I have been thinking about the ramifications of change
following last week’s blog and the effect that it has on people in the
business.
In essence what is always wanted from the team, at whatever
level, are values aligned with those of the business, a positive attitude, good
behaviour and a high level of enthusiasm and commitment?
Not much to ask?
There are two critical questions at play here; do we have people in the
business with these attributes and if not, how can we find them outside the
business?
In fact, there is a supplementary question to ask and that
is, why don’t we have anyone in the business with these attributes? That is probably even more important and
needs to be examined, answered and corrected.
One of my Vistage members says that there are two main
criteria which every leader should understand and build on, namely people and
communications.
Every great commentator on leadership says that it is essential
to have the right people in the business, to look after them and to help them
to motivate themselves to a higher level.
Note: to HELP them to motivate themselves. I would submit that we can’t motivate people
and even to think that we can is verging on the arrogant. What we as leaders can do is to provide
people with a working environment, in every sense, that enables them to self
motivate, should they so wish to do so.
The eminent American psychologist, Dr Frederick Herzberg,
said that there are two types of motivational factor, the positive and the
negative.
Negative factors such as the physical working environment,
company policies and procedures and salary need to be right, in which case they
can pass by almost unnoticed.
On the other hand if they are wrong, disliked or mistrusted
then they can have a seriously negative effect of the motivation of the people
involved.
Positive factors are very much in the province of the
leadership and their provision in a forward thinking business can help the team
to build confidence in the leadership and in themselves.
The positive factors
are achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement and
personal growth in declining order of significance.
It is obvious that all these attributes can be offered by
the leadership to a greater or lesser extent and it is essential that they are
built into the ethos of the business.
Only by doing so can the highest level of self motivation be achieved.
Add to these the need for acceptable inherent values in the
team, aligned with those of the business (do you know what they are
incidentally?), positive attitude and behaviour, enthusiasm and commitment and
it’s job done!
However, if the right people ate not available in the
business or worse, have not been identified, then it will be necessary to
recruit and that has issues which must be confronted.
First of all, how best can we establish those essential
attributes in a candidate before making the appointment? Moreover the fact that someone wants to join
you implies that they are dissatisfied for whatever reason with their current
job so the question to ask is, why do they want to move?
What has encouraged them to apply to join your company? Is it just increased salary, or is it the
lure of opportunity and the chance to learn and advance themselves? All people who move jobs come to you with
baggage and making sure that this would not impact negatively on your business
is, to say the least, important.
The role of leadership then is to provide a positive environment
in which people can learn, flourish, achieve and prove their abilities knowing
that they will be recognised and rewarded. That will lead to satisfaction and
success.
You can download my book "Leading to Success" from Amazon Kindle
Visit www.vistage.co.uk
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