Setting high standards for employees is a good thing. This is conventional management wisdom that many leaders in just about every organization follow. High standards of achievement and professional conduct can be the most effective motivation a leader can create. The general idea is to encourage employees to always aim higher goals, and the only way they can do that is to push harder in order to perform better. In ideal circumstances, employees understand that leader has the confidence if they can accomplish much more than they themselves realize. It is an excellent form of provocation with great power to stimulate growth. Unfortunately, ideal circumstance is few and far between, rendering a good intention into bad managerial style.

 To make matter worse, some leaders fail to recognize (or simply are unwilling to admit) the difference between high standards for and unrealistic expectation from employees. The former is undeniably effective especially when leader is in the forefront of setting examples; the latter is dangerous. By always asking more performance from employees, less successful leader continuously forces everyone to work harder and prepare only to accept great results. The “already high standards” keep on going up to reach “unrealistic” level. At this point the leader will have to deal with an inevitable distress. Unrealistic expectations from employees have some obvious dangerous consequences:

 ·         Employees lose self-confidence: one of the most worrying outcomes of leader’s unrealistic goals and expectations actually happens to the employees. When people find themselves working with or for a leader who is impossible to please, it is only common to feel frustrated and angry. Failure to meet expectation really is not their fault, but merely because the goals are just unrealistic. In such situation, even constructive criticism from leader does not help. When employees feed into the constant negative feedback, they begin to feel inferior as if they cannot do anything right. After a short while, they begin asking why even bother trying if results are not satisfactory regardless of what they try and do. At one point, employees figure out that the best thing to do is to stop trying, and this is bad for the organization.

 ·         Weak organization: if employees are constantly criticized and pushed to perform better, they find it difficult to rise following a setback. Perpetual dissatisfaction on leader’s part will eventually drain employees’ creativity, motivation, mental endurance, and resourcefulness. One instance of failure to deliver as expected can be a learning moment, but leader’s relentless deprecation of their efforts is paralyzing. If the leader is constantly pushing employees to reach ever rising standards, the organization in its entirety is in serious doubt of achieving success in the wake of major problems.

 ·         Self-disappointment: without the ability to feel content, the disappointment can turn inward. It is often necessary to be satisfied with the way things are now, even when there are rooms for improvement indeed. The problem with unrealistic expectation is not that the organization will never achieve anything or that the employees are incompetent; the problem lies within leader’s struggle to take pride in any kind of accomplishment. Such leaders do not have the sense professional satisfaction and will continue to play down their own self-perception.

 Goal-oriented is an excellent trait of an effective leader, but it can turn into obsessive tendency toward perfection without proper managerial practices. While the idea of “pushing employees to their best” is great in theory, inadequate ability to honor and praise their roles or current improvement may actually lead the organization to failure.

 Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about and like the article if you agree with it!

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management and a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Visit www.SupervisionEssentials.com for more great free articles and to learn more about leadership effectiveness. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment.

You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

GET THIS NOW: Diversity, Cultural Competence, and Emotional Intelligence Training online here: http://www.leadership.do

 ·         Contradictory Values

 Employees can perform well for an organization in which the rules and cultures are aligned with their personal values. The same employees will almost certainly perform much worse if they work in the same positions but for a different organization with contradictory values.

 Even when organizations can evaluate every candidate properly through objective measures, they have strong tendency to overrate their own cultures. Any organization will say that it has innovative, diverse, performance-oriented, inclusive, and prosocial cultures; it encourages strong work ethics, accountability, and employee development. While some of those can be true, there is a good chance that a lot of the stated values are nothing more than wishful thinking instead of accurate self-assessment. An abrupt change in culture is as disruptive as it can be, but often necessary to optimize resources including employees.

 ·         Employee Disengagement

An expected side effect of poor alignment between employees’ values and organizational culture is disengagement, although it is not the only reason behind the lack of motivation. There is another culprit; one that is more obvious yet rarely pointed-out by employees: poor leadership.

 A leader needs to understand that poor performance sometimes is not solely because of employees’ incompetence but the result of poor dynamics of interpersonal relationships either among themselves or between employees and leader; it can even be both in an organization without a capable leader to resolve conflicts. Motivation is an excellent remedy and thankfully it comes in a multitude of forms. Enforcing good communication practices and developing conflict-resolution plans may not sound like motivations, but they are few among many effective methods to prevent disengagement and promote optimum performance. Just like the organization itself in general, a leader is required to perform objective self-assessment. Good leadership skills create a work environment conducive for optimum performance.

 ·         Organizational Politics

It is true that modern organizations are armed with more reliable data-driven methodology in talent management practices than in previous years, but room for improvements are still all over the place especially in relation to the basic extent of organizational politic. A person’s political savvy is (and has always been) a factor to advance careers, but unfortunately it is a factor that can stand on its own and overshadow technical skills and talents. The nepotistic side of organizational life will continue to exist; it is both toxic and persistent.

 In an organization with heavily-political culture, talents rarely speak for themselves. It does not matter how talented some employees are, they can never reach their full potential unless they partake in the political side of their career. Once they do, the actual talents useful for the progress of the organization are often underutilized in favor of politics. Put in mind that all organizations are essentially political, but some are far less contaminated than others.

 ·         Unsupportive Work Policies

 An organization will always expect that employees have no personal issues, or at least they don’t take personal disputes, difficulties with families, or any financial hardship to workplace; it is another fine example of wishful thinking. Employees have personal and private life, which can at times interfere with work performance. Good leader and organization consider the issue a “probability” rather than “possibility.”

 Supportive work policies put leaders in a position to understand employees’ circumstances and offer help in their professional capacity. This is not to say that the organization takes care of all employees’ problems, but it must provide supports so that employees can focus on delivering good performance and reach their full potentials at workplace instead of being consumed by other concerns. At the end of the day, both sides get the benefits of supportive employment policies.

 Every organization is only a strong as leaders allow their employees to be. When employees are failing to meet expectations, that is an opportunity to build a relationship, understand needs, coach and support an employee to success. Every employee was hired because they were the best qualified. A great leader must constantly find ways to help employees be there very best. Failing to do so, could cause an employee to lose interest and dedication, then start looking for an organization that could better support their potential, desires, and needs.

Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about and like the article if you agree with it!

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management. He is a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Visit www.SupervisionEssentials.com for more great free articles and to learn more about leadership effectiveness. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment. You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

Diversity, Cultural Competence, and Emotional Intelligence Training online here: http://www.leadership.do

Explore the Underlying Problems

 The last thing you want to do is jumping to conclusion. There can be reasons why some employees behave the way they do at work, and you will find a lot of possible culprits for examples conflict with coworkers, financial hardship, marriage problem, recent loss of family member, medical condition, or even mental health issue. Personal circumstances affect performance, and to some extent encourage unpleasant behaviors at work. If that is the case, you can in fact offer support such as counseling resources or recommend potential solutions to alleviate the underlying problems. As a leader, this is part of due diligence.

 Make Clear the Consequences

 Another possible reason a toxic employee shows no willingness to improve is the unawareness of negative consequences. People have tendency to deal with potential losses more seriously than with potential gains. They are also inclined to be more responsive anytime there is a real possibility of serious penalty. In other words, you may need to make threats and follow through if the person is hesitant to change. For most people, the likelihood of suspension without pay or missing out on a promotion makes a strong enough motivation to behave in more civil way.

 Get the Documentation Compiled

 You should hope that a toxic employee will eventually improve and be responsible for damages done, but there are times when you just have to accept that some people will not change. If at the end of the day there is nothing else you can do in your professional capacity to alter the situation, terminating the term of employment is the last resort. Before you do that, however, make sure to document all offenses made along with your responses so far. It is crucial that you establish a pattern of the employee’s behaviors and measures taken to address the issue. Formal complaints, video or photo evidence of poor conducts, performance evaluation records, and other relevant information would be helpful. The idea behind documentation is to protect the organization (and yourself) from legal consequences and show that you let the employee go for good reasons.

 It certainly takes a lot of time and energy – invaluable resources you can otherwise spend more productively to address more important issues – to fix problems with or caused by a single toxic employee. The negativity is sometimes too much to deal with, but put in mind that this is one of the responsibilities every leader must bear. As a leader, you are deemed capable of putting an end to the issue with the least possible consequences on productivity and organizational well-being.

 Ultimately, your company has invested a lot of time and resources in hiring, grooming and supporting each employee. It is a lot more cost-effective to listen to employees, come to a clear understanding of what needs to change and help them be more successful. Every “problem” is really an “opportunity”. Listen more than you speak and try to find win-solutions. Trust is earned and fragile. Earn trust back and help the employee know you want him/her to be the best employee possible and how their success is your success. Of course, we must own our own mistakes and do our best to be supportive leaders. Leadership is an active process, right?

Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about and like the article if you agree with it!

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management. He is a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Visit www.SupervisionEssentials.com for more great free articles and to learn more about leadership effectiveness. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment. You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

As a leader, you always want people and employees in the organization to trust you.  Trust is the glue of all relationships and relationships are fragile. After all, you are in a position to make decisions for them and determine goals they must achieve. We need people to be able to discuss challenges, needs for support and confirmation of what is working well. Leaders have the biggest influence on organizational culture and every person in the organization affects the success of others by what they do and fail to do.  For any organization to run smoothly, employees need to know that their leader is indeed the right person to follow, not because of unpleasant consequences for disobedience but sincere respect and trust. Among many elements that affect the level of trust employees feel toward a leader, three of them stand at the top of the list.

 In order to leverage the diversity of strengths, talents and experiences of what each employee has to offer, leaders must remember to focus on these three key elements that build and maintain trust. We must remember that once trust is lose, it is difficult to earn back.  Where we put our focus, is where we get our results, so great leaders must focus on building and maintaining trust.

 How would your people rate you on a scale from one-to-ten for each of the following? How well do you think on a scale from one-to-ten do you think you do at each of these?

 Build and Maintain Positive Relationships – your employee doesn’t trust you just because you are their superior. However, any leader should be able to instill trust as long as one is willing to:

 ·         work on developing cooperation across different tasks with others

• ·         stay in touch on issues that concern employees
• ·         provide objective feedback in helpful manner, even when results are less satisfactory
• ·         act as an intermediary in resolving conflicts in the organization

 People – or in this case employees – trust others with which they have developed positive relationships. It is much easier to trust a close friend than an acquaintance you barely know, for example.

 Utilize the Expertise in Tasks at Hand – in modern organizations where positions of authority are granted only to capable hands with reputable educational backgrounds and experience in related fields, it is safe to say that every leader really has earned the rights to lead. Such leaders have better chances of being considered trustworthy because they are more likely capable of:

 ·         providing invaluable ideas for or contributions to day-to-day operation and achieving goals

• ·   anticipating problems and responding pro-actively
• ·         giving advices to those seeking for counsels
• ·         displaying good judgment in decision-making process
• ·         coming up with good solutions to address immediate issues

 In other words, employees need a leader who has both deep technical understanding of how the organization is (or should be) run and real-life experience as a subordinate as well

 Be Consistent – employees want their leader to be consistent in work attitudes, communication style, approach to resolving conflicts, and sometimes general behavior too. While to an extent this makes a leader predictable, employees are aware of leader’s expectation as well as what is expected of them. Sense of familiarity on leader’s part helps nurture trust. Consistency is showcased if a leader:

 ·         leads by example or be the role model

• ·         follows through on commitments
• ·         keeps promises
• ·         respects rules enforced for all regardless of positions

 An organization may go through changes big and small throughout the years, but leader must stay characteristically consistent to earn trust from employees. Rating yourself honestly and listening to feedback from your team about each of these can help you be the best you can be. We don’t always know what we do not know and must be honest about areas to be an even better leader.

 You don’t need to be perfect in every way to be an effective leader. However, the three elements discussed above should stand out among your other characteristics to earn healthy level of trust from employees. Trust doesn’t just happen; you have to earn it before you lead, and maintain it when you do. The road to reestablishing trust after you’ve lost it isn’t always straightforward, and often the efforts are much more taxing than acquiring it in the first place. The good thing is that you may not have to arrive at that point as long as you continue to engage with people from the framework provided with a focus on these three key elements that build and maintain trust.

Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about and like the article if you agree with it!

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management. He is a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Visit www.SupervisionEssentials.com for more great free articles and to learn more about leadership effectiveness. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment. You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

 There is going to be a time when millennials completely take over the leadership roles from their Baby Boomer and Generation X predecessors. It is only likely that they will continue to introduce big changes in organizational cultures as they already have. Here are some changes millennials have so far brought and been consequently adopted in workplace all over the world. It should be noted that no person fits into any “box” perfectly. We are all different and unique. Here are some ideas to consider to help you leverage the diversity of what people have to offer:

 1.      Preference for more diversity and inclusion

 Millennials are the most diverse generation in the United States (and probably all over the world, too). Therefore it is only natural that they feel more enthusiastic about diversity issues in workplace of which they think have been handled rather poorly by all previous generations.

 Whether or not current leaders want to admit, a claim of being a “diverse company” everywhere sounds more like a distant hope rather than the result of objective self-evaluation. Millennials take the issue of diversity even further by setting up the groundwork for a workplace composed of employees not only from different races and ethnicities, but also with varying characteristics, religious beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic backgrounds, educational qualifications, and political inclinations as well. As Millennials take leadership roles, more organizations will become more multicultural.

 2.      Better utilization of automation

 Robotic technology has always been an issue, most prominently on the question whether (or when) artificial intelligence can finally replace human workers. Robots are more efficient in performing repetitive tasks for example in mass-production or assembly line. The previous generation mostly considers automation as big improvement on efficiency as the technology cuts production cost and eliminates errors almost entirely, because in fact it does.

 Millennials see the issue from a slightly different perspective. While they embrace and live with modern technologies probably since childhood, they understand the negative impact of artificial intelligence on human workforce or employment rate in general. They want better – yet not necessarily more – utilization of artificial intelligence. Ideas, creativity, and innovations are considered more important, and this is why leaders from this generation strive for the inclusion of employees from multiple cultural backgrounds.

 3.      Preparation for Generation Z

 Unlike Baby Boomers who seem to be a little bit surprised of how their successors embrace workplace culture, Millennials will do what’s necessary to welcome the next generation. In many cases, Generation Z is much better prepared.

 Millennials are raised by Baby Boomers and Generation X  in times when the country is somewhat in dreary political and economic conditions triggered by the 9-11 tragedy and Great Recession. Millennials are told that economic recovery would be slow and they probably wouldn’t enjoy the same quality of life as their parents did. In general, their expectations are quite low. On the contrary, Generation Z grew up in times of unprecedented economic growth, massive streak of job creations, and relative safety. They heard horror stories from older siblings, but the reality for Generation Z is mostly the exact opposite.

 However, Millennials have the advantage of being open-minded, and they embrace changes with willingness to learn. They know Generation Z grew up in preparation of good times along with anticipation of downturn, so they are ready either way. In terms of adaptability, both generations are on equal grounds, making the transition in the future feels less radical. Keep an open mind when leading people. Try to meet people where they are at and listen to what is needed from you as a leader. Supporting people can look very different to each person. Engage with employees in a way that allows you to understand what is important to them and do your best to be flexible. These actions will earn respect, trust and loyalty.

 Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about.

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management. He is a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Visit www.SupervisionEssentials.com for more great free articles and to learn more about leadership effectiveness. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment. You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook