Rumors are the fastest way to destroy trust and culture, not to mention your team’s morale, productivity, longevity—the list goes on and on.

Managers who stick their head in the sand in the hopes that the rumor will die a natural death are in for a rude awakening.

The only way to deal with rumors is head on and publicly.

Call your group together, state the rumor and tell them the truth. If something in the rumor response is confidential level with them and explain why it is.

For example, if there is a layoff rumor it’s either true or false. If true, admit it and explain as much as possible. If you can identify specifics—when, which departments, who, etc.,—and be honest! Or tell them when you don’t have information or that you can’t share it.

People aren’t stupid, if you say there is no layoff coming and it happens two days later they will know you lied and lies cast a long shadow. People will understand that you can’t give details, but lies are something else.

The only way to deal with the rumor mongers is privately and only if you are positive that you have the right person.

If you are sure start by asking why they said what they said.

You may find that it was innocent and actually started in another group or department. In that case make them feel safe in coming to you first if they hear something in the future.

If they deny it and you are still absolutely sure thank them and then watch them like a hawk. If they are real rumor mongers they do it for kicks; thinking they got away with it usually makes them careless and you will catch them the next time.

You need proof to act and that may take time, but the more confident they are the easier it is to catch them; just remember to document everything.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/

Today is the story of why it is better to ask than assume and how a so-called follower can lead. It all started with Denis’ post December 31 describing what was happening in his company.

“I do not trust the developers I work with to do the right thing,… I used to be able to trust people in the team to correct me and help me get better … Work is a lot less enjoyable when that trust is gone.”

Denis is a reader and we’ve gotten to know each other over the last year, so I asked what happened.

“Let me see management changed, over committed failed to motivate people. The more experienced and talented members of the team left which provided less structure and safe guards. Now as we know unmotivated people don’t give their best. They do just enough to satisfy their management.”

I asked for more details and our conversation moved to email over the next week and have Denis’ permission to share them.

Over the next week three were additional management changes and Denis didn’t sound hopeful about how things were likely to work out. There was a 9% company-wide staff reduction; Denis and three other people became the basis for a new team and its management was taken over by the group that was actually funding the project.

“My impression is that the manager who we report into now was forced to take our project by his business sponsors. The manager himself has a decent reputation though and is in the process of hiring someone to put between him and us.”

Regarding the culture,

“The company thinks of it has a consensus culture. In reality it is a company that works on loyalty networks and temporary alliances among peers.”

As you may have guessed, none of this was exactly a moral booster; in fact, you might call it management by rumor with the assumptions generally falling on the negative side.

Typically, when stuff like this is happening, people’s reaction is to hunker down and polish their resumes, but, in spite of his assumptions, Denis took a chance with a more direct approach that yielded extremely positive results.

“The meeting was triggered by an email I sent expressing interest in him explaining his vision and how we fit in it. I was requesting a one on one but he made the meeting for the whole team. He took 1h 45 minutes of his time to talk when 1h was planned. And he mentioned we will do a social event for the whole group so we get to meet everyone.

So far he is the most competent manager I have met in this company. My direct manager has not joined the group yet but I hear good things about him so there is hope.”

We’ll never know what would have happened if Denis hadn’t sent the email; if the manager is as good as he seems to be he probably would have done the same thing, but maybe not quite as soon and likely with much more damage.

There are at least three important lessons to be learned

• Management must become as competent at communicating bad news as it is at communicating good.

• Remember that the result of no communications is a rumor-ravaged workforce and that once started rumors never go away.

• There are better ways for workers to handle difficult situations than to hunker down or just sit and wait; they can take the initiative and ask for information; most managers will appreciate the request.

What else can be learned from this?

Your comments—priceless

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