According
to Gallup, about 70% of any workforce across industries is disengaged with their work. In other words, they are not
putting forth their best efforts which costs billions in lost revenue and
productivity. Gallup also shares, however, that quality leadership and
management is the single most
important factor in reversing such trends according to their 2013 State of the American Workplace report.
This got me thinking out loud about the important Y.B.H. (yes but how?)
question in terms of increasing staff engagement and wellbeing.
First,
according to Gallup effective leaders and supervisors can no longer expect
staff members to compartmentalize their work and personal lives. In fact,
Millennial employees (now the largest generational cohort in the workplace) do
not want to! Effective leaders understand that a “whole” person comes to work
each day bringing their joys, concerns, aspirations, etc. By helping team
members improve both their personal and professional lives, leaders WILL
improve workplace performance! When we as leaders understand and attend to the emotional eddies that swirl
around the workplace, everyone benefits!
So
back to the Y.B.H. question, here is one suggestion adopted from the excellent
work by Rick Miller’s Center for Applied Leadership “LeaderStyles” instrument. Not only does the instrument help capture
your personal leadership style, it also speaks to important factors that every
supervisor should learn about their team members. Specifically, effective
leaders can answer the following about each direct report:
- What do they value?
- How do they gain acceptance and prove their value?
- What is their mindset in approaching problems?
- Where do they add the most value?
- What is important to them both personally and professionally?
- How do they prefer to be communicated to and to communicate to others?
- What gives them encouragement and hope?
Now
the worst thing a supervisor can do
is to put these questions on a survey and hand it out! You are actually going
to have to TALK with them in a slow process of discovery. I would also avoid turning
this into an interrogation session where you rapid fire these questions! That
tends to scare the heck out of employees! In fact, if you have never had such
conversations before, it may be a bit “off putting” for both of you but if you
are sincere and stick with it, the results will be incredible. Finally, it is
one thing to learn this rich data about someone, but then you will need to DO SOMETHING
with this knowledge. I would recommend using it in a way that helps you
customize your leadership and supervisory style to meet their needs versus the
other way around.
In the
final analysis, there is nothing more empowering to a staff member than to know they
have a supervisor that, along with holding them accountable for their best
efforts, cares about them as a real person!
As always if I can help you and the
people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would
invite you to email me or to visit my website below and see if any of the
training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a
bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will
send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your
organization! Such an initiative would be critical to add value to your
organization!
Yours in Leadership (and
still walking both roads!),
Bill Faulkner
Principal Consultant –
Out Loud Strategies
Independent Coach,
Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team TM
Email = bill@outloudinc.com
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