  I decided that I was going to play a "game" called "Miranda (not her real name) will never have a clue how much I dislike her."   She would be difficult, and I would smile and listen and be as pleasant as I could be.   Then in my office I would smirk a little, because I was winning "the game."   The funny thing was, that after a few months of pretending to like her, I actually did like her more.  She still frustrated me, but my anger had melted away.

I supported a manager once who loved to call me and talk about how "stupid" his employees were.  I think he knew this offended me, but he persisted nonetheless.  Around this same time, I learned about a Buddhist meditation practice called Tonglen which is about expanding your circle of compassion.  After practicing Tonglen and including this manager in the meditation, I found a spark of humanity in him and was no longer offended by his unfortunate behavior - although I still witnessed it.  After letting go of my hard feelings towards him, I was in a better position to provide him with feedback on his communication style.

One time, I supported a leader who intimidated the snot out of me.  This experience taught me a great deal about how leaders can inadvertently squash feedback in organizations, and about the role that courage and respect play in presenting difficult feedback to people in authority positions.  If this leader hadn't been scary and difficult, this lesson would have passed me by.

I don't doubt you have stories like these as well.  If you do, send a bit of mental thanks to all of those difficult people you've worked with in your life.  You may not want to send them a thank you card inscribed "Thanks for being a Jerk - it made me learn and grow!" but gratitude is always appropriate when due.

And remember, if someone is pushing your buttons - you may as well take advantage of the opportunity to learn how you are wired.

Trust in the Workplace part II: Manager vs. Manager

Today's post will discuss another aspect of trust - how trust can help or hinder the relationships between managers at work.  Often when we talk about trust at work, we think about the employee-employer issues, and it is true that this is where many trust problems manifest.  But trust between manager and employee is not the only place trust can go awry.  Sometimes it is more subtle than that.

Let's take the case of Dave (a real person, but this is not his real name).  Dave is an executive within a large services organization, and during a meeting his HR leader (we'll call her Mary) came up to him and said that she had identified a problem within his management group.  Mary said to Dave,  "There are a few managers in this organization who are not doing a very good job at communicating performance issues to their employees.  As a result, I believe we're seeing some excess turnover that we can help these managers curb.  I think there is an opportunity to help our management team get better at performance management - and I'd like to offer a class to them this fall."

Dave replied by saying "Tell me which managers are the problem."  Mary, taken aback by this, refused to say.  She was frustrated that Dave didn't hear her message, which was about the need for training. She didn't trust him to not go yell at the managers in question - and she didn't think that yelling was appropriate.  (Dave had a reputation for yelling at his reports)

Dave was frustrated that Mary wouldn't give him the data he wanted on his own team.  He felt that HR was "stonewalling" him and acting as a "barrier" to his management duties.  The conversation turned into an argument, with both managers feeling righteous and angry.

So what happened here?

1. Mary didn't trust Dave to make good management decisions based upon the data about his team.  Therefore she offered him her own "solution" to the issue but refused to share the data she had with him.   

2. Dave didn't trust Mary's "solution" to the problem and wanted to handle it his own way.  He saw her refusal to share the data as an insult to his managerial authority.

The lack of trust on both sides of this equation resulted in the further erosion of that professional relationship.  Each person didn't trust the other - and acted in accordance with that belief - and therefore the trust continued to erode on both sides.   

Let's look at this situation from Mary's perspective starting from the beginning.  Let's say that you are an HR leader who has some suggestions for improvement for an executive.  Let's also say that you are concerned that this executive will use this information to go and verbally chastise people - and that you find that kind of communication abhorrent.  What might you do?

I'd suggest that a good question to start with is "How can I help this manager get a good outcome for the situation?" and a bad question to start with is "How can I protect these managers from the big bad exec?"  Sharing the information the executive requested (the names of the managers who need improvement) is a small way to build trust.  Refusing to share it is a sure way to kill trust.

Does this mean that Mary should have just handed over the names and let things lie?  Not necessarily.  When asked for the names she could have replied along the lines of "Sure, I'll get you the names. Why don't I put some data together for you and we can spend a few minutes going over it.  I'd like to be as helpful as I can at helping resolve the issue."  She could have also taken a more direct approach and said "Dave, I'll give you the names if you want them.  But frankly I'm worried that if you go yell at these people they'll be less likely to approach me for help in the future.  I'd like to maintain their trust - let's talk about a way to get them on track that doesn't harm their relationship with me."

In this scenario, Mary is not a barrier to information, she is a source of it and a resource for ideas.  She can't force her executive to choose the solution she wants, but she can gradually build up trust so that the next time something like this happens the executive is more likely to start from a perspective of wanting suggestions versus wanting a hit list.

A few pointers for handling mistrust between peer managers.
1. Don't withhold information as a way of blocking the other person.  This is doubly true when the data relates to people that person is responsible for.  You'll simply make things worse.
2. Be clear about your motivators. "I'm hesitant to share this information because I'm worried that...."  If you are honest you'll come across as someone who has a perspective and a plan, not someone who is being irrational.
3. Focus on good outcomes, not winning.  Remember that when it comes to peer relationships good outcomes are based on collaboration, not on being the winner.

Do you have any pointers to add to the list? Post a comment or send an email. 

Taming the Savage Beast: Dealing with Negativity at Work

Have you ever worked with one of those people who are so unfailingly negative that they tend to suck all of the life out of a room?  The person who has an objection to every idea, a snide comment for every cheerful effort, or a sour expression to spoil every conversation?  When you work with someone who is extremely negative, it can be like a cancer in your team, eating away at everyone's engagement until the whole group is infected with negative thoughts.  You do have the power to shrink that negativity down and reclaim your team.  That is what today's post is about.

Is your workplace suffering from too much negativity?  Here are a few signs to look for:

Every idea is met with a reason why it won't work - "They tried that at Acme company and it didn't do any good - why should we waste our time?"

Sarcasm is seen as an acceptable response to business communication - "Thanks Einstein, we couldn't have done that one without you."

The flow of new ideas has slowed down or stopped entirely.  "Why should I keep putting myself out there when I know I'm just going to get shot down?"

People present problems without solutions.  "The accounting system is broken; deal with it."

Formerly positive employees are gradually turning quiet or negative.  "Jane used to be so full of energy, now she never even speaks up in meetings.  I wonder what is going on?"

When one person goes negative, others jump on the bandwagon.  "Yeah, John's right!  This isn't going to work!"

People agree on an action publicly, but then trash it privately and take no action.  "I'll smile and nod, but there is no way this is going to work."

Negativity arises from a sense of hopelessness or powerlessness.  Sometimes people go negative because they simply believe that the world is a hopeless or powerless place.  Sometimes it is because they are jaded - having failed in the past they are not willing to put any stock in a hopeful future.  And as terrible as it is, sometimes people are negative for the sheer joy of causing a ruckus in other people.  They whisper doubt and frustration into the ears of anyone who will listen, and then sit back and look at the results with a kind of sick pleasure. 

What can you do to combat negativity?

1.  If you can identify the ringleader - find a way to get them out of your organization.  No, don't fire them illegally or anything, but my opinion is firm in that if someone is going to keep undermining the effectiveness of your team - they need to go.   Removing one of these "team poisoners" can rapidly restore the health of a team.  Think of it like excising a tumor.  It's for the greater good of your team.

2.  Create an environment where problems are always presented with solutions.  Whenever a problem is presented, respond with a friendly "And how are we going to handle it?"  People don't need to have all the answers, but they should be bringing solutions forward and thinking about them - not just complaining.  Tell your team "Don't just bring me problems - bring me a problem with a proposed solution."

3.  Call people on their crap.  "I can't help but notice you seem pretty unhappy to be here.  If you're that unhappy perhaps there is a better place for you to work.   Why come to work every day and be miserable?  I certainly wouldn't wish that on anyone!"  - use this one with caution but it can be an effective way to jolt people out of a funk or get them to move on.  Keep your tone light and non-threatening.

4. Don't get sucked into the drama. If you have a group that just won't get out of a funk - tell them that you are relying on them to come up with three viable solutions to the problem they are complaining about.  Tell them that they have an hour (or a week) to get the ideas to you and then hold them to it. Walk out of the room and let them deal with it. Gradually people will learn that chronic negativity results in more work and that they're responsible for self-managing the problems.

5. Don't go Negative!  The biggest impact you can have on negativity is to respond to it in a way which is both proactive and positive.  Can you call people on their crap without being negative? Sure!  Just keep your tone light and your focus on the future.  Think of positive and negative approaches as being like two magnetic forces.  By keeping your positive approach strong and visible, you'll attract people to your end of the spectrum.  In other words, you can't fight negativity with negativity.

I hope these tips help you keep the beast of negativity at bay in your work team.  Do you have an idea or a story to share about combating negativity? If so, send me an email or leave a comment on the blog.

Your Boss is Not Your Dad: How Family of Origin Influences us at Work

Today's post starts with a story.  My first job after college was working as an executive recruiter in the technology industry. During this time I shared an office with a talented female recruiter who I'll call Aubry.  (Not her real name.)  One day, our boss, a blindingly talented man who occasionally drove us nuts, said something that frustrated Aubry.  She shot him this frustrated look and blurted out not our boss's name, but instead: "Dad!"   

Of course when she realized her mistake she was a little embarrassed.  But I mention this story not to embarrass an old friend (I've seen others do this exact same thing) but to point out that the way we relate to people at work is often unconsciously driven by the way we related to our parents when we were children.

It's not as strange as it sounds.  Most of us grow up in an environment where we are subordinate to the authority of our parents.  How we related to that authority, and how our parents related to us, has a great deal to do with our unconscious responses to authority in the workplace.  It can show up most startlingly when it comes to conflict.  Think back.  Did your parents argue openly with each other in front of you, or did they always keep a calm demeanor?  This may influence how you feel when you witness arguments at work.  (To some, arguing is good debate.  To others, it is the coming of an apocalypse.)  To put it even more bluntly, if your Dad always raised his voice before he smacked you, your boss raising his voice may bring all those feelings back - albeit subconsciously.  The patterns from our past can give us clues to the responses we have today.

Why even analyze these things?  To better understand ourselves, our patterns, and why we behave the ways we do.  Once we know *why* we respond a certain way to authority, we can then make a conscious choice to keep responding that way or not.  Self-understanding leads to choices.  Choices give us power over our own lives.  I don't know about you, but I think power over my own life is a decidedly positive thing.

This post is a personal one for me, because in my career I found myself very influenced by my family of origin.  In my family of origin, the consequences for "talking back" or "questioning the authority figure" were swift and severe. This was doubly true if you were a female. Flying under the radar was a good way to stay out of trouble.  So what happened when I began working for a strong leader with a highly directive style?  I went passive.  I was fearful to make suggestions for improvement, and I felt oppressed.  I blamed the leader (internally at least) for being closed to feedback.

Eventually, I realized that the issues I had with that leader were as much my own as they were anything else.  My boss was not my Dad and I was a grown woman, but having those "old" feelings evoked in me at work was a problem.  Not only did they hamper my confidence, they made me less effective in my job and made me rather miserable at the same time.

To make this even more complicated, everyone you work with is also influenced by their own families.  We are all like walking conglomerations of history and emotion, each of us subject in some way to the patterns of our past.  While this adds to the complexity of psychology at work, it can also give us some compassion for our peers.  We all come to life with a certain amount of baggage, both positive and negative.  Most of us don't even realize we carry it. 

Some time, over a cup of tea or a glass of wine, take a few moments to think about your relationship to authority in your family of origin.  Think about your parents and siblings.  What happened when you spoke up?  Were you rewarded?  Punished? Ignored?  How did your family react to conflict?  Once you've opened your baggage and checked it out, feel free to throw out any of the items that no longer serve you.

Then go back to your life with a few more choices in hand!

PS: If the things you find in your past disturb you, or if you feel like you are being limited by those experiences, consider hiring a licensed therapist to help you talk through it.  Talking to a therapist does not mean you are weak, crazy, or incapable.  It can be a great way to improve your quality of life and your work.  It never hurts to check it out. 

Reference:  This post was influenced by the wonderful teaching I received from Patricia Vivian, M.A. at Antioch University Seattle.

Venting, Whining, and Ranting: Dealing with Frustration at Work

Today I'd like to poke a little bit at the idea that "venting" is a healthy workplace behavior.  Most of us have "vented" to a coworker from time to time - and I'm certainly no exception.   When frustrations rise and there seems to be no sanctioned place to release them, pulling a friend at work aside and waxing eloquent on the (perceived) stupidity of the latest management fad can release some of the pressure.  But is it productive over the long term?

I've observed in my employee relations work that whenever morale is low and employee behavior is on the fritz, there tends to be a lot of "venting" going on.  People take out their frustrations by whining, complaining, or even making rude comments about other people. 

On the one hand, it is easy to wonder what is at all wrong with this kind of behavior.  I know personally that when I'm feeling down, talking to a trusted friend about my feelings can be the best way to move on.  There is something soothing about self-disclosure.  That is why so many conversations between good friends begin with the statement "I just need to bitch for a few minutes."  or "I need to get this off my chest."

"Off my chest."  - Our frustrations can weigh heavily on us.  Unrelieved, they can impact our productivity, our happiness, even our health.  So what is wrong with whining, venting, or ranting?

Here are some problems with these behaviors:

They reduce productivity and morale.   When we whine at work, we are not working.  Even beyond this, it is possible to create a culture of frustration in an organization.  When "venting" becomes a widely accepted form of communication, it can multiply - further reducing productive time and negatively impacting morale.

They don't result in positive change.   When we rant to a coworker about a topic of frustration, the rant usually doesn't involve any way of reducing the source of that frustration.  We feel temporary release, but the underlying causes don't change.  In short, energy spent on whining is usually wasted energy.

They damage relationships.  Whining, venting, and ranting often involve personal attacks on people inside our organizations.  It would be foolish to believe that we can call that annoying coworker a "mental midget" (for example) in the course of a rant, and then expect those kinds of statements to go unnoticed.  When relationships at work are damaged, we become less effective in our teams.  Trust goes down, and we spent more time assessing each other's motives than we do making positive strides forward.

If whining, ranting and venting are harmful, how can we manage our teams to reduce those behaviors?

Walk the Talk   Setting a good example starts with refusing to engage in these behaviors yourself.  If you need a friend to listen to you vent about work, find a friend who is unconnected to your job.  Keep it isolated.  Additionally, if you are with someone and they begin to vent, remove yourself from the situation.  Don't be a complacent partner.

Enhance Communication Skills   If ranting, whining, and venting are *not* good ways to create positive action, what is?  A good way to address the frustrations at work is to teach your employees how to communicate clearly and honestly about their needs.  This can be achieved by creating a team culture where effective communication behaviors including productive feedback methods have been adopted.

Assess the Situation   If you are in a situation where whining seems out of control, a good technique is to "clear the air" by collecting employee opinions in an open and systematic way.  Telling employees to "stop whining" isn't usually effective.  Telling them that you'll be asking them what needs to be better and then acting on that feedback removes any justification they may feel for whining or complaining.  A satisfaction survey, listening campaign, or series of focus groups are all options for getting this started.

Your goal, should you choose to accept it, is to create a culture within your team where if someone begins to whine that the other team members respond with a version of the following: "So, if that is bugging you - what are you going to do about it?  Make a recommendation for fixing it or be quiet, but in any case I'm not going to listen to you gripe when I have work do to!"

It takes time, but creating this kind of culture is very possible.  Many organizations already have it.  As a process, it might go:

1. Walk the Talk - clear up your own behavior first.
2. Clear the Air - if things are bad, address the major issues now.
3. Build Communication Skills - give your team the tools to succeed.
4. Monitor and continue to model good behavior.

Helping teams create this kind of culture is one of my favorite aspects of my consulting practice.  If you'd like to read more about my approach - click here.

Enlightened Homework:  If you're working on "Walking the Talk" - take some baby steps this week.  Make a commitment to not talk about other people when they are not in the room.  Note where you usually "vent" at work, and think about how you can start to extract yourself from those conversations.  At the end of the week, make some notes about what this was like, and what you noticed.

Two Levels of Conflict Management

Have you looked at conflict management as an organizational competency?  I think that communications skills and conflict management are wrapped up together like hair in a braid.  Some people think that unless you have people at each other's throats there is no reason to think about conflict management.

Sure, if you have people yelling at each other in the hallways or fistfights breaking out or general snarkiness in the office you may have a conflict problem.  But there is actually a different way to look at conflict management.

1) Conflict Management at an Individual/Team level.  When I work with groups on conflict management training, we usually start at a small level.  In this kind of learning, each person learns what their individual conflict style is, what the conflict styles of their peers are, and how to work together in that context.   We can also look at conflict styles at a higher level such as "For someone who uses style X, what benefits do they get from that style?  What does a person with that style need from others?"  By understanding the full spectrum of ways to manage conflict in communication, teams can operate with greater understanding of each other and also begin to adapt their own styles for greater results.

2)  Conflict Management at an organizational/structural level.   When the individual development work has been completed, the managers/leads on those teams can move into looking at conflict management from a systems perspective.   This is not about individual style, it is instead about looking at the organizational conflict systems and assessing gaps, looking at strengths, and understanding the costs/benefits associated with each system.  A Grievance Process is an example of a "Conflict System."

Conflict management is not terribly difficult to develop as a competency.  Most people enjoy the individual assessments and the practical nature of the material is immediately applicable.  Unfortunately most organizations don't embrace conflict management as a competency - thinking that unless "dramatic fights" are happening there is no need.

So Enlightened Manager - does your team have competency in conflict management? 

Bad Apples?

Most of us have experienced a "bad apple" in the workplace.  They are that person who exhibits behaviors that are so negative that they can hurt the morale and productivity of the people around them.  However I've often been called in to what is referred to as "a bunch of bad apples" in an organization.  Here is some food for thought:

If more than 25% of your employees are bad apples,  it's time to start looking at what is wrong with the tree.

Have you ever worked in a place that fired the "ringleader" that was causing trouble in the group only to find three or five or six months later there was a new ringleader?   This is not an uncommon scenario, and it quickly becomes apparent that firing people is not going to solve the problem.  This is the "the firings will continue until morale improves" approach and folks - it just doesn't work.

Here are some questions to ask if you find yourself in this particular situation:

• What are the patterns I see in employee performance?  Which problems arise over and over?  Was there a change that happened around the time when these problems started?
• What factors are contributing to those problems?  How are the behaviors leading to those problems being reinforced by the team, the management staff, myself, other departments, or the organization as a whole?
• How long have these behaviors been in play?  How deeply ingrained are they in our team culture?
• Are there any policies or procedures that contribute to the problem?  Are there any other groups experiencing similar issues?  What do those groups have to say?
• Is the group aware of the problems and what is causing them?  Is there motivation for change?
• When I ask employees why these problems exist, what do they have to say?

When bad behavior is rampant and recurrent within a group, there are probably root causes of that behavior.  Before you jump into action, it's your job to find out what is behind it all.   And don't be surprised if what you uncover is that there are larger organization-wide issues driving your particular set of problems.

Sometimes an Employee Satisfaction Survey can be a good starting place for diagnosing root causes of systemic problems.  A survey can also give you context for opening a dialogue with the team about the problems and get them engaged in helping to solve them.

Trust me, if the whole tree is suffering from bug-rot you'll need all the help you can get.  If the issues are more contained - a smaller intervention may work.