A company HR manager called regarding coaching for a manager. Several employees had indicated in their exit interviews that they had left the company because of difficulty with this manager.
I work mostly with high performing leaders. However, sometimes a manager is unhappy or worse and coaching can help. In certain situations the person needs to move on.
I met with the manager in this case. She aways came to our coaching meetings in a blue business suit. As she told me her story, it was apparent that she wasn't this horrible person described by the employees. It was understandable that they may have experienced her that way.
In a nutshell, she was clearly in the wrong job. The manager had been working at the bank for seventeen years. Coaching revealed her true love was art. As a single mother, she had begun her banking career as a means to support herself and her young daughter. She was unintentionally taking out her frustrations on her direct reports.
Utilizing some career assessments in our coaching she rediscovered her true passion. She and her current husband had made a trip to Costa Rica. They started a business designing and selling surf boards. She quit her job at the bank and was happily engaged in this creative business endeavor. It was a great fit for her. Her relationships with people vastly improved.
Are you and your people engaged in the right job?
A frequent character of science fiction novels and movies is the zombie – a soulless being with vacant eyes who wanders around purposelessly. Sometimes zombies are depicted as evil aliens intent upon destroying or inhabiting the bodies and minds of humans.
For many people working in unhealthy offices, this scenario might be all too familiar. Too often employees have to work with others who have become disenchanted and actively disengaged. These people represent 17 percent of the workforce, according to the latest Gallup Management Journal semi-annual Employee Engagement Index.
Actively disengaged employees aren’t just unhappy at work. They act out their discontent and sow seeds of negativity at every opportunity. They undermine the work of others. They are not just indifferent to company goals and mission; they express mistrust and outright animosity.
Where productivity is concerned, it would be better for organizations if people who are overly negative stayed home. When they do show up for work, they are counterproductive. We all know these types of people. They walk around the office with glazed looks or move from cubicle to cubicle stirring up trouble with whining, complaining, and even paranoia.
As workers increasingly rely on each other to generate products and services, the problems and tensions that are fostered by actively disengaged workers can cause great damage to an organization’s functioning.
A good manager will identify those who are disengaged and explore the reasons behind the disconnect to determine if coaching or other interventions are appropriate. In some cases, people will respond favorably to opportunities to reconnect and rekindle their interest and enthusiasm for their jobs. Most people search for ways to make their lives and work meaningful and only disengage when they feel hopeless. For those people who are irreversibly immersed in negativity, the wise manager will look at termination procedures.
How do you determine who should stay and who should go?
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