10 Ways to Know Your Workplace, Not You, Is the Real Problem
Summary: Work environment plays a pivotal role in our ability to thrive. Yet many of us blame ourselves when our career doesn’t pan out the way we expect. As a senior leader and Coach, I share key indicators that can help validate the problem is your work environment and not you, plus key strategies for how to navigate the crossroads.
In corporate terms, I’ve lived many lives across 25 years corporate experience of which 8+ years are from management consulting at Deloitte to the three years at Amazon headquarters. Add to that 12 years of professional coaching, and I’ve noticed some themes deep inside our work environments.
The themes I’m about to share with you indicate how well the environment is setup to help you thrive or not. How many resonate with you?
10 signs your environment is the problem
How is your environment contributing to your current frustration? Take a look at the signs below. Count up the number of signs that are happening right now.
Keep track of your score, and keep reading below for tips to support you.
Signs your work environment is the problem:
Talent leaves under strange or sudden circumstances
Your team's job opening is unappealing, even for current employees
Poor performance and bad management issues are often not handled effectively
Key deadlines are missed by a lot
Feedback and review cycles do not lead to improvement
It's difficult to know the difference between peak and regular times
Leadership promises are broken
Your team experiences too many false starts to count
Your team’s leadership appears demotivated and frustrated
Favoritism and special treatment is the norm
Talent leaves under strange or sudden circumstances
Is top talent leaving?
When the ship feels like it’s sinking, you may notice even good people will leave.
Did someone suddenly leave, and it rocked you to the core? Was it someone that everybody loved, who appeared to have it so good in their position and career trajectory? When the ship feels like it’s sinking, you may notice even good people will leave.
Your team's job opening is unappealing, even for current employees
Are you understaffed with no prospects in sight?
In some companies, transferring internally is an advantage and much faster, cheaper than acquiring a new hire. So what does it mean when your team has an opening, and no one internally applies either?
Poor performance and bad management issues are often not handled effectively
Underperformance or Bad Management?
Ignoring the elephant in the room has long-term and downstream impacts.
Has a team member been underperforming for a long time? Does your manager not know what they’re doing?
These are those employees that no one knows what to do with. The sad truth is that ignoring the elephant in the room has long-term and downstream impacts to morale, motivation and of course productivity.
Key deadlines are missed by a lot
Have you revised your delivery dates for months on end?
When we don’t have the luxury of a retrospective on what’s working and what’s not, it’s very hard to change how we work while building the plan.
Feedback and review cycles do not lead to improvement
Annual Feedback
“Review time is a joke” means that even with built-in mechanisms to course-correct, your team makes no new progress.
What about the next annual review?
“Review time is a joke” means that even with built-in mechanisms to course-correct, your team makes no new progress.
It's difficult to know the difference between peak and regular times
Is everyone is stressed, fried, burnt out all the time?
A culture of exhaustion won’t allow your team to be innovative, experiment, see things differently or have energy to be resilient in the face of challenges.
Leadership promises are broken
Breaking a promise
Whatever a leader promises can be even more hurtful when that promise is broken.
Did they say the survey was anonymous and then try to call someone out? (Ouch, true story) Did they promise a reward and then took it away?
Whatever a leader promises can be even more hurtful when that promise is broken. This is Leadership Walk the Talk 101.
Your team experiences false starts
Setbacks are expected, but what about the times when you spend effort on the wrong initiative?
False starts happen when there’s an unsuccessful attempt at something. They are costly the organization, the team and trust in leadership.
Your team’s leadership appears demotivated and frustrated
Double-layer frustration
Team level challenges often mirror problems at the top.
Does your leadership team not have a pep in their step?
Team level challenges often mirror problems at the top. When you notice your leaders are frustrated, the workplace will most definitely be affected.
Favoritism and special treatment
Do the rules work for some and not all?
Yep, lots I could say here as a person of color, however special treatment happens everywhere through our unconscious bias alongside competing agendas.
What’s your score?
If you scored 0-1, the workspace isn’t so bad. If you scored 2 or higher, the real problem is the workplace.
Your environment has a direct impact on your ability to think, focus and thrive. If your environment is a mess, you likely will be too.
Consider these strategies:
Watch out for comparison to others and manage your career.
Try keeping to the facts rather than perceptions at work.
Remind yourself that no workplace is perfect.
Know your next step may be a decision.
Imagine your potential and vision.
Know what you value, your non-negotiables.
And when you are facing a crossroads, use your personal values to help you decide next steps.
When you leave a bad workplace, it’s not running away from your problems. It’s about running towards where you really want to be instead.
If you want my help in assessing where’s the problem, put some time on our calendars for a clarity call or subscribe for more strategies like this each week. Subscribe here.
