05.09.03 The 1st Leadership Practice for Managing Negative Gossip

Be a Role Model

In order to successfully manage negative gossip within your entity and amongst team members, you must be ready to model a behavior that does not portray, entertain or encourage that vice.

Looking at Miriam, she should have modelled a ‘non-gossiping’ behaviour to her younger brother Aaron; and by doing so, God’s harsh punishment could have been avoided.

At JuaLink, at least three supervisors could have modeled non-gossiping behaviour. Obed was a potential role model, considering that he was the head of the human resource unit and hence the custodian of the Code of Conduct. Therefore, a sizeable number of team members, Lulu inclusive, must have been looking up to him as the perfect example of outstanding conduct at the Agency; and readily copying his behaviour. Therefore, had he refrained from getting involved in the vice, Lulu and others will have followed suit.

Lulu herself was another potential role model, as most probably perceived by the prayer partners of the lunch hour fellowship that she was leading. Had she allowed God’s Word to transform her, good habits would have seeped through to those prayer partners cum mentees. And even if someone had initiated a retrenchment rumour from some place, the partners would have turned to the heavens for supernatural intervention rather than spreading such disheartening news to the rest of the workforce. To crown it all, the star performers would not have left. Thus, JuaLink would have been leading the competition as we speak!

Last but not least was the board chairman, Yubu; for not only did the board members regard him as an exemplary leader to be emulated, but all individuals at the Agency must have viewed him as a pace-setter worthy to be followed. He therefore had a critical opportunity of breeding a board that would not make decisions based on gut-feeling and other emotions but one that would be objective enough to check the authenticity of the relevant information before committing the Agency’s resources. Therefore, had he been the ‘governance guru’ that the board and the shareholders expected when electing him as their chairman, the investigation on Faraja and Neema’s integrity would never have been conducted. Not only would that have prevented the reproach and demotivation that the two women suffered, but JuaLink’s finances would have been put to better use.

To sum it all up, if JuaLink’s supervisors had endeavored to be good role models to their team members, the Agency would have successfully combated negative gossip and its effects.

Therefore, as a leader, you should never be a conduit of negative rumours unless it is for the sustainable betterment of your unit, department, organisation or entity; and even then, you must harness that gossip in a professional manner.