How we work is making us pretty frustrated with unhappy employees outnumbering happy employees by 2 to 1 according to the Gallup Global Workplace survey.
The problem is, we live in 2016 and work in 1970. In our personal lives we can control the technologies and devices we want to use, share and collaborate with who we want where we want, easily access information, take out loans on a house and make purchases, and have the freedom and flexibility to live how we want.
But in our professional lives we come into the office at fixed hours, use company sanctioned technology, sit in cubicles, get 200+ emails a day, are not able to effectively communicate and
collaborate, operate under a command and control hierarchy and need to get approvals for buying $20 of stationery. We have moved from the industrial age, to the information age and now into the imagination age so no wonder that our management practices have become outdated.
What motivates us hasn’t changed though and the one magical dream job elixir to focus on is to have control over what you do and how you do it. Do this by building your peoples competence increasing capability and commitment and provide clarity about what’s important with information like purpose, priorities, targets and guidelines.
One last leadership nudge, ask your people these two questions;
1. What is the one bottleneck we need to improve?
2. What should we start, stop and continue doing?
Then do something about improving it. Dehassling your workplace is a huge motivator and increases productivity. Simon is an experienced human resources leader, creative thinker and connector. His company Everybody Works takes a strategic and proven approach to transform the workplace.
Find out more www.everybodyworks.co.nz