“Why Do I Have to Babysit My Employees?”
I was working with a team leader recently and he was complaining… “Derek, why do I have to babysit my employees?” After a fruitful discussion, it became apparent that there were a lot of reasons, but they all stemmed from his own inadequacies. It was a bitter pill to swallow for him but it put his team on a better path.
Considering that I don’t want to put his struggles out there for all to read, I’m going to speak generically from this point forward.
Over my years of coaching leaders and building teams, I’ve found that there is a reasonable set of FAQs for leadership roles — leader/boss/owner/supervisor… They go something like this:
Q — Why does everyone come to me to complain about their co-workers?
A — You probably haven’t done one of two things (or maybe neither of these two things).
- You haven’t invested in interpersonal communication training. I use Color Code but there are a lot of great classes and content out there to help your team members communicate directly with one another in more effective ways.
- You haven’t been clear with expectations or consistent with accountability. People will test boundaries and frustrate one another when the boundaries aren’t clear. Everyone ends up judging others according to their own set of standards when the leader hasn’t made shared standards clear.
Q — Why won’t anyone make decisions?
A — You haven’t empowered them to do so.
- It’s possible that you are a micro-manager and have been critical of others when they have tried to make decisions in the past.
- It’s also likely that you haven’t been clear with what the goals are. When this happens, your people begin guessing what must be done and they ask you to make decisions because they literally have no idea which direction they are supposed to go.
Q — Why do none of my employees want to work hard?
A — You haven’t motivated them properly.
- To motivate your people so that they choose to perform above the minimum, you need to reach them on two levels. First, they must have an emotional connection to the work, and it’s your responsibility to provide that if you’re the leader. You can start by explaining why the work to be done is genuinely important to the community; speak about why people will appreciate their work. Second, they must have a logical understanding of the purpose of the work. Begin by explaining the cause and effect when they fulfill their job duties. What measurable impact will they have on the client or business?
- Maybe you selected the wrong person. Sometimes, it’s just a bad fit. The person you hired or selected for the responsibility in question is simply not built for it. You’ll correct this by talking with your employee about their performance. Give them room to talk about how they feel about the tasks and responsibilities. It will become apparent if they hate the work. And if they do, it’s time to recast the role.
Q — Why is there so much gossip among my team?
A — You haven’t set and maintained a set of values. (It takes more than a poster on a wall to set values.)
- First, you must clearly state that gossip will not be a part of what this team does; then, when you witness it, nip it in the bud right away and address the conflict head on that is causing the gossip. Simply put, this is setting, then maintaining the value of respect for your coworkers.
- Second, you must facilitate stronger personal connections among the team. Gossip is a symptom of weak trust or mistrust. It’s purpose is to build bonds with those we feel safe, while building up a barrier from those we don’t feel safe. As the leader, it’s up to you to provide opportunities for team members to build trust with one another. This is where team-building comes in. Communication and goal-setting workshops can also help to build bonds. You could assign tasks to be completed by pairs or trios with the intent of strengthening the relationship of those pairs and trios. But remember, this is a “human thing” that has to be overcome with human values.
Q — Why does it seem like all my employees are just here for the paycheck?
A — See “Why do none of my employees want to work hard?” (They’re really the same question.)
Q — Why don’t my employees seem to care about our customers?
A — 3 primary possibilities:
- You hired the wrong person. Not everyone is built for customer service. Start observing your employees and it’ll become apparent who dislikes people. Give those employees a job that doesn’t face customers. Hire someone new.
- You’ve over-burdened your employees with tasks that take them away from customer service. Realistically, it’s easy to see when someone didn’t complete a task, but unless a customer complains, it’s tough to see when an employee chooses to do a poor job helping their customer. So… the task will win out and the customer will be ignored, because that’s how accountability works in this situation.
- You haven’t provided a deeper purpose to the service. It goes like this: Dealing with people is hard; so, we need to WANT to help them instrinsically. That’s going to come from PURPOSE. As humans, we respond to purpose — How does my task make a difference? Why does helping my customers make a difference? When we feel purpose, we rise to the challenge — and customer service is a challenge. Help bring purpose and meaning to the work and you’ll see a difference.
Wrapping it up…
This was inspired by the fact that so many leaders out there struggle with the basics of leading. I hear the same questions over and over. And the questions above… they are just the tip of the iceberg, but they do crop up often.
Realistically, your real struggles are going to be more complicated than the simple answers I gave above. And, the simple answers are really just the beginnings of answers; you will have a lot of work to do to realize those ideas.
Get yourself a leadership coach, read the best reviewed content out there, reconnect with a trusted mentor… Don’t fall prey to the idea that you “don’t have time to hand-hold, people just need to step up!” That’s not how it works. You’ll end up spending all your time dealing with people issues and turn-over if you don’t do the hard work of leading. But if you DO do the hard work of leading, it will pay off with commitment and excellence from your people.
