Today, my thoughts are very random. I was reminded of Busybee's (Behram Contractor) articles, which had come out many years ago. Very often on a Saturday, he would write out his random thoughts which made for very interesting reading. I hope you find my random thoughts interesting too.
I came across an article by Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer entitled "If You're Feeling Unappreciated, Give Someone Else Credit." That was an interesting caption! If you are feeling unappreciated, the article goes on to say how you can get appreciated. The writers go on to talk about a particular situation that they were privy to. A guy called Harry, part of a successful family business, had come in with the co-owners who were his sister and cousin. He had really transformed the company. However, though doing well, they were having a lot of inter-personal problems. One day, after a particularly unproductive meeting, Harry exploded: "No one appreciates all the sacrifices I've made for this company. The countless nights spent at industry conferences with people I don't like; the weekends with bankers and lawyers to finish the deals; the sleepless nights worrying about missing bank covenants. You all take this success for granted!" in short, Harry felt under-appreciated, and it was affecting the company's performance.
The writers, as they began to input into this company in trying to resolve the situation, actually told Harry, "Look at the room! Look at the people who are here and give them appreciation. You are feeling unappreciated, but look around and appreciate the people in the room." The moment he began to do that, suddenly the entire dynamics in the room changed. Positive began to rub off on positive because the others began to say the things that they needed to say about Harry himself. Soon, the atmosphere changed to a productive one and it broke the back of what was really stopping this company from going forward.
That made me think – how appreciative are we with people around us? Gary Chapman and Paul White wrote a book, which I have alluded to before: The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace. As you look at this, I want you also to know that there are 5 great concerns that you will have as managers and leaders. Those are:
· Discouragement in the workplace
· Burnout
· Feeling overwhelmed
· Losing the positive culture that was built over the years
· How to encourage employees with few financial resources available.
Today seems to be about lists of 5. It is so very important that we are able to recognize the undercurrents in our organizations. As I focused on that, I realized that all of them had to do with being appreciated in some form or the other.
What are the 5 languages of appreciation?
· Being able to give words of affirmation
· To give people quality time
· Acts of service
· Tangible gifts
· Appropriate physical touch. I give this out to you with words of caution – be very careful with this one. To be able to shake hands, give a hug or a high five. Again, I would really caution you about physical touch in the workplace. Be very careful and if at all, keep it gender-based.
The first four are great for the context that we are talking about – how we can make a better positive impact in our workplaces.
In today's Economic Times, I saw an article by Shreya Roy where she talks about "5 ways to Manage One's Team Efficiently". She says:
· Hire the right people. "A good team is formed when you recognize each individual's contribution and allow each one to contribute ideas," says Murali Padmanabhan, senior director and global head of learning and leadership development, Virtusa Corp.
· Assign workloads and delegate. "This will also help them take decisions on their own, motivate them to work and thereby increase the productivity."
· Embrace uncertainty. Satya Sinha says, "Rigid processes are often responsible for high-order micromanaging. Be prepared for new developments; adopt a positive approach for handling uncertainties."
· Trust your team to deliver. "Be available to guide, support and help them when required. A manager should have the confidence in his or her team to perform well." Last Tuesday we talked so much about trust.
· Value your own time. A basic management principle is that responsibility without authority fails to create desired impact. Share your experiences, encourage them but allow them to take their own decisions so that it is not impinging on your own time as well.
The question for you and me today is: How are we in terms of workplace culture? An interesting statistic that came up when I was looking at all this was 'Why employees leave?' When managers were asked why employees leave, 89% of them said that employees leave for more money while 11% of them say that they leave for the other reasons. But the real fact is that 12% of employees leave for financial reasons and 88% leave for reasons other than money. It is so important for you and me to be able to create a workplace culture that is conducive to productive work – where people feel valued and affirmed, where thank you is spoken so often. Thank you is always a result of being appreciative of something. I think, when we say thank you to people, we need to be able to say, "I'm thanking you because this is what you have done." Always be able to give a reason why you are thanking someone.
'Thank you' is similar to another word that we often use between recognition and appreciation. Recognition focuses on performance or the achievement of certain goals; appreciation focuses on the value of the individual employee. Recognition focuses on what the person does; appreciation focuses on who the person is. I wonder whether today, we need to take a good hard look at the people around us and ask the question: Am I appreciating them? Is my feeling of a lack of appreciation because I don't appreciate people myself? Then maybe we should make the change and say, "Today is going to be different. This week is going to be different. I am really going to put in place all the things that I need to put in so that people feel affirmed in the area of work that we are all in and create a positive healthy productive culture.
May I pray with you? Almighty God. On each one of these precious ones on this call, pour Your Spirit in ways that we can understand how to be able to affirm people, how to be appreciative of people, how not to be critical and cynical. But help us to create a good workplace atmosphere. We long for Your wisdom to come upon us to help us to create that kind of culture. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
• Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer, "If You're Feeling Unappreciated, Give Someone Else Credit." http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/05/if-youre-feeling-unappreciated-give-someone-else-credit/
• Shreya Roy, "5 Ways to manage One's Team Efficiently." http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/slideshows/work-career/5-ways-to-manage-ones-team-efficiently/how-to-manage-your-team-efficiently/slideshow/34712376.cms
• Amy Blackman, "Let the 5 Languages of Appreciation Work for You." http://web.frpa.org/pdfs/profDev/12ConfHandouts/Monday_082712/5%20Languages%20of%20Appreciation_Blackman.pdf
• Gary Chapman & Paul White, "The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace." http://www.amazon.com/The-Languages-Appreciation-Workplace-Organizations/dp/080246176X
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