Better Leaders Needed To Fix The Broken Workplace

Most of us spend 81,396 hours working.[1]

The only thing we spend more time doing is sleeping.

How is that working out for you?

Before you answer that question, let’s look at the bigger picture. What is going on around the globe?

The Global Rise of Unhappiness

Negative Experience Index

Source: Gallup 2022 Global Emotions Report

The graph shows the rise of unhappiness on a global scale. We can attribute pandemic and inflation to that rise but as the graph shows, unhappiness has been increasing well before those events occurred.

Gallup found that one of the five significant factors contributing to the rise in unhappiness was the “scarcity of good work.”

Let’s correlate that with the findings from the State of the Gallup State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report.

According to the world’s workers, 60% of them are emotionally detached at work and 19% are miserable. That’s nearly a fifth of the workforce downright miserable. Being miserable at work can bring more suffering to a person’s life than being unemployed.

Gallup found the causes of misery to be unfair treatment at work, unmanageable workload, unclear communication from managers, lack of manager support, and unreasonable time pressure.

The one thing those things have in common is your boss. Or should I say, “Your bad boss.”

This statement from the report really resonated with me.

“Improving life at work isn’t rocket science, but the world is closer to colonising Mars than it is to fixing the world’s broken workplaces.

The real fix is this simple: better leaders in the workplace. Managers need to be better listeners, coaches, and collaborators. Great managers help colleagues learn and grow, recognise their colleagues for doing great work, and make them truly feel cared about. In environments like this, workers thrive.”

For 79% of workers, this type of environment is just a pipe dream. For 21% of workers, it is a reality.

Why is this the case?

1.  Change the focus

Leaders are still paying attention to the wrong things. Just like global unhappiness has been increasing for decades, the poor state of the workplace and low levels of employee engagement have been too.

Source: Gallup State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report.

This graph shows it all. In 2009, only 12% of employees were engaged. This rose to a peak of 22% in 2019 and then dropped to 21% in 2021. In 12 years we have managed to increase this to just 21% - a 9% improvement. 

In 2009, 24% of employees were thriving in their overall wellbeing. In 12 years we have managed to increase that to just 33% - a 9% improvement.

Someone has not had their eye on the ball. There is a leadership blind spot to employee engagement and wellbeing. Employers are still focused on the transactional aspects of employment such as pay and benefits. Even the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics only focus on pay and demographics. There is no measure of how employees are being treated, valued, or cared for.

In August, I wrote two articles – Change the Focus – Part 1 and Change the Focus Part 2.

In these articles I suggested that employers need to change the focus from the transactional aspects of employment to the relational aspects and focused on these things:

·        Autonomy

·        Motivation

·        Innovation

·        Agility

·        Resilience

·        Collaboration

·        Growth mindset

·        Shared purpose

·        Experimentation and risk

·        Psychological safety

·        Recognition

·        Trust

I am not going to talk about the impact of each of these focus areas. I will allow you to look at the articles.

What about the bottom line I hear the employer shout?

Businesses with engaged workers have 23% higher profits compared with business units with miserable employees. (Gallup 2022).

2.  Better leaders

According to Gallup, the fix is simple: better leaders in the workplace. I could not agree more.

It is a sad indictment that the state of leadership in our organisation was exposed with the onset of the pandemic. In March 2020, the global demand for employee surveillance software increased by 80%.

The demand is trending upwards. The demand was stronger in 2021 than in 2020 and is significantly stronger again in 2022 to date. The following chart shows the month-by-month increase in demand for employee surveillance software compared to the 2019 monthly average.

Source: top10vpn

I wrote about this in an article called Leadership – The Horror Movie back in May.

These statistics clearly showed we have “leaders” who are not capable of measuring performance by outputs rather than inputs – outcomes rather than hours on the computer. We have managers who use command and control and micromanagement. They fear loss of control.

These managers can become leaders. In my consultancy business I work with leadership teams to move away from command and control to an environment of autonomy and trust with great success. There is often a look of dismay when I talk about empowerment, delegation, and employee autonomy. The faces looking back at me are screaming, “This will be anarchy.” It never is. Moving from command and control is not done overnight. It is done in bite size pieces with each bite getting bigger than the one before. We start with a small low risk task and then move on to a slightly larger task and keep on doing so. The autonomy and trust given to an employee not only frees up the manager from doing things they should not be doing, but also increases employee engagement, motivation, and a sense of purpose. It is a win-win for everyone.

I have also proven that managers can become better leaders with learning and development in areas of communication and listening; accountability; intentional collaboration; positive reinforcement; empathy; diversity, equity, and inclusion; feedback; and outcomes-based performance measurement.

The only thing missing is commitment by the organisation to invest in leadership learning and development. An HBR article by Jack Zenger written in 2012 called “We Wait Too Long To Train Our Managers” found that the average age of 17,000 leaders participating in his training program was 42. The average age of managers in those organisations was 33 and most had entered management at the age of 30. This means that if they are not entering learning and development programs until the age of 42, they are operating within the organisation unequipped, uninformed, and unversed for over a decade.

Leadership expert, Jacob Morgan, echoes the same dilemma in his 2020 podcast “Most Leadership Development Programs are Too Late.”

He says, “Most people don't enter leadership development programs until they are in their 40s, yet they actually become leaders in their 20s and 30s! This means that most #leaders spend 10-15 years leading others before they are actually taught how to lead.

It's no wonder so many employees around the world aren’t engaged in their jobs--we simply don't have enough leaders who are taught how to lead effectively.”

Yes, we need better leaders in the workplace, but we must invest in them in an expeditious manner.

3.  Measurement

We must measure the right things in the right way at the right time. 

How do you measure employee happiness? The terms employee engagement and happiness at work, are used interchangeably. Yet I believe they are two different things. Our professional and personal lives spill over and crossover. What happens at work effects our personal lives and vice versa. If we are fully engaged at work, we have a sense of purpose, meaning and belonging and that can lead to happiness at work.

As Kevin Kruse puts it, “Yeast is not the same as bread, but yeast is required to make bread. Engagement at work is not the same as happiness, but you need engagement to achieve happiness.”

There are many ways in which to measure employee happiness, but one way not to do it is by relying on annual employee surveys. This is like driving your car, whilst only looking in the rear-view mirror. I would suggest you employ a variety of methods to measure happiness and look at the collated measurements to determine what is working well and what is not.

The first and foremost thing we should be doing is asking. Leaders should check in at each team meeting and ask the team how they are feeling. You can use a smiley face rating scale that uses emoji faces to measure happiness levels. You can use a numeric scale from 1 to 10 where 1 is most unhappy and 10 is most happy. You can use a traffic light scale where employees, can choose between super-green, green, amber, or red.

You can use these in all sorts of situations including one-on-one meetings with team members. You should always check-in on how they are feeling and faring. Visual prompts often help to stimulate conversation. The most important factor is that the results you are receiving must be analysed, investigated, and action taken. If an employee says I am “red” today, you must find out why and act. The same applies if they say, “super-green.” You must find out what has led to that happiness rating so you can build on it.

You must hold open discussions with the team to discuss the results and brainstorm solutions. Co-create solutions with the team and then act.

4.  Wellbeing

The only priority managers must have if they are to be better leaders is the wellbeing of their people.

I have wellbeing as one of the points on my Future Of Work Redesigned Compass and I wrote about this back in March.

Far too many organisations are implementing point solutions so they can the tick the box that asks if they care about their employees. This is what I wrote in the article:

“A mental wellbeing platform must be holistic and contextual. This is the time to stop kidding yourself that the sweat patch that tells employee they are stressed; the happy or sad wrist band; the gym membership; the mindfulness and meditation classes; the Friday yoga sessions; the gratitude app; will take care of employee mental wellbeing. It won’t.

Whilst all these things have value, on their own they are just point solutions.”

The provision of mental health first aiders is another point solution with little or no value if the stigma of mental health in the workplace is not remove. People will not reach out to use these resources if there is fear of discrimination or harassment.

Holistic

The platform must meet the needs of everyone in the organisation. Not everyone enjoys yoga or going to the gym. These can be part of the mental health platform, but it also needs to contain resources that are address the needs of everyone. It must be inclusive and support the entire organisation not just a portion of it. It must address the mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of wellbeing.

Contextual

Employees need specific tools and resources that will help them address the challenges or adversities they face at a given point in time. As an industry colleague, Paula Davis, once said, “You cannot yoga your way out of burnout.”

If I am stressed, anxious, and approaching burnout because I am struggling to resolve a complex problem I am faced with and have a tight deadline in which to find a solution, the Friday yoga session is not going to help me. I need access to support and resources that address problem solving, collaboration, self-efficacy, and communication.

Summary

Most of us spend 81,396 hours working. The only thing we spend more time doing is sleeping. How is that working out for you and your team?

“Improving life at work isn’t rocket science, but the world is closer to colonising Mars than it is to fixing the world’s broken workplaces.

The real fix is this simple: better leaders in the workplace.”

[1] According to the Gallup World Poll, the average full-time worker spends 41.36 hours per week working. If you assume people work 48 weeks per year, it means people spend 1,985.28 hours per year working. Life expectancy is 73 and, according to the OECD, people retire at about 63. If people begin working at 22, then the average person works 41 years. Forty-one years of work at 1,985.28 hours per year is 81,396 total hours. This estimate is conservative and may even be low; another estimate finds that people work over 115,000 hours in a lifetime.

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I am an organisational change management rebel with a cause. 

I am an author, sought after keynote speaker, coach mentor and facilitator. My latest and fourth book, "Balanced Diversity: A Portfolio Approach to Organisational Change" is available here.

I am passionate about enabling individuals and organisations to triumph in the face of constant and disruptive change and I do so through programs regarding organisational change, resilience, agility, leadership, transformation and adaptation.

To inquire about me working with you or your organisation please contact me here.