6 blunders that can demotivate your employees

Engaged employees are more productive and creative and less likely to quit. However, demotivating management practices can make employees inefficient and start looking elsewhere for work. Here are six managerial mistakes to avoid.

1. Making too many rules. Organizations need rules, but unnecessary rules can make employees feel cramped and uncreative.

2. Overlooking accomplishments. When managers don’t recognize employee successes, workers become less motivated to exceed expectations.

3. Hiring and promoting the wrong people. Great employees want to work alongside other great workers. Hiring or promoting friends or underqualified employees demotivates those who work with them.

4. Treating everyone equally. Treating all employees equally shows top performers that they’ll be treated the same as underperformers, no matter how hard they work.

5. Breaking promises. Keeping your promise of awards, time off, or raises engenders trust. Reneging on commitments makes you look disrespectful and uncaring, creating an environment where accountability isn’t valued.

6. Tolerating poor performance. No one likes conflict, but when you fail to call out an employee for poor performance, you show the entire team that their underperformance has no consequences.

Engaging your employees and recognizing their worth is key to maximizing your organization’s performance.