How do you stop gossip?

This week I was discussing exactly this with a client. I don’t mean light hearted stuff, I mean the talking about a colleague’s performance or behaviour behind their back. At best it’s damaging and left unchecked it can become toxic.

I told them the story of when I was once in a meeting with a Leader. During our meeting they took a phone call from one of their reports, who was bitterly complaining about another member of the leadership team.

He put the employee on hold, put his head in his hands and asked me what to do about it.

“Let them finish their gossiping about the person and then ask them a simple question”, I said. The question was:

“when are you going to tell them about this?”

That sorted it.

What helps even more is if your team learn to give feedback professionally, and if you attend our Leading My Team training days, we’ll show you how.