Weekly Management Tip
During my 40+ years of working with clients worldwide I have come to believe that there are 6 critical factors that determine employee performance and long-term organization success. There are numerous other factors and I could create a list too long for you to read but I believe that almost all of them will fall under the following 6.
- Corporate culture
- Management style
- Training or the lack of it
- Communication patterns
- Corporate direction and focus
- Feedback style, timing and mechanisms
Let’s look briefly at each to see what impact they can or do have on employee productivity, moral and effectiveness. These are not in order of their importance or their impact. This will depend on a number of variables both inside and outside the organization that are influencing the organization’s environment, activities and results.
Corporate culture: Everything flows from the top down. I have a saying, “if there is anything that needs fixing or changing in an organization you need to look up the ladder not down.” Corporate culture is at the root of all behavior, attitudes, outcomes, opportunities embraced and challenges or problems ignored or repeated. Culture is why and how people treat each other. It is the unwritten rules of the road. It is created and reinforced at the top and fostered and carried out throughout the organization by decisions made or not made and actions taken or not taken.
Management style: The world is changing and the employee profile is changing. You can’t manage a group of baby boomers the same way you do the folks under 30. Both groups have individual agendas, expectations, needs, desires, goals and attitudes. If you attempt to create one management style that will work for all I guarantee you will enjoy a great deal of stress and frustration. I am not implying that you need to cater to the whims, problems or unique behaviors of each employee. You have to have standards, rules and expectations but you also need to understand that every employee is motivated by something unique to them. Discover it and you will have a dedicated, loyal and effective employee. Fail to either know it or apply it and you will spend a great deal of time dealing with motivation/attitude issues.
Training or the lack of it: Yes, I am in the business of teaching people to sell more with bigger margins and manage and lead better. This is not included as a ploy to get more business – it is a fact of life if you want employees to manage better, sell more, make better decisions, manage their time and resources more effectively etc. you have to show them how – you have to train them. They must have the skills and the use of these skills needs to be reinforced, inspected and coached. Just giving people the training is not enough. You don’t change behavior because you put someone in an all day seminar. Support materials, reinforcement and accountability are critical if you want to ensure your training investment really pays off.
Communication patterns: Information moves in a variety of directions as employees go about their normal routines. There are a variety of ways people receive information: rumors, meetings, e-mail, memo’s, casual conversations in the hall, telephone calls etc. Every one of these has the potential to confuse, irritate, invalidate, educate, inform, on and on and on. The problem with communication is it depends on a number of factors: 1) You can’t legislate or demand people give you accurate information on time. 2) Life is perceptual and everyone sees everything differently, 3) Personal agendas and ego can get in the way of an accurate and effective exchange of information. and 4) Most people are poor listeners. 5) Politics and position authority can cause people to edit information. Communication will never be perfect. My only concern is when it negatively impacts customers, profits, sales, competitive position or overall success and positive growth.
Direction and focus: After interviewing over 5000 employees in a variety of organizations in a number of industries during my career – and this one is the biggie. It is difficult for employees operating at the 500′ or 10,000′ level to function effectively if they are kept in the dark about where the organization is heading and why, how they fit into the big picture and what impact their decisions, attitudes and actions have on the organization as a whole. I am not suggesting that you open the books to every employee every month, only that if you want a motivated, dedicated effective employee base they need to know where you are going and why. Direction and focus are close cousins. One contributes to the other and without both they sabotage each other. You need both and both must be communicated, reinforced and lived.
I am also not talking about mission or vision statements here. These are valuable tools only to the degree they are in alignment with or contribute to your focus and direction.
Feedback style, timing and mechanisms: You get the behavior you reward. Behavior reinforced is behavior repeated. In other words, if you don’t like the behavior – decisions, actions, attitudes etc. of an employee you must look at the direct or indirect reward system that is in place that is reinforcing that behavior. For example if you have an employee that is constantly late and you say nothing don’t act surprised when that employee continues to be late. You also send a message to other employees that being late is acceptable behavior.
There you have it 6 vital areas for you to consider when it comes to employee and organization effectiveness.