Talented people are available
There is ample empirical evidence from a wide range of sources to support the view that most organisations have a significant number of employees who are capable and talented. It is also very interesting to note that in some organisations the talented people tend to be clearly innovative and productive in the way they do their work. They are the people who tend to work ‘smarter’ rather than ‘harder’ as they achieve sustainable outputs. The main reason that they are motivated to continue to develop and maintain a high level of contribution is often associated with their personal commitment and overall morale.
High morale
It is important to note that there can be many factors that produce high morale in an organisation. Evidence from the best place to work surveys show that this is associated with a number of actions taken by management including the following:
• Active involvement in work design and implementation
• Opportunity to be innovative with work practices
• Workstation facilities that are fit for purpose
• Availability of the right equipment and resources
• Clear and effective communications
• Excellent rewards for effective performance
• Regular, relevant and effective feedback
• Productive and constructive relationships
• Highly collaborative culture
• Regular appreciation shown for effective work
There is no doubt that high morale is a significant contributor to productivity as the issues listed above provide the necessary motivation for most employees.
Creating a high morale culture
Organisations that recognise the need to demonstrate that they value their people tend to be the ones with a high morale culture. They know that their employees have different needs and expectations and therefore avoid implementing ‘one size fits all’ strategies. To get to know what their people think and need they encourage them to be actively involved in shaping all policies and practices. The organisations have confidence in their people due to recognising the following facts that most people:
• Have a strong desire to do a good job
• Want to receive up-to-date information on progress
• Need to feel involved in a constructive way
• Like relationships to be constructive
• Want to have the resources to do a good job
• Receive regular feedback on performance
• Give feedback on how they are being ‘managed’
• Have their effective performance suitably rewarded
There will naturally be other factors that influence organisations to be confident in their people; however, the ones listed tend to be regarded as the most important.
Desirable approach to ‘managing’
To achieve the desired level of morale in an organisation the leaders also recognise that their approach to managing needs to be different from the traditional hierarchical approach. Working on the premise that their people are capable and motivated to achieve the leaders focus on encouraging a high level of ‘self-managing’ to take place. This would involve some or all of the following activities depending on each person’s role:
• Involved in designing their jobs to encourage a feeling of ownership resulting in wanting to successfully accomplish the desired outputs
• Encourage them to set and agree stretching achievable goals for themselves and teams
• They would also agree the behaviour and actions that would be needed to lead them to achieving successful business outcomes
• All outputs would be measurable/observable by the people to enable them to continuously monitor their own, and the teams, performance
• Individuals and team would agree the personal and team rewards for achieving the agreed goals.
• Support and guidance coupled with learning opportunities would be made readily available to enable individuals and teams to improve on their own self-managing practices.
Regular and constructive 360° feedback would be a critical part of the culture. This would be designed to enable all employees from the CEO along to the newest employee to be regularly informed on their goal performance and working behaviour. The aim would be to encourage continuous learning and development as a means of motivating everyone to look for ways to improve their performance.
Effective management
There are interesting insights into how to be an effective leader from the US, UK, and Australian ‘Undercover Boss’ television series. The programmes tend to illustrate how a senior manager going undercover gets an opportunity to understand what goes on in their organisation. The power of the learning is clearly demonstrated by the various insights each leader gains. There are also many humbling experiences exposed where employees are working under harrowing personal and organisational situations. What the programme does in its ‘edited’ format is to show the gap that exists between the ‘leaders’ and the ‘workers’. The main cause is how traditional hierarchies tend to encourage increasing distance from the senior managers to the front line team.
For management to be effective in today’s dynamic and interconnected world of work there is an urgent need to introduce the practices outlined above. The more employees are constructively engaged in shaping the culture and their work the less there is a need for traditional ‘management’.
I would appreciate hearing from you by either contacting me at tom.jaap@centell.org or leaving a comment on the blog.
Best wishes
Tom