A good relationship between managers and their subordinates plays a key factor to the company’s success. As managers, they hold key roles to determine the team’s overall productivity and development, including their level of engagement.
Although the company as a whole plays a part in upkeeping the level of motivation and the overall well-being of each employee, the management team plays the most crucial role as they are the ones that deal directly with their team.
While some put in good efforts into managing their subordinates, there are those who lack such effort. Employees are the ones who suffer under such negative leaders. Thereby, demotivating their team.
As the HR, you should be vigilant and be alert to the following warning signs that some managers in the company could be building demotivated workforce.
WARNING SIGNS:
Ruling by Fear
Managers who are inflexible and tend to micro-manage their team will release a negative atmosphere at the workplace. The lack of trust in their subordinates’ capabilities drives them to rule with fear so that workers will complete their tasks promptly. Naturally, with such management, employees get anxious and can feel threatened. They are afraid of being reprimanded and even punished for the simplest mistakes.
Under the circumstances, employees will be less initiative as they will just do what they are told to do or supposed to do.
Making Unreasonable Demands
Some unreasonable demands like insisting their team members to work beyond the working hours or over weekends, enforcing them to meet unreasonable deadlines will cause a drop in their morale and productivity.
It is not wrong to demand the delivery of quality and timely work from the team, but the tasks should be well-allocated. When an individual reaches their maximum capacity, burnouts happen and instead of growing the capabilities of a person, such actions could downright stop the personal growth altogether.
See also: Top Four Common Onboarding Mistakes to Avoid
Unclarity in Expectations
As the manager, getting a clear outline of their expectations across to team members is vital. They need to have a clear understanding of their tasks and the role each of them plays. By not being aligned with each other, it will be tough for them to perform their best at their job. When they feel that they are not able to excel, motivation decreases.
Failure to Appreciate
Simple appreciations and praises are low-cost recognition a manager can give to employees who had performed well. However, some managers neither notice nor care about commending their subordinates’ achievements. When achievements or perhaps even a good job done goes unnoticed, other than being demotivated, they might even stop doing overly well and only just enough.
No Development Opportunities
Every individual seek personal growth, learning opportunities and expand their skill set. If there are no offers of development opportunities, work will gradually let them feel stuck in their current career path they are pursuing. As a result, they feel less motivated to stay and tend to look elsewhere for more appealing progression opportunities.
Poor Leadership
A strong leader who is capable of approaching and holding effective communication to the team will create a productive workplace where everybody is encouraged to do their best at work. Lack of leadership traits and strategies will demotivate the team.
As the role of managers is crucial, employers are to practice discretion when selecting a manager to lead a team. Also, arranging managers to go for leadership training and workshops will be ideal too! A regular evaluation with the managers can also help them to improve. This is where the HR persons will play a significant role in sieving out unsuitable managers that are potentially creating a toxic workplace.
Next Read: HRs to Note: Appraisal Mismanagement
