"When can you know that you are making a mistake in your job?", I asked.
"When my boss gets angry with me.", replied one of the participants in one of my training sessions on leadership.
"What happened when everything goes fine?", I asked curiously. "Ah, nothing happened. Our bosses left leave us alone. He doesn't bother us and we'll just do our jobs as usual. It's business as usual.", another participant responded.
"How do you get rewarded for your good effort?", I asked further.
"Well, we have to wait till the end of the year. See if we will be getting any raise in our increment and bonus." someone senior in age replied with cynicism. The rest nodded in agreement.
These are usual stereo-typed responses I got from participants. No, they are not participants from the same company attending scheduled in-house training sessions. It would not be so surprising if it is so. The questions I asked would have been discussed among them before they attend the programme. But these are responses gathered during my public programmes.
These responses inferred that bosses, regardless industry, have not effectively put their thinking caps in the right perspective in dealing with their knowledge-coworkers. In short, they have not changed.
What is apparent from these responses is that co-workers learned that bosses paid more attention when they made mistakes. Co-workers got immediate 'beatings' for mistakes done and delayed recognition and reward for good work. Co-workers witnessed 'beatings' came personally from their bosses and delayed recognition from the company. Never could they witnessed recognition coming personally from their bosses. Such behaviour nurtures the 'blame culture'.The result is low morale and demotivated workforce.
While bosses expect greater efficiency and higher productivity from their co-workers at the end of each day, little did they realise that their leadership behaviour is counter productive. Already, many bosses and co-workers find their work stressful and for some, they are burnt-outs.
It is therefore paramount for bosses to find time to recognise and reward their co-workerss. Be a 'good' finder. Pick on every 'good' things your co-workers did and recognise their 'good' effort. You will soon realise that your co-workers repeat their 'good' behaviour. This raises morale, motivation hence greater efficienty and higher productivity.
Bosses should have the attitude of a staunch soccer supporter who gave his big applause for every move perceived fit to score a goal and a proud coach who hug the striker for the goal scored. And,these are done almost spontaneously - and not wait till the end of the game.
Then, what do bosses do with those making mistakes? Send them to school. The world has changed. 'Beating' your co-workers do not solve the problem. It created more problems for your behaviour made them more demoralised, demotivated, less effective and result in poor productivity. Worst still they shun away from you. This is the power of the powerless.
Bosses therefore need to find time to coach and show their co-workers how to come out of their work-related problems. If you do this, you have just found and learn to leverage your new source of power - the referent power.
So, to be effective, be a 'good' finder.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Knowing Where You Are and Your Role Play
End of last week I was on a 2-day training assignment. The programme was aimed at developing participants' skill in using tools and tactics in order to improve their capability. I was least concern on the quality of the contents. Quality of contents is essentially influenced by individual intelligence, exposures, experiences, the amount of information an individual has and more importantly the person's level of motivation. It also requires effective nurturing and coaching at workplace by leaders in the organisation. Tools and tactics can only structure the thought process that will enhance the quality of the contents. Besides, it is beyond scope of my training .
At the end of the 2-day programme, I was pleased to see that everyone had demonstrated the expected level of competency in deploying the tools and tactics shared. Such competency was manifested by their group work and presentations. I am must say that everyone had taken home more than they had carried into the training room and much more than I had expected. The objectives of the programme were met.
The participants ranges from junior executives with as low as 3 months experience to general manager with more than 20 years of experience. Pitching, though challenging, was not a problem . Presentations on the first day were dry and dragged. I had noted that except one, the rest of the participants were not too willing to open up. This one person though analytical was exceptionally critical on group work. Later in the day I had understood the environment as there were instances when I too felt uneasy.
The second day was supposed to start at 8.30am. By 8.35am the training room was still half-full. Two out of four groups had only 2 participants each. Someone senior in position had insisted that I start the programme right away as it would be unfair for him who had come early. I saw he valued compliance more than commitment. True leaders value commitment more than compliance. The other group members were as important to me as the rest. I recalled J.C. Maxwell's: "Leaders need to give up (their pride) to go up". This is humility. I did not see such quality in this person. He is not even willing to give in for 5 extra minutes to others. I had but to assert that we need to give another 5 minutes grace. Less than 2 minutes later four more participants came in. One group was still short of 2 participants. We reorganised the groups. We had 3 instead of 4 groups like in the first day. The participants had indeed went through the team dynamics of forming, storming, norming and performing.
As the participants left the room and shake their hands (except the ladies whom I do not shake hand with) at the end of the 2 day session , I could feel their tight grip except one person. I had however left some souvenirs for them to share - 12 Angry Men and Difficult People.
There are several points to learn from this experience:
1. Regardless of our position and authority, in a training sesssion we attended, we are just another participant.
2. We need to lock in our position and authority before leaving our office. In Rome, do as the Romans do. A local parable suggested "masuk kandang kambing mengembek, masuk kandang lembu menguak."
3. We may manage and lead our organisation, but the course leader/ facilitator leads the training session we attended. This is the law of connection (Maxwell).
4. We should not only be willing to learn but also should be willing to be taught.
5. Regardless how authoritative can we be, our skills in leveraging the reward power motivates others. The use of positive words will make a positive difference.
6. Leaders need to be 'good-finder' instead of being overly critical on nitty-grity, for we will end up with no one contributing any ideas in the future.
7. Learn to recognise small improvements as these are building blocks for bigger successes.
8. To motivate others, is to make them feel good about themselves and others.
9. At times, we need to play dumb and ignorant to excite others to give more information and show their 'colour'
Take note that these lessons learned too demand analytical thinking capability. I have to keep reminding myself of these lessons when presenting a paper in an upcoming logistics forum this October 2008 in Penang.
At the end of the 2-day programme, I was pleased to see that everyone had demonstrated the expected level of competency in deploying the tools and tactics shared. Such competency was manifested by their group work and presentations. I am must say that everyone had taken home more than they had carried into the training room and much more than I had expected. The objectives of the programme were met.
The participants ranges from junior executives with as low as 3 months experience to general manager with more than 20 years of experience. Pitching, though challenging, was not a problem . Presentations on the first day were dry and dragged. I had noted that except one, the rest of the participants were not too willing to open up. This one person though analytical was exceptionally critical on group work. Later in the day I had understood the environment as there were instances when I too felt uneasy.
The second day was supposed to start at 8.30am. By 8.35am the training room was still half-full. Two out of four groups had only 2 participants each. Someone senior in position had insisted that I start the programme right away as it would be unfair for him who had come early. I saw he valued compliance more than commitment. True leaders value commitment more than compliance. The other group members were as important to me as the rest. I recalled J.C. Maxwell's: "Leaders need to give up (their pride) to go up". This is humility. I did not see such quality in this person. He is not even willing to give in for 5 extra minutes to others. I had but to assert that we need to give another 5 minutes grace. Less than 2 minutes later four more participants came in. One group was still short of 2 participants. We reorganised the groups. We had 3 instead of 4 groups like in the first day. The participants had indeed went through the team dynamics of forming, storming, norming and performing.
As the participants left the room and shake their hands (except the ladies whom I do not shake hand with) at the end of the 2 day session , I could feel their tight grip except one person. I had however left some souvenirs for them to share - 12 Angry Men and Difficult People.
There are several points to learn from this experience:
1. Regardless of our position and authority, in a training sesssion we attended, we are just another participant.
2. We need to lock in our position and authority before leaving our office. In Rome, do as the Romans do. A local parable suggested "masuk kandang kambing mengembek, masuk kandang lembu menguak."
3. We may manage and lead our organisation, but the course leader/ facilitator leads the training session we attended. This is the law of connection (Maxwell).
4. We should not only be willing to learn but also should be willing to be taught.
5. Regardless how authoritative can we be, our skills in leveraging the reward power motivates others. The use of positive words will make a positive difference.
6. Leaders need to be 'good-finder' instead of being overly critical on nitty-grity, for we will end up with no one contributing any ideas in the future.
7. Learn to recognise small improvements as these are building blocks for bigger successes.
8. To motivate others, is to make them feel good about themselves and others.
9. At times, we need to play dumb and ignorant to excite others to give more information and show their 'colour'
Take note that these lessons learned too demand analytical thinking capability. I have to keep reminding myself of these lessons when presenting a paper in an upcoming logistics forum this October 2008 in Penang.
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