Rumors at work can be surprisingly destructive. Rumors undermine the confidence of an organization, both within and without; encourage infighting, backbiting, and other HR department fever dreams; deep six morale; make strategic hiring like extracting wisdom teeth; scare off would-be investors; and tank stock prices. What start as whispers can build to whirlwind force.<\/p>\n
Because of these outsized effects, leaders are often tempted to treat rumors like word grenades and view those chucking them like the enemy. And in the case of persistent, malicious gossips, they are probably right to take direct action.<\/p>\n
But in the vast majority of cases, it behooves leaders to take a step back and ask a really important question of their own leadership first: Why are these damaging rumors spreading?<\/p>\n
The first thing to remember is that people will talk about changes brewing at work. It\u2019s our nature. One reason people spread rumors is that there\u2019s a lack of information available about what is to happen. So they fill that vacuum with speculation, which builds on itself in an unhealthy way.<\/p>\n\t\t