The leader’s impact on their team is crucial for success today. With many people working flexibly and with no fixed place of work, the influence of the centrally positioned person in the face of the leader has become more critical than ever before. Leaders build but also can destroy team morale, attitude, and values. The more the leader negatively influences their team, the more they create opportunities for failure widely outside the team.
As stated in SHRM-published research from 2022, thirty-two percent of the people interviewed declare that their direct leader negatively impacts their motivation and engagement toward work challenges and goals.
Imagine one-third of your workforce is frustrated and less productive than you need to be to secure the company’s future. In our fast-paced world, this is a high percentage that can cost the company short-term and long-term results.
Often, leaders are blinded by their understanding of themselves and the world, and they create a circle of people who are uncomfortable giving feedback and do not see how their behavior is destroying what once worked well.
Here are three things many leaders do inconsonantly that harm not only team performance but also disturb team morale.
Leading with unclear expectations
This happens so often that fifty-eight percent of the people answered that such behavior had become a norm for them and the team. Imagine you want something to be achieved, but the clear image of success is only in your head. You give instructions; everyone says they have understood it, and the result is tragic. Typical for leaders who position themselves as scarier for the team, this frustrating behavior confuses everyone. Not clearing up all expectations often leads to poor results. Poor results create frustration in the leader and those who have to hear how their work and efforts do not correspond with the leader’s expectations, unfortunately, often evident only in their head. If you are a leader and want to confuse your team, give them unclear instructions and do not try to ask them how they have understood your idea or expectations. And now, you will have a mess that has come out not from your team members’ poor performance but from your frustrating behavior of not giving enough information on the topic and desired results.
Talk more than listen carefully
Now, we are created to talk. And in many situations, that is a valuable technique that can save us. Unfortunately, when you are in a leadership role, this has more negative impact than creates positive outputs. You know that team member who always comes with questions or logic that has obvious, at least in your head, answers. And there is no time to lose and listen to everything. You need to speak right away and give the answer to move forward. A completely wrong strategy. According to an Academia. EU published a report from 2021; some fifty-nine percent of leaders use that strategy “to save time.” This often frustrates team members. People need to be heard and understood. Nowadays, most people are convinced that they can deliver results, but they need to validate the path chosen and the development required with someone responsible for them. Interfering with a person’s way of thinking creates, at the same time, low confidence and low engagement in the tasks and projects assigned. What the leader thinks is a good and fast solution is often frustrating and leads to demotivation on the other side. You want a solution for this one. Stop talking and listen to the end. Then, ask if the person wants feedback on what they think to do or only needs validation. If it is the second, then approve it and leave the person to go their way to deliver exceptional results, relying on their capabilities and feeling supported in every step they take.
Hold back recognition and appreciation.
“Why say thank you to all the small things that are happening? After all, people get regular feedback in a structured way, and that can be included in the feedback session.”
I have heard this way of thinking from the CEO of a multinational company with more than forty-five thousand employees worldwide. It may sound like a time-wasting activity, but holding back recognition for better times is more than wrong. The economy of here and now, the instant messaging apps we have on our phones, and the ability to evaluate and rate everything on the web with a click of a button have turned people into inpatient beings. With that thought in mind, why should recognition and appreciation wait? People need them instantly after something good has happened. Delayed in time, these two actions lose power and create ground for unsatisfactory behavior and internal disengagement, disconnection, and demotivation. While recognition and appreciation are seen as an immediate reward, not receiving them at the right moment reduces their power and creates conditions for building on stress and creating disbalance in teams and organizations.
IN CONCLUSION:
Being a team leader has never been an easy task. But with the uplifting culture of everything happening at the moment, not being careful about the small things in everyday life creates a preposition for distress, anxiety, and negativity. So, every leader who wants to turn these consequences into positives must stop frustrating their teams and focus on what makes couples happy and successful.
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