Quiet Quitting or Bad Leadership

I have had the great opportunity to work across the globe, and step into some “challenging” situations. This includes my time in Germany and the Middle East during my military career, to my expatriate business assignments in Thailand, China, and Malaysia. Even with language and custom barriers, there is one common challenge: people are people, and they yearn to have collaboration and engagement (both from and to).

When companies are struggling, either from sales, operations, or service, there is a gap in engagement. It can be the company’s values, vision, or goals, but these are quite high up, so we really need to drop into the weeds. Let’s talk about Values; companies spend a lot of money, time, and effort; then only to shelve these values. It’s “kind of check the box and point to it,” but not incorporating it into the very fabric of the business. Hire, promote, celebrate, reprimand, and succession is what requires a business to truly live its values.

Now gaining popularity is a new phrase called "Quiet Quitting." And yet...? Is it new? The definition of the phrase is "performing the job without going above and beyond," thus isn't that what it means to do your job? Why therefore use a new term? Has the post-pandemic forced people to strike a better work-life balance? In my opinion, yes. Some people who were considered important workers eventually burned out on their jobs. Perhaps we require a new term to refer to bad leaders who deliver subpar results. I believe the past couple years have given us a lot to think about; if leaders don't care for their staff members, don't expect them to go above and beyond the call of duty.

Leaders must do other things that you know people love. They not only pacify investors, but also ignite their people; those big Christmas parties are not the only thing. Leaders need to ask themselves…so what causes my employees to be disengaged? Many times, it comes to simply, “Your employees/team do not trust you,” as we spoke about in my last article. I think the disengagement is driven a lot by what's happening in each of the companies, as well as trust of their manager. When employees/team members don’t trust the leader or each other, it has a big impact on engagement, and I do believe like the phrase, “Culture is the shadow cast by the leader,” is a very true and right statement.

Tips & Strategies:

A good leader knows how to listen, a good leader knows how to bring out intelligence and the greatness of others around him or her, and a good leader knows how to effectively give and receive feedback.

A business or a leader must first look at the culture they have—and compare any gaps and opportunities to the culture they desire. Partners in Leadership[i] speak about Culture of Accountability, and creating a place where all leaders display thoughts and actions to achieve the organizational goals. This is the very foundation to start creating engagement at every level. I like accountability because when done properly, it is clear, everyone understands, and each person is equally held accountable. How many times have you worked for a boss (recognize I used the four-letter word boss) who holds 20 percent of the workforce to a higher standard, and gets upset when those people start to leave the company?

According to a recent State of the Global Workplace report, 85 percent of employees are not engaged or actively disengaged at work. Dismal Employee Engagement Is a Sign of Global Mismanagement (gallup.com) (Jim Harter). This is absolutely astounding. And out of that number, as much as 18 percent are actively disengaged; translation: they are working against the company goals and objectives, and hurting your bottom line. This means more than one-and-a-half employees are working against you and your team to reach the company goals. Yes, that drag on your progress is real.

People management is a contact sport, and you need your leaders to:

·       Be energized to talk with their teams and individual members.

·       Be able to help create career goals both inside and outside the workforce (if requested).

·       Learn to take off their schedule what is not critical before adding to their already-hectic schedules.

·       By far, be genuinely interested in people, and must be selfless.

·       Be willing to lift up both their teams and individuals.

A true leader is the one who develops others to be leaders. Otherwise, all you have is a manager, and people don’t stay for managers.

Read more on how to IGNITE.ENGAGE.RETAIN your employees with my new book due out by end of September 2022.

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George Murray is a Global Operations, Supply Chain Leader—and Army Veteran. He is an Award-winning Author of HIRED CUT YOUR CAREER SEARCH TIME IN HALF available now on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible & due out September 2022: IGNITE.ENGAGE.RETAIN –Ignite your Workforce, Engage your Team, and Retain your Talent. 

George is a self-proclaimed “Tenacious Optimistic” with a focus on helping both professionals and business leaders go from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow. From an early age when he was six-year-old, his sister died at age of three due to multiple heart surgeries, to surviving ground battle in Desert Storm, to overcoming job transition, he has found a way to use adversity as a motivation.