Achieving outstanding results
The one thing that I have learned from my work in Enabling Leadership is that the majority of people really want to do the best they can. Time after time this belief has been proved correct in practice, particularly when the following conditions exist:
- The people are interested in the work/activity and want to be successful at doing it.
- They are effectively briefed on what is expected to be achieved.
- Given the necessary materials/equipment and guidance on how to use them in the most effective manner.
- Provided with feedback on how well they are performing and given guidance and support if their efforts are not to the required standard.
- Given room to experiment and to learn from the mistakes they might make.
- Encouraged to try new things in order to extend their skills and capability.
- Provided with regular constructive feedback and encouragement.
- Recognised and appropriately rewarded for their contribution.
If outstanding results can be achieved and sustained when the right people and conditions are in place, the question is, “why do many public and private organisations not recognise and implement them”. From my experience the answer lies in the way many organisations are structured. The hierarchical structure tends to be the most prevalent because it is perceived to provide management with the greatest degree of control over the performance of employees. In reality this tends to be a myth in that it may appear to control employees yet it fails to achieve the degree of performance that employees are capable of producing. This is mainly due to the hierarchy being built on superior/subordinate relationships that are fundamentally flawed.
There is the mistaken belief that the superior in the hierarchy is better placed than the subordinate to make the important decisions. Whereas, in today’s fast changing world the roles are frequently reversed yet the so called “subordinate” is not encouraged to help to the degree he/she could.
Take back your life from the organisation
I have invested many years as an organisational consultant with two main goals. Firstly, to find ways that enables people to make an added-value contribution to their organisation. Secondly, to encourage them to create an appropriate life/work balance that their organisation has the potential to take from them. The often subtle demands increase to the point where the job begins to consume a greater amount of both thinking and actual time. It can happen in ways that are not noticed because of the gradual way that the demands are made. Before long “working for the corporation” takes on a vastly different context because it permeates almost every part of a persons life. And this applies to a wide range of people from directors along to front line colleagues; in fact, very few people escape this creeping erosion of free time.
Beside some organisations that were able to sustain effective change the majority tended to gravitate back to their old practices when change initiatives stopped. Even when a new CEO, who is all fired up with the need to change, implements a new change strategy it is only a matter of time before the embedded culture regains its power by returning to the status quo. Therefore, as it would take something akin to a major catastrophe to effect any change to the traditional hierarchical organisation I now, somewhat belatedly, realise that my focus needs to change.
I now recognise that the focus should not be on even attempting to change the organisations hierarchy, but instead to focus on ways to encourage employees to empower themselves to create the environment that enables them to shine.
What encourages me in this mission is that one effect of the information age is that no single person has all the knowledge necessary to meet the needs of every situation he/she encounters. However much the organisation attempts to operate on the superior “knowing” and the subordinate “doing” the less effective it will become. Why? It has become a time for sharing knowledge and experience in collaborative ways to enable effective results to be achieved.
To remove the manager/subordinate relationship from being a major weakness, the ‘management” needs to move beyond its dinosaurian attempt to control everything. The internet has opened up a whole host of new ways to communicate with social media playing a particularly critical part. It is almost impossible to keep information controlled as it was in the recent past.
In addition, the amount of information, complexity in the structure, and pace of doing business today makes it almost impossible for many managers to be fully in touch with what needs to be achieved in their area of accountability.
However, when all the people who are involved in the process collectively share their knowledge they are more than likely to find suitable solutions and be committed to make them become a reality.
Happy with mediocrity?
Let us briefly look at why the change in focus is so critical at the start of a new decade. A situation that initially puzzled me was why so many enthusiastic, energetic, and highly motivated people who joined an organisation had become less enthusiastic, somewhat lethargic and with limited motivation after only a few months in their jobs. When I asked a number of then to explain what had caused the difference the main reasons given were:
- Forced to quickly conform to office politics, policies, practices, and rules that, to them, did not make sense in terms of achieving effective results (“this is how we do things here”).
- Being given work to do that did not make use of their capability or experience.
- Restrictions placed by management on their ability to connect with colleagues in other sections on issues that was relevant to getting things done. Some were told to always get permission before engaging with colleagues from other sections.
- Simple tasks were made complex by the number of people who apparently had a “finger in the pie”.
- Being expected to attend meetings that did not have a clear purpose or outcomes other than to “represent” my department and make certain that nothing was agreed that adversely impacted on it.
- Friction with those colleagues who had learned the rules and were now “protecting” their jobs and thus reluctant to help achieve what we were expected to accomplish.
- Receiving abstract and conflicting instructions from managers who were not willing to expand or clarify or made you feel stupid if you asked.
- Experiencing aggressive and abusive behaviour from managers and some senior colleagues which was “bullying”
It would come as no surprise to you to appreciate that one or more of the above reasons could result in most people producing at least average or possibly even mediocre performance. However, there will always be the exception to the rule in that some people will have the capacity to operate effectively in such environments. The opportunity we have is to find ways to enable an increasing number of people to develop who are willing and capable of dealing constructively with each of the above situations.
Being liberated
It was interesting to discover that many of those who were the exception were in fact ‘characters’ who were strongly ‘inner directed’ and, as importantly, very active learners.
They described how they operated saying that they:
- Felt empowered to make decisions and take whatever action was appropriate to achieve desired goal or outcome.
- Formed alliances and partnerships with like minded people as this enabled them to gain strength from these positive relationships.
- Kept in active touch with their networks by sharing what they were doing and received feedback on what was going on in the wider world.
- Were willing to constructively confront the people and practices that they observed were producing less than satisfactory outcomes.
- Had created a personal vision of how a constructive organisation could operate and were willing to strive to make this a reality.
- They deliberately chose strategies that enabled them to continue to be empowered
During the many conversations they often describe that they felt ‘liberated’ in ways that helped them to successfully overcome the barriers to effectiveness discussed above. With this amazing potential available to organisations it is a puzzle why so many continue to act in was that fail to realise this incredible potential for the benefit of all in the organisation and those it serves.
The emerging roles for ‘senior managers’
I indicated in my last blog that I was excited by the significant opportunities that exist for senior managers to adopt new roles designed to bring out the potential described. However, I felt a need to find ways to encourage everyone to take back their life from the organisation before share my thoughts on the different roles in my next blog. In this way it provides a framework on which to connect the roles with ways that liberate all colleagues.
Tom