Category Archives: Staff/Employees

A person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct the employee in the material details of how the work is to be performed.” Black’s Law Dictionary page 471 (5th ed. 1979). In a commercial setting, the employer conceives of a productive activity, generally with the intention of generating a profit, and the employee contributes labour to the enterprise, usually in return for payment of wages.

Why Operations Fail Under Pressure -3

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Misdiagnosis = Engagement Is Rational, Not Attitudinal

When performance drops under pressure, disengagement usually follows.

This is where many leaders make their most damaging mistake:

  • they treat disengagement as an attitude problem.

In reality, disengagement under pressure is often a rational response to ambiguity.

  • When priorities constantly shift…
  • When yesterday’s urgent work is forgotten today…
  • When effort isn’t recognised or protected…

People don’t disengage because they don’t care.

They disengage because effort appears to be punished and caring feels unsafe.

Commitment disappears when ownership carries risk but no reward.

If you want engagement back, don’t start with motivation.

Start with clarity, consistency, and trust.

Execution improves when people believe their effort actually leads somewhere. ________________________________________

Why Operations Fail Under Pressure -2

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Execution Turns into Noise

When operations come under pressure, communication increases — but clarity disappears.

•                  More dashboards.

•                  More emails.

•                  More meetings.

•                  More KPIs.

•                  And yet, execution slows.

This is the moment many organisations confuse activity with progress.

People are busy, but uncertain.

Decisions stall because authority is unclear.

Teams hedge instead of acting.

Accountability blurs.

From the outside, it looks like a capacity problem.

Inside, it’s an alignment problem.

Execution doesn’t fail because people stop working.

It fails because they stop knowing which actions actually matter.

If everything is urgent, nothing is clear.

Restoring execution starts by reducing noise — not adding to it.