#Bullying is a term that gets thrown around many workplaces a lot. If you have any pride in your #leadership, you need to know how to recognise it before it becomes a systemic part of your #culture. You also need to know what it actually is so that you, and your team, don’t start throwing the term around unnecessarily. What is bullying? #Bullying is when someone exerts physical, emotional or positional power over someone else in order to force them to do something they do not want to do. The problem is plenty of people do not want to do plenty of things, so how do you distinguish between what’s bullying and what’s just reasonable requests? Unfortunately, many people have trouble here. Here are few examples of common confusions that I’ve come across. The preface to all of these is that it assumes you are not shouting, swearing, using verbal abuse in any way or physically intimidating people. They are however transferrable to either boss or employee. So here we go… What isn’t bullying? It isn’t repeatedly asking people to do their job in a timely and proficient manner despite them saying they are busy with other things – It isn’t calmly repeating yourself. It isn’t expressing dissatisfaction with someone’s performance and requesting they repeat the task again – It isn’t being unhappy with someone’s effort. It isn’t asking someone why they have not done what they said they would do, and therefore indicating they have let you down – It isn’t expressing you feel let down by someone. It isn’t refusing to do something for an employee if they have not convinced you of the veracity and efficacy of their idea, no matter how passionate they are about it – It isn’t saying no, when all they want to hear is yes. It isn’t challenging someone for more discussion, investigation or exploration when on the surface the deal doesn’t smell right to you, but they are telling you it’s right for them – It isn’t challenging someone’s sense of what’s a good deal. It isn’t standing with your hands on your hips or arms folded when you’re contemplating what someone is saying whilst they are desperately trying to convince you – it isn’t standing your ground in an assertive but non-aggressive manner.