Every organization has three types of people. On one hand you have leaders who promote harmony and teamwork, and on the other you have toxic people who discourage, play politics and mislead coworkers for selfish motives. The remaining third category of people go with the tide.

It is therefore necessary to keep toxic people quarantined till you are either not able to clean them up or fire them. Here are Nine tips to consider:

1. Establish Professional Boundaries: In professional settings, there is a fine line between “being friendly” and “being a friend”. Employees develop close relationship with colleagues and share personal problems with them as a matter of daily conversation. But when there are toxic people, they use private information as a means to exploit coworker’s vulnerabilities for personal benefit.

2. Watch out for Gossip and Criticism: It is a psychological fact that those who gossip with you, will gossip about you behind your back. This holds true for toxic employees, who criticize peers in order to overcome their own insecurities and fears. Holding others in low regard gives them a kick. A poisonous work environment like this can result in high-performing employees resigning from the company.

Spot the main gossipers first and keep an eye on them. Once caught in the act, call a private meeting and show how their behavior is damaging the productivity and work culture. Warn them that they can be demoted or fired if the mischievous behavior persists. Hold a meeting with your teams from time to time to resolve such internal conflicts. This will keep gossipers from spreading false rumors.

3. Explicitly Define Work Ethics: Ethical code of a company determines its authenticity. Studies show that organizations with established code of conduct have a higher employee response to unethical practices. When work ethics are clearly mentioned, employees follow them as a rule. Toxic people find it difficult to thrive in an environment where people respect workplace ethics.

4. Beware of Psychological Manipulation: Psychological manipulation remains the most overlooked problem, be it professional or personal relationships. Only because it’s rather tricky to spot poisonous behavior in plain sight.

Manipulative employees identify psychological vulnerabilities of coworkers and control them using cunning tactics. No wonder conscientious people are their ideal targets. People are easily influenced when manipulators pretend to be working for greater good with “Company/society first” as their favorite catchphrase. This way, toxic employees win trust of honest people and exploit them for personal motives.

To control emotional abuse in the office, keep a check on manipulative behaviors from time to time. Allow employees to contact the management anonymously and to build a strong ethics reporting system. Conflicts between staff members and diminished productivity of top performing employees can be a signal that there is something wrong. Spreading awareness about social manipulation helps other people to recognize manipulators and report their behavior.

5. Don’t let Negativity Flourish: Toxic people thrive in a negative atmosphere. They want to take maximum advantage of conflicts between others for personal gain.

A hostile work environment results in more people adopting immoral behavior. It dramatically affects the productivity and profitability of the business. Make sure that your workforce is motivated and focused, there remains no room left for office politics. In an atmosphere of harmony and cooperation between employees, toxic people find it difficult to pull strings.

6. Be a helping hand, instead of a Competitor: Internal competition in organization can be nasty, especially if people have big egos. Encouraging healthy competition between employees to get the best out of them is a good exercise but it comes with its own set of issues. Internal competition can boomerang and result in organizational conflicts as some people tend to take workplace competition personally.

Promoting internal competition in organization is a passe now. Each employee has his own unique strengths and skill set. To prevent toxic behavior from permeating, unite the workforce. Show them examples of how your business competitors accomplished goals through teamwork and cooperation.

7. Utilize their Negative traits for Greater Good: Not all toxic people are essentially evil. If managed in a constructive way, their skills can be utilized for greater good of all. As a business leader, channelize their negative thinking in right direction. Inspire them to achieve targets without trying to beat others. Once they realize that they can find ways to recognition, without harmful behavior, they are likely to focus on their own capabilities instead of other people’s weaknesses.

8. Conduct Ethics and Personality Test of Professionals: Toxic employees are difficult to recognize in the beginning. But as time goes by, they show true colors. To prevent them from spoiling your staff, conduct ethics test. Pre-employment personality tests, help identify possibility of negative traits in the candidate. It helps to determine how an employee will respond to different circumstances. On that basis, you hire the right people who have integrity and reliability and are more likely to cooperate than compete.

9. Develop Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence is an ability to manage your feelings better, as well as understand other people’s emotional responses. It is an effective tool to defeat toxic people at their own game. Through developing emotional intelligence, one can understand toxic people’s reactions and hidden motives. This will help your employees to spot manipulative tricks when they encounter a toxic individual. Therefore, you should explain the importance of emotional intelligence to employees so as to improve staff efficiency and reduce workplace conflicts.

With the help of these nine tips, I’m sure you can eliminate negative behavior and improve employee well being in your organization.

