When to Disengage

A leader should understand when it's time to disengage with ineffective clients, items and relationships.

“Engagement” seems to be a buzzword in the professional world lately. Social media accounts have to engage customers to get further reach, companies must engage their employees for higher productivity, and marketing departments must create “engaging” or interactive materials to support events and campaigns more successfully. Despite the many benefits of engagement, good managers must also learn to disengage for the sake of the company.

Disengage from offerings, markets, and customers that are no longer providing value and profits to the organization.

– Rich Horwath

Horwath warns that leaders must understand when it is time to let go, and make tough decisions in order to keep the company moving forward. If your product, customer or relationship is not generating sufficient revenue, cut ties in order to focus on things that are more productive. Often, companies need to “do less.” Hanging on to too many “distractions” may end up holding your company back, and doesn’t contribute to success.

Passive disengagement happens when managers wait until there is a need for change. In these cases, the changes made are usually insubstantial, and not as effective in increasing revenue. In order to actively disengage, perform a monthly review of resource allocation to identify any efforts that are not providing value. Reallocate these resources to different initiatives until you find something that works.