Working with managers at different levels and in many industries, I consistently get asked various questions on how to manage better. One that surfaces most often, especially in large organisations is “ How can I trust my team to do the job in the way it needs to be done?”.
Source: www.telosity.net
Of course the answer is always “it depends” after all there are many variables at play. To better answer the question, perhaps it is more valuable to understand what the question implies. This question assumes that there is a right way and a wrong way to do the job. The question also assumes that everyone in the team has the same level of skills and experience. If we dig deep, the question also assumes that everyone in the team has the same level of confidence in performing the job.
When managers ask this question, they are in truth trying to look for someone to execute the task with the same competence and confidence they have in performing it.
Trust is fundamentally about dependability and predictability. Can I rely on my employee to do this job the way I would?
The consequences of this attitude causes managers to consistently rely on the same people to perform the critical tasks again and again and by doing so they find themselves subject to a number of by-products.
Source: www.business2community.com
The usual suspect generally becomes overwhelmed and overworked but also becomes very capable and experienced and often finds the confidence to get promoted away from the team or leave to seek better employment conditions elsewhere.
Those that are seldom trusted with critical tasks become disengaged, demotivated and even loose confidence to a point they might not even take the risk to look for a job elsewhere.
Ultimately, these managers find themselves having to perform all the critical task themselves, don’t have time to develop new people and become frustrated with having to deal with poor performers.
The solution to this dilemma has been around for a long time and many experts have developed several models to explain how to manage people development effectively.
The late Peter Drucker’s definition of the role of managing is “Achieving results through people” this means that people are the critical resource to get things done. People are the most important tool a manager must use to execute a plan and deliver high performance results.
Of course for a tool to be effective, it is important to know what it does, how to use it and more importantly how to maintain it in good working order. So if we make this analogy to manage people effectively in the pursuit of high performance a manager has 3 critical jobs to perform:
1. The first job of an effective manager should be to get to know the people in their teams, their strengths and abilities, their passions and motivators, their attitude and preferences. This first step will help a manager understand who in the team is best suited to perform which task.
2. The second most important job of an effective manager should be to facilitate the people in the team to know each other and recognise the strengths and abilities each individual brings to the team. In this way everyone in the team knows who to rely on for help and support to resolve problems and collaborate effectively.
3. The third most important job of an effective manager should be to formulate a plan that place the relevant talent and skills to work on the tasks and roles that will deliver the required outcomes. While doing so it is also important for a manager to set the appropriate level of expectations that stretch an individual's abilities without straining them. In doing so, a manager should also provide each individual with the opportunity to develop and grow at an appropriate pace.
Things don’t get done if people don’t do them. The best way to develop trust in the people you manage is to help them develop their strengths, confidence and motivation, along the way they will also grow to trust you.
Fabio Grassi is the Programme Director for the IMI Diploma in Executive Coaching which is starting on 20th April 2016.
Fabio is a specialist in the development of team performance, collaboration and motivation. _____________________________________
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Emma Birchall is Head of Research - Future of Work at the Hot Spots Movement.
Here she has the opportunity to convert leading research into practical insights for clients who are looking to find new ways of using technology to drive human capital performance.
She will be a keynote speaker at the IMI National Management Conference on 8 October 2015.
IMI: Based on your current work – if you only had 6 words of advice to give a business - what would they be?
EB: Bring back the trust. They’re human.
IMI: What does this mean?
EB: From collaboration to performance to employee engagement, everything we know about work is changing – but our businesses are seemingly slow to respond. People are more attuned to sharing posts, writing blogs, and providing instant feedback through ‘likes’ and ‘favourites’ than they are to completing surveys, so why does our approach to employee engagement still centre on a set of fixed statements and a rating scale? In their personal lives people collaborate naturally with those around them and have an amazing propensity to share even when there is no immediate benefit to them, hence the success of crowdsourcing sites like Wikipedia. So, why do we spend so much time and energy in organisations on encouraging people to practice these seemingly natural behaviours at work? The challenge for businesses is to disrupt every process and practice in the organisation by asking: Why does it exist? What are we trying to achieve? If we were to start the organisation from scratch, would we choose to create this? And perhaps most tellingly of all, would this practice exist if we trusted our employees?
IMI: Where should we look for further information?
EB: For further information, take a look at the Future of Work website or follow us on Twitter @HspotM: http://www.hotspotsmovement.com/research-institute.html
Source: www.abcgreatpix.com
Emma Birchall is a keynote speaker at the IMI National Management Conference taking place on Thursday 8 October. This event has now reached maximum capacity however if you would like to be added to the waiting list, please email your contact details and company name to conference@imi.ie.
[post_title] => "Bring back the trust. They’re human" Six Word Wisdom from Emma Birchall
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In my opinion there are three organisation wide people focused initiatives that I have found particularly helpful in creating high performance cultures:
The result: A workforce with the right capabilities, willing to go the extra mile (engaged) and enabled to perform at their best. An organisation where strategic priorities and culture are aligned and working together to deliver an exceptional customer experience and, in turn, impact / profits and shareholder value.
Building Capabilities:
Capability building is central to organisational performance. There is a need to identify and focus development interventions on those competencies that add the most value to the organisation’s business performance i.e. those that enable the effective execution of the organisation’s strategy. A recent Economist study reported that “61% of respondents acknowledge that their firms often struggle to bridge the gap between strategy formulation and its day-to-day implementation".
Moreover, in the last three years an average of just "56% of strategic initiatives has been successful.”1. Companies can improve on this track record by paying far greater attention to the capabilities they need to successfully implement their strategy.
C.K. Prahalad and G Hamel, in their HBR article “The Core Competence of the Corporation” argue that “the real sources of advantage are to be found in management’s ability to consolidate corporate-wide technologies and production skills into competencies that empower individual businesses to adapt quickly to changing opportunities”. They go further to state that unlike products, technology and processes which can be easily copied and replicated, core competencies are difficult for competitors to imitate and therefore can become a unique source of long term competitive advantage.
Caution:
A common mistake organisations make is to over-focus on today’s capability needs at the detriment of important longer-term capability needs that might end up not being addressed. This requires organisations to look into the external environment to identify future threats, challenges and opportunities and their impact on the capability requirements of the organisation going forward.
Engagement
There is a growing body of evidence over the past decade that validates (1) that engaged employees outperform their non-engaged co-workers and (2) the quantifiable relationship between levels of organizational engagement and financial performance
Engagement is an employee’s willingness to expend discretionary effort / to go the extra mile at work
Towers Watson’s Global Workforce Study 2014 found that only 4 in 10 employees are highly engaged; that close to a quarter (24%) are disengaged, and another 36% can be described as either unsupported or detached. A full 60% of employees lack the elements required to be highly engaged.
This engagement gap presents a great challenge but also a great opportunity to improve organisational performance
Organisations need to make engagement an organisational priority led from the top, assess current employee engagement levels and, develop and implement engagement plans.
Supportive Work Environment
Capability building and staff engagement, however, can take a company only so far. Factors specifically related to the work environment also play a critical role.
That is, organisations need to provide employees with the support they need to do their work efficiently and effectively. E.g. providing people with the tools, resources and support to do their job effectively, giving them meaningful work and creating an environment that promotes employees’ physical, social and emotional well-being. In these environments:
People are clear on the strategic direction of their organisation and what they are expected to deliver and the way in which to deliver it (Role Clarity)
People understand how their job contributes to the success of his/her department and organisation (Task Identity)
People understand the positive impact their work has on others within or outside the organization (Task significance)
People are trusted, empowered and given the right level of autonomy to perform their role (Autonomy)
People are given enough on the job learning and growth opportunities to improve themselves and achieve their potential (Mastery)
People receive on-going constructive feedback on performance from customers, colleagues and the manager for development
While an organisation’s culture can become its main source of long term sustainable competitive advantage, proactively managing, improving or changing is one of the most difficult leadership challenges.
Can your organisation’s leadership opt out?
If so, do they run the risk of their organisation becoming less and less attractive to employees and shareholders? Becoming irrelevant?
What do you think? Would love to hear your views on this blog as well as your thoughts on things / initiatives that can enable the creation of a high performance culture.
1“Why Good Strategies Fail: Lessons for the C-Suite,” Economist Intelligence Unit, 2013, http://www.pmi.org/~/media/PDF/Publications/WhyGoodStrategiesFail_Report_EIU_PMI.ashx
Pedro Angulo is the new Programme Director of the IMI Diploma in Strategic HR Management and contributes on the IMI Diploma in Executive Coaching.
Pedro is an Organisational Effectiveness Business Partner in AIB and Chairperson of the Irish EMCC (European Mentoring and Coaching Council).
He is a motivational speaker and regular presenter at HR, coaching, change and business conferences / events._____________________________________
[post_title] => And the result: A workforce with the right capabilities & willing to go the extra mile
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[post_title] => The ‘Simply Irresistible’ Leader
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Paula Milligan
7th Sep 2018
Paula Milligan is associate IMI faculty on the High Impact Leadership and High-Performance Teams short programmes
Related Articles
Are you enabling people to trust you?
"Bring back the trust. They’re human" Six Word Wisdom from Emma Birchall
And the result: A workforce with the right capabilities & willing to go the extra mile
The ‘Simply Irresistible’ Leader
Do your Employees Trust You?
“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships”
– Stephen Covey
Yet, it seems we live in a time where people are trusting less and less. Throw in the dramatic trend towards “Fake News” people are now unsure and sceptical of anything they officially read, quickly becoming one of the biggest threats to democracy and free debate. We view our politicians, health service, institutions and companies with suspicion and doubt, with all their failings clearly documented and embraced for all to believe, or not?
Circles of friends and families are being pitted against each other competitively under the unceasing scrutiny and all-seeing eye of social media. Framed by the fact that we ask Google to sum up whatever information we need, instantly allowing us to become experts in any known field. Blissful ignorance, simple living and blind leaps of faith seem to be a thing of the past.
Therefore, forming real relationships at home and in the work-place has become more challenging and yet more important than ever. Real human interaction and connection is not something that can be simulated, it is something that is earned, felt, worth cherishing and worth holding onto.
.
The Threat of Doing Nothing
So, when trust is not present within teams and across organisations key and often challenging conversations tend not to happen internally. Unresolved problems become a constant thread of tension that is never relieved.
Your people become so accustomed to them that working around the issues becomes a way of life. Learning what not to say and what not to do to flare up a conflict. An entire workforce that become highly skilled at a dance of avoidance. On the surface this may look OK but, this is a highly dysfunctional culture where talent will leave, performance will be mediocre and results will stagnate.
Transfer this over to entire organisations where trust levels are low, the impact and drain is extensive and staggering. When we do not feel trust and as a result feel safe we will ultimately do things to damage and hurt the culture and the company. .
The High Price of Low Trust
Research shows that only 49% of employees trust senior management, and only 28% believe CEOs are a credible source of information.
When trust is low, in a company or in a relationship, it places a hidden “tax” on every transaction: every communication, every interaction, every strategy, every decision is taxed, bringing speed down and sending costs up.
After many years of working as a business consultant, I have witnessed the impact of not addressing a lack of trust. It leaks time and money out of every area and action of the business. Compensating for poor behaviours, hidden agendas, siloed working and poor results, taking triple the amount of time to get things done.
In contrast, where high trust levels are in place something very different comes to light. The very language used changes from “Me” to “Us”. Communication, relationships and productivity soar allowing decisions to be made with increasing conviction and speed. People feel valued, recognised and part of something.
Achieving a real culture of trust is one of the biggest leadership challenges you will ever face and yet one of the smartest and most strategic ways to improve bottom line results. .
The Secret Ingredient for Trust
So, what is the Secret Ingredient? What was the key factor that allowed one leader to succeed where others failed? What makes one person fantastic at creating and sustaining highly effective relationships and the other repeatedly failing?
Think about this……do we as leaders need to always have the answers? Can we? Is there value in bringing a “Confident Vulnerability” into our leadership brands that clearly recognizes what we as leaders bring to the table and what we don’t and can’t – is this not the very reason we formed a brilliant team of minds and souls where “together” we have all the answers.
What this approach brings to the table is “Trust” and with that firmly engaged, where we can go knows no limits.
Paula Milligan is associate IMI faculty on the High Impact Leadership and High-Performance Teams short programmes and is Founder and Managing Director of the LALLO Ltd Consultancy.
This article originally featured in the Sunday Business Post.
Source: www.abcgreatpix.com
Emma Birchall is a keynote speaker at the 
The result: A workforce with the right capabilities, willing to go the extra mile (engaged) and enabled to perform at their best. An organisation where strategic priorities and culture are aligned and working together to deliver an exceptional customer experience and, in turn, impact / profits and shareholder value.
