Constant competition is one of the founding factors of corporate structures in the contemporary capitalist economic environment. Hence, it isn’t uncommon to come across professionals ready to go to any length to take all the credit. Team leaders and managers can be more prone to such behavior simply because they sometimes have the opportunity to get away with it.
Unchecked competition in a workplace can lead to a power struggle between leaders. This can push them to take up the credit for their team members’ work and engage in practices that severely harm employee motivation. Let’s take a detailed look at the behavior that competition between leaders can result in:
Micromanaging
When team leaders constantly try to snatch the credit for their team members’ hard work, they don’t want them to make any mistakes. While team leaders’ responsibility is to guide their junior employees and prevent them from making mistakes, mistakes mainly occur while trying new techniques. Trying new methods is essential for the growth of all professionals and industries.
Hence, when team leaders prevent growth and experiments, they begin micromanaging. Micromanaging refers to watching over each little action the employees take to complete their tasks. It seriously harms employee motivation, making them feel they aren’t trusted.
Lack of Appreciation
It is evident that team leaders who try to snatch the credit for all the work accomplished by their junior employees don’t appreciate them. Since these leaders also tend to micromanage their team members, they don’t find the point in appreciating following their detailed guidance.
However, even if these leaders are not snatching all the credit, they can be very hard on their teams. Due to their ongoing competition with other managers and leaders at the organization, they may push the employees under them to always work harder even when they are doing their best. Thus, the lack of appreciation and acknowledgment of the effort results in declined employee motivation.
Lack of Growth Opportunities
A workplace where employees are not appreciated rarely offers growth opportunities for their careers. Such workplaces are often run by employers who only focus on maximizing their profits by pushing each worker to their breaking point.
Leaders often become a part of such a culture and transfer the pressure they receive from their bosses onto their junior employees. They buy into the misbelief that since they have already experienced some growth, they can climb the corporate ladder even higher. However, their frustration and toxicity at the workplace is a sign of their non-existent employee motivation from working in a hostile environment. In this way, leaders become victims of the power struggle, which they pass down to their team members.
Workplaces where employees feel that they have to prove themselves every single day to keep their bosses happy, can be harmful not only to employee motivation but also to their physical and mental health. Team leaders must ensure they don’t become a part of the workplace toxicity and focus on the motivation and steady growth of their careers and team members.
