The People Who Can Make You Successful Are Already In Your Company
Jane Gillham, Director, Pivotal Performance
The idea that strong leadership and good management can take the performance of an organisation from good to better is not new. The opposite is also true. Poor management limits the growth of the organisation and the people within it. It restricts talent, undermines confidence and makes a poor or average performance acceptable within the business. The people who can make you successful are already in your business. But are your managers bringing out the best in them?
It has been reported that each employee harbours around 30% discretionary effort that they can choose to engage at work. The relationship that they have with their immediate manager is likely to be the deciding factor of whether they feel inspired to use it, or not. Failure to engage in the development of management and leadership skills in our key people has the potential to reduce energy, commitment and output to 70%. Is that enough to ensure the continuing high performance of the business and inspire our high potential people to stay? It would seem not. In fact, in a recent Pivotal poll, 87% of respondents agreed with the statement “People don’t leave companies, they leave managers!”
So how can managers release the 30%?
Work on the culture
American business culture values how fast people return from failure. British business culture values not failing in the first place. Make it ok to fail, and then learn.
Be at the Game
There are always other things to do, but managers must give the same priority to developing their people as they would to developing a client relationship. Put coaching in your diary as you would a client appointment and do not remove it!
Set People Up for Success
Be clear on your purpose and make sure that everyone on the team knows and shares it.
Delegate “what” - and give people the freedom to determine “how”
Lead by example
Managers lead both the task, and the attitude of their team. What example are you setting?
And finally – have fun!
People learn, grow and perform when they are enjoying themselves. That goes for managers too
