People leave an organisation
primarily because of poor-performing managers, both Team Leaders and Directors.
But more so due to Directors who need more leadership and change management
skills. Never has it been truer that "people leave managers, not
organisations".
The Factors Affecting
Performance
The primary factor in
poor-performing organisations is the lack of leadership skills, where staff
rights are more valued and treated as a higher priority than customer service.
Leadership affects every part of an organisation. Poor-performing Team Leaders
and Directors lead poorly-performing organisations.
Many staff are being led by
poor-performing Team Leaders and Directors, who are despised yet believe they
are performing well. Poor-performing Team Leaders and Directors tend to be more
wrapped up in their importance. They need to listen and learn from their staff,
who are the experts that enable an organisation to function, resulting in the
team feeling that their only option is to leave.
Poor-performing Team Leaders
and Directors cause the most damage to an organisation and its staff. The
overarching reason staff leave an organisation is that poor-performing Team
Leaders and Directors refuse to listen and acknowledge when things are going
wrong operationally.
The Belief of Poor
Performance
The poor-performing Team
Leaders and Directors refuse to believe they are part of the problem. As a
result, staff feel unmotivated and depressed and fall into the trap of just
returning to work and undertaking the minimum to keep themselves in a job.
High-performing Team Leaders
and Directors lead organisations and staff successfully. They increase
productivity and engender staff joy when they accomplish more with less effort,
leading the team to work smarter rather than harder.
One significant sign of
poor-performing Team Leaders and Directors is that they need to pay more
attention to problems in an organisation, especially with individual staff.
They must confront the issues directly with the team, addressing everyone
instead of the individuals causing them.
This is especially true in
an organisation where staff are recruited to tick a diversity and inclusivity
box. These staff may need more intellect and intelligence to undertake the role
they have been engaged in. Instead, the organisation should recruit staff with
the skills, knowledge, and experience to perform well.
Micromanaging Staff
Poor-performing Team Leaders
and Directors resort to micromanagement techniques to manage staff and feel in
control. This only makes staff feel they need to be more trusted and capable of
performing their duties.
Poor-performing Team Leaders
and Directors feel they must micromanage an organisation to control every part
of it, ultimately turning them into control freaks. This inadvertently informs
staff that they need constant supervision, are incapable of performing well,
and are suspected of being at the root of all the organisation's problems.
Poor-performing Team Leaders
and Directors don't respect their employees, credit them for their work, or
show appreciation. They very often push the best-performing staff to leave the
organisation, compounding the issue of poor organisational performance.
High-performing teams will not tolerate disrespect of any kind. They want and
deserve to feel appreciated and recognised for their contributions, whether
large or small.
A Lack of Personal Vision
and Growth
Poor-performing Team Leaders
and Directors cannot plan and lack personal and organisational vision. They
don’t offer high-performing staff any personal growth or development.
High-performing staff will not follow a leader who is going nowhere. A high-performing
team will feel stagnant in this environment and, if they see personal and
professional advancement, will choose to leave.
Poor-performing Team Leaders
and Directors need to communicate effectively with their staff. When they make
poor decisions, it negatively affects everyone. They will lose loyalty and
support. Being prideful, egotistical, and unwilling to review feedback or ideas
from others is a sign of stubbornness and of being a poor-performing Team
Leader or Director.
Poor-performing Team Leaders
and Directors have a sour attitude. They do not know how to control their
emotions, which results in their using fear tactics or bullying to get their
staff to perform. High-performing Team Leaders and Directors lead gracefully
and keep their emotions in check.
The Symptoms of Poor
Performance
Overall, poor-performing
Team Leaders and Directors lead organisations that suffer from the following:
- High staff turnover and sickness
levels.
- Staff recruited for diversity
rather than knowledge.
- Staff negatively affected by mental
health issues.
- High levels of staff injuries, such
as RSI.
- Low morale and productivity.
- A toxic work culture environment.
Poor-performing Team Leaders
and Directors exhibit the following behavioural patterns in which they:
- Refuse to make decisions, including
politically difficult or controversial ones.
- Subjugate difficult choices to
others whom they can blame if things go wrong.
- Show an astonishing lack of
leadership, preferring others to take the initiative.
- Despise change managers whom they
belittle and berate publicly.
- Think that change is not necessary,
leaving organisations to stagnate.
- Are unable or unwilling to think
deeply about strategic organisational issues.
- Act for political reasons rather
than the general good of the organisation.
- Cannot ask probing questions to
ascertain basic information.
- Are unable to hold staff or teams
accountable for poor performance.
- Act divisively to attack the
reputation of high-performing staff and Teams.
- Show little regard for the opinions
of others.
- Appear distracted when trying to
deal with organisational issues.
- Erode the credibility of
high-performing Team Leaders and Staff.
- Exhibit toxic behaviour towards
others whom they see as a personal threat.
Poor-performing team leaders
and directors lead to poor customer service, which devastates an organisation
as customers defect to competitor organisations, causing a drop in revenue and
rising costs. The worst consequences of poor customer service levels driven by
low-performing Team Leaders and Directors include:
- Lower Income: Customer service will prevent
customers from defecting to the competition, leading to revenue drops and
rising costs.
- Lower Customer Service: Poor service can quickly cause
service and reputational ratings to drop, leading to a decline in revenue
as customers move away.
- Increased Costs: Poor customer service leads to
miscommunications or misunderstandings, which result in additional costs
for the business, especially when a customer needs assistance with damaged
or faulty products.
- Damaged Brand Reputation: Poor service levels can damage an
organisation's reputation and make it easier to attract new customers.
The real issue for
poor-performing Team Leaders and Directors is their delusional and misguided
opinion of themselves as perfect and everyone else being at fault. They
mistakenly believe that no one else can see their poor performance.
Organisations either need the political will or the ability to remove the
poor-performing Team Leaders and Directors, and do a great disservice to
high-performing staff and Teams.
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