Many leaders lack executive presence and the basic fundamentals to effectively communicate with and manage people. Holding a fancy title doesn’t give a leader permission to disrespect and antagonize their employees. Today’s leader must be emotionally intelligent enough to know when they are crossing the line. Unfortunately, many people lack maturity as leaders and find themselves insulting their employees all too often.
Leadership demands self-awareness of actions and their effects on others. Employees want you to show appreciation for their efforts, value their contributions and provide them with an environment to perform in ways that come most naturally to them. Employees do have some basic expectations of their leaders and when they are not met, they begin to lose respect and trust.
As you go about your day as a leader, be mindful of the following ways employees feel slighted to assure you avoid insulting them – and losing your top talent along the way, says an article in Forbes.
Unappreciative
Leaders who are ungrateful towards their employees will find it difficult to stimulate their engagement.
Employees want leaders that see the value in their abilities, contributions and natural tendencies. They want them to appreciate and enable their unique ways of thinking and to be on the lookout for how to best utilize them at work. When leaders are unappreciative, it prohibits employees from unleashing their passionate pursuits and authentic selves.
Lack Recognition
Too many leaders still want to be the hero. They would rather find ways to get all the credit and deflect recognition from employees even when rightfully earned. Real leadership is about how to best engage with people and develop their full potential.
For example, many times leaders may “steal” the ideas of their employees. Stealing may be too strong of a word, but they certainly don’t give them enough credit for the value of their ideas and ideals.
Constant Criticism
There are leaders that don’t recognize and respect employees – and then there are leaders that go overboard and constantly criticize and defame their employees. These are the leaders that will never admit fault until circumstances force their hand – then will place the blame on their employees (and for added measure, have the tendency to do this in front of others).
Employees get insulted when their leaders lack maturity and constantly make them the brunt of their performance shortfalls.
Not Puppets
Employees aren’t puppets – they need to be independent thinkers. That means leaders must empower and encourage their employees to think, act and perform in ways that come most naturally to them.
Too many leaders are in the habit of mentoring and coaching their employees to be just like them. Diversity of thought must be better understood and taken more seriously by leaders – and this begins by not being threatened by those employees seeking their own identity.
Hypocrisy
Many would say that you can turn a blind eye to hypocrisy – as long as your leadership is successful; hypocrisy is one of the many reasons why someone should not be in a leadership position. It shows they lack the maturity, wisdom and understanding to know that their success depends on the trust and respect of others.
It is becoming all too common for leaders to tell their employees they are committed to one thing – and then do another.
Too Much – or Not Enough
When leaders delegate too much, they may believe they are empowering their employees; not enough, they begin to minimize their abilities and capabilities. It’s a delicate balance that can lead to leaders unknowingly creating negative tension with their employees, creating boundaries and barriers instead of cultivating relationships.
Micromanagement
When leaders are constantly looking over their employees’ shoulders, they are sending a message that they are not able to meet their required performance standards. Instead of transparent communication, they micromanage – indirectly sending a message that they lack trust in their employees’ skill-sets and their ability to perform and deliver the required results.
This leadership style grows tired and exhausting, especially when employees begin to notice that leaders will often use micromanagement, as a way to cover for their lack of knowledge or understanding about a particular subject matter.
Manipulative
Nothing makes employees lose respect quicker than when leaders use manipulation tactics to enable higher levels of performance from them. Manipulation is a short-term motivational tactic that can do more harm than good – especially when it is used frequently and designed to deliver a one-sided benefit.
Don’t Value Employees
The inability of a leader to value their employees – regardless of hierarchy or rank – is what insults employees the most. When leaders never allow their employees to take part in important decisions, or when they are not asked to provide input and transparent opinions, employees feel devalued and have every right to feel insulted.
In today’s world of work, leaders must learn to touch the business just as much as they lead it. When they are not aware of what is taking place on the frontlines, they can’t appreciate nor value the intricacies and dynamics of what their employees are dealing with on a daily basis. When leaders focus too much on the bottom line – without understanding or valuing what it took to get there – this is a slight that can be quite demotivating and insulting to any employee.
