Self-Devpt. Nuggets™

To get your team members to put in their BEST efforts at all times, you need what I call a Workplace Performance Improvement philosophy. One that will inspire them to willingly do their jobs AND even take up MORE as the need to do so becomes obvious – without seeing it as extra work! I discuss ten (10) strategies you can employ to make the foregoing happen.

1. Promote Creativity

Encourage an atmosphere for creativity to flourish. This can be done by actively engaging the minds of employees by involving them in taking crucial decisions about issues concerning the way they do their jobs.

Additionally, requesting their contributions towards solving problems affecting their jobs – and recognising/rewarding them accordingly – would stimulate creativity. Invite them to make and/or send in ideas/suggestions.

Be receptive to them as they do so. Apply tact in rejecting “bad ideas” to avoid withdrawal.

2. Discourage “Blame”

You will need to explore effective ways of telling them what YOU want. It will also help greatly if you create an atmosphere where BL:AME is NEVER welcome and where instead the focus is on problem analysis/solving for IMPROVED productivity.

For instance you would encourage everyone to concern themselves with WHAT went wrong and WHY – and NOT with WHO DID IT.

In this way, when the WHO issue arises during problem solving, people responsible for the workplace activity/process under scrutiny will feel safe enough to admit where they erred, thereby helping the team QUICKLY UNDERSTAND and solve the problem.

3. Entrench Informal On-The-Job Coaching

What is your mental attitude about each employee’s ability? Do you believe you can help them become better or have you given up on them as “unchangeable” or ‘hopeless”?

I suggest you adopt the former attitude because NO one human being can come to you as a perfect employee. It will often be up to you to “guide” those who work with you to do so in THE manner you believe will help the organisation get the results it NEEDS.

You need to enhance the skills of your employees by providing (and encouraging) spontaneous job-based coaching to complement whatever formal training they are exposed to.

For instance you would latch on to ANY opportunity to carryout informal coaching of your reports etc, towards helping them understand how management utilises the information they document, and why it is so important for documentation to be accurate and complete.

4. Employ Multi-dimensional Peer Pressure To Enhance Best Practices

You could tactfully/subtly use peer pressure to inspire positive attitudinal changes amongst the workforce. It is normal in most workplace to have “Star” workers and average workers.

The challenge for you will be to find a way to make the “Star” worker share(or “infect” others with) his/her expertise, knowledge and positive work ethics. With proper encouragement, you will find that such individuals readily develop the instinct to help others perform better on the job.

The other average workers are likely to see the “recognition/respect” the “Star” worker enjoys, and consequently appreciate his/her efforts to help them. Plus they would be interested in acquiring improved competence through him/her.

Properly done, this strategy can greatly reduce the amount of direct effort you and other “leaders” need to put in to get improved on-the-job performances.

5. Insist That Everyone See The Big Picture

You will need to insist your team members ALWAYS remember to view their jobs from a broader perspective and not narrow into their micro activities.

Task each individual in a specific unit of the department for instance to study what goes on in the other units in the department even though s/he does not have to work there(yet). They should make it their business to know/understand what the next man’s job involves.

This is important because many times they have to interface with the person on the other side of the fence in doing their own jobs.If they understand what his/her job entails they will more readily appreciate how their actions (or inactions) can affect the person.

Getting them to do this will break down the mental barriers that many people build because they work in physically separate divisions or sections of the same organisation. .

The result will be that communication happens more readily/freely thereby making it possible for workplace activities to proceed more successfully to the company’s benefit.

6. Endorse ‘Leading” And Make “Bossing” Unfashionable

Make it obvious that “No bosses” are wanted in your workplace, and that only leaders are welcome.

The difference between these two types of people is that the former seek to DOMINATE others in a bid to get them to deliver results, while the latter work to INSPIRE others to perform.

7. Advocate Intelligent Mistake Making

You will need to discard the “Shoot the messenger” mentality – if it exists in any form. You MUST make it SAFE for people to make mistakes.

If you allow a blame culture to take root in your workplace, people will begin to HIDE their mistakes, and will rarely ever own up – causing major problems for the company.

Mistakes that do not get stopped via corrective feedback to those responsible will get repeated and lead to customer complaints, losses/wastes etc.

If you want people to develop on the job, you must be willing to accept that they WILL make mistakes on the job – because they are human! Your role will be to help them learn from those mistakes and work hard to AVOID repeating them.

Anytime a person fails or makes a mistake, s/he must be made to identity and understand the cause. S/he must learn to use failure as a learning platform.

8. Create Micro-Businesses

You could get individual departments to see themselves as mini businesses within the larger company. And the department heads can choose to regard the different units within their departments as MICRO businesses within each departmental MINI business.

Each micro business will have a MISSION which would basically be to achieve a RESULT that must be delivered. Or to complete a TASK that must be performed successfully.

All of which will enable other micro business(es) and the MINI business to achieve their own goals – which are all linked to the organisation’s overall purpose.

At each level (Macro, Mini and Micro), the relevant team members would decide on their individual mission statements – drawing from what they have to do within the bigger departmental unit.

This approach allows all members of the organisation to get a more tangible indication of what is required of them. They are therefore better able to understand what they need to do and why.

9. When Introducing Change(s), Ensure Those Affected UNDERSTAND Why

How do you go about introducing/implementing change that you deem necessary? When people do not understand why the way they work – for instance – is being changed, they can resist it sometimes in subtle ways that can have very harmful consequences for the organisation.

You need to take pains to explain to the team members – especially those affected (positively or negatively) by it – WHY the change is being made, so they ‘feel” involved and understand the THINKING behind the decision.

Over time, their appreciation of management’s expectations from them (and its “thinking”) in relation to their jobs will improve.

10. Make Open & Honest Communication A Well Advertised Policy

In many organisations – especially those with large workforces – sometimes the majority of employees tend to hold the (mistaken?) belief that the company’s profits are exorbitant, and that management is unjust and unfair.

This is what causes the typical situation where employees unions maintain a confrontational posture towards the company’s leadership – viewing decisions/policies with suspicion etc.

It would help if you – and others in senior/leadership positions – make a conscious effort to formally (and informally) communicate management’s positive sides. More importantly, your actions should inspire trust and confidence amongst the workforce.

Employees should for instance not (or no longer?) have to contend with what someone once described as “closed doors and tense, guarded statements“.

As one poster I came across on a factory wall once put it : “Limited Information or No Information = NEGATIVE information“.

When the employees speak with one member of the senior management team about “what’s going on”, the information s/he gives MUST be reasonably consistent with what another “senior” person would supply at any other time on the same subject.

FINAL WORDS : Central to all that I have said above is the need to create an atmosphere of mutual trust, respect and appreciation between and among ALL members of the organisation’s team

Make your people feel recognised – and reward them when possible – for the effort they make every day to do their jobs well.

Doing this, in addition to applying other ideas like those outlined above is very likely to make your employees deliver more VALUE on their jobs everyday they come in – without need for financial incentives of any sort.

Click here to learn about the Workplace Performance Improvement Learning Events I offer…

NB: This article is based on excerpts from a piece written and first published online by Tayo K. Solagade via www.spontaneousdevelopment.com – and Ezinearticles.com – on 18th September 2007.