Has your organization recently sustained a series of changes that impacted every aspect of employee life? As a leader or a manager, are you wondering how it’s impacted your culture? If you’re taking the time to ask the question, you’ve already taken a step in the right direction. It indicates you care, and you’re willing to figure out what it takes to fix the problem. The last thing you want is your workplace to join this statistic; Gallup reported that 63% of the world’s workforce is disengaged at work. So how do you know if your office culture is headed for disaster?
Knowledge Hoarding
Do employees seem unwilling to share data or information with other members of their team or with other departments? If this is a new behavior among your employees, it could indicate they’re starting to feel like they’re replaceable. The fear that someone younger or less expensive could come in and do their job seems to grab hold when a big reorganization of roles happens, a significant lay-off is in the works, or a merger is on the horizon. You can often remedy this by being direct with your staff, asking if this is what’s driving the fear, and being honest about the circumstances.
Flying solo
Are employees working on their own more often? While some employees probably love the solitude and might have even mentioned their heightened productivity, this can lead to point number one. If you’re noticing this, do your best to put your teams on at least one project that drives interaction and team focus. The last thing you want to happen is for your teams to expect that they’ll get to work on their own 100% of the time and struggle when they have no choice but to collaborate to meet department goals and objectives. It can also lead to employees generally avoiding communication with their co-workers, and wanting to get their work done and get out. -Try some team building activities or outings to inspire some comradery among your staff.
The big cover up
If your employees seem to be less inclined to speak up about a problem, issue or mistake than in the past, it might signal a shift in trust within the organization. An erosion of trust among your employees can stem from 100 different places. However, often times when employees band together, they feel like their leadership doesn’t understand what’s going on, can’t help fix the issues, or worse, employees feel like they aren’t a priority. One way to regain trust is to lead. This means you have to be in the office, be available, and do your best to demonstrate that when you say “I’m here for you,” that you’re actually there. This is tough, because in times of turmoil, as a leader or manager you are being pulled in one million different directions, and you want your staff to just keep the ship on course during all the uncertainty. Resist the urge to put your team on auto-pilot and hope for the best. Dig in, listen, and support them with all of your resources. When things do settle down, you’ll have proven to your team that you’re a leader worth following, and your best people will be there to take you to the next level moving forward.
Shhhh. .. .
It is now so quiet in the office, you can hear a pin drop? This is linked to point number two where your team is working solo. Clearly you don’t want all day, every day to be social hour, but if you can go through an entire work day and not encounter anyone having a conversation, there is something driving this new found silence. Every team has one person who is connected to nearly everyone in the office. Start with this person, ask them about the new radio silence around the office and approach it from the perspective that you are genuinely concerned, not seeking out one person to blame for the shift in culture. If he or she tells you what’s at the root of problem, ask what you can do to make it better. If the conversation doesn’t go anywhere, meaning you’re no closer to understanding the issue, you’ll have to take another tact. Talk to other managers to discuss what you’re seeing on your team. Ask if they’re seeing the same thing, or have experienced it in the past. What have they done to get their teams back on track? Hopefully a little brainstorming will result in actionable items that you can set in motion to help your team.
Whose office is this?
If you used to be able to walk along the corridors in your office and see the personalities of each of your employees on their desk, but now have a tough time identifying one employee’s work space from another, there might be an issue. If you just went through a big move, like shifting your marketing team to your floor and your team moved into their old space, your team’s personal effects might still be housed in boxes. They’ll likely put their desks back together again when they have a free Friday afternoon. However, if it seems like your team is dismantling their desks day by day, they’re probably job searching too. So how do you get them to come back to your team? Show them the love. A combination of the team building, leadership and digging in that we’ve outlined in previous points will serve you well in this scenario too.
If you are experiencing any of these cultural phenomena, you are not alone. These are very common issues that nearly every manager and leader will endure throughout the course of their career. They can be triggered by a million different circumstances, but are generally a result of changing situations. If you can figure out what your team wants and needs, and can find a way to support them through the turmoil, you’ll be the leader/manager that everyone wants to work for.