Years ago, my daughter was about to be released from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia after a lengthy stay, so I decided to rebuild our deck. After all, it was aging and splintering, and I did not want her tripping or getting cut! One weekend, with the help of a few good friends, I attacked the deck like boxer Mike Tyson going after his opponent (not a surprise for those who know me well). 14 hours a day for three days, and alas, a new deck! But along with that new deck came a ruined elbow that cost me a few thousand dollars in payments for therapy, an MRI, and eventual surgery. I was well-intentioned, but my effort also resulted in unintended harm.
Below are a few recent titles of books and articles from the fields of mental health and medicine that show something similar – how good intentions do not always produce the results we expect.
“We Are Turning Too Many People into Medical Patients.” The Wall Street Journal
“Medical Labels Are Making Us Unhappier.” The Sunday Times
“An Overdiagnosis Epidemic Is Harming Patients’ Health.” Wired
“How Trauma Became America’s Favorite Diagnosis.” New York Magazine
Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up by Abigail Shrier
How is it that all of our efforts and investments have not always produced the outcomes we would expect? As leaders, we are also not immune to taking actions and making decisions that we believe will help but instead produce unintended harm. There is actually a term for this: Iatrogenesis, a Greek word meaning when harm is caused by a treatment designed to help. Here are four ways well-intentioned leaders can produce unhelpful outcomes.
1. Emphasizing employee wellness more than employee performance.
Wellness at work is a good thing. After all, any good owner or supervisor should care deeply about the overall well-being of their team members. And employee wellness can and often does contribute to better performance, but it alone does not guarantee it.
But what happens when the leader makes wellness their primary mission at the sacrifice of the overall performance of the organization? The health of the organization is dependent upon employee performance, so if employee performance decreases, so does the performance of the organization. Leaders should remember that strong employee performance can provide organizations with the resources to make a positive investment in the overall well-being of every team member.
2. Emphasizing burnout and stress more than resiliency.
I was talking to an employee whose boss was regularly discussing the importance of stress management and mental health with his team. I am confident the leader was showing genuine care and concern for his employees, but there was an unintended consequence – the more stress was emphasized, the more some employees felt they were uniquely stressed. And, since there was little coaching and training on resilience, the constant message being embedded in the thinking of employees was, “You are at risk of burnout, so be careful and take care of yourself,” rather than, “Stress is a normal part of life and work, and you are more resilient than you can ever imagine.”
3. Focusing on training more than culture.
A common slogan of many organizations is, “We invest in our people.” That is awesome. Training is such a vital part of the success of any good team member. It can help team members acquire new knowledge and skills essential to their future success. But training alone will never make the culture of your team healthy, attractive, and vibrant. Some leaders fail to invest in both training and culture. They are called bad bosses. Well-intentioned leaders may offer training opportunities but forget to tend to the rest of the chemistry for success – the overall culture of the organization including the values, relational health, and overall level of trust.
4. Investing an excessive amount of time and resources in your “problem child.”
While every employee is created with an innate value and worth, they are not all going to perform their work with the same level of success. It is common for managers to invest a lot of their time and the organization’s resources in order to “fix” a person. Similar to parents investing time and attention in a child who is struggling, it makes sense that managers would also seek to help a struggling employee rebound. However, I have seen employers spend over $100,000 on a problem employee yet resist spending $13,000 to provide executive coaching for a thriving team member. Too often, the one “problem child” can suck away so much time and money that the top performers get ignored, resulting in the potential for unintended negative consequences.
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Jay Desko is the President & CEO of The Center Consulting Group and brings experience in the areas of organizational assessment, leadership coaching, decision-making, and strategic questioning. Jay’s degrees include an M.Ed. in Instructional Systems Design from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Leadership from The Union Institute.
