This week, we’re going to continue the discussion on the cultural impact of return-to-office policies and their impact on employee engagement by looking at the other side of the coin—the actions of employees. When talking about organizational culture and employee engagement, it’s critical to recognize that employee engagement is a two-way street.

Nothing says “I don’t trust you” more than draconian HR policies that are spread like peanut butter over the employee population in an attempt to snare a few bad apples who are likely disengaged and working against the best interests of the company and the rest of the team. The solution? Improve the skill level of managers across the organization through intentional learning and development programs and make it clear through incentives that excellence is rewarded and poor performance/disengagement are not. The bad apples will opt out and head for more fertile pastures to apply their mediocre skills and display their poor work ethic for all to see.

This urge to do it yourself is one that comes naturally—at least for some of us. Remember class projects in high school and college? Were you the Type A high achiever that jumped in when deadlines approached and “took over” to prevent a failing grade or substandard outcome? I played this role many times in college and look back on my behavior with a cringe.

This week, I’d like to drill a bit deeper into the benefits of diversity versus uniformity and a key trap leaders can easily fall into. We’ll call it the expectations trap. Just as leaders can be tempted to reduce friction and drag with a homogeneous “Team Yes” by hiring people who look and think like they do, it’s also easy to project expectations for dedication, effort, productivity, engagement, and results onto others.

Your personal self evaluation should take precedence over the self evaluation that is required as part of your annual performance review at work. In doing so, you’re making it clear to yourself that your personal performance and well-being takes priority to what is happening at work. All too often, work takes precedence, we get stuck on the hamster wheel, and we’re left personally unfulfilled.

Are you feeling disengaged or ‘stuck’ at work? Does it feel like you’re trudging through mud and that the light in your eyes has dimmed? From my own personal experience, it can be very difficult to pinpoint the root cause of these feelings and it’s even harder to break through to an improved state of well-being and engagement.