July | 2013 | CEO People Management

By understanding your employees – their various influencing factors, their preferences and passions – and adopting a strategy of consultative and discursive management, you will gain the respect of your employees, start developing a more creative and dynamic team environment and improve your staff retention.

Occasionally in history massive demographic change combines with relentless technological change and within a generation, society altogether changes. Today, we are living in such an era.

Gone are the days of long service leave, gold watches and subservience to the boss. Members of all generations are seeking more from an employer than is generally offered by most. Retaining valuable employees and increasing their tenure requires new understandings, attitude adjustment and new management skills.

Not only is the job tenure for Generation Y much shorter than has traditionally been expected, there is a noticeable trend that suggests Generation X and Baby Boomers are opting for shorter tenure too. People no longer leave their jobs because there is a compelling reason to leave but because there is no compelling reason to stay. Find a reason to have them stay and you will increase the retention of all your employees.

“Poor management” at 34% is sited as the most common reason for moving on from an employer and when this is coupled with the third highest reason “I didn’t feel appreciated at work”, at 32% then the importance of management becomes a stark reality.

What is wrong with Management?

A recent qualitative research study undertaken in a cross section of workplaces, found that younger employees are asking to be treated in the same way as their more experienced colleagues. They are begging for more responsibility and they are rebelling against managers who want to dole out work, provide detailed instructions on how to complete the tasks and then expect the employee to blindly follow the instructions to completion.

This management style is seen as controlling and suffocating of the employee’s ability to use their creativity to complete and possibly find a better method of completing the task.

Many mangers feel the need to limit the volume of work given to younger workers who see this as being frustrating and condescending. “Don’t they trust us?” is a question often asked. This management style is seen to lack trust and also to lack any thought of a future career path for the employee. They are not being tested to see if they can achieve more or better results and in their minds they are being suffocated.

This is the opposite of what these employees need.

What can Managers do better?

Trust that the employee has the interests of the business in mind – This may manifest itself in a more selfish desire to improve the career prospects of the individual but the result is still better quality work.
Let go of the view that “this is how it was in my day and it’s how it’s going to be today” – This outdated view is no longer relevant or constructive and takes no account of the generational influences that have shaped the current generations.
“Overload” their employees – By giving the employee more work than you believe they are capable of completing, you provide them with a challenge to organise themselves and find a way of completing the tasks.
When assigning tasks, provide an outline of what needs to be achieved (an objective) – Confirm they understand the outcomes you are seeking and let them know you are available should they need any assistance. Then give them the space to complete the assigned tasks.
Younger generations value mentoring – There is an older generation of workers who have a wealth of history to pass on to them. By providing the opportunity for Boomers to mentor Generation Y, you create not only an opportunity to have the history passed on, but also an opportunity to have Generation Y improve the computer skills of the Boomers. This two way mentoring relationship is a triple win, as the organisation wins by improving the level of co-operation in cross generational relationships and therefore the morale of the team.

Gain an understanding of the influences of the younger generation and use this knowledge to develop a management style for the team.

Generation Y

This generation finds many traditional activities much less interesting than the myriad devices they carry in their pockets and backpacks. These young people are used to having anyone who asks for their attention – their favourite musicians, their movie makers, their TV stars, their game designers – work really hard to earn it. When what is being offered isn’t engaging, they truly resent their time being wasted.

These influences have led to Generation Y’s unwritten employment contract: “keep me challenged and interested or I will go somewhere else that will”. Add to this, that they expect to be valued on their merit, not longevity, and a picture of what frustrates them and how we might manage them begins to emerge. Challenge them, be available to guide them and expect more than you would have been expected to deliver at the same time in your career.

Lead and manage individuals and you will create a team that is dynamic and highly productive. We speak of generations but all are composites of many individuals each with their own values, attitudes, skills and abilities. By gaining an understanding of the individuals’ preferences and passions, the workplace can be re-engineered to fit the individuals. This provides managers with a higher functioning team and reduced demand for hands-on management time.

Guest Author

Shirley Singleton is a highly regarded business advisor who works with managers and leaders to create dynamic teams and successful managers for today’s fast paced workplaces. Shirley is undertaking a qualitative research project into what work means to Generation Y. Her findings make interesting reading and a preliminary report is available on her website at http://www.shirleysingleton.com/index.php?section=news_items&id=111 If you would like to contact Shirley and have her advise on the shape of your workplace please call her on 0414 745 455.

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Ever wondered why ‘High Performing Team‘ training often does not produce ‘High Performing Teams’?

The training says, “An all star team beats a team of all stars any day”. This fundamental flaw causes the failure of high performance team training. It puts high performing people against high performing teams, as if you have to make a choice.

In this case, you can have your cake and eat it too. You do not have to choose between high performing teams and high performing people. You need to choose both for either to work effectively.

Reasons why teams don’t perform

Four key reasons why teams do not perform are:

The team is more important than the individuals – If the team is more important than the individual, staff engagement will fall, as people do not feel that their individual contribution to the team is valued. In this scenario, training is directed at the team. This can lead to under-skilling of the members of the team that will seriously affect the ability of the team to perform.
The individual is not playing as part of a team – In the other extreme, if the individuals are more important than the team, the focus will be on individual achievement. The challenge with this is that people focus on their achievement at the cost of other people. This can lead to the “team” pulling in different directions at the same time and hence the team burns up a large amount of energy pulling against each other.
The team lacks focus – A lack of focus will also hinder a team’s performance. Imagine a soccer team trying to score if it did not know where the goals were! Workplace teams often have exactly that situation. Goals are not clear or are constantly moving. In some cases, goals even conflict with each other. This will also occur where the team does not have a clear understanding of its purpose, strategy and goals.
The team lacks an effective leader – A team will flounder without a leader clearly guiding the team in a single direction. This person does not have to tell the team what to do, but does need the skills to facilitate decision making in the team so that the team continues to travel in a single forward direction. They must be able to clearly sell a common theme for the team, using a common language, to be effective.

Recognising when teams don’t perform

Do you know whether your team is performing? This may sound like a strange question to ask. Teams often do not have clear direction, nor clear measures of how they are performing. Even if they do have measures, they usually measure outcomes, rather than reviewing the team itself and its efficiency.

If the team is more important than the individual is, you are likely to find low engagement and missed individual KPIs. High turnover, high unplanned absenteeism and low morale will generally result from low engagement. If you do not currently track these, they are good indicators to show how the team is performing.

If the individual is more important than the team, you will generally see individual KPIs met. This will, however, be done with a large degree of frustration. There are unlikely to be shared goals and your people will talk with a different perspective on the same topics. The team will miss their KPIs on a regular basis if they are not also the individual’s KPIs.

If the team lacks focus, it will also tend to miss the team KPIs (that is if there are any team KPIs). The lack of team KPIs will contribute to poor team performance. The manager’s KPIs usually then become the team’s KPIs by default. The manager does not communicate these clearly and so the team becomes frustrated trying to hit what appears to be a moving target.

Rectifying teams that don’t perform

The first step to rectifying team performance is to recognise that the team is not performing. This can be done by reviewing team and individual KPIs and using a balanced team scorecard. Being able to measure the team performance is vital to an effective improvement process.

Once you can measure the performance level, you can use a balanced team scorecard to help you identify key areas to concentrate on to improve the team. Put in place the activities and training to rectify the gaps and then re-measure.

When measuring team performance you need to measure the activities and training that you put in place as a way of getting some quick wins for the team. If all the KPIs and measures are focussed on longer term measures (lag indicators) it will take too long for the team to see that they are working together to improve.

High performing teams do not have to be a myth. High performing teams can be high performing. It takes effort focussed on the functioning of the team, the individuals in the team and the team goals & objectives. As you measure these, monitor, feedback and correct in a continual cycle you can see your team become a high performing team.

Guest Author

Brad Cork, The People Expert, Improving People. Brad can help you get the most out of your people. Contact Brad on 0425 335 659 or brad@improvingpeople.com.au to find out how! To download a complimentary one page report on each of the six great keys to getting the most out of your people please visit http://www.improvingpeople.com.au.