Getting the best from your managers and staff
An organisation is like a fleet of ships sailing the high seas, delivering their precious cargo of goods or services.
The chief executive is the admiral of the fleet, standing on the bridge, setting course and leading from the front. The fleet, fuelled by engagement and efficiency follows in its wake – or does it?
The organisational fleet comprises boats and crafts of different sizes and levels of efficiency – each with a captain at their helm. Some are bobbing along energetically following a steady path, some crews are busy bailing out water. One or two of the craft have lost power and need re-energising, one has lost its rudder and is on a different course. Some captains have even been known accidentally and unintentionally to steer their craft onto the rocks….!
Admirals and captains are forward looking, aiming for targets and efficiencies, which can leave them unaware of the true state either of themselves or their direct reports.
Ultimately, a more effective management means greater well-being in a workforce comprising motivated and engaged staff. What’s needed is a way of checking on how well admirals [executives] and captains [managers] are doing in terms of managing themselves and their teams effectively.
SCREECH OF BRAKES….!
Hang on a moment. What was that…?
“What’s needed is a way of checking on how well executives and managers are doing in terms of managing themselves and their teams effectively.”
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?
Business is very focused on healthy ‘Employee Engagement’ and with good reason: Engaged people are less likely to be stressed and more efficient. But what about the managers – are they engaged and if they are, with what or with whom exactly are they engaging?
Most managers are fully engaged in the meeting of targets and goals and reports and statistics. But are they truly engaged with their team?
Are they the sort of manager who has an awareness of what’s going on with their team members’ work or personal lives? Would they spot instinctively that someone was unexpectedly having a bad day or struggling with their workload? Have they have built a team that trusts them enough to tell them how things are for them?
Sadly, the answer so often is ‘not quite’!
All managers are doing their best. They’re delivering on targets. They are engaging with most if not all of their team. But it can be predicted that the levels of engagement, resilience and stress within the team can be closely aligned with the well-being, resourcefulness and personal engagement of the manager.
HOW CAN MANAGERS TELL WHAT’S GOING ON?
The only way to really ‘know’ what’s going on with someone else would be to ask them outright. However, the answer any manager gets will depend on their relationship with that person and their inclination to reveal their innermost thoughts.
Instead, the best and most reliable way is achieved by teaching managers firstly to maintain a resourceful state themselves and secondly to notice instinctively indicators of a change in another person’s underlying state.
HOW DO MANAGERS MAINTAIN A RESOURCEFUL STATE?
State is a combination of physiology and train of thought. A resourceful person will hold a certain physiology – probably more upright – and have a certain train of thought – probably more positive.
If you think back to times when you’ve been feeling anxious, and then think of a time you’ve felt elated, you’ll notice there’s a difference.
Here’s an exercise to try – and it’s safe to do this at home or in the office but probably not in a public place…
Sit up really straight, eyes looking straight ahead or slightly raised. Raise your eyebrows and hold a big grin. Now, holding that physiology and that line of gaze, try to feel depressed or anxious about something…. and you’ll find that you can’t! The physiology is all wrong.
Now think of something you feel worried about. Notice immediately how your physiology has changed. Maybe your facial expression and gaze has dropped and your posture has slumped a little. Very good! Now without moving a muscle, try to be really ecstatically cheerful. Try harder. And you’ll find you can’t.
Maintaining a resourceful state is the first key to a manager being able to pick up on what’s going on around them, to coming out of their own head, to engaging with their team. Ultimately, a more effective management means greater well-being in a workforce comprising motivated and engaged staff. And that has to be a good thing.
QUESTIONS
For more infomation on our Coping At The Sharp End course please visit the Hot Frog PDF by clicking the link: Coping_At_The_Sharp_End_Course (2)
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