Leaders – Are you stealing from yourself?
When we think about loss prevention in our businesses, most of us think about measures that are taken to reduce theft or other tangible losses to an organization’s products or services. But there is a way to think about it more holistically.
Loss prevention, in addition to this, is a mindful and deliberate process to prevent a loss of spirit, talent, engagement and employee effort in an organization. I believe most organizations have an opportunity to build up their sensitivity to the tone and tenor of daily work and the environment that adds to, or reduces, the threat of loss.
Executives, leaders and managers inadvertently do things all of the time that raise their risks for this kind of loss.
Here is an example:
A senior leader had been given feedback that many people in her area felt that when it came to decisions in the business, she had already made up her mind, didn’t look for much input outside of her immediate circle, and would dig in against any alternate suggestions or even questions about the preferred plan. This became so much of a problem that when she or her team asked for feedback, hardly anyone spoke up and certainly not to the contrary the perceived already-chosen path. They had learned that giving feedback was too risky – either she didn’t listen, didn’t care to hear what they had to say, or they were afraid there would be reprisals at some level for speaking up or asking questions.
Look at the potential loss in this situation:
- Employees in this situation are conditioned by learned helplessness. They get to a point in their thinking, and we have reinforced it in action, that speaking up is actually harmful. They think “You’ve already made up your mind anyway, so I will just put my head down and do what you tell me to do.”
- Their creativity, problem solving and sense of autonomy in their role is diminished
- Morale sinks
- Factions are created and gain momentum in the covert environment of influence dynamics
- Motives behind decisions are questioned and faith in the integrity of those decisions goes down
- Trust in leadership goes down
- General negativity increases
- People feel less committed to the work or the place
- Good people leave, mediocre performers become the “cream of the crop” and overall standards are lowered
- The more this happens, the harder it is to attract and retain talent
- …the more all of the above happen.
Remember that even if we think we don’t do this, we might more than we think.
Check in with your team, ask tough questions about your performance, listen deeply and adjust your patterns of decision-making. And, when you know you do this to a degree, remember that taking more time up front to listen and collaborate can actually save time on the back end.
How?
Better buy-in for decisions, less dissent about implementation, more trust and faith in you as a leader.
All very, very good things in your effort to prevent loss in your organization.