Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Friday, January 22, 2016
Keys to Employee Engagement: 9. Commitment
So
far, in this series, we’ve talked about ensuring employees have a clear
idea of what is expected of them and helping them realize that by
providing them the tools to do the job right. Employees can be inspired
by the company’s mission, which can give them a strong sense of
purpose.
I’ve seen several organizations where the majority of employees are excited about coming to work every day but a few slackers were enough to bring down the mood in the office. It can be hard to sustain your motivation if your co-workers undermine all the good work you do by not caring.
So the ninth question in Gallup’s Q12 explores this, posing, “Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?”
Imagine
how it must feel for someone who takes pride in their work and who does
an excellent job to hand off their work to someone who drops the ball
or is careless how they do their part of the task or project.
Similarly, you’ll find in many companies employees who have to correct
others’ mistakes or sloppiness so they can hand off to the next
operation. They must feel constantly frustrated.
From a customer’s point of view, shoddy workmanship usually shows up in defective materials. They have to call in the sales rep to assess the scope of the problem, segregate defective materials and work out some form of compensation as well as paperwork to return the defective goods. In a worst case scenario, the customer may have to shut down their line and lay off people – then ask for even more compensation for lost work and possibly lost business.
What can you do about this?
One of the easiest ways to start addressing this is by going out on the shop floor (or office) and talk to the employees one on one to work your way through the process to identify which employee(s) are contributing to the situation.
Improving the calibre of their work may simply be a matter of training them or providing the proper tools to do their task right. It might mean modifying the process (by automation, for example) to remove the human element from affecting the outcome.
If the root cause of the problem is attitude, that is a much harder issue to deal with. It may mean terminating employees. In some cases, not getting rid of employees who don’t care about their jobs can be seen by employees as weak management or a demonstration that management doesn’t care or lacks commitment to the company’s mission. You can risk losing your best employees in this type of situation. So, sometimes terminating bad employees have a positive overall effect on morale and productivity.
Getting out on the shop floor is one way to demonstrate to employees that management cares about what’s happening in the plant. Speaking with them one on one is one way to show that management cares about employees’ opinions. Correcting problems in the plant shows employees that management can not only act on their input, but also walk the talk. In other words, they have enough commitment to the company’s mission to make things work.
Talk is cheap. Action gets results.
I’ve seen several organizations where the majority of employees are excited about coming to work every day but a few slackers were enough to bring down the mood in the office. It can be hard to sustain your motivation if your co-workers undermine all the good work you do by not caring.
So the ninth question in Gallup’s Q12 explores this, posing, “Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?”
Gallup
suggests this commitment by fellow workers, along with four other
measures is correlated with productivity. When employees, overall, feel
their fellow employees share their commitment to the organization, the
productivity of the organization increases.
(The
other four measures were: “I know what is expected of me”, “My opinions
are valued”, “ I believe in the company’s mission” and “Overall
satisfaction”.)
From a customer’s point of view, shoddy workmanship usually shows up in defective materials. They have to call in the sales rep to assess the scope of the problem, segregate defective materials and work out some form of compensation as well as paperwork to return the defective goods. In a worst case scenario, the customer may have to shut down their line and lay off people – then ask for even more compensation for lost work and possibly lost business.
What can you do about this?
One of the easiest ways to start addressing this is by going out on the shop floor (or office) and talk to the employees one on one to work your way through the process to identify which employee(s) are contributing to the situation.
Improving the calibre of their work may simply be a matter of training them or providing the proper tools to do their task right. It might mean modifying the process (by automation, for example) to remove the human element from affecting the outcome.
If the root cause of the problem is attitude, that is a much harder issue to deal with. It may mean terminating employees. In some cases, not getting rid of employees who don’t care about their jobs can be seen by employees as weak management or a demonstration that management doesn’t care or lacks commitment to the company’s mission. You can risk losing your best employees in this type of situation. So, sometimes terminating bad employees have a positive overall effect on morale and productivity.
Getting out on the shop floor is one way to demonstrate to employees that management cares about what’s happening in the plant. Speaking with them one on one is one way to show that management cares about employees’ opinions. Correcting problems in the plant shows employees that management can not only act on their input, but also walk the talk. In other words, they have enough commitment to the company’s mission to make things work.
Talk is cheap. Action gets results.
Friday, May 29, 2015
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Are You an Attacker, a Defender, or a Sitting Duck?
The
time has come to make your own preparations for leading your business.
Conditions are changing, and so too are the capabilities demanded of
leaders. Management training programs and career paths that move you up
step by step in a functional silo don’t cut it. They were designed in
earlier times when external conditions were more stable. They do little
to prepare you for an environment in which industries and market spaces
can get obliterated practically overnight. Nor do they help you develop
the large-scale entrepreneurialism that underlies many recent successes,
from Facebook and Google to Netflix and Twitter.
What matters now is how quickly you can spot the opportunities that are emerging and mobilize the organization to pursue them. You need to be on the offense, ahead of the curve, creating a bend in the road that other players have to negotiate around.
The truth is that few leaders are attackers. Many more are defenders, who
struggle to maintain their existing business when shifts in the
competitive landscape and money making have already begun. Still others
are sitting ducks, unaware of the changes that are underway until it is too late to recover.
Where do you stand? Answer the following questions to rate yourself on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is “not at all true” and 10 is “very true.”
Congratulations. If you scored 60-90 you are a Defender. You should up your game to keep pace with the speed of external change. If you scored lower than 60, you are a Sitting Duck, at risk of being blindsided by an attack you don’t see coming.
Here are some steps you can take to better prepare yourself for going on the attack:
What matters now is how quickly you can spot the opportunities that are emerging and mobilize the organization to pursue them. You need to be on the offense, ahead of the curve, creating a bend in the road that other players have to negotiate around.
Think
of how Apple changed the game for the music industry with the iPod and
iTunes, putting a permanent chink in the profitability of the big music
producers. Or how Amazon undermined the big book retailers Borders and
Barnes & Noble when it was first to sell books online. Now AirBnb is
attacking the hotel business, while Uber and Lyft are taking on taxi’s.
Where do you stand? Answer the following questions to rate yourself on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is “not at all true” and 10 is “very true.”
- I am aware that structural change is occurring more frequently and that it is my job as a leader to detect it.
- I frequently scan the external landscape looking for developments that might impact my business.
- Instead of ignoring, fighting or worrying about structural change, I look for opportunity in it.
- I consider it part of my job as a leader to create structural change that benefits my organization.
- I regularly look beyond my industry to monitor the geopolitical and other macro factors that can impact the global economy and business landscape.
- I have created disciplined routines for myself and my team to rise above the daily details and sharpen our ability to detect and predict structural changes.
- Whenever operating problems arise, I check to see if they are related to any signs of structural change.
- I track companies that are using mathematics and advanced computing power to transform their businesses—even if they are outside my industry—and imagine how some of them might destroy our industry and reshape our market space.
- I accept the fact that uncertainty is here to stay, and that I may need to make bold decisions even when some of the deciding factors are still not clear.
- I am psychologically and organizationally prepared to recognize structural uncertainty and convert it into breakthrough opportunities.
Congratulations. If you scored 60-90 you are a Defender. You should up your game to keep pace with the speed of external change. If you scored lower than 60, you are a Sitting Duck, at risk of being blindsided by an attack you don’t see coming.
Here are some steps you can take to better prepare yourself for going on the attack:
- Reflect on your attitude about structural uncertainty. Think of structural changes you have witnessed in recent years and consider who created them and how others responded to them. As you reflect on leaders who created a structural change for other companies, think about what they saw that others didn’t see.
- Commit to widening your lens, scanning the environment broadly for things that are new and different, from technology developments to social trends. Seek ways to turn them to advantage. How might these transform the consumer experience?
- Decide on one or two new habits you will adopt to stay better attuned to external change, particularly outside your industry. These could include a daily practice of reading the newspaper--for example, the Lex column in the Financial Times--or setting aside ten minutes at the beginning of every staff meeting to discuss with others what they’re picking up from the outside world and what it might mean for your business.
- Recognize that in today’s world total clarity may come too late. Go beyond hard facts to make judgments about what is unfolding and encourage others to do the same. Test your hypotheses, then muster the courage act on your new insights.
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