The Exorbitant Cost of a Disengaged Leader?

The cost of a disengaged leader is staggering. Over the course of the last 5-10 years much emphasis has been focused on the impact that disengaged employees have on the bottom line. And while technically a leader is an employee the cost of disengaged leader can be ten times the cost of a single employee.

Why? When you take into consideration that the #1 reason people leave an organization is their boss and a leader may have anywhere from 10 to 100 people reporting to them, you can see how the numbers can add up. Most experts estimate the cost of a replacing a good employee is anywhere from 7 months’ salary or one-and-a-half to two times their annual compensation. And yet … organizations are filled with leaders who are disengaged and ineffective.

So what are the choices you have when you realize that you may have a disengaged leader in your midst?

3 Choices When Dealing With A Disengaged Leader:

1. Train Them: One reason a leader may be disengaged is because they lack the skills to be effective. When a leader doesn’t possess the skills to lead effectively they either get frustrated and disengage or they work harder at doing what got them success as an individual contributor. The result: they become a glorified employee and NOT the leader that you need them to be. Get them ongoing leadership training that builds their skills and holds them accountable for their development. Most leadership training is high on theory, low on skill building,  and is almost always a single event and not an ongoing process. Click here for more information about a revolutionary brand of leadership development.
2. Move Them Over: There is a big difference between lacking the skills to be an effective leader and simply just not being a good fit for a leadership position. The cause can be that they were productive as individual employees and didn’t love the idea of being a leader. However they were not willing to turn down the status, title, or the bigger paycheck. It’s also possible that once they realized what is required to be an effective leader they might not be willing to pay the price. It is difficult (from an ego perspective) to step down as a leader and yet if they are valuable and you have a place for them in the organization that is a better fit. It is almost always best to move them over if they are willing to move.
3. Move Them Out: Sometimes the cause of a leaders’ disengagement is neither a lack of fit or a skills deficiency. It is a matter of laziness, an unwillingness to change, or a bad attitude. At this point it is simply best to move ’em out and to move on. So many leaders get stuck here trying to fix, re-engage, or save, the leader. DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME! Especially if it has been an ongoing issues with a history of starts and stops and no sustained improvement. If you’re wondering if you have a problem leader on your hands here is an article that could help you decide (Read More).

Sometimes the hardest thing for a leader to do is to take action on a problem that is uncomfortable, unpopular, or messy. One of the biggest differences between an mediocre leader and a great leader is their ability to do the uncomfortable, unpopular and messy parts of their job which ironically always seems to deal with the people side of the business.

No one ever said it was easy to be a great leader … I guess that’s why a lot of people aren’t!

The good news is that the choice to be a great leader or not is totally up to you! And everyday you have multiple opportunities to decide.

So what kind of decisions are you making these days?