The Road to Disengagement Is Paved with Good Intensions

The Road to Disengagement Is Paved with Good Intentions

4 Well-Intended Mistakes Managers Make that Lead to Disengagement – and How to Fix Them

Most of what I share in this blog is BEST practice learnings from a career and a doctoral dissertation in employee engagement. Today, I’m going to share some WORST practices.

http://fearless-selling.ca/good-intentions/

Normally, I’m a proponent of an organizational development concept some term “amplifying positive deviance.” The idea is that by placing a positive spotlight on what’s going right in a change effort, you’ll inspire and encourage others to adopt that behavior. Combine that with a reliable measurement practice and a solid demonstration of results, and you can create sustainable change. Conversely, focusing on negating undesirable behavior proves less effective.

However, I have heard stories of senior managers who, for apparently logical reasons, have participated in disengaging behaviors. I thought it important to mention in some of these cases how a seemingly-good intention went wrong, and how to recover.  

Names have been changed to protect the innocent and clueless…

Situation	Management rationale	Why it’s disengaging	Fix
Employees in different departments compare notes and discover they received different reward or recognition for similar character and quality work on a project. A manager denies or retracts recognition for a staff member given by another party, and the employee is made aware.	“We don’t have enough money in the budget to give an award, and if I talk say something, they’ll expect a bonus.” “In our team, we don’t give special recognition for staff completing regular job assignments.” “We can’t set a precedent for this type of recognition.”	Recognition leads to psychological empowerment, motivation and other good-things associated with engagement. Becoming aware of an absence of recognition has the opposite effect: we feel under-valued, insecure or even undermined. Fundamentally, what we perceive to be unfair treatment leads to distrust.	Leaders should proactively seek to restore trust. Be generous in public and private acknowledgement of work well done, particularly if an inconsistency between departments has been exposed. Be transparent about what’s required locally to achieve reward and recognition, and be consistent in how they are allocated. Have conversations with the affected team members and listen. Don’t “blame” others for the inconsistency, but acknowledge limitations.
An employee is given management responsibility for a project, but his manager requests to approve all project-related activities. An employee is given accountability for a project requiring resource spend but is not given a budget to manage.	“We’re all one team working together towards common goals, and we can operate seamlessly.” “When I put XXX into the management role, I didn't realize how high visibility this project is, and he isn't ready.”	Micromanagement by any other name still stinks. Going back to engagement basics, micromanagement leads to psychological dis-empowerment, which leads to disengagement. Worse, it’s possible that an employee who is given accountability but not authority to manage a project could perceive they are being set up as a scapegoat (which indicates or increases distrust).	Focus on establishing management practices that promote both empowerment and accountability. Set clear and consistent goals, and regularly checking in on these. If a new manager needs additional coaching, help him find it from someone who isn't you. If performance is an issue, address that head-on. No one and no organization benefits when difficult conversations are avoided.

No manager is perfect, and the good news is, disengaging behavior can be counteracted and trust restored with dialogue, respect and consideration.

How have you repaired a situation where disengagement was the unintended consequence of a management decision?