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Are Managers Abandoning Their Responsibilities in the Name of Employee Engagement?
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I just hopped on the internet and searched for “engagement and retention strategies.” Google returned 116,000,000 results. My God, have we written or read enough about this?
OK, full disclosure: I’ve got about 10 or so pieces in those results. Shoot, I even have an unfinished manuscript on employee retention and engagement. However, I consider it redundant at this point.
Anyway, Google offered an abundance of resources to help readers engage and retain their workforce, including a plethora of top 5 lists, best 10s, and lots of lucky 7s. There are actionable lists, ultimate lists, and even a “clever” list.
But just like bacon, beer, and bread, too much of a good thing can be problematic.
Many of the pundits I found online suggest that employees need to feel wanted, appreciated, and significant while at work. The experts have unlimited ideas for managers regarding how to make workers happy and satisfied with their employment relationship.
However, very few of these pundits suggest the working relationship is reciprocal, or that managers have a right to feel good too — which has led many managers to focus too much on employee rights and not enough on their own.
Regardless of whether a workforce is unionized, Management Rights should be protected and exercised. And while I’ve written countless pieces over the years about encouraging collaboration, compromise, and even consensus, I have never wavered on the concept of protecting an employer’s explicit right to:
Please don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating for dictatorship or tyranny. I am simply suggesting that managers must recognize when Employee Rights have infringed upon Management Rights.
Sometimes, managers inadvertently give up Management Rights to certain employees because of their perceived value to the organization. For example, people in hard-to-fill positions or those who have heightened expertise, technical prowess, or professional connections are often given too much leeway or forgiveness in the workplace.
Have you heard similar statements in your workplace? That is the sound of Management Rights being offered to a different power.
Some employees have taken or assumed Management Rights because their manager fears or avoids conflict or their manager lacks confidence and hasn’t claimed or exercised the Management Right for themselves.
Unless managers preface such statements with something like, “I will consider your opinions and make the decision myself,” or “Ultimately, I will take action in the best interest of our company,” I can guarantee you that employees believe they have assumed what should be a Management Right.
Sometimes, piss-poor management results in relinquishing Management Rights to employees. For example, when a manager is an ass, it’s likely employees will complain. If an HR professional is an idiot, it’s likely employees will complain. If a safety rep is on a power trip and antagonistic, it’s likely employees will complain.
All of which is to say that when such employee concerns are consistently validated, managers quickly become invalidated. When this happens, Management Rights begin to mean less than Employee Rights.
Management Rights are like muscles. If you don’t use them, you lose them. Or if you don’t use them correctly, you risk damaging them. That said, I humbly offer a few exercises to build Management Rights muscles:
Consistent execution of the above activities will strengthen and tone your Management Rights, restoring a sorely needed balance in the employer/employee relationship. Ultimately, clarity on this subject helps provide stability and comfort in the workplace, which better enables reciprocity in areas of respect, helpfulness, and commitment.
Finally, to come back to how this piece started, I believe managers who protect and exercise their Management Rights will realize that engagement and retention strategies are not the core to a meaningful, positive work culture. They are a complement to one.
And because I don’t want to force you to read over 100 million resources on that particular subject, here’s my quick list: