Managers who tolerate bullying behavior directed at themselves or a worker unknowingly sets their team up for divisiveness and strife. Let a bully loose and everyone suffers. This person forces people to choose sides by making every issue a fight or targeting one or more persons to become the brunt of their aggressive behavior. They send out a subtle message to team members that they must choose sides (the bully’s side), or suffer the brunt of his/her harassment.

Every potential bully will test the waters in a new environment and when the behavior is not immediately stopped, the aggressor is crowned “King (Queen) Bully”. A leader will lose the respect and loyalty of subordinates because, when there is a bully on the loose, people are more afraid of him than any consequences that will come from above. Make no mistake! When this type of aggressive behavior goes unchecked the perpetrator, rather than the boss, is in charge.

Recently an Executive Leader with a bullying employee, when told this dynamic, adamantly stated that the bully has no power. Employees disagreed stating that they are held hostage by either having to appear to condone the behavior or, if they address it, the bully blows up and the whole team is pulled into a meeting. While the boss views the bully as having no power, she actually can monopolize hours a week by creating crisis and forcing meetings that, otherwise, would not be necessary,

In a bully-laden workplace, the stress level is elevated. Some will quietly stand by while another gets harassed. Others will join forces with the bully to keep attention off them, making it even worse for the intended victim. The longer it is allowed, the stronger his influence becomes. In some cases, leaders who feel threatened by high functioning employees allow bullying to go on against the person. This is a passive-aggressive attempt to keep him or her off balance.

Tolerating bullying behavior often backfires. Many times I have seen a bully, after gaining alliance with fellow employees, turn on leadership and, with the momentum of the group, have actually been successful at getting the manager fired or demoted. One reason workers align for this purpose is in hopes that a new leader will see the behavior and put a stop to it.

No matter how you look at it, bullying at work does nothing more than pull employees away from intended goals and create another whole new purpose; that of watching one’s own back. In a bully laden workplace, good people are much more likely to do bad things and chaos will reign. Disallow the bullying or, terminate the king, and workers will breath a sigh of relief. Good people will go back to doing good things, and the production line will fire right up. The results will be increased productivity and, most likely, higher profits.