We spend too much of our lives at work to settle for misery. Staying in an unhealthy work environment long term will damage your health & steal you happiness. Don’t stay a day longer in a toxic environment you KNOW will never change. Most environments CAN change if leaderships changes as many don’t know they are demotivating your team.
Through helping hundred of companies, I’ve noticed 4 reasons some workplaces are negative cultures, many of which might surprise you. If leaders eliminate these issues, morale improves and their organizations profit. Take action to eliminate each one.
4 Ways You’re Demotivating Your Team
1. Conflict Avoidance
There’s often and “elephant in the room”. Get everything on the table and deal with it. Don’t wait! Frequently there are unaddressed underlying issues because team members and leadership fear sharing concerns openly. Additionally, leadership does little to nothing when a team member has skill deficiencies. Your team will quickly lose trust in you as a leader you’re passive and afraid to face reality.
Solutions:
Make it safe to have conflict. Hold people accountable for performance. Enforce a “No Gossip Policy“. Encourage team members to address issues directly with those involved. Deal with incompetence swiftly through training, reseating, or termination.
2. Lack of Trust
Can you rely on your team and can they rely on you? Untrustworthiness is always demotivating. Trust is built over time through trustworthy behavior. Misrepresentation, exaggeration, not following through, and a lack of transparency erodes trust. If you mess up and forget to do something you committed to do as a leader – apologize. People will forgive you if. you own your behavior, but lose trust in you if you don’t. Saying “I was wrong, no excuses” when you misbehave as a leader (e.g. anger outburst, etc.) will give your team faith in you. The little things matter.
Solutions:
Be trustworthy. Follow through with what you say you will do. Promptly own mistakes. Create opportunities for connection through celebrating employee life events, encouraging conversation, and engaging fun Ice-Breakers.
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” -Ernest Hemingway
3. Procrastination
You’re discouraging your team by not taking action. Behind procrastination is fear. Fear of failure and fear of the rejection. All procrastinators have, at their core, perfectionistic tendencies and at some level have the negative core belief of “If I can’t do it at a really high level, I won’t do it all”. They use procrastination to avoid engaging and solving the most important tasks and problems. All successful people must overcome this negative core belief to learn and grow.
Solutions:
Let go of perfectionism, trust your instincts, and make decisions. Make choices and make mistakes keeping your head high. Encourage employees to take risks and make mistakes. Set goals and move forward. Address the fear behind your indecision.
“Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It’s the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
4. Lack of Clarity
Ambiguity causes anxiety! Don’t be unclear. Over-communicate on the essentials like values, purpose, mission, goals, vision, expectations, roles, and deadlines. Share stories with. your team regarding employees and customers living out the core values of the organization. Post and share company short term goals over and over again. What you focus the most you will move towards. Share about the company history frequently. Don’t assume that people in your organization understand these essential company aspects.
Solutions:
Revisit, highlight, post, and creatively communicate the essentials. People forget unless reminded.
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How Decide Your Legacy Can Help – Contact Us
- Have a Legacy Coach take you through the Strong Career Assessment. You’ll learn about jobs that fit you best and gain invaluable insight.
- Have a Decide Your Legacy legacy coach take your team through the DISC personality assessment. It’s a blast going learning about each other.
| A tool that addresses all 4 of these issues is a DISC Personality Assessment. Understand the personality style of others on your team. Decide Your Legacy has certified Extended DISC coaches that can help. |
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Question: Which of these have you experienced? Explain.
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