Managers and leaders who are overly negative and critical in the name of facing reality alienate their employees and customers, close down honest and open dialogue in their organizations and foster cynical, hopeless and lifeless cultures. Ignoring the positive while focusing only on the negative can be a form of management malpractice. But management malpractice will never be stopped if that’s all we expect from the managers and leaders of our organizations. The danger in focusing only on the negative while neglecting the positive lies in never envisioning the possibility of greater change, improvement, learning, breakthrough, progress, fulfillment, or happiness.

The attitude that managers and leaders in organizations will always malpractice management and will never improve is far too negative to produce change and improvement. Some say that the best way to overcome a bad habit is to face up to all the ugly effects and consequences caused by the bad habit. Good advice. But applying such advice requires contemplating, envisioning and planning life after the bad habit is eliminated. Focusing on the positive as a means to overcoming the negative is not bad, misguided, or evil, it’s a vital part of the human development process. Use it to your advantage.

Here’s some even better advice from William James, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind . . . The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” We can overcome management malpractice in our organizations and rise to new levels of trust, cooperation, fulfillment, happiness and success in our workplaces.

The potential danger in focusing only on the positive while minimizing the negative lies in never understanding the core of the problem, difficulty, trouble, dilemma, obstacle, threat, menace, crisis, predicament, confusion, unrest or turmoil. Managers and leaders who are overanxious and overreaching in they efforts to contain or curtail the discussion of legitimate concerns, criticisms and disagreements in the name of emphasizing positivism and eliminating negativity risk closing down honest and open communication, alienating their employees and customers, and fostering an authoritarian, control-obsessed culture. Ignoring the negative while emphasizing only the positive can be a form of management malpractice.

Management malpractice, like other pesky problems and menacing obstacles, doesn’t go away by itself or through only the positive reinforcement of praiseworthy or well-practiced management. The only way to get rid of management malpractice is to see it, expose it and prevent it – which requires a lot of serious focus on removing the negative as a means to accelerating and expanding the positive. Some say that the best way to overcome a bad habit is to form a new one in its place. Good advice. But applying such advice still requires seeing the bad habit, admitting that it is a bad habit that should be overcome and then forming a new habit(s) to take its place. Focusing on the negative as a means to expanding the positive is not bad, misguided, or evil, it’s a vital part of the human development process. Use it to your advantage.

Here’s some even better advice from Thomas Edison, “I never quit until I get what I’m after. Negative results are just what I’m after. They are just as valuable to me as positive results . . . I can never find the things that work best until I know the things that don’t work.” We all malpractice management from time to time, but we need to see our malpractices as things that don’t work, expose them as malpractices that produce negative results and then prevent future malpractices by avoiding the things that don’t work.

Craig Hickman is the author or coauthor of a dozen books on business and management, among them such bestsellers as Creating Excellence; The Strategy Game; Mind of a Manager, Soul of a Leader; and The Oz Principle. After receiving his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, he worked in the areas of strategic planning, organizational design, and mergers and acquisitions for Dart Industries and Ernst & Young. In 1985, he founded Management Perspectives Group, a consulting and training firm that helped companies implement the business strategy, corporate culture, and organizational change principles set forth in Creating Excellence and Mind of a Manager, Soul of a Leader. His clients have included: Proctor & Gamble, American Express, Unilever, AT&T, PepsiCo, Honeywell, Amoco, Nokia, and the U.S. government. He has lectured throughout the world for the U.S. State Department as part of its American Participant Program and is currently CEO of Headwaters Technology Innovation Group, a subsidiary of Headwaters Incorporated (NYSE: HW).

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