In yesterday’s Advisor , management and leadership consultant Shawn Murphy presented the first three of his five common missteps in creating an optimistic workplace and how to correct them. Today, Murphy discusses the final two mistakes to avoid.
 |
Murphy is CEO and founder of Switch & Shift, an organization dedicated to the advancement of human-centered organizational practices and leadership. When not consulting, he can often be found in the classroom teaching, speaking to audiences, or interviewing top thought leaders on his Work That Matters podcast.
- Misstep #4: Assuming people understand the importance of their work. Too often, leaders think because they said something important once, people will remember it. Work alignment occurs when each person on your team knows how his or her contributions align with the team’s and organization’s goals. This may seem obvious, but it’s a standard leadership belief not often put into practice.
Correction: Talk to your team often. Set clear goals, discuss what work is a priority, and give feedback often on each person’s progress. Explain why the work matters to the team or to the organization. When employees understand the importance of their work, they take ownership of their results, and you enable progress.
Your Challenge: Limit your organization’s liability for supervisor and employee words and actions, without the cost and time commitment of standard training programs.
BLR’s Solution: The soup-to-nuts kit that provides everything you need to deliver fast employment law training classes — without pulling your key contributors away from core responsibilities. Learn More.
- Misstep #5: Unknowingly over-promoting individualism. Physically separated from one another by cube walls, offices, and/or geography, most workspaces promote individualism and not team cohesiveness. Even goals are set for individual performance. Rarely are team goals established and monitored.
Correction: When emotional energy is shared among a group of people, a strong bond forms, and the desire to repeat the interactions is high. Have your team members get together physically at meetings or conferences. Have them identify goals that encourage collaborative behaviors. Your goal is to build bonds between team members. Successful teams execute, but they also celebrate. Celebrate accomplishments.
10 Minute HR Trainer is the busy HR manager’s dream tool: everything needed to conduct fast and memorable training on key employment law topics. And by fast, we mean 10 minute courses that deliver those vital how-to (and definitely-do-not-do) instructions your managers need to avoid a catastrophe the next time they have to hire, fire, discipline, investigate a complaint, and otherwise interact with employees.