Why do some bosses ignore the best advice?

📌Demotivated, micromanaged workers are only going to do the minimum📌

I spend my working day researching the best leadership strategies—how to motivate, build trust and develop empathy. And those are just the start.

➡️Yet I constantly hear from professionals who experience the exact opposite.
The people I work with on Master's degree leadership modules and workplace training sessions report bullying cultures, lack of communication, and a lot of micromanagement.

It’s disappointing, in fact pretty soul destroying.

➡️We know what great leadership looks like, but too often organisations seem to be failing their workforce.

Let’s not pretend it isn’t the case.

This is an extract from Christina Patterson's review of Charlie Colenutt's:
Is this working? The Jobs We Do. Told by People who Do Them (Picador),
Sunday Times. 02 March 2025


👁️‍🗨️👁️‍🗨️Warehouse worker: "Managers check on you every minute but the main problem is that the work is mentally excruciating".
Call centre worker: who is marked as absent without leave if she is one minute late.
She goes on to say “The customers are ringing to shout at you and that's what happens all day long. I could be an hour in and I'll be thinking ‘how am I going to make it by the end of the day?’ I am just drained, just drained."

One of the more intriguing themes that emerges is the erosion of autonomy and the rise of the tick box.
Many workers are now accountable for every minute. It's not enough just to do the work, they have to fill in and fill out the forms and tick all the boxes that they to prove that they've done the work.👁️‍🗨️👁️‍🗨️

➡️So why the gap between what we know is good leadership and everyday practice is some workplaces ?

Clearly the nice looking generic infographics that are piled onto to LinkedIn aren't helping much.

➕Is advice ignored because of a belief that anyone in an official position of authority can be a leader/ manager, and that training is pointless?

➕Is it because a considerable amount of advice on platforms like this is not connecting with the real world?

➕Is it that they some leaders and managers assume authority alone is enough?

➕Perhaps there are those who are overwhelmed and default to control because it is quick and easy?

➕Or is it because the training falls short? Too generic. Too 'box-ticky' or a list of AI generated bullet points?

Whatever the reason, ignoring good leadership practices will cost you in the long term.

Demotivated, micromanaged co-workers who feel they are not trusted by autocratic bosses are only going to do the bare minimum.

So why ignore the advice? hashtag#LeadershipMatters hashtag#LeadBetter