In this episode of Your Practice Ain’t Perfect, we’re talking about How Bosses Demoralize Employees.

Joe Mull, M.Ed is a practice manager leadership trainer and keynote speaker who works with healthcare organizations that want their practice leaders to engage, inspire, and succeed. As an expert in employee engagement and healthcare leadership development, Joe gives physicians and managers the skills and tools they need to engineer teams that work hard, get along, and wow patients. After more than a decade in healthcare, Joe knows that when leaders develop skills related to leadership, communication, and teambuilding, they can stop putting fires out every day and prevent them from sparking in the first place. Bring Joe in to keynote your conference, design and facilitate a retreat, or beef up your practice leader training. For more info or to book Joe now visit www.joemull.com.

Every once in a while, I will encounter a leader who says they don’t really care if morale is high, as long as people do their jobs. And that is mind-blowingly ignorant. It’s like saying I don’t care if the car has gas in it, as long you don’t stop driving. When morale is high on a team, employees accomplish more and try harder. Most leaders know this, yet still unwittingly engage in bad habits and antiquated behaviors that damage performance and morale. Stay right there, because in this episode of Your Practice Ain’t Perfect, I’m reviewing How Bosses Demoralize Employees. Here we go …

75% of people who leave a job indicate their boss is part or all of the reason why. That’s 3 out of 4! Sadly, most leaders have no idea what’s driving them away.

As I travel the country keynoting conferences and delivering training retreats to managers like you, I see the same bad habits over and over again among bosses.

Like those leaders who tell their teams “don't think, just do.” When employees get shot down for questioning, improving, or applying critical thinking at any level, they are being treated like robots, which is both damaging and demoralizing. So here’s a tip: Don’t treat people like robots.

Likewise, when a leader micromanages team members, they rob employees of their fundamental need to create, contribute, and succeed. Stop insisting that everything be done to your exact specifications, with multiple check-ins and approvals along the way. Instead, accept that people get to their final product in different ways and that we live in a world where there’s more than one right answer. Freedom breeds engagement in the workplace.

But wait … there’s more: Bosses who ignore employees’ personal lives, play favorites, or restrict advancement strangle the life out of their teams.

Bosses who don’t stand up for their employees or constantly understaff, underfund, and undersupport their teams create suffering across all levels of an organization.

And bosses who have warm-body syndrome, where they believe that anybody can do the job and that it’s easy to swap one person for another at any time? Well, they stifle the growth and performance of teams, and rob the organization of real talent.

Perhaps no other action demoralizes teams more than when toxic employees are allowed to remain. I get calls all the time: “Hey Joe, we think we want to bring you in to do some training with our team. We’re having some problems, conflict, and drama …” Now early on in that conversation, I always ask this question: Is there one person on your team or maybe two who if they left today and never came back, all these problems would go away? Guess how many times the answer is yes?

Every. Single. Time.

When those employees who engage in disruptive behavior are not held accountable, it’s crushing to a team. Employees see unacceptable performance with no consequences and begin asking, “If she can get away with murder, why should I try so hard? Why should I bother or even care?”

Some of you watching this video right now could supercharge the morale of your team by simply removing those entrenched bad actors who poison the well day in and day out. Allowing them to stay will continue choking the life out of your team.

Now it’s your turn. What other ways do bosses demoralize teams? What have you experienced as an employee? What happens too often that does harm and limits success? Share your thoughts in the comments box below and I will look forward to reading and responding. And if you heard something worthwhile in this video, please share it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

For now, remember this: The research is clear. People don’t quit their jobs; they quit their bosses. See you next time.

Joe Mull- Speaker, Author, Trainer
www.joemull.com
Twitter:@joemull77