How as a Boss, you can kill an employee's enthusiasm ?

Every one knows how important a team member is. And one MAIN reason why people quit the company is due to bad boss. Here are my views!

Favouritism

Often you have a favourite employee. Be it be the real hardworking employee or your ardent 'fan' who laughs at all your silly jokes. You are so busy in grooming your favourites, you may tend to overlook other talented team players. The talented people tend to get disillusioned soon and quit.

Ignore talent

You depend on 2-3 best people and do not want to take risk in grooming new talent. You are afraid of dead lines and do not want to trust new people. Unless you give an opportunity, people can not grow. Look around. There is plenty of talent, if you have the talent to notice other's skills. Else, they look for better opportunities

Afraid of talented youngsters

You have lot of experience. You are good in your work and have proven yourself. But, a new brilliant guy may be far more superior to you in technology and grasping things. Instead of using his talent for bettering the processes of the company, you may get afraid that this person may soon make you obsolete. If you really think you are likely to get obsolete, do something smarter and better, what you did in your younger days ! By not giving chances to the brightest kid, you may be only helping competitor as this boy may join them sooner or later. Just pray that he joins some non competing company !

Don't keep them posted

You need to take all the team into confidence and keep them posted about the projects, your vision and plans. Have brain storming sessions to arrive at any specific solution to a problem. Let them communicate freely with you. If you are holding back info, they will presume that you are not trusting them.

You are too rude

Some one makes mistake and you bring the roof down? To err is human. Find the reason for the mistake and find a solution. More importantly, ask the same person as to what he would do to avoid it. And get opinion of other senior employees. Plug the hole. Improve the process. And, give the person chances to learn. Never raise your voice. It is not going to help. Your rudeness leaves bad taste in their mouth even after they part ways with the company. If they make mistakes , take it as your responsibility.

Not ensuring proper growth

Promotion and designations make lot of difference. They are good when the employee need interact with clients. Wives, kids and friends will appreciate your growth in terms of designations. But, many people may not interested in designations. They want good salary , I mean good 'take home salary'. Ensure good monetary benefits with promotion or without promotion. No amount of philosophical lectures and how they get benefitted if company grows will not help. They want money NOW and they need to be satisfied with their own growth.

Being too strict and rigid

While discipline is important, only by discipline you don't achieve much. You can take a horse to the water, but can not make it drink. Do you entertain flexi timings? Or you insist on on-time punching of the attendance system? If you insist on-time reporting in the morning, you can not ask them to stay back late after office hours! Work is important. How they do and from where they do is immaterial. Don't expect them to sit infront of you and finish the work. If some one wants to go home early , let them go and they know that they have to finish their work. And they will. Being too rigid and strict is suffocating to employees.

There are many more. Just giving you an opportunity to comment :-)

Next article may be on CEOs who inadvertently kick their best Managers !