Much has been said about the inability of Non-Profits to retain staff. The inadequate salaries and burn out is most often the main reason provided for staff leaving. What we don’t often refer to are those staff that do stick it out for some years – and then suddenly leave – those committed, high performing staff. Why do they stay and why do they ultimately leave?
I have spoken to many of these workers who leave their organizations after some years and the majority have offered the lack of leadership as main reason for ultimately leaving. The lack of leadership manifested in various ways and is given as main contributing factor in demoralization and disheartenment of these committed and performing staff.
Some Examples of Bad Leaders
Due to the Manager or Supervisor inability or unwillingness to address the non-performance or limited performance of some of their colleagues, these committed workers are often called upon to pick up the slack of non-performing workers. They must write their reports, go to courts on their colleague’s behalf, run their workshops- and share the workload of these workers over and above their own job description.
Some of their colleagues consistently and regularly fail to comply with organizations code of conduct or procedures. There is misuse of vehicles, continuously arriving late for work, failure to comply with clear and reasonable instructions or failure to comply with professional regulations. These are the staff whose behaviors undermines Organisation culture. But there seems to be no consequences – with managers lacking the strength of will and mind to address it directly with relevant staff. If Managers or Supervisors do address it, they do so in a general staff meeting in a general manner. The guilty parties do not feel to bad and can keep on ignoring feedback as they have done to date – and the committed workers are left frustrated and dispirited due to being clustered with non-compliant staff and their own compliance and acquiescence being ignored.
These committed workers entered the field with a clear picture of what awaited them – lack of resources and inadequate salaries. What they were not prepared for is the failure of managers or supervisors to objectively and honestly appraise their staff’s performance – which means that if there is a bit of pie (funds)to share – it just gets shared equally between all. Why – because Managers, Leaders and Supervisors don’t want to make unpopular decisions. (once again lacking the strength of will or mind)
Day-to-day failure to follow through is costing managers long-term credibility with their employees. Posner wrote in The Leadership Challenge that integrity is the most sought-after and admired characteristic of all in leaders – but many workers in Non-Profits say this is missing in their leadership relations. Failure of manager to allocate and put time aside for individual workers – or easily cancel time put aside (or allows interruptions) makes employee feel disrespected. When Manager fails to listen to employee’s suggestions or listens but fail to follow through with feedback or decisions Employees become dejected.
The Lack of Communication and the Type of Communication from Leaders can also be high on the Frustration scale of committed employees. Employees require clarity when Leader communicate instructions, expectations and feedback and they quite often get ambiguity. Quite ofen Leaders enforce a strict one-way communication – they might give opportunity for input, but rarely utilize or act on input.
Ego Driven Leadership: Some leaders seem threatened by skilled and knowledgeable staff and limit opportunity for input and participation. These Leaders will also quite often refuse or limit opportunity for delegation or empowerment. These leaders will also quite often fail to show any creativity in creating opportunities for their performing staff, and just verbalize the lack of money, resources or opportunities that ties their hands.
Some Leaders do not lead by example. They will instruct their staff on following organizational procedures, while they don’t. They will enforce professional standards for direct service, whilst ignoring professional standards for supervision or management. When leaders say one thing, but do another, they erode trust.
Lack of Courage of Leader: Workers become especially despondent by a leader who creates the impression that they (the leader) are powerless, who quickly gives up, who is not willing to take calculated risks – or an advocacy role- that demonstrate a commitment to a larger purpose (the vision and mission of the organisations). The worker’s level of dis-empowerment is exponentially increased by a manager who is not persistent, who is not prepared to represent them both internally or externally. These Leaders just follow rules – they never stand up for their team or for the wider Organisation.
The Leader as a Victim: Few things erode trust so fast as Manager or Leader that disrespects and undermines the leadership higher up in the hierarchy of the Organisation. While most staff would love all the inside information, they cannot respect a Manager that conveys all the problems and illustrating their lack of impact in effecting change. The manager represent staff on these structures and the illustrated ineffectiveness of the manager just heightens staff level of frustration. The staff also don’t want to hear about the managers work frustrations when they as staff are sharing their frustrations or problems. The staff don’t want to hear how the manager is looking out for a new job because of their frustrations and irritations.
Leaders that facilitate Office Politics: Leaders that play staff or other managers off against each other, or illustrates favoritism saps the morale out of individuals and the whole organisation. They create a permanent culture of distrust and vindictiveness. These managers will also ignore difficult team members, or team members who thrive on office politics, and the subsequent disruptive culture facilitates frustration.
Ultimately Managers, Supervisors and Leaders lose credibility. They lose the trust and respect of their committed staff. And when you don’t respect your Leader – it’s time to leave
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