Management Blunders That Kill Motivation

Once subordinates have had enough time to get to know each other in the company and get a feel of the culture and what’s actually in store for them, some top managers might soon feel the former have stopped listening to them.

Then it happens—subordinates begin to undermine the managers.

Leaders must, at all times, be aware of their actions. This piece goes out to the managers who are in the predicament of declining social interaction and motivation among their staff:

Arguing against every opinion. Listen to yourself every time you voice out your new proposal for your employees. How do you react? If you find yourself killing everyone’s input and defending your own stand, then you are not really giving them the open communication you claim to uphold in your company.

I am not saying that you must listen to every opinion thrown at you. In fact, that is the worst thing that you could do as a leader. Rather, listen, understand and find out which of these opinions would actually help improve the company, a new policy or project. Do not keep swatting off opinions that matter.

Being too negative. Do you always expect the worst out of every situation? Being negative is not necessarily bad, but being too negative can be a problem. No one wants to be with someone who follows their sentences with expressions of disbelief and disagreement. As a leader, you have to motivate everyone on a daily basis because no one wants to give their comments and ideas to someone who would automatically assume the worst of them.

Playing favorites. Nobody wants to be in a company where the boss plays favorites. It’s good if you are the favorite employee, but not good for everybody else. Maybe the reason why your employees refuse to follow your instructions is that they know you will not appreciate them in the end. True, we cannot avoid having star employees because of their effort, skill and wit. But the fact of the matter is they aren’t the only employees in your organization. As a leader, you have to give everyone the same treatment. A strict rule imposed upon one employee must therefore be enforced on another committing the same offense.

Playing favorites is not only limited to individual employees. It can be among departments, and even among branches. If one department or branch feels you favor one over the other, soon they will lose drive and eventually stop listening to you.

Embarrassing people. One of the worst mistakes that you could ever do with your employees is to embarrass them. Not only is it a ground for legal cases, but it also destroys the integrity and drive of the employee you have embarrassed—and everyone else’s. If your employees know that you have the tendency to humiliate them, they would simply start to refuse to follow your instructions and start coming up with excuses to save them the trouble of getting shameful remarks from you.

There are many other management practices that dampen motivation. It is of prime importance that the cause of declining morale be quickly found out and addressed. Otherwise your organization will be dysfunctional.

*Originally published by the Manila Bulletin. C-6, Sunday, November 23, 2014. Written by Ruben Anlacan, Jr. (President, BusinessCoach, Inc.) All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or copied without express written permission of the copyright holders.