Beat The Bully

A few years ago at a large high school in Nova Scotia, Canada, a freshman decided to attend classes wearing a pink shirt.

As he was walking down a school hallway, the school bully threw him to the ground, kicked him a few times, and warned him never to wear a pink shirt to school again.

Two junior boys slid down next to their embarrassed, injured, and scared peer.  They asked him an odd question:  "Would you please wear that shirt again tomorrow?"

The freshman thought they were nuts, but they assured him that he would be safe.  The two juniors then spent most of their remaining day rallying other students through social media to wear pink the next day.

The following day over 1,370 of 1,500 students showed up wearing pink to make a huge declaration that there would be no more bullying at their school.

Steve Carter tells the story in more detail as part of his superb December 29 teaching at Willow Creek. 

MY POINT:  Some of your employees are bullies.  They do not want to change their bad habits.  They may even pick on other employees.    

Bullies are bullies because they were bullied.  Most of the time employees who are performing at a low level are not aware of it or do not care.

THE SOLUTION:  Create an environment where your employees motivate themselves to change for the better.

Consider the wisdom of the ancient verse of Proverb 9:7:

Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;  whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.

In the story above the two juniors did not physically engage the bully.  They wisely avoided direct confrontation.  Instead they overwhelmed him with an environment that motivated him to change on his own.

This is often the work we do with our Clients.  If you would like to discuss your specific employee or company culture issues, then email me.  

Stop letting your bullies negatively affect your bottom line.

Be a Systematic Leader because inconsistency hurts.