I recently facilitated a leadership seminar. The attendees were first and second line supervisors, having been in that position for up to 10 years.
We were talking about staff members being focused on the success of the team and the company, and a bell curve as a result of corporate research was presented . This research showed that 12-14% of company employees can actually have a detrimental effect on the other workers … low morale, apathetic attitude, not necessarily a team player, and an average producer at best.
Several of the attendees began speculating on why those in the lower portion of the bell curve were there …. were they in the wrong position? Were there extenuating circumstances? If the employee changed departments, would they still be in that lower portion? In other words, not only how did the employee become unproductive, but what was the root cause of why they were such ‘problem’ employees?
I had simply presented the graph and the information; some had, in their minds, interpreted the data to draw conclusions from my statement.
What are YOU interpreting and drawing conclusions from? And is that the information and the point that was presented to you?
