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What Makes a Great Working Environment?
Copyright © 2007 Wally Bock
Used with permission of the author (http://www.threestarleadership.com/bookreviewpermissionform.htm)
Author: Wally Bock
Email: wally@threestarleadership.com
Website: http://www.threestarleadership.com
13 December 2007
We know a lot about what a great
working environment is.
A great working environment is a
work situation where the mission is being accomplished and morale
is high. It's the "user" side of the two key leadership
objectives: accomplish the mission and care for your people.
Most people know exactly what I
mean by a great working environment. They may not be able to list
characteristics, or point to research, but they've usually
experienced one. So have you.
Think about a time in your life
when it was great to come to work. If you're luck there are lots
of them. If you're really lucky, now is one of those times.
What was it like then? I'll bet you
were excited about the work you were doing, and you knew that it
was appreciated. You almost certainly felt that you were being
treated fairly and that you had some control over what you got to
do. That's what the research tells us, too.
Over the years, there's been quite
a bit of research into the factors that make up a great working
environment. Here's a quick summary of what the research and my
own experience tell us make for a great working environment.
Interesting
and Meaningful Work
People want to do work that's
interesting and meaningful. They want what they do to be enriching
for them and important to others.
Different people define interesting
in different ways. For some folks, it means that they're learning
a lot, having lots of personal growth. For others, the most
important thing is that there are lots of different situations to
deal with or lots of different problems to solve.
Sometimes "interesting"
is not so much about the work itself as it is about the people you
work with. The self-fulfillment comes from being part of a team,
an elite group, or just a bunch of folks you like working with.
It's also important for the work to
have value to others. The "others" can be the whole
world, or just our customers or the folks I work with.
Clear
and Reasonable Expectations
People like to know what's expected
of them. It's like setting up the rules of the game.
Expectations need to be clear. At
the supervisory level, that may mean laying out detailed,
step-by-step procedures. At the management level expectations may
come out of discussions with several folks. At the leadership
level, slogans and other brief statements that folks can use as a
"test" of their plans or actions are usually the most
effective.
Don't underestimate the value of
frequency, simplicity and memorability when you're communicating
expectations. You have to communicate the important things over
and over in memorable terms.
In fact, repeating things is one
way of telling people that they're important. Slogans can be great
for this. So can using devices like pocket reminder cards with
simple messages or messages in table form.
Use your regular forms of
communication - newsletters, emails, sales bulletins to reinforce
your leadership message. Reinforce your written communications of
expectations with oral communications. Reinforce your formal
communications with informal ones.
Remember that you need to state
expectations for the performance you want, but you also need to be
clear about the consequences of performance that's beyond or not
quite up to standard.
Frequent
and Usable Feedback
People like to know how they're
doing. Feedback is how they find out. To work, the feedback must
be frequent (lots of small course corrections) and usable.
How frequent is frequent? The
answer, which sounds something like a cop-out is: "As often
as necessary?"
Some people want and need a lot of
feedback. Other folks prefer to be left alone most of the time to
do their work. You have to know who needs what and in what
situations.
The idea is to make lots of small
course corrections on the way to the clear target you've
established with your expectations.
Feedback also has to be usable.
Time your feedback so it reaches people when it does the most
good. In most situations, that means you want feedback as close to
the performance as possible. If you can set up a system so people
can get their own feedback, so much the better.
Work on your communications skills
so you deliver feedback in the most effective way possible. Learn
about different ways that people process information, and match
your communication to their preferred style. Learn about Social
Styles and other ways that you help you communicate with people in
the ways they most like to be communicated with.
Fairness
(Consequences = Performance)
People want to know that they (and
others) are being fairly rewarded based on their performance. this
is one of those words that requires definition. Otherwise, it
becomes one of those words that everyone agrees with, but no two
people have a common definition for.
For us, fairness means that the
consequences of the performance are determined by the quantity and
quality of the performance. One of the people in my class put it
in almost Biblical terms: "The good shall be rewarded and the
underachievers shall be punished in accordance with their
results."
This ties back to reasonable
expectations. It depends on regular and usable feedback.
Consistency
(Predictability)
Consistency means predictability.
Subordinates want to know how their supervisor will react in a
given situation. Consistency also relates to predictability in
terms of performance.
Your people want to know how to
predict your reaction in different situations. If they can't, they
worry about whether or not to trust you.
According to some management
studies, consistency (predictability) is the single most effective
standard to establish with your own leadership behavior. It's
actually another form of communication - a way of walking the
talk.
Leadership by example means that
you uphold the values and principles that you say you and others
stand for. It means that you, consistently, pay attention to the
important things, consistently reward good performance,
consistently see that rewards and punishments are meted out
fairly.
Maximum
Control Possible
People want to have a say about
things that affect their life. You can make that happen for them
by giving them as much control as possible over issues that affect
them at work.
Obviously that varies from person
to person and situation to situation. Some people like to be left
alone. Others want to see you frequently.
Some folks are qualified to make
lots of decisions about their work. Others need to develop their
skills a bit before they can do the same.
Some people work hard and make an
effort to do the job. Others slack off.
It's probably a good general rule
to allow folks as much control of the basic decisions about their
work as they are capable of handling and willing to handle. In
today's flatter organizations, this is easier to do from an
organizational standpoint, but it's hard for many of us from a
personal standpoint.
Wally
Bock helps organizations improve productivity and morale, as
well as deal with the challenges of massive Boomer retirements. He
is the author of Performance Talk (http://www.performancetalk.com/).
He writes the Three Star Leadership blog (http://blog.threestarleadership.com/),
coaches individual managers, and is a popular speaker at meetings
and conferences in the United States and elsewhere. Read
more about him in his own words: http://www.threestarleadership.com/learnwally.htm
and contact
him at email: wally@threestarleadership.com
and website: http://www.threestarleadership.com
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Short summary
A great working environment has certain characteristics. Keywords
and relevant phrases
Accomplishment, appreciation, clarity, communication, consistency,
control, development, engagement, expectations, fairness,
feedback, interest, meaning, morale, performance management,
predictability, principles, reasonability,
reward, skills, trust, values, working environment.
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