Monday, May 19, 2014

Making Employees Run by Choice

If you ask the average employee to state the vision, mission statement or quality policy of their organization, you will be surprised at the percentage of those who can’t recite it. Some employees have even never bothered to read it. In some organizations it is even placed on notice boards but yet just ignored consistently. Are you then surprised that they are not working with a sense of urgency or purpose? You must ensure that at every forum you state the vision and mission statement of your organization until everyone internalize it. It is also possible that some employees cannot run with the company's vision and mission because it is not 'plain' enough. According to Albert Einstein, if you cannot explain your vision to a 6 years old, you don't understand it either. Once a vision/mission is going into lines of sentences, then it will be difficult to recite or memorize Think about the vision of company's such as Nike - Just do it! If you wake up an employee, he can tell you even in his sleep. The values of the company must be imbibed by all from the MD to the Gateman. All employees must know why the organization exits and what values it holds dear.I beats me when someone says the MD or GM does not permit certain type of practices. It should be our company values are not in line with such practices. We must move more towards institutionalism and less on the lone genius or the MD. It does not speak well when the standards that apply to management is different from the line workers. Leaders must lay examples and demonstrate the way to go. They need to take time to explain the rationale behind decisions as much as time permits. We have employed people’s minds, hearts and not just their hands. No matter how well you compensate your employees, we must ensure that we continuously explore ways to keep them engaged. How can we align their interest with that of the organization? Can we show them that their interest is been served as they pursue the organizations agenda. Which new skills are they developing by virtue of working with you as line manager? Are they exposed to continuous training and best practices? Implementing Work life balance and family friendly policies will further engender our employee commitment. I recall a friend who once wanted to exit an organization, it was the spouse who prevailed on him to stay put. This is because the spouse could feel the welfare incentives of the organization. A friend once worked for an organization where spouse were not allowed to come for the end of year party. Such a spouse who feels disenfranchised would urge the friend to move on if a better opportunity presents itself. Can we trust our leadership? Is our organization purposeful? If the vision of the organization is not plain and documented, the people will be slow and sluggish. Vision provides the fuel, drive and impetus to forge ahead. It takes away eye service or ass licking. It increases efficiency and reduces error. People who are sold out to a cause break every barrier en route their achieving success. They turn their tasks to accomplishment and see how what they do add to the bottom line. Every role in that organization becomes as important as the other. It is not enough to have an open door, we must also have an open heart.