It is crucial to get senior executives involved in projects; often, their role is limited to authorizing a project, approving funding, and, if all goes well, taking credit when you’re done. But they also have to buy-in to the concept or change that is going on. Without that senior level engagement, any initiative is virtually doomed to failure.

What does passive aggression look like? It is the person who says, “Oh I’m fine,” while seething on the inside; it is the “friend” who gives you a box of chocolates when you’re on a diet; it is the employee who says, “Sure, I’ll get that done!” and then “forgets.” It is the person who demeans or degrades you but adds a quick, “Just joking!” Dr. Lorna Benjamin of the University of Utah’s Neuropsychiatric Institute, says that passive aggressive people “are full of unacknowledged contradiction, of angry kindness, compliant defiance, covert assertiveness.” They are hurricanes of negativity that kill projects and programs faster and more effectively than anything else.

There are the exceptional people who work 18 hour days, make time to meet with team members, and perform incredibly well for the duration of the project (and after!) – and then there’s these people. They sit on the sidelines, second guessing what everyone else is doing and generally making life miserable – often with a smile on their faces. You might see people: