Podcast 15: Top 10 Reasons Why Employees Aren’t Doing What You Need Them to Do

Hello, everyone! I’m Meisha and welcome to my show. Thank you so much for listening.

This show is all about leadership and professional development, everything you need to know about being more confident and competent in your professional life. We talk about communication skills, personal productivity, conflict, all kinds of good, juicy stuff.

For fun, a few years ago I created this top 10 list, motivated by David Letterman’s top 10 lists, as to why employees don’t do what they’re supposed to do.

The Top 10 Reasons Why Employees Do Not Do What You Ask Them To Do:

10. They don’t know why they should do it.

Actually, I think I may move this one up to one of the top reasons. I may make this number 3.

Here’s why I’m finding this needs to be moved up is, again, especially around the younger generation and the Millennials, a lot of what motivates them is knowing why they are doing what they are doing, who is it serving, what purpose does it have.

The older generation, out of respect will many times just do it without the need to know the why. “You know what, fine, just tell me what I need to do. I’ll do it. I won’t ask any questions.” That’s how they were raised.

9. They don’t know how to do it.

Now, this one is tricky. For example, sometimes it’s obvious they don’t know how to do it so we just need to provide them training and so forth. The reason I’m saying this one is tricky is because sometimes it might not be obvious that they don’t know how to do it.

A couple of different examples of this is that they may feel incompetent. Maybe they’re afraid of losing their job. Maybe they are younger or new in the company and they don’t know what to do but they’re afraid to ask for help. Or, they’re afraid to let you know because it’s a cultural thing that they feel it’s up to them to figure out how to do it. “I shouldn’t be asking you.”

This one actually is a really difficult one is because it is hard to figure out. if it is a situation where they don’t know how but they haven’t shared that with you, then a couple of characteristics that tend to happen is they will tend to start complaining about other people. It’s a diversion tactic. “Stop looking at me because I really don’t know what I’m doing.” “So and so isn’t doing…blah, blah, blah. You really need to focus on them.”

By the way, this is all subconscious. They really don’t mean to be doing it. It’s just a human defence mechanism. Don’t take this one lightly.  If you’re concerned that maybe they don’t feel compent, then how to broach the subject may need some sensitivity on your part because even if you ask them, they may still deny it because they’re fearful of something.

8. They don’t know why they are supposed to do it.

We all can fall into this one. “Why do I need to do that? It’s stupid.”, “Why me?”, “Why didn’t you have Joan do this?”,  “Why am I the one to be asked to do this?”.  While this can get irritating, remember sometimes they really need to know why you did pick them, and why is it important for you to have them do it.

7. They think their way is better.

For some of us managers and leaders, this goes back to delegation. Sometimes we are a little bit of control freaks and we want it done our way and others want it done their way. Now we have this struggle.

A lot of managers will just tend to play the trump card, “I’m your manager, do it my way.” Sometimes that’s helpful.  But more often we need to ask ourselves if are we holding on to things too tightly. Maybe their way is fine or even better.  Maybe we need to give them a little more freedom to allow them to do it their way.  There are so many benefits of doing this.

Also, if they are thinking that their way is better, then more than likely something is going on and you probably should address that. They may have some very legitimate concern.

6. They think something else is more important.

This one comes up quite a bit as well. This usually emerges when you have conflicting priorities or maybe they don’t even know exactly what their priorities are.  So you, as a leader, need to make sure you are clear on what the priorities are.  Did you forget to tell them about a change in priorities?  Or, maybe there is another person asking them for something that they feel is more important than what you are asking for.

5. They think they are doing it.

We’ve all ran into into this one. They think they’re doing what you have asked of them and you get it back from them and you’re like, “Um, no, this is not what I asked for.”

On this one, is it because they’re newer?  Or new to this type of work?   One way you can avoid this one is to have them check in with you a little more frequently. Especially in the beginning and until you feel they understand what you are expecting from them.

This one is a relatively easy one to correct. There’s usually not some hidden issue lying under the surface. But it does take some diligence on your part to be checking in with them and make sure before they get too far down the road.

4. They are punished for doing it.

This one usually has people scratching their heads. They are punished for doing it?  That’s why they are not doing what you asked them to do?  Unfortunately, this actually shows up more than you think.  I’ll give you an example.

I had a client where she was complaining about one of her employees.  The employee was a good employee.  However, my client was saying the problem is the employee is distracting and interrupting to the other employees she works with.   And, that recently she has started to get a little bit of a negative attitude.

I start going through my hierarchy of questions that I ask my clients when they bring me an issue with an employee. One of the first ones I always ask, is she good at what she does? My client answered that yeah, she’s good at what she does. She’s actually so good that she finishes her book of work more quickly than the others in the office. With nothing left to do she goes and talks to all the other people in the office who are still trying to get through their work.  I had to ask, what did you do? The answer probably won’t surprise you…she gave her more work to do.

So she’s being punished for getting done quickly and doing well.  It was so funny, too, because when it came out of her mouth she totally realized, “Ooohh! I’m punishing her for good work by giving her more work.  No wonder she is getting a bad attitude.”

We get so caught up a lot of times that we don’t realize we’re not looking at the real issue and we make the matter worse.

3. They are rewarded for not doing it.

This one is a really popular one, too. Here’s a classic example, it’s not a work environment, but it’s a classic example. My husband has been coaching football forever and a few years ago he was coaching at the high school. The way their team is set up is they allow the players to vote for the team captains. So it’s a popularity thing.

This year this group of team captains, about 3 or 4 of them, were not only the most popular but they were also some of the best players. Unfortunately, they were also a bit deviant doing things that they shouldn’t be doing. And, the coaches let them get away with some stuff. For example, during practices the coaches will be calling out drills that the captains wouldn’t want to do, and instead the captains would modify the drill or do something else.  And, sometimes the coaches just turned a blind eye, either not wanting to deal with it or not wanting to make a big deal of it.

So over the season they let them get away with little things. So now the classic story. The team is in the third level of the playoffs, which means they only have two more levels to go through to win the championship.  They have to win this game to move to the next level.  There is only 2 minutes left in the game.  The score is tied, they’re on the 7-yard line about to go in to score and the coaches called the play. However, the captains called and executed a different play.  Ultimately they loose the game.

This one play may or may not be the reason they lost the game as there were a number of errors they had made throughout the game.  However, the issue was still significant that the captains did not do what the coaches called.  Obviously, the coaches were livid. So later I’m hearing it from my husband, he’s just livid. He keeps sharing with me how upset he is to the point that I finally had to stop my husband, “Stop! Excuse me, but you have been letting these kids get away with this the entire season. This is your fault. It is not their fault.” Throughout the season they were being rewarded for not doing what they were told what to do by the coaches turning a blind eye.

2. It is beyond their personal limits.

Sometimes what you are asking them to do is something the person can not do.  They just don’t have the cognitive, or physical ability or whatever.  If you have tried to train them and help them to learn but they just are not getting it, that’s okay.  Just find someone else who can do it.  This is why it is important to know the capabilities and strengths of those on your team.

1. No one could do it.

Ask yourselves this one, are you asking the impossible?

I hope you enjoyed this top 10 list and found it useful. Please remember that I am taking any of your questions via my website, www.meisharouser.com.

Thank you for listening.  I am Meisha Rouser, coaching you to success.  Tune in next week for more tools and tips to help you become a more competent and confident leader and manager.