The 5 Vital Signs of a Disrespectful Leader ... Revealed!

Hi everyone! It’s Maree. Welcome to your Respectful Workplace Insights newsletter with weekly tips for building trust, safety and a thriving inclusive, performance culture.

Last week’s edition focused on what it takes to transform engagement through optimising connectivity at the 10X TRUST level.

Today we introduce the 5 vital signs of a disrespectful leader … warning signs that thwart any attempt to transform engagement, and they dramatically reduce connection and productivity.

Here’s the thing …

Disrespectful leaders create the space to shut down people around them and silently kill a culture

A lack of respect by leaders negatively impacts any work environment; leading to decreased morale, lower engagement, dwindling productivity and reduced mental wellbeing.

Respectful Leadership steeped in trust and connection is crucial for fostering a positive and thriving, inclusive performance culture.

You’ll never get a home run in any workplace transformational effort when disrespectful leaders are preventing you from getting to first base.

So how can you read the warning signs, to stop any disrespectful leaders causing psychological harm to the people around them?

The 5 Vital Signs of a Disrespectful Leader ... revealed:

Warning Sign Number 1 - Lack of Empathy

• A leader who is insensitive dismisses the people around them and ignores any attempts at connection.
• A team member may have a concern about a heavy workload, and they’re met with: “Everyone’s busy; you’ll just have to deal with it.”

In other words: “Get over it.”

• A team member may be experiencing a personal crisis. They summon up the courage to share that they’re going through a difficult time (such as a family illness).
• Their leader brushes it off and doesn’t offer any support or flexibility ... showing little concern for the team member’s wellbeing.
• Their leader demonstrates a lack of understanding of the team member’s stress; by failing to listen effectively and not acknowledging their perspective.

This undermines the relationship.

When leaders don’t have the ability and skills to have an open and honest conversation to determine what’s important to others, they’re unable to step into others’ shoes. ?

The leader's insensitivity blocks any opportunity to get into sync with others.

Disconnection reigns!

Warning Sign Number 2 - Lack of Inclusivity

• A leader may consistently invite only certain team members to key meetings or projects.

They leave others out based on favouritism, rather than skills or experience.

Those who aren’t chosen feel excluded and become part of the out group.

• Scheduling important meetings or events during significant cultural or religious holidays can exclude others.
• By ignoring the diverse backgrounds of the team, a leader can demonstrate insensitivity by failing to accommodate everyone's needs.

The leader's insensitivity shows up as not having the ability, willingness or the skills to acknowledge and validate team members’ diverse perspectives.

Warning Sign Number 3 - Lack of Fairness

• A leader may give the best assignments, promotions, or pay rises to a select few team members.

These aren’t based on merit but on personal preference.

This creates resentment and a sense of injustice amongst the rest of the team.

• The leader may harshly criticise some team members for mistakes while overlooking the same errors in others.

Inconsistency in feedback by a disrespectful leader undermines trust and fairness in the workplace and decreases psychological safety.

Warning Sign Number 4 - Lack of Recognition

• When a team successfully completes a challenging project, a disrespectful leader takes credit without acknowledging the hard work and contribution of the team members.
• It leaves team members feeling undervalued and undermined.

Feeling ignored is soul destroying.

It's so disrespectful to take the credit without doing the work

• The leader who only provides feedback when something is wrong, and never offers praise or recognition for a job well done, can destroy the morale of their team members.

This lack of positive reinforcement leaves team members feeling unappreciated, unsupported and unrecognised.

Warning Sign Number 5 - Not Making People Feel Seen, Heard, and Respected

• Disrespectful leaders ignore and disregard team member requests.
• Not letting others know where they stand with candour and caring leaves team members feeling invisible.

They don’t feel seen.

• A disrespectful leader will frequently interrupt team members in meetings or dismisses their ideas without consideration.

Team members feel their voices are not important.

• When team members provide feedback on a process that isn’t working and the leader ignores their input, nothing changes.
• Disregarding team members’ voices can lead to disengagement and frustration.

Team members don’t feel heard.

• When a leader closely controls every aspect of a team member’s work, it shows a lack of trust in their abilities.
• Micromanaging others decreases psychological safety, and team members feel disrespected and demoralised. ?

Team members don’t feel trusted - and they don't trust their leader

Respectful leadership is crucial for fostering a positive and inclusive workplace culture:

• Leaders showing empathy
• Leaders shifting others from isolation to inclusion
• Leaders demonstrating equity and fairness
• Leaders valuing and recognising all team members
• Leaders creating certainty so all team members feel seen, heard, valued and respected.

Navigating the journey to transforming your organisation means having a workplace environment free of psychological harm. Respectful Leadership is your access to that.

Whenever you’re ready here are 3 ways I can help you build your Respectful Leadership Culture – faster…

1.??Sign up to my LinkedIn Newsletter and receive my tips and insights every week, it's easy - hit the SUBSCRIBE button.

2.??Find out about our QuickStart CONNECT with R.E.S.P.E.C.T. workshop for your team - book a chat to find out more HERE

3. Speak with me personally and let's map out a plan together.

Respectful Workplace Insights is a weekly newsletter I am publishing on LinkedIn to highlight?some of the things that get in the way of creating a respectful workplace culture.

Eliminating disrespectful unproductive and depleting conversations and behaviours that are getting in the way of building respectful alignment and performance is where we start.

Each week I'll offer tips on how to do that so you can create a respectful workplace culture where everyone feels safe and included.

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