Sara Gilbert is an award-winning Business Strategist & Mindset Coach for service-based entrepreneurs.
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Lately, we've been hearing a lot about the “quiet quitting” phenomenon, where employees decide to do the bare minimum at their jobs and stick to their job descriptions.
As we’re hearing more and more about quiet quitting, another phenomenon has also come into focus: quiet firing. Forbes describes this as "...a phenomenon where employers demoralize their unwanted employees to the point where they eventually decide to resign.”
You’re most likely thinking, “Not me; as a leader, I never do that!” Without going to that extreme, is it possible that some leaders demotivate their employees without realizing it?
According to a survey conducted by LinkedIn, 35% of 20,000 respondents revealed that they had experienced quiet firing themselves, and 48% had witnessed it at work. That’s 83% of the people surveyed admitting to having witnessed or undergone quiet firing at their workplace.
There are undoubtedly malicious leaders out there who act like executioners, but I am convinced that these are uncommon. On the contrary, I truly believe these are a mere minority.
That being said, having coached many leaders, I have noticed that certain behaviors are often repeated—sometimes unconsciously, sometimes out of desperation—and lead to the demotivation of employees.
1. Lack Of Feedback
Here’s a perfect example I see regularly: You ask someone on your team to do a task. They’re accomplished but errors occur. You then mention these to the person but despite your comments, the mistakes are repeated and there is no improvement.
Over time, you stop mentioning mistakes and either correct them yourself or ask someone else in your team to do so, or you do the tasks without mentioning them to the person concerned.
And so communication deteriorates, and trust is slowly lost along the way. The employee feels like a simple task executor and gets involved less and less. After a while, they ask themselves "what's the point" and slowly pull back from making an effort.
2. Reduction Of Motivating And Inspiring Projects
An employee seems constantly overworked and extremely busy, but rather than listening to their needs, guiding and coaching them or offering training that might help them perform more effectively, you may give the challenging projects to other members of the team or hire a new resource person to get the job done.
As a result, self-confidence diminishes, and the employees stop believing in their competencies or in their potential. Again, they end up asking themselves "what's the point" and slowly pull back from making an effort.
3. Hire Of A New Resource
You hire a new resource to take on more complex, more advanced tasks without validating the interest in advancement with the people currently in place in your team. So people on your team do not see opportunities for advancement or personal growth within your business and go elsewhere for other opportunities.
Now, I am unsure whether “quiet quitting” comes before or after “quiet firing” or vice-versa, but they definitely go hand in hand.
I would love to tell you that I have all the answers to keeping our teams fully engaged in their work, but I don’t (I’m also sometimes guilty of some of the behaviors listed). As a leader myself, I too evolve, learn, make mistakes and hence continue to learn.
There is, however, one thing I can share with you and that I am certain of—our leadership reflects our self-leadership and self-awareness. By taking a moment to become aware of why we act the way we do, we can shed light on some of the behaviors we have.
Consequently, take the time to ask yourself the following questions:
- What made me act this way? What’s really behind my behavior?
- Do I truly trust this person?
- If I do, how can I let go? What do I need? What does this person need?
- If I don’t, how can I build a bit more trust in this person today?
- Where, as a leader, did I fail in my leadership?
- Is this person the right person on my team? Has this person been given the appropriate role?
- Am I the leader I would love to have for myself?
Being the trusted adviser for clients, an entrepreneur and a leader are three totally different roles that require very different skills. The beauty of leadership is that there are no competencies to acquire but simply to bring self-awareness and practice another skill set. By offering the best version of yourself, you don’t have to “manage” your team as much. You can focus on “creating” fully motivated and engaged leaders within your teams. The world needs more leaders who create more leaders!
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