By Elsbeth McSorley
If you’re a manager, it’s important to ensure that your employees are happy, motivated and engaged as much as possible. If you have very low turnover on your team, you’re probably a successful manager. Most likely you’re positive, authentic, honest, encouraging and supportive of your team. The best managers support and develop their employees and help them achieve success and feel good about their work and their contributions to the company.
Unfortunately research suggests most of us are not good managers. Victor Lipman, a Forbes contributor writes, “Trouble with managers in the past? The bad news is it’s unfortunate. The good news is you’re not alone. With around 70% of the U.S. workforce disengaged, that suggests a whole lot of employee-manager conflict (or at the very least, sub-optimal relationships). As the old saying goes, people leave managers, not companies.”
Don’t be one of the many bad managers out there. Here are 5 ways you’re sure to demotivate your employees:
- Micromanage them
- Focus on their mistakes and not offer enough positive support and encouragement
- Be hyper-focused on your career without appreciating your employees’ performance
- Overload them with work and not enough time to complete it
- Set unattainable goals and then penalize your employees for not meeting them
Next time you’re meeting with your employees ask yourself, are you doing any number of the above 5 things? Are you killing their motivation or motivating them to be better? As H.S. M. Burns says, “take care of those who work for you and you’ll float to greatness in their achievements.”
Learn how to better engage and motivate your employees in our tip sheet Five Tips for Increasing Employee Engagement and Retention.
