Employee engagement is always on the radar of organizations. Research indicates that engaged employees have increased levels of job satisfaction. They are satisfied with their boss and are invested in the success of the business. They also have a higher level of commitment and loyalty. Don’t let negative leadership ego erode employee engagement.
The Seven Ways Leadership Ego Kills Employee Engagement:
Keep yourself in check by avoiding these leadership ego behaviors to be the leader the people need.
1. Company culture and values don’t apply to me
When leaders are not aligned with the company culture and values they create their own. The culture they create is often a toxic one. Some people on the team will take advantage of this and add toxicity to the culture. It begins to spread and grow to other parts of the organization.
2. Taking credit for others’ work
An inconvenient truth. Most often when leaders take the credit for others’ work it is because they don’t know the what, why or how which is what makes it inconvenient. The quality and quantity of work produced begin to erode and the information is no longer freely shared.
3. Incapable of receiving criticism
Don’t call their baby ugly. The leader who is incapable of receiving criticism thinks their way is the only way. They know what they what they want and when and how they want it regardless of how it fits into the current design of the organization. Because they don’t accept criticism they themselves stop growing and their development becomes stifled and this has a cascade effect.
4. Does not allow for any mistakes
The bar is set at perfection and mistakes are not tolerated. These leaders do not see the value in learning from trying. People will stop innovating.
5. Does not distribute the workload
They take it all on themselves because they view this as job security. They rarely delegate or do succession planning. Often this is due to a lack of trust which will be obvious to the rest of the staff.
6. Rarely lets anyone in to be part of a decision-making process
The decision is theirs and theirs alone. These leaders view their thought process as the best one without soliciting feedback from others. This often causes undue hardship on their team because it often makes their job harder rather than easier.
7. Disrespect and bullying and this is the most dangerous
Intimidation, humiliation, and constant non-constructive criticism to demean others’ and their work. They use disrespect and bullying to get their way. It is a way to keep others down with the intent that it raises the leader up. The reason this is so much more dangerous than the other ways leadership ego kills employee engagement is because it will multiply. Employees will see that it is OK to behave that way. Good people will leave which hinders progress and then the job market will become aware of that culture making recruiting solid contributors impossible.
A negative leadership ego is an inflated sense of self, sense of superiority, and a sense of urgency. To improve employee engagement start by checking the ego of the leadership within your organization and this needs to include the leaders without titles.
Last updated on January 5th, 2019 at 08:08 am
