Can Leadership Promote Employee Poor Performance?

Yes, absolutely! When leadership wants to play it safe and subtly (or not so subtly) communicates fears of failure or criticism, those fears will begin to stifle employees’ freedom to think creatively and share new ideas.
 
Members of your employee group are keenly aware of signs that you want to play it safe. And they’ll do what they can to avoid triggering your suppression of forward thinking.
 
Here are eight sure-fire ways to stifle your employees’ creativity and enthusiasm:

1. Skepticism of new ideas -- openly express doubts of employee success
2. Unrealistic deadlines for project completion – kill creativity by limiting time for innovations
3. Narrow definitions of acceptable processes – “YOUR way or the highway”
4. Meet mistakes and failed attempts with ridicule and disapproval
5. Micromanage your team’s planning and problem-solving
6. Redundant requirements for approvals to proceed
7. Routinely delay approvals until the “11th Hour”
8. Parcel out project-specific information on a need-to-know basis

 
On the other hand, the keys to supporting employee creativity are to hire the right people, provide the right supports, and allow your employees the freedom to commit to excellence.
 
Here’s what I think is a great quote about creativity.
“Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weirdness. That’s easy. What’s hard is to keep it simple. Making complexity awesomely simple, that’s creativity”.
 – modified from Charles Mingus
 
Would you like more information about this topic? Or how about a brief, confidential, no-judgement discussion of your current situation?
 
Contact my offices at (336) 999-4533 or email me at DonnaColes.Coach@gmail.com and we’ll schedule a time to discuss your leadership dilemma and identify some options that will help.
 
Or, Click the following link to schedule your discussion with me.
https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=18102228 

Until then…
 

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