Effective leadership is vital to stopping and preventing workplace bullying. It takes a highly trained and committed person to intervene successfully in an environment where there is workplace aggression and where it festers. A common misconception is that leadership training is all a person needs to adequately deal with this complex issue. (This is like the popular belief that certain professions, such as social work, naturally lend themselves to conflict resolution or communication skills. I have written about this before indicating that this is in fact untrue.) This myth that you just need leadership training only allows bully culture to continue and to flourish.
There are a lots of great leadership workshops that are available for professionals. So, if this were true that training on leadership sufficiently addressed this problem, there should not be as many agencies plagued with workplace aggression. Leadership training is very important, but it does not adequately address the complexity that is bully culture. This is because many trainers themselves are not educated on this issue. Nor do they fully understand how ingrained bullying is in workplace culture and how ineffective leadership is when trying to manage it.
Leaders need to have education and training specifically on workplace bullying. This allows them to develop a clear understanding of workplace aggression, the effects, and the multi-level interventions necessary to stop it. Leaders also need skill development. It takes a specific skill set to manage and stop bully culture. Fortunately, these skills can all be taught to leaders who truly want
to end bully culture.
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