You don't turn an ordinary workplace into a Human Workplace by putting a sign on the door. It doesn't happen because you install a lactation room (although I highly recommend that you do!) or start an employee suggestion program.
The path to a Human Workplace is mental. It's a shift in perspective. It happens when people stop seeing the managers in an organization and the rest of the staff as two different camps.
The first thing to do if you want to get the power of your team's mojo at work on your company's challenges is to drop the Us vs. Them mentality.
You'll see that mentality right away once you start to look for it. You'll see it in the visits your supervisors make to HR to get advice on employee discipline. What are they really asking for?
The forty-year-old procedure says "You have to talk to an employee first, then prepare a verbal warning, and then a written warning." That's a procedure we can understand. It sounds like a school assignment. We all understand school!
The supervisor really needs help having potentially sticky conversations with his employees -- not one or two but dozens of them, and not just with the people who are struggling.
We don't know how to communicate so we bring the hammer down instead. That's the biggest problem in our organizations. It sucks away creativity and profitability every day.
Can we evolve past these ancient beliefs -- the five false beliefs that keep managers from becoming leaders?
I think we can! The first step is to talk about these beliefs and to see how they shackle and hinder us.
False Belief #1: I'm the manager. It makes me look weak if I let my employees have their say.
We don't talk about this belief much -- but what manager hasn't observed this thought flitting through his or her head once or many times? We talk to managers every day and they share their puzzlement over the "Who's in charge?" dilemma.
They say "Sally feels strongly about the plan she's proposing and I see her points, but shouldn't it really be my decision in the end?"
"It already was your decision, whatever the outcome is," we tell them. "You hired Sally!"
False Belief #2: A real manager is tough.
A real manager indeed is tough, and toughness requires above all the ability to tell the truth. In a given moment that truth could be "I'm not really sure what to do," "What do you guys think?" or "I guess I was wrong about what I said last week." That's toughness.
What many managers see as 'toughness' is actually weakness.
Your title gives you a hammer so when you bring the hammer down by getting upset with a team member, threatening his or her job or otherwise using your fake (let's be honest) conferred-on-you power to get things done, that is a display of weakness!
Fear and managerial weakness are two sides of the same coin. The best way to grow your muscles (thereby becoming tough!) is to begin to open up to your teammates and listen to them -- and to share your own human emotions with them, not just managerial directives.
False Belief #3: If an enployee can get their work done during the day, they don't have enough work.
It may have made perfect sense to focus strictly on production quantities when we worked in industrial jobs, but now we're in the Knowledge Economy. The brilliant idea your teammate has while stepping out of the shower and grabbing a towel could change your entire business.
How do you encourage people to have more brilliant ideas? You back off and stop slicing and dicing their jobs into tiny units of work!
The rampant application of measurement to activities and adventures never meant for measurement is one of the biggest problems in the modern business world.
It's not just poor leadership to measure every keystroke an employee makes and every breath s/he takes, but it's bad business, too!
People who plug in to their own power source and enjoy their work are always more productive by any measure, but you won't goad and prod them to those heights. It's the opposite -- you have to take a deep breath and trust the brilliant people you hired. Are you tough enough?
False Belief #4: Since I don't have the nerve to tell my boss the truth about a lot of things, I'll make it clear that in our department, we don't tell the truth about that stuff either. It's better not to discuss it, since nothing can change it.
"Since nothing can change it, let's ignore it" is the watchword of weenie business, but it's harmful and it's also not true.
When things have to change, they will. Do you want to lead the change or be dragged along behind it?
Have you ever opened your mouth at a moment when you needed to speak -- when someone needed to name the elephant in the room? If you have, you know the incredible feeling that is half panic and half exultation. Once you opened your mouth, your truth came out.
You can't take it back now -- and thank goodness! That's how your muscles grow.
You're not likely to get fired for telling the truth upstream, but you will lose the respect and trust of your teammates if you try to recruit them into your personal Denial Zone by making it uncomfortable for them to say out loud what everybody in the room knows.
False Belief #5: My best career strategy is to keep my head low and deliver the numbers my manager wants. That way I'll keep my job and keep my options open.
It would kill me but I can imagine supporting this career plan if you are already six months away from a generous retirement package. Keeping your head down and contorting yourself into pretzel shapes to keep your job is not a viable career strategy for anyone else.
Nearly every person I've heard say "I'm just going to keep my job and try to ride it until retirement" has been shocked out of his or her complacency by an unexpected change -- and who could be surprised?
The lesson of the working world over the past decade is "Get ready for things to change!"
It's your career to drive and if you are not in it every day, heart and soul, then you aren't driving. Being a manager means taking more responsibility -- not less! The numbers on the yardstick are the smallest part of your job.
