The Great Detachment

"Employees could be struggling...that's a leadership issue...we have the solution."

--Perry Holley 

This morning, I listened to a Maxwell Leadership podcast about "The Great Detachment," which provided eye-opening insights into the challenges many organizations are facing. Over the past three years, companies have undergone massive and rapid changes. Economic pressures have led to tighter budgets and increased workloads for employees. In hybrid work environments, ineffective communication often exacerbates these issues, resulting in detachment, decreased productivity, and heightened anxiety. These factors are key drivers behind "The Great Detachment" and the growing prevalence of workplace anxiety.

In November, I facilitated a workshop for a government entity on Managing Workplace Anxiety. With today’s fast-paced, ever-evolving job market, employees often grapple with fears of job insecurity, keeping up with new technologies and processes, or adapting to management changes. These challenges can severely impact productivity, well-being and engagement, as well. 

A significant contributor to both workplace anxiety and employee detachment is the lack of clear, defined expectations. When employees don’t know what’s expected of them, it creates uncertainty, undermining confidence and connection to their roles.

I would like to offer one solution from my workshop to the uncertainty of expections which can cause anxiety and detachment: 

When we train a new employee, make sure that their job description is well defined and you have gone through it thoroughly with that new employee. Here are five steps to provide them with clearcut expectations:

1. You learn the task with your standards of excellence and they watch you do it. I know this sounds simple, but as a CEO, a lot of my daily work was in my head. Until I wrote my job description in detail, I didn't remember all the steps needed to get my job done. Therefore, I couldn't teach it thoroughly. 

2. You both do the task or job together. When you do this with them, you show them exactly what you expect and the results that you want.

3. Then you allow them to do the job and you watch. Provide feedback during this time so they know ALL of your expectations. Answer all the questions they may have. By this time, your new hire should demonstrate competence to proceed to the next step. 

4. You set them free to do the job on their own, checking back for your employee's performance.  Periodically, check their progress to make sure they are meeting your standards. Continually provide support where they may need it to reinforce expectations and future success.

While these steps are time-consuming, my experience has shown that clear expectations promote greater engagement, productivity and significantly reduce anxiety. Even better, I’ve often found that employees return with innovative, more streamlined ways of doing things—ideas I might never have considered on my own!

Please email me if you have any questions!

Jan