How Good Leaders Disempower Their Employees… Intentionally or Not
Dawna Kinnunen • November 15, 2018
A productive workplace empowers employees to contribute to decision-making and boosts employee morale; however, even good leaders can fall victim to these bad habits that disempower their employees.
Walk into an office of any size and it can become evident pretty quickly what the workplace culture is like. Is it one where employees actively communicate with management and are involved in the decision-making process, or is it one in which management makes all the decisions and creates barriers to communication? Even a well-intentioned leader may feel the need to act in a particular way in order to establish a sense of authority over others.
Micromanaging employees, or an egotistical need to be in control, can give leaders a sense of unwarranted positional authority (Rockwell, 2016). The negative effect of the need to be in control, or emphasize one’s position of authority over others, disempowers employees “disenfranchising them, taking away their natural sense of power and responsibility, their curiosity, and their creativity” (Solomon, 2017). When employees are disempowered, they may feel frustrated, paranoid, anxious, and helpless. These negative feelings create a negative workplace culture, which will impact productivity and quality of work.
Here are some ways leaders disempower good employees:
- Excluding employees in making decisions
—By making all the decisions by yourself may make you feel in control and powerful; however, keeping employees out of the decision-making process makes them feel like outsiders and undervalued.
- Minimizing or ignoring feedback
—Even if you include employees in the decision-making process, failure to acknowledge their expertise and input will lead to frustration and cause employees to shut down.
- Isolating yourself
—Leaders who don’t interact with their employees (e.g. stay at arm’s length, don’t shake hands, never walk around the office, keep the office door closed) create barriers to communication.
- Ridiculing or shaming employees
—This is especially more dramatic if done in front of their subordinates. Leaders who use this strategy may feel that belittling others puts themselves higher on the scale of authority.
- Being indecisive
—Changing your mind frequently wastes time, money, and leaves others confused. Leaders who don’t explain their rationale leave employees unable to follow or can’t stay caught up.
If you’re guilty of disempowering your coworkers, it’s not too late to make changes to create an open, productive work environment. Consider these suggestions:
- Keep meetings focused on the issues that matter; encourage and accept input/feedback; create realistic options; and delegate final decisions to others. Being able to choose between options gives the feeling of being in control.
- Have honest conversations and consider feedback before making decisions.
- Be accessible. Get to know your employees individually, put their needs above yours, and keep open lines of communication.
- Give constructive feedback in private. Be respectful by having difficult conversations behind closed doors.
- Collaborate with employees then follow through with final decisions and tasks.
Above all, effective leaders that empower their employees are open and honest about their own management style. An effective leader can acknowledge his or her own faults and is ready to improve upon them; ultimately, this will lead to making changes in how they interact with their employees, respond to feedback, and involve employees in making decisions.
Resources:
Hyatt, M. (2017, August 7). 13 Ways to Make Your Employees Pull Their Hair Out. Retrieved from https://michaelhyatt.com/frustrated-employees/
Rockwell, D. (2016, June 13). Leadership Freak. 5 ways incompetent leaders dis-empower good people. Retrieved from https://leadershipfreak.blog/2016/06/13/5-ways-incompetent-leaders-dis-empower-good-people/
Solomon, M. (2017, April 6). Forbes. With no power comes no responsibility: How a broken corporate culture disempowers employees. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2017/04/06/how-your-corporate-culture-dis-empowers-employe...
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And steps you can take to promote participation, stimulate ideas, and generate results