Look in mirror for the cause: you!

Whether it is people in your personal life or employees who are not doing what you expect, you should look into the mirror to see how you are enabling and reinforcing the very behaviors that are frustrating you. We offer twelve examples and solutions.

When pointing the finger at someone else, three fingers are pointing back at you. Take stock of what frustrates you and ask yourself the question, “How am I contributing to this behavior by the other person?”

Dysfunctional Leadership Behaviors that Cause Low Performance in Others

1. Unrealistic and hidden goals – It is likely that employees will frustrate their manager when the manager has set a goal which is seen as unachievable. This is not to be confused with a stretch goal which employees can see the possibility of achievement especially with some effort. If the manager has two sets of goals, one lower and one higher and keeps it a secret, then employees might think they are meeting expectations while actually disappointing their manager. The root cause of this is likely perfectionism and a desire to control. The solution: set a meaningful goal that will stretch the team.

2. Lack of feedback – Whether it is in your personal life or business life, holding back on telling people what you appreciate or what frustrates you will likely result in the continuation of that behavior. Tell people what you appreciate and they will give you more of the same, tell people what is bothering you and they will do less of it.

3. Low opinion of others – When a manager thinks that their employees are not trustworthy, not bright enough or not dedicated, they will manage in a more aggressive fashion creating resentment and negative behavior. In effect the employees fulfill the manager’s expectations. Leaders who do not value employees should be removed from their leadership positions.

4. Unclear expectations – Not communicating what is expected in terms of behavior or results will likely result in inconsistent behaviors and results. Clarify in your own mind what you expect and communicate those expectations regularly.

5. Poor communication – The root of poor communication is a lack of clarity in what the intended message is and the inability to transmit the message using the appropriate words, tone and body language. Coupled with this is a lack of listening. Avoid sarcasm which tends to keep relationships shallow. A lifelong dedication to becoming an effective communicator is required by leaders.

6. Lack of encouragement of others – A leader who does not spend time encouraging others to grow and succeed will tend to attract and retain employees who are stagnant. Ambitious employees will leave and those who remain will be cynical, sarcastic and lack productivity. Given how motivating it is to succeed at a difficult challenge, leaders should focusing on building the self-esteem of their employees by giving them increasingly challenging assignments and encouraging them until the employees see the success for themselves.

7. Answering questions your employees should be able to answer – A manager might feel that they are being helpful by answering every question an employee brings to them. In reality it tells the employee that they should not think for themselves and continuing bringing issues that should be solved independently to the manager.

8. Solving problems your employees should be able to solve – Similar to number 7, ask employees to bring solutions and help the employee solve problems for themselves.

9. Relying on policies and procedures in place of leadership based on values – Many organizations, especially large ones focus on developing many policies and procedures, hoping that as long as a policy covers a given situation, they will get the desired behavior and results. Instead it is more likely that they employees will feel more like a number and less like an individual with a meaningful contribution to make. Reduce policies and procedures and instead build strong leadership based on values that govern desirable behavior.

10. Focus on catching mistakes instead of success – Human beings prefer praise over punishment and prefer punishment over being ignored. If the only way to get the attention of the manager is to mess up, employees will mess up more often. So a manager who is frustrated by the errors being made by his or her team needs to make sure that they are not reinforcing the errors by ignoring success.

11. Not confronting unacceptable behaviours – Putting up with unacceptable behaviors not only hurts the leader, it demotivates the good performing employees who lose respect for the leader and resent having to do extra work to carry the poor performer. The leader can compound this problem by paying more attention to the poor performer and ignoring the good performers. Most negative behaviors can be eliminated by simply telling the employee that the behaviors is unacceptable. Only a few will force the issue into a disciplinary situation.

12. Lack of approachability – Managers who are distant and aloof will find that employees will not keep them informed of problems or other valuable information. Practice an open door policy and watch your reaction to bad news. Encourage the sharing of all information as soon as possible.

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