How to ward off energy vampires at work

The Halloween season is a time to celebrate goblins, ghosts, and ghouls. But when it comes to the workplace, we need to remain alert to the potential impact of “energy vampires.” Energy vampires may not be what you picture—they don’t have fangs and they aren’t out to suck your blood—but they do pose their own unique threats to the success and productivity of the workplace.

The negative impact of energy vampires on team productivity can be truly detrimental if they are not addressed. Energy vampires can show themselves in several ways, often draining the emotional wellbeing of coworkers to a point where productivity halts and business outputs suffer. Some may constantly complain to their colleagues, bring personal drama into work, require endless reassurance, ask repeat questions, fail to learn and improve, cause fights among teams, or otherwise create a negative and unpleasant work environment.

While we all have bad days where we may not bring our best self to work, energy vampires seem to bring negativity day after day, ultimately taking a toll on the rest of the team. For leaders, it can be a challenge to decipher how to appropriately navigate an energy vampire in a way that gives them the management they need and restores team morale for the rest of the organization.

Throughout my 30-plus year career in the human resources and professional development industries, I have had my own run-ins with energy vampires. I have previously managed someone with these qualities. It quickly became apparent that, without frequent check-ins and touch points, conflict would spike throughout the team. The fragility of this workplace became a challenge for everyone involved because the rise in negativity was unpredictable and at the mercy of the energy vampire’s behavior. We all needed a change. Here’s what I have learned about how to ward off energy vampires at work.

A frightful contagion

You may be wondering: How can one person’s behavior have such a strong impact on a large team, particularly if the team is high performing? The answer may surprise you. A 2016 Harvard Business Review article found that the effect of one de-energizing relationship is four to seven times greater than the effect of a positive, energizing relationship.

This is why one energy vampire, when left unaddressed, can take down an entire team.

When we look at how an energy vampire impacts the larger organization, it comes down to a decline in productivity and wellbeing. As other employees are forced to deal with this hurdle, their productivity goes down, they may begin to dread work, and, ultimately, the organization risks losing key talent. All these combined result in an overall drop in success, whether tied to outputs, talent retention, or general company culture.

When one person can cause reliable talent to leave or experience emotional distress, leadership faces a grave challenge—restoring company culture quickly, before the damage is irreversible.

When I had the energy vampire on my team, the drop in productivity was clear, and I ended up dedicating more of my time to resolving related conflicts than I would driving the company toward success. My team expressed they felt a lack of motivation and creativity and could not bring their full selves to work each day out of fear of what the toxic colleague might say or do. It was clear that much more than just one troubled employee was on the line.

A proven antidote

Luckily, the fangs of an energy vampire can be avoided by leveraging coaching skills and evidence-based tools to get the employee back on a positive course. While identifying and correcting an energy vampire’s behavior is unequivocally challenging and time-intensive, it is critical for a leader or manager to do so quickly and efficiently.

A recent study on coaching culture conducted by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and Human Capital Institute showed that coaching is quickly becoming a heavily relied upon tool to support the positive climate that organizations with integrated coaching programs have experienced. Today, 46% of managers and leaders receive coach training compared with 43% in 2019, and allocated budgets for coaching services are up by 18% since the last study.

When we consider the most harmful impacts of an energy vampire, this study further proves that adopting a coaching culture generate the most important results, including:

• Boosted employee engagement
• Increased commitment to the job
• Better employee relations
• Improved team functioning
• Growth in employee emotional intelligence
• Elevated job satisfaction

Making the workplace more ‘treat’ than ‘trick’

While leaders may feel that they are stuck between a rock and a hard place when dealing with an energy vampire, incorporating specific coaching skills can restore balance on a team and support the growth and betterment of all parties involved. This has been the case for many large, global organizations that have implemented coaching skills acquired as ICF member organizations, including AstraZeneca, Tata Consultancy Services, OQ, and TD Bank.

I found that relying on coach-driven skills such as goal setting, active listening, asking powerful questions, and giving thoughtful feedback in a leadership role allowed me to properly navigate my run-in with an energy vampire. Ultimately, she valued this approach and leveraged the lessons in her work, leading to a massive decline in drama and disagreements across my team. Not only did we avoid losing much-needed talent, but we turned the energy vampire’s trajectory around and she became a reliable and trusted team member.

With the incorporation of coaching tools, the fear induced by an energy vampire can be addressed, mitigated, and, eventually, resolved. As the workplace evolves, so do the skills that leaders must have to run a successful business effectively. Coaching skills provide one, measurable method for countering the sting of an energy vampire’s bite.

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