There’s a lot of buzz these days about improving employee engagement.
But if you think about it, when someone joins your company, they’re already highly engaged. They’re excited to be there, they want to prove themselves, and they want to make a difference.
Therefore, as a leader, we don’t need to worry as much about how to engage people as much as how to keep people from becoming disengaged!
As the old saying goes, “People don’t quit companies, they quit bosses.”
Therefore, the question is, “why does disengagement occur?”
Disengagement most often occurs because a leader does or says things that cause people to become disillusioned and less engaged.
Typically, disengagement occurs when leaders:
- Tolerate bad behavior (or behave badly themselves)
- Treat people like “things”
- Treat adults like children
- Don’t treat people with respect
- Lack integrity
- Take people for granted
Here are the leading causes of disengagement and what leaders can do about it.
- Tolerating Bad Behavior
A company’s culture has a significant impact on attracting and retaining good employees, boosting engagement, and achieving a strong bottom line. Most people think that a company’s culture is defined by the values and behaviors a company aspires to. That sounds great and makes sense. Except it’s not true…
A company’s culture is defined by the values and behaviors the company tolerates.
And who does that tolerating? The leaders do. The values and behaviors that the leaders tolerate become the company’s culture. But it doesn’t end there. It gets worse. When a leader professes to value a behavior but acts in a manner at odds with it, it demonstrates a lack of integrity. And when a leader is seen to lack integrity, people stop trusting and lose respect for that leader. And when people lose trust and respect for a leader, they become disengaged.
- Treating People Like Things
When we interact with people without compassion, empathy, or understanding, we’re relating to them as things. And the consequence of treating people like things is that you’ll get compliance, but not commitment.
When a leader treats people like things, it sends the message that they are unimportant. When the company tolerates leaders who don’t care about people, people tend not to care about the company or the leaders. And when people don’t care, they become disengaged.
What does “treating people like things” look like? It’s when a leader is insensitive to people and interacts with them as if they have no feelings. A leader treats people like things when he or she ignores the fact that everyone has hopes and dreams and fears and stress. And leaders treat people like things when they don’t show respect for people or value their contributions, efforts, and potential.
A good leader understands that people’s hopes, dreams, fears, and stresses are real and matter to them. A good leader inspires people. A good leader interacts with people as people, helping them to be their best. A good leader has empathy. A good leader relates to people the way they themselves want to be treated. And a good leader helps people achieve their own goals.
- Treating Adults Like Children
How does a leader “treat adults like children”? Why would a leader treat an adult like a child? The most prevalent reason stems from the flawed perspective that if people aren’t told what to do, they will do the least amount of work possible, doing just enough to keep their job.
When a leader doesn’t trust people to do what needs to be done, and doesn’t trust their judgment, they are treating them as if they are children. When they micromanage people, they are treating them like children. It shows a lack of respect and trust. And when people feel they aren’t respected and trusted, they lose respect for the leader. When people feel they aren’t respected and valued, they become disengaged.
If someone doesn’t know what to do, then our job as a leader is to develop their knowledge and abilities. The shortcoming lies with the leader, not the follower. If someone lacks the necessary judgment for a task or decision, then our job as a leader is to develop their judgment. If their judgment remains inadequate, then either we aren’t as competent a leader as we need to be, or we just have the wrong person on our team. Either way, resorting to treating someone as a child is a poor course of action.
- Not Treating People with Respect
The impact of showing respect is powerful, but not nearly as powerful as what happens when a leader does not show respect for others. When a leader doesn’t respect people, they lose respect for the leader. And when people feel they’re not respected, they become disengaged.
People feel they’re not respected when they’re spoken to in a manner that either minimizes them or makes them feel that they and their ideas are being dismissed.
We show respect to people when we give them our full attention. It demonstrates that we care about their ideas and concerns, and that we feel that what they have to say is valuable. People usually feel they have good ideas and have something to contribute. Whether we agree with them or not, soliciting input from others demonstrates that we value them and their ideas, and that goes towards earning their respect. The most effective means of showing respect for others is asking good questions of people and then listening to their answers. If their ideas are misguided, it gives us the insights we need to help coach and mentor them.
- Not Having Integrity
A leader who lacks integrity has a difficult time influencing and inspiring people. People assess us by our words and actions over time. A leader earns trust by how he or she acts in everyday situations. A leader’s words and actions will carry more weight and have greater impact if they’ve earned the trust (and respect) of others in advance.
Acting with integrity means doing what you say you’re going to do. Committing to a deadline creates an opportunity to demonstrate your integrity. Regardless of the importance of the task, fulfilling your commitment on time cements your level of integrity in the minds of others. Only when you have consistently demonstrated that you are a person of your word can solid trust be established. When you don’t do what you say you’re going to do, people become disengaged.
Acting in integrity is slightly different than acting with integrity. It’s about how we conduct ourselves in relation to the values we claim matter to us. Acting in integrity means that if we say that treating others with respect matters, we are always respectful of others – regardless of the situation or the person’s position. Acting in integrity means that if we say that honesty matters to us, we are honest – regardless of the situation. If you say that work/life balance matters, then you go out of your way to strike that balance – not only for yourself, but for the people you lead. When we act at odds with the values we say matter to us, people become disengaged.
- Taking People for Granted
In order to bring out the best in people, they need to feel valued. A leader must show appreciation for their efforts and recognize them for their accomplishments. Being taken for granted is disheartening and demotivating. And when people feel unappreciated, they become disengaged.
Some leaders adopt the attitude that people are paid to do a job and therefore the payment of a salary is sufficient appreciation and recognition for their work. And while it’s true that people have an obligation to do good work in exchange for fair pay, people are still people. They have emotions, pride, fears, self-esteem, and a desire to please.
Having one’s effort taken for granted can be disheartening. If a leader wants people to do and be their best, it’s important to demonstrate that he or she values them. There is a difference between appreciation and recognition, and the distinction is important to understand. Recognition is offered to acknowledge a person’s achievement and is usually done publicly. Appreciation on the other hand, is offered for someone’s effort.
Most people want to be appreciated for their efforts more so than for their accomplishments. Appreciation is generally personal, heartfelt, and given privately from one person to another. It is an expression of gratitude for someone’s effort. Its impact is immediate and long-lasting. Telling someone you appreciate their effort in completing a project over the weekend has a far greater impact on engagement than offering a token of recognition for the end result.
Reducing disengagement keeps the base level of engagement high and increases overall engagement over time. A highly engaged team becomes committed to the outcome of an initiative, and the results from a committed team far outweigh those from a team that is simply compliant.
If you’d like my help reducing disengagement (and increasing engagement), please contact me.