Mood hoovers can be very damaging to the morale and effectiveness of an organisation. Many people will have worked with them in the past without realising they have a name…

Mood hoovers are individuals that bring negativity and a host of other bad traits to your team. They suck the mood out of others and can contribute to poor morale, low performance, a toxic blame culture, mistrust, and a lack of cooperation across a team. Mood hoovers can have a significant effect on your workforce as they drag other people down with them.

Everybody has bad days, or even bad periods, but mood hoovers are easily identifiable by their continued lack of enthusiasm, motivation and positivity. With that in mind, how do you spot a mood hoover?

One of the overriding characteristics of a mood hoover is that they are emotionally draining and exhausting to be around, and to interact with. They may also show some or all of the following:

They moan. Legitimate grievances or concerns are fine, but mood hoovers constantly moan to whoever will listen. They moan about working conditions, their workload, fellow team members, management, computer systems, customers, suppliers. Anybody or anything.

This sucks other people into their world of negativity and cultivates an atmosphere of dissatisfaction within an organisation, regardless of whether it is justified or not.

They blame others. A mood hoover won’t accept responsibility for their own failures and may try to blame someone or something else for missed deadlines, poor performance or conflicts.

Naturally, if they’re unable to take responsibility then that means that somebody else must. This breeds resentment and ill-feeling between staff and by preventing members of your team working effectively together, will ultimately lead to decreased performance across the entire team.

They’re always the victim. As a natural consequence to blaming others, they become the victim. If a mood hoover is unable to blame somebody else for their failure, you’ll notice they quickly pivot to pointing out the unreasonable behaviour or actions of another as an excuse. Again leading to divisions and conflict within a team. You may also notice that mood hoovers are overly dramatic and make mountains out of mole hills.

They’re unmotivated, unwilling and uncaring. Mood hoovers can affect your organisation with a lack of motivation, attention to detail, and a lack of care about the consequences. These negative traits can easily transfer to others, especially if people see them getting away with it.

It’s important to remember that mood hoovers are not necessarily bad people, and they may not show all of these traits at once, but if you start spotting these on a regular basis within your organisation then you may need to act.

There are several strategies to deal with mood hoovers and here at Brightstone we passionately believe that with the right business coaching and support, everyone can be worked with to become valued and effective members of any organisation. Here are some methods to try:

Avoid them. While we believe that no problem is insurmountable, we also understand that it is impossible for every member of your organisation to get on and sometimes compromises must be made.

By avoiding or limiting you or your team’s contact with a mood hoover, you can lessen the impact of their actions on yourself and others.

Counteract them. Challenge their behaviour calmly but surely. Be the ying to their yang, the Pepsi to their Coke, or the Blur to their Oasis. If they are negative, be positive. If they say something can’t be done, ask them how it can be. If they ask why, ask them why not? If they complain about their job, ask them why they don’t find something more suitable.

Encouraging self reflection and honesty may help them understand how they are perceived to others and they may make positive changes on their own.

Talk to them. As a manager, take them aside and discuss their problems and behaviour. You’ll be able to ascertain whether their grievances are legitimate or not, and provided they are willing to grow, you can work with them to change their behaviour. You may even find they’re unaware of their actions. People who are willing to change will benefit the most from dedicated coaching from Brightstone.

Be a mood radiator. One of the best ways to ensure other members of your organisation don’t get drawn into the mood hoover’s orbit is by being a beacon of positivity, motivation and action.

As a manager, make a vision for your department. Outline your goals and your strategy, then make it clear you need everyone’s buy in. Live these values yourself and you’ll see other members of staff will follow your lead, cancelling out the mood hoover’s negativity, or bringing it to the surface so you can deal with it directly. It also sends a clear message that there can be no weak links in your organisation.

Don’t become one. Without wishing to sound like a spiritual guru, the slope to becoming a mood hoover is a slippery one. It is very easy to become annoyed with them and react to their negativity with some of your own. Before you know it, you’re on the same road as them and it can be hard to turn off. Remain positive, remain focussed and concentrate on the people on your team who deliver positivity.

If you need assistance in creating a positive work environment within your organisation then Richard and the team at Brightstone can help with your business coaching, team building and management training requirements. Contact us and let us help you today.