Leaders, managers, and employees often reflect varying degrees of favorability surrounding key workplace aspects—such as job satisfaction, culture, or respect—leading to a divide among the different parties. These perception gaps run deeper, revealing a disconnect across hierarchical structures that can significantly impact a company’s overall success. Failure to align the most valuable resources towards established goals can hinder growth and create barriers that impede progress.
Individuals form perceptions and beliefs in a company based on their workplace experiences, leading to division amongst roles and resulting in conflicting messages fueled by differing perspectives. For instance, leaders expressing care for employees may be met with skepticism and frustration from employees who have different lived experiences. This lack of understanding between leaders and employees often stems from projecting personal perceptions onto a situation, creating a disjointed workplace experience for employees.
Influence of Positional Titles and Historical Roles
When examining historical roles within organizations, it is crucial to understand that labeling positional descriptions as universal is a mistake. Leadership is typically seen as the ability to influence people towards leader-identified goals involving change or movement, while managers are responsible for providing order and consistency to execute a leader’s vision.
While these descriptions are valuable, adherence to them over time can lead to a focus on individual roles without considering their impact on and interaction with other roles. This can result in disconnected pathways, reducing cohesiveness and negatively impacting workplace outcomes and employee experiences. The separation between leaders, managers, and employees can be institutionalized, leading to varying perceptions of communication, trust, transparency, and fostering an “us versus them” mentality.
Separation and Its Impact Across Roles
A study of 2,650 employees across 15 countries revealed significant gaps in workplace aspects between leaders, managers, and individual contributors. This separation leads to a decrease in positive sentiment towards workplace culture and can place undue stress and responsibility on managers stuck between leaders and employees. This highlights the challenge management faces in balancing organizational goals and employee needs and desires.
Employees often develop workplace “mini-cultures” to find purpose and meaning within the organization when discrepancies exist in messaging from leaders and management. Overlooking such disconnects and relying solely on task performance can lead to a decline in the overall employee experience, reducing workplace satisfaction and productivity.
The First Step Toward Cohesion
Building a culture of common ground across hierarchies is essential for organizational success. It is crucial to move beyond invisible barriers among leaders, managers, and employees and prioritize cooperation over forced conformity. Leaders play a vital role in bridging these gaps by increasing interaction, accessibility, and addressing the separation within the organization.
High performance in organizations is achievable through genuine interaction across roles and a horizontal approach to the workplace. Leaders must focus on creating connections, understanding the workforce, and aligning visions and goals to enhance organizational performance.
A Leader’s Responsibility for Performance Improvement
Organizations aiming to be best in class must prioritize closing gaps and increasing connectedness across all levels. By focusing on genuine interaction and mutual connections, leaders can create an environment of high performance and shared experiences. This collaborative approach will lead to improved organizational performance and competitiveness.
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