While food shopping the other day, I overhead one clerk say to the other, “Stop being so positive! I’m trying to be negative!” I had to smile. As clinical leaders, we all have roadblocks to positive change on our staff, chronic whiners and constant complainers who find fault with everything and everybody. If left unchecked, The Miserable Ones can poison your team by spreading negativity and undermining your authority by creating doubt in the minds of your staff. Here’s how to sidestep negativity on your team.

1 Find something to agree with them about. Finding common ground to stand on is the best way to defuse a situation. When I was the new administrator of a center, a physician complained about some staff changes I had made. The changes didn’t affect his room, mind you, but he heard through the grapevine (you know that vine — where the staff complain to the physicians?). During cases, techs routinely relieved nurses for breaks and lunches. The techs were essentially supervising the OR — making assignments and overseeing the rooms, clearly practicing outside their scope of practice. Sometimes, techs refused to count with a nurse who had a question about the count. None of this was acceptable, of course. I educated the staff regarding their scope of practice, encouraged nurses to become the leaders in their room and reinforced their responsibilities for surgical counts. Good calls, right?

As the physician stood in the doorway of my office and complained loudly, he made a point to remind me of his status in the center. I cordially thanked him and told him he would be a great resource for me in my new position. That took the wind right out of his sails. We eventually had a very good relationship.

2Find out what the issue really is. We had a habit of pitching in and helping with turnovers. One of our nurses complained about that practice and didn’t want any help. When I watched her work, she was methodical in her preparation. She always had what she needed, had good turnovers and the physicians enjoyed working with her — because she was always prepared. When we came in to help her, it threw her off. If I had to it do over, I would ask everyone to let her do ‘her thing’ and if she needed help, she would ask. That’s counterintuitive to the teamwork culture — but it worked in this situation.

Don’t let your staff ‘throw up’ on you, then leave your office feeling better — only to leave you feeling the heaviness of more problems without solutions.

3Focus on solutions, not problems. A nurse complained in a staff meeting about being scheduled for “first late” and questioned the need to schedule a team that would stay over in the event that cases go longer than expected. I didn’t have to say much, because the nurse sitting next to her asked if she had a solution. No, said the complaining nurse, to which the second nurse said, “Well, the ‘first late’ system will continue until we have a solution.” Anyone can complain. It takes thought, professionalism and critical thinking to come up with solutions. Don’t let your staff “throw up” on you, then leave your office feeling better — only to leave you feeling the heaviness of more problems without solutions.

4Don’t let the negative people steal your joy. It’s easy to get bogged down with the problems of the day. Try to compartmentalize your day. Instead of saying, “I had a bad day,” reflect back. Maybe you had a lousy 30 or so minutes in what otherwise was a pretty good day. Looking at what really happened helps to give perspective and lighten your load. After all, there’s no sense being pessimistic. It wouldn’t work anyway. OSM