My last post made me think that I needed to look at this from a management standpoint as well. If you enjoyed that one, looking at yourself. This one, will look at it from an organization or management standpoint. You may say, “Hey, I know that organization.” Mediocrity is key to starting the ball rolling in ways that now one wants. As a manager, I don’t want it in myself or any people that work for me. Makes coming to work very dull. Some would think that I am writing this about my current employment and situation, maybe and then again maybe not. I am trying to generalize this overall as an example of what not to fall into.
What are those practices that help to drive the feeling of being beaten down? You know, that place where there is nowhere to go, not being happy getting up to go to work or just going through the motions.
- Lack of Trust – For me, trust usually is given to an organization and/or the leaders. Why? Because they did not get there without some of the necessary attributes of trust. Problem is trust erodes quickly if not maintained. I have seen some organization that have timecards or software that keeps track of everything. Appearance does not equal work getting done. My energy level is definitely drained.
- Lack of simple praise and thank-you’ s – There are plenty of team members that go above and beyond the normal day to day jobs. They are there and usually are pretty easy to see. As soon as the organization treats them just like everyone else – well, there goes the energy. Praise for doing a great job will help to sustain the current high performers and maybe light a spark for the others.
- Don’t communicate – This one is simple and probably the one thing that happens more than any of the other ones. People throughout the organization, want to know what is going on. They really do. Some would say, don’t bother me with some of these details, but that is only temporary. For me, I want to understand what I am doing and how it fits in with the organizations goals. Sometimes the bigger picture must be painted for total success.
- Fear change – Many folks like the way things are being done today. Why? Everything is familiar. Moving one’s cheese is not met with open arms. For folks that have been around a long time, they like to say, “we have tried that before.” My favorite answer back, “Great, then this time it should work!” New leaders to older organizations definitely are hit with resistance to change. Whatever the resistance is to change, time to move past it. There is one thing for sure – change will happen with or without you. Better to be part of the change, than being changed.
Simple practices that all too often are common place. Any other practices that help with the feeling of mediocrity or beaten down?
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