Elaine Fortier

Do you work with someone who constantly complains, gossips, rants, whines, back stabs, and predicts the worst-case outcome time after time? Are you that person? While it may feel good for a moment to join in on bashing your company, its leadership, or the injustice of the recent reduction in force, negative energy ultimately sucks everything and everyone into a black hole - that psychic spiral that's hard to pull out of. Worse, the negative talk, and this extends to IM, email and voicemail as well, brands you as a management challenge.

Here are three ways you can garner a favorable brand and leave a positive lasting impression on your company's leaders. You can (1) show your support for management's decisions, (2) make yourself easy to work with, and (3) be an uplifting influence as a leader.

Show Your Support for Management's Decisions.  Make no mistake about what goes on behind closed doors when leaders make their decisions about who to keep and who to release during a lay-off. Yes, companies execute lay-offs for business-driven reasons, and unless you are a top executive, those factors are outside of your span of control. However, when it comes down to a decision between two people in a job category with redundancies that need to be eliminated, the person less likely to be let go is the one who supports management's decisions and expresses confidence in the future of the company. It is, however, a perfect opportunity to get rid of the pain-in-the-ass employee. This is when the complainer, the detractor and the gossip meet their fate.

Make Yourself Easy to Work With.  As women, we have been consistently coached to stand our ground, advocate for our rightful pay raise or promotion, and set boundaries when we feel we're being taken advantage of. When we do this with political finesse in a robust employment market, it usually works out to our advantage. However, when employers are shaving costs and cutting heads, your best move is to make yourself easy to work with and willing to compromise. Several years ago we watched a colleague seal her fate when her boss asked her to take on some of the less desirable duties of a recently laid-off coworker, and she replied, "I really prefer not to go back to that type of work." Her boss didn't push the issue or try to persuade her; instead, he let her go on with her preferred work and then quietly laid her off during the next round of reductions.

Be an Uplifting Influence as a Leader. To be the employee your manager fights to keep, not only must you exercise the discipline of keeping away from negative talk, demonstrate your flexibility, you need to be a positive voice for change. During down times, this is the time to find what's right with the company and talk it up. Be an uplifting influence as a leader, and choose your messages carefully. It's your job to show the way and inspire your team. Your boss will turn to you for relief and results, and you will find yourself creating a following of people who are looking for a positive path forward and ways to restore their faith in the future.

Follow these guidelines and leadership will likely see you on their side. Couple this with timely, high-quality value add that makes you indispensible and a personal brand that stands out, and you might just be employed for a long, long time.

(c) 2008 Elaine Fortier.  Elaine Fortier is the Director of Non-Technical Recruiting for Yahoo! She has been in leadership development for over 20 years.