Already, before 8 am on a Monday morning as I start to write this post, I’ve had discussions with several people, discouraged, before the workweek even begins.
They’re working in environments that rigorously test – even prevent – their being able to do their work that’s their best. And they want to – very, very much. Still, they will make – as they do every day, every week – an heroic attempt, once again.
The work they produce in these environments will be better than they expect.
Yet it could be easier (MUCH easier) than it currently is to deliver good, better, best. And the long-term, negative effect? It can be huge: wasted resources (time and money), mistakes that get out to customers (increasing costs to correct the problems, and possibly driving future business away), missed opportunities to pursue new business. That doesn’t count the longer term costs of stress, leading, perhaps, to lost work time and increasing health care costs. And there are more impacts we could tally but we’ll leave it there for now.
Because everyone in the current economy is stretched and stressed, good management, good leadership is doubly, even triply important.
If you’re a manager, one thing you can do (at a time when there’s a lot you can’t control) is to make sure you’re not the “boulder in the road.”
Make sure it is not YOU who gets in the way of your employees’ getting their best work done.
– Are you doing anything that might make you the boulder or the barrier who stands in the way of your employees’ getting their best work done?
- If you are courageous, ask a few employees if – and what – you do to get in the way of getting their best work done. (You might learn some surprising things, as you view the world through their eyes).
- Can you do a better job of clearing the path to getting good work done, leading to each employees’ and your team’s increased success? If so, how, specifically? When, specifically? Who, specifically, will take these actions?
- How can you inspire, coalesce, synthesize, focus energy and release the best work from each person who reports to you?
